When I Bought Sugar With My Savings As A Child

As a child then, I remember what my grandmother did to me because I bought a pack of St Louis Sugar.

I picked kolanuts from our farm in Ògbòròdo and sold them. Then, we children were allowed to scout for kolanuts that dropped from the trees and I will wake up early in the morning, moving from one kolanuts tree to the other.

From the money I made from the kolanuts that I picked, I bought a pack of St Louis Sugar to add to my Garri (that una dey call Groceries now), which was our normal after school food (lunch).

When my grandmother saw the sugar, she did not only seize it, she dragged me outside the house, shouting on top of her voice that Lalere bought sugar to drink Garri.

Lálérè a jalè o. Gàrrí tó kan tẹ́lẹ̀ (This Lalere will steal o, Garri that is already sweet).

She threw away the pack of St Louis Sugar and that day enh…

That’s the kind of upbringing we had and that’s what’s missing now.