"Then listen to me", he said and cleared his throat. "It's true that a child belongs to his father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland."from Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". Good stuff, that book.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Of Mothers And Fathers
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7 comments:
Sorry to be dense here, but that was a little over my head. I have a father land and a mother land? Or are they just two faces of the same home country? Or am I trying to take it all too literally? Confused.
No, MT, you are not dense at all.
Apparently, in Africa, people had a motherland (literally, their mother's village - the "maika") and there was the father's village, where sons would grow up and do their farming/commerce. Hence the distinction.
Ah, now how was I supposed to guess that?
Aw crap! This means my fatherland AND motherland, BOTH, are now in another country!
Oh MT you undense man, you are supposed to go to your public library and borrow this great book :)
Ghost: you clearly belong to Brotherland.
Sound like an interesting book, I shall give it a try. Thanks for pointing out :)
Vibhanshu: so you are version 3.1, eh? Cool. Things usually work well from 3.1 onwards, right? :)
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