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Alabo: gods among men in Lagos

You could hear the heavy

Their gait means nothing but business,she is a woman on a serious mission, to deliver the mountain balanced on her head, and to each person, their heavy burden is balanced ontheir fragile neck whichturns unbreakable with time.

Arms and Feet

On their heads are mounted a heavy load meant for a beast of burden. Their pores are wide open,  and the sweat on their foreheads rain down their eyes, that it nearly blinds their poor sights. It is not only the burden on their heads that they carry , but that which waits for them at home. The Alabo is a great sight to behold; she is like the masquerade on a mission, and her message compels her to walk forth and never to look back.

Their feet work and walktirelessly round the far corners of the market, hand in hand, those limbs of theirs work against the clock of Lagos –the city that never sleeps— just to put a decent meal on the table. The surface of their skin are scorched by the merciless  sun; their rain-beaten garments are socked in years of unending sweat, dust and rains, in seasons and out of seasons; their necks have known years of heavy burden—family and domestic.

These feet do not belong to men but women who are in their middle ages, and some are as old as sixty.

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The Market

The first thing one notices on alighting from a car in a market like Oyibo is women with too much of a load on their heads walking about in the market; and on stepping into the market, a woman with a long plank or basin comes to stand beside you –she just marked a new found territory, warning others to keep off from a potential client of hers.

She doesn’t look you in the eye or talk to you, until you turn and notice that the same woman or face had followed you right from the minute you crossed over to the market or alighted from a vehicle. A look at her expectant face would produce a hopeful smile, which usually is translated into many things, one of which is an offer to be your Alabo, your beast of burden for the day. Some of these poor women can only communicate in their native language, thereby relying on sellers for translation.

They follow one round the market and carry whatever is handed to them, and at the end, such burden bearer parts with as little as five hundred Nigerian Naira –so little for so much. While in some cases, they might follow one about, but end up not carrying anything, because their services are not required and there is certainly no way of communicating that because in most cases, you don’t know they have been there all the while.

The Beast of Burden

It is painful to note that it is mostly women that are seen with heavy loads on their heads in such markets; men usually see to the offloading of trucks.  These poor women have certainly left the comfort of their homes to fend for a means of livelihood. One may ask: to what extent is she ready to go for her family? Obviously, such women turn out to be beast of too many burdens: struggling to see to the survival of husband, children, and maybe, extended family, with nothing but a long plank or basin full of heavy load that is balanced on her head or under her armpit.

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The Demi-god at Home

A woman who has willingly chosen to become a substitute to a beast of burden just to make ends meet for her family is nothing but a demi-god. She has chosen the scorching sun, the raging tempest and a heavy load over her comfort without flinching.  One thing is spectacular about these women: they always have a ready smile despite their plight. They are humble and never cease to smile in order to have you trust them with whatever you have for them.

Clearly ,  it is not only in the market that one comes across an Alabo, they are everywhere: on the streets, at home , offices, construction sites, media houses, and so many more. Women have been turned into beasts of heavy burdens, all round, because most husbands or men have chosen to work less or become useful. It doesn’t stop at that, but some of these women have to deal with domestic violence or husband whom have willingly taken to one of the infamous occupations known to man, heavy drinking.

Rather than watch the kids go hungry or stay away from school, they are left with no choice but to take up odd jobs, do all manner of things or engage in acts that could bring them in harms way; these things are done for no other reason but all to put a decent meal on the table and send the kids to school. In most cases, the only plight that drives a mother to go out of her comfort zone is the hopeless state of her offspring.

RightBacking

The yearnings and quest for survival are things that drive human action and in action in society. The struggle for survival keep our feet alive and our hands busy, but an overburdened cart could do much less and cave in one day. Most women are obviously suffering as a result of disadvantaged situations they find themselves in, and that is why the rate at which women die is obviously on the increase. Something needs to be done about the deplorable state of women in our society, in order to curb the high increase of their suffering and death. Whatever intervention must start from the root: education. Women must be educated in order to take up challenging tasks, and then comes empowerment. Light comes before anything: lead a woman to light and she would certainly make an array of light.

Written by Oluoma Udemezue.

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