Okong' Okuna Profile picture
Dec 19, 2020 12 tweets 3 min read Read on X
When my mother was getting married to my old man, she had one demand: She would not marry/live with an alcoholic man. She was saved. So they married, & 3 weeks into the marriage my old man went to a busaa (local brew) joint & drowned a gallon. Came home staggering drunk...
My mother welcomed him. Fed him. Put him in bed. Packed her bags. Left for her father's home very early in the morning. She was not going to live with an alcoholic man. That was that! When my old man awoke, his wife was nowhere to be found...
He searched here, searched there. My mother had left. My old man decided he was going to marry another woman. He went looking but all the women he found had faults. Too lazy. Too dirty. My old man was frustrated.
He sent emissaries. He quarreled. He cajoled. My mother's mind was made up. It had been a month. Her father had already enrolled her in a teacher's college. She was not going to live with an alcoholic man. My grandfather - my father's father - supported her. She was a good woman.
He finally gathered courage. Went to my mother's home. 1st thing my grandpa (maternal) said was that his daughter was not an orphan. That she was a young beautiful woman with a whole life ahead of her. And if she didn't want a drinking man, she was going to get just that.
My father had to part with one more cow and 5 goats. As I speak, from the day I was born to date, I have never seen my old man near alcohol. They grew together from being rice farmers to being university dons. Mom a librarian. Lesson. People give you what you are willing to take.
Nobody will give you more than you are willing to take. If I give you less than you deserve, and you stay for it, you deserve exactly that. If you deserved better, you would get better. I am exactly what you deserve. You don't choose what you meet, but you choose what to keep.
No woman can give me any less than I deserve. I have spent very sad nights alone over a woman's betrayal. But I knew I wasn't going to take her back no matter how much it hurt. I knew that I could not control what she did, but I had the power of response. I finally overcame her.
That is why I am not afraid to treat my partner right. Because I take no crumbs from partners either. I will bleed, I will mourn, I will bawl, I will even convulse, but I will get over you. That is my power. That is why no woman can treat me like a pauper. You do you, I'll do me.
That was the point of the thread. That if you are receiving less than you feel you are giving, man or woman, it is not your job to try to change the other party, it is your job to find better. You teach people how to treat you by how you treat yourself.
If you are okay with crumbs, and there is no threat of repercussions, crumbs are what you'll get: Man or woman, no one has your welfare in mind better than you do. If I am toxic, it is not an accident. It is not cowardice. I do it because I can get away with it.
I'll teach my son/daughter. That it is not your job to rescue people from foolishness. Especially, when you are giving your best. You must let them go. One's destiny was not tied to the other. They will change when there is something valuable enough to fear losing. You're not it.

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More from @XivTroy

Apr 18
Growing up, it was always the odd couple with the longest, best relationship. He'd look like a man from WWII: laconic, lanky, awkward. She, on the other hand, would be utterly vivacious, short in stature. You'd never hear anything of their romance, except see them together.
On Sundays, you'd see them heading to the market: him with long strides; her with tiny, quick ones... telling a tale. And he would smile once in a while to acknowledge her, but otherwise look distracted. Focused on some clandestine pursuit. Ever in a world of his own. Square peg
And everybody would wonder, how they existed together being so different. Him so withdrawn, her the life of the party - it was impossible. So we concluded that he was sat on. She had something on him. Yet every evening, like a ritual, you'd see him rushing home to her with bread.
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Apr 10
There is a perfectly logical explanation for why Africans generally do not keep time as "diligently" as their foreign peers. It is rooted in historical African traditions, & continues to influence our interactions today.

Lateness is not necessarily a mark of baseness.
#1

In western society, time is a commodity that must be exploited or traded. Conversely, in traditional African society, time is not a pre-existing endowment to be traded. It needed to be produced. Or made.

So, Africans defined time on the basis of events, not numerical values
#2

E.g. Luo people didn't say, I'll meet you at 7 am. Instead, they said, I'll see you when the sun rises ("ka chien'g oyaore") - & that could be anytime between 5 - 10 am.

Similarly, for the Ankole of Uganda, cows are revered. So time was subject to events affecting cattle.
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Mar 30
Last time I was away, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in quite a long time. In her 30s, quite successful, single. So later on I offered to link her up with a few buddies. But I said, they may not be as successful yet. She said, "I want an earning man. Not a moneyed man".
Which was interesting, because I had never had it phrased that way. So I said, "what is the difference?" She said an earning man knows the value of commitment because he is committed to something. He is not idle. He is productive & there is a tangible, scalable result.
I said okay, but the moneyed man could be committed too? But she said, not necessarily. She said some people are born into money. Others sell drugs for money. Others kill. That's centering money, she said. I want someone who centers earning. They understand commitment...
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Mar 26
1. Men are just getting brutally logical about relationships. There are no incentives in marriage beyond the romance attached to it. You can get a kid outside of marriage. Can get sex outside. Can get companionship outside it, why marry & risk losing your autonomy & money?
2. Men did not "waste time". This simple inference ignores the critical socioeconomics of relationships. It takes comparatively longer for men to establish themselves. Especially in my continent, where the few boomer men in power are governed by their loins.
3. Most young men just don't get as many opportunities to advance earlier on. & Career female peers do not give grace. Even the 20s/30s jobless will consider a jobless male peer a loser. Joblessness/an average salary is an accident on her part, but lack of initiative on yours.
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Mar 6
I remember one time, I was on a school break. Long holidays. Campus. I had decided not to go home, took up with a friend. I remember telling her I needed to make money, & she protesting profusely that she had not seen me in ages. It was not fair. I was 23 & she was 21...
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Feb 15
I learned to enjoy my free time from a friend who suffered divorce only 2 years into marriage . Never re-married. Met him in a gallery. I asked, do you not get lonely? He said, I do alone everything I would be doing with a woman. Women only complement. They do not complete.
It is the same thing my buddy A. told me when he landed in Kenya. I had been taken aback slightly. 50s. No kids. Relatively wealthy. I said, man why no family? He said, he got too caught up enjoying life to notice the absence of the womanly touch.
I said, is that not selfish? Conceited? He said, selfish is using other people as a bridge to one's fulfillment. He found his in traveling. People say, wait till my woman gets here, we would be in a cottage somewhere watching the sunset. He said, what if you did not have to wait?
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