He Was the first enigma I first encountered in life
As I struggled to find my feet as a young boy in Shomolu, I heard of Baba White.
Baba White wore only white and lived on Tola Oduntan Street off Morocco just beside the Myoung barracks.
He was a different kind of person. Dark and handsome, playful and strict, but lived his life without a care.
I can’t really remember the first day I met him or even saw him, but sha knew him by reputation long before I met him.
He was the one who opened the big city cinema in Shomolu and allowed us to watch the big Indian and Chinese films of our youth almost free.
This made him quite popular in Shomolu as Baba White was the man who allowed us to escape from the dreary greyness of our existence those days in Shomolu
Baba White get plenty fine daughters – that was what I first heard.
Two dey Calabar – Ibukun and Ope, then he also get young ones wey still dey grow.
That was my first introduction to Baba White
Abeg, why the man dey do cinema, dey allow people to watch almost free; I asked one day.
The man get the money. I hear say na him first bring Michelin Tyre come to Nigeria, and he come from a big family, na dem family get Methodist Church – was what I was told.
Baba Olude called me Boge. He was cheery and a man’s man.
He loved life, loved his small stout and later in life, loved his garlic.
Boge, you know know women, he would tell me. Why u let them catch you? he would say as he laughed at my discomfort.
He was the ultimate bohemian; a devil-may-care type of personality whose laughter hid a heart of steel.
He would take decisions and stand by them while still laughing and playing with you.
I connected with him in such a way that annoyed people. He laughed at my rascality and would call me – omo ita
He would regal me with the stories of his conquest with women – he would laugh and say
Aghhh Joe, you never nack fine woman. Woman no fine again and I will sayno na Daddy na you never nack fine woman and he will scream and say – Agh mama Rotimi wa gbe omo ita yi kuro ni wa ju me oo
He would then start telling me his stories of the war. His photography and how he has turned his back on the world, not caring about anybody but himself.
He gave me some grounding.
My father was very conservative and didn’t really understand me, but I was free with Baba White cos I could discuss my issues with women with him.
I was young and just getting to know women and all of a sudden; I was in a marriage while still sowing my wild oats.
He would laugh at me and tell me to calm down and say there was nothing anybody could say or do to stop me, that I was an original like him and would only calm down with age.
I would say, but Baba, a lot of people are being hurt, and he would say – they will be cos they don’t understand you. Nothing will stop you. When the time comes you on your own will stop.
This dragged me closer to him to the consternation of Mama Rotimi who would walk in and I anger now say –
Ki le en so le nu yi bayi. Iru advice wo le fun omo de yi
And Baba white would laugh and say – Boge, ignore, she is a woman
In his later days, I would see him in my dreams and he would say I shd escort him somewhere and I would refuse and he would pleade with me and I would escort him and then in the dream say to him, that I have work and would have to wake up at this point and I will wake up to the news that he was ill.
I will know his time had not come and I will smile cos I knew he would tell me when his time came
Then his time came, and I had the dream, and I followed him in the dream through Myoung Barracks, passed Yaba Tech and emerged at Waec, and then I stopped.
Baba white, I need to wake up. Let’s go back home; he looked at me straight into my eyes and said in that grouchy, gravel-like voice – Boge, you go back; I have to keep going.
We both knew it was his time, I went back, and he crossed the express towards Edmond Crescent, and I woke up to his passing.
Baba white was Baba Olude, Foluke’s Dad.
Hmm
Duke of Shomolu