(By Okey Ndibe) - “The first time we sat down to talk, my parents
remarked on the jumbo salary I was going to earn in America. I was not to
become spendthrift, they cautioned. Instead, I was to cultivate a frugality
dictated by an established practice within our extended family. That practice
imposed an obligation on members of the family with the financial means t help
pay school fees of those coming behind. It was a formula for lifting up
everybody in the wider extended family. In that spirit, my parents said I was
to take up responsibility for paying the school fees of my youngest brother,
Oguejiofor, and two male cousins, Emeka and Ndubuisi. Once pronounced, the
matter was settled; I proudly accepted the responsibility.
My
parents must have expected that I would regularly send money to support them.
Parents made sacrifices to put their children through schools or into some
profession. In return, once established in a job, trade, or profession,
children were expected to cater to some of their parents’ needs in old age or after
retirement. I recognized the sacredness of that obligation. My parents didn’t
raise it explicitly because they knew that I knew my duty by them; it went
without saying. . . .
