Don't mind them

Ignore the distractors and detractors.

"Don't mind them," translated from Yoruba, are the words my mother would say to me each time I came to her with complaints from detractors. She would say, "Ma da won loun," which means "don't answer them," but figuratively means "don’t mind them.”

The first time she said those words to me was after service on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning. I was wearing my favourite dress and one-and-a-half-inch heel-covered shoes. I was so radiant, and my confidence could be felt miles away. I think I had just gotten my Common Entrance result, and I was too happy to be bothered by anything in the world.

I bounced gallantly to pre-teen church for Sunday school, and I am sure my teacher must have felt the confidence radiating within me; she asked me to pray for people who were not feeling too fine, and she allocated the other prayer points to the other folks in the class, I was to go first, so after saying the thanksgiving prayers I  began saying these words "Father Lord, please heal all those that are ill".  Immediately, she said, "Stop Rotimi". In my pre-teen mind, I thought I had prayed amiss; alas, brothers and sisters in Christ, that was the day I knew I had the Yoruba H-Factor. My Sunday school teacher asked me to repeat myself after saying the same thing five times, but it was still not right in her ears; she asked someone else to pray, and the smart girl said, "God, please make all the sick people well". The prayers went around, and the service finished as it should.

My confidence began to dwindle, and I was not having it. However, I wasn't going to let that slip so when I got home that day, I told my mum what had happened, and she said: "ma da won loun". You see, initially, I will think much of these things, but then having a h-factor doesn't mean I will fail an English test or my prayers won't be answered. My teacher understood my prayer well, but she was not pleased with my pronunciation of the words heal and ill.

The truth is, I cannot change my Yoruba H-factor; you wouldn't even know I had it if no words beginning with 'H' had to be said in our conversations. Most of my folks strongly believe I have a foreign accent, a story for an a story for another day.

In reality, we all have imperfections that are negligible, as they don't dent the fabric of our personality. So, if someone tries to call you out on your perfect imperfections, please don't mind them. 

Originally published on 2/28/2020 at 1:23 PM.