Field House Chronicles..... MO TI GUN!
Recently our set, the last set, had its fortieth Reunion of entering into GCI. I was extremely happy to see Funsho Obilade, a fellow Field House classmate. I hadn't seen him for over thirty years!
Now the reason for this short digression, is to relate one of my escapades. Which due to its 'traumatic' nature, I had 'forgotten' over time! Funsho brought the memories back.
When we got into School, we ate on House grounds. That is our three meals were eaten in our prep room in Field House (sorry don't know about other Houses!). Soon after the central Dining was completed and we started eating in the Dining hall. Students were not allowed to take food away from the dining hall. It was a rule that was adhered to and was also broken if one knew how to!
Funsho and I were co-opted by 'Akeem' Adewemimo and some other seniors (forgotten their name). Our 'duty' was to go to the dining hall, eat our dinner and then bring theirs to the House grounds. Now, you need to understand the perilous kind of journey we were to undertake. There were prefects everywhere and 'Or Rhee' Oredein's (HOS) room was on the same premises too.
I had resolved that I would rather be 'killed' by Akeem than serve detention/punishment dished out by various prefects and/or Or Rhee! I did not inform Funsho of my decision though. We got to the dining hall and I collected Akeem' s food. I collected mine too. I ate my food leisurely, moved to another side of the same table and demolished Akeem's food too. After finishing Akeem's food, I noticed that Funsho was looking at me open mouthed with a look in his eyes akin to what I thought was awe. In truth, with benefit of hindsight, I think his look was one of wonder, wonder at what kind of punishment, my small body was going to have to endure! Anyway, I digress. We got to the House grounds, and Akeem asked me for his food. My answer was simple, no excuses, no explanations. A simple three word phrase in Yoruba 'mo ti gun' literally meaning I had stabbed the food! 'You have what......!?' is what Akeem asked. I repeated myself, a little louder this time 'Mo Ti Gun!' Akeem's first response had given me some false hope that I was not going to be 'killed' and woken up serially! Alas! I was wrong, VERY wrong! I was put through various forms of torture in the name of punishment. 'Dobale my dodo, 45 degrees, Gan bus, handstand, to name a few! Maybe it was bravado or just stupidity, I don't know. But, I just couldn't bring myself to scream or cry. This infuriated Akeem, he came up with some imaginative things and lastly resorted to using his Cadet belt on me!
Now, all this felt like an eternity....But it lasted about two hours at the most! Akeem then gave me his bowl and told me to get his food the next evening!
Next evening, I ate his food again! You might think me crazy, but I was more scared of the prefects than I was of Akeem! After the 'Mo ti gun' answer again, Akeem dumbfounded, devoted the whole of prep and more to dealing with me!! Now, I started thinking that I knew how slaves felt in the states (US), ROOTs had just come out!! And again 'massa' Akeem gives me the bowl! Well on the third night, to cut a long story short I literally died! Akeem sweating profusely, looked at me and I looked back at him with what I felt was a defiant look (Roots on my mind!). He gave up (at least that's what I felt happened!), and told me to go to sleep!
The next day, on my way to the dining in the evening, I heard someone screaming my name 'OGUNODE!! DO NOT GO NEAR MY FOOD!!!!' It was Akeem!!!-Adebisi Ogunode-1977 Field
