By Damiete Braide
Scars Do Heal, Kayode Akinropo, Optimalpath Publishing, United Kingdom, 2021, pp 312
Everything happens for a reason, said Aristotle. This is the opening of the 6th chapter in Scars Do Heal. For a six-year-old boy and two sisters, hardly having no one to look up to except grandparents makes a lot of sense.
Tayo, the main character in Kayode Akinropo’s book, grew up without parental supervision. His mother absconded after efforts ro settle scores with her husband was futile as a result of his polygamous inclination.
Life became tedious for Tayo as he grew, but he was fortunate enough to be enrolled for a primary school education. Opportunity for his sisters never came because of discrimination against the female gender. Their grandmother once told a villager who asked why the girls did not enroll that “Girls are supposed to be of little knowledge to be useful to their husbands. Only boys must seek high knowledge. Even for that, too much learning is madness for any person.”
School wasn’t entirely a smooth sail for the boy whose mother absconded. He turned out to be a bright pupil, but did not escape the taunts from others about his mother’s whereabouts.
Mayo’s grandfather kicked the bucket before he got to primary six. This loss traumatized him a great deal. His long gone mother’s appearance for the funeral rites did not help matters. Tayo was full of disgust and wouldn’t acknowledge her presence. “So this woman comes to bury the dead while she neglects the living all this while? Why couldn’t she let the dead bury their dead? She knows she still has people she may mourn even in death while she does nothing for them when they are alive?” Tayo thought to himself.
Grandfather had never contributed to feeding nor sending him to school. He would only miss being able to attend their church’s Elders meeting where he got special portions of food on account of his grandfather’s presence.
In school, he became the head boy. On one occasion, he was chosen to represent the school at the children’s Harvest Day Celebration in Church.
Without shoes “he walked boldly to the lectern” to make his presentation. That was the determined spirit Tayo had that saw him through the many challenges he faced as his education progressed. When he failed to make the cut-off mark for the grammar school he chose, his spirit was dampened. He ended up at Mrs Ruth Aka’s house as a house help in Ibadan.
As much as Tayo did his best, fate had dealt him with tough choices. There was no family support system nor was the educational system favourable to him. He continued to keep his pecker up.
Throughout the narrative, the author builds his plot around relatable themes of polygamy, divination, culture, childhood, love, wins and losses. It’s a rich blend of everything that makes life worth living. Most importantly, hope and faith in hard work brings Tayo to the realisation that it’s not “who we are that holds us back, but what we think we are not” (p. 133)
His stay at the Aka’s was a turnaround phase. The big modern house was a far cry from what he was used to. Everything glittered and he marveled at the beauty of the surrounding. Mrs Aka had some ill feelings for his mother’s behaviour and felt even worse. Though his sisters had tried to convince him to forgive their mother, the situation became much worse when his sisters visited their mother to seek reconciliation. The news got to Tayo that they were turned back. Once again rejected by their very own mother.
Good and bad days accompanied his stay in his new home. Once he was accused of stealing by Ranti, Mrs Aka’s daughter. Luckily, the money was later found and he was absolved. He continued his studies and got admission into a high school in the core part of Ibadan.
There, Tayo witnessed bullying firsthand, he was a victim of some senior boys who caused mayhem in the school. Having been exposed to life in the slum and city, Tayo tried to hide his real identity from his friends. He would manage to move from one friend’s house to another during his school days. Fate made his high school possible with the government administration. They made good promises of free education, free health care services which Tayo and the rest of the poor masses benefited from. For five years before it was toppled by the military again.
It was n’t yet Eureka for Tayo who continued to press hard. Just at the brink of scholarship, something terrible happened and his hope of getting into university was dashed again. This was the height of it for Tayo. The reader feels sorry for the protagonist.
Tayo continued to grapple with various disappointments in his life while having his readers totally sucked in with his conversation/oratory-like narrative. He deals with serious issues of life with an undertone of jest that makes it absorbable and at once relatable.
Each chapter picks off with local and global sayings full of wisdom more so one expresses what is about to be encountered in the chapter. The language is also rich and spreads across Yoruba to Igbo dialect.
The story is basically about a young child’s battle for survival but it is suitable to be read by adults, parents, teachers and all who desire to make an impact in other people’s lives.
This work of fiction speaks about human nature, how to navigate a world full of ups and downs, because, in the end, what matters is how we can use imperfection to inspire people instead of striving to be perfect in the first place.