‘SEGA ruined my basketball game’
It is the year 1998. Diallo is playing on the stereo. I am in third heaven. Lemme say it this simply, Wyclef’s ‘Diallo’ is to 1998 as Davido’s ‘Dami Duro’ is to January 2012.
‘You told me your mother was an …..’
‘What did you say?’ I leaned further into my bulky cousin, Solex to verify his last statement.
‘I said SEGA spoilt my B-ball. You know all those tricks you see on the computer game, they are actually fouls in the real court. ‘
‘Ehn ehn’ I gazed in surprise at Solex.
‘So when I go to the court, I try to dribble and do those turn arounds, but b-ball is not about show-offs’, he finished philosophically, before facing his eba squarely.
Solex (Solex J.D as we fondly called him) is squat and muscular. He has sideburns- we called that ‘teddy’ and they were (are) fashionable. He can draw, play basketball, speak Tiv and err...he has a large appetite. Anyways, I couldn’t understand his argument back then-‘skills spoil your game?’.
Recently, I picked up a habit-reading blogs. Like everything I do, I took up this habit with ginger. I would open numerous blogs posts in different tabs and hibernate my PC at the close of work. Back home, I would unearth my PC like a treasure and read all the posts (without commenting). The Naked Convos, That Aba Girl, The Diary of a Lagos Boy, Berrykiss,The Sirkastiq Centre, Cece’s something, That Crème Kidd, Deolu Bubble- I read them like a demented being.
At first, I was awed by the profusion of writing talent (and ’hormonal’ youths) we have. Then unconsciously, I started to clone these writers. See, I could write before, but with an academic bent-plenty big words and esoteric imagery. I even had a blow-up poster of Soyinka on my room’s wall in my undergraduate days.
But this; this people weren’t verbose, they were entertaining. I preferred it, I cloned it. These days, I check my recent write-ups, and I see a blog worthy material-playful imagery, relatively simple language and irreverence for the rules of writing.
On some days, I like this-I am communicating
By Tafa Osisiye, more article by him Here
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