The Shoemaker’s Hum

Not long ago in this month, I went to town with my mother to buy a traveling bag. As my mother negotiated the price, I sat down to enjoy the bustle and hustle of the Kejetia traders. That was when I took this picture unbeknownst to the man working. I was about plugging in my earphones to blast my ears with music when I heard the man humming a particularly, familiar tune. "Is this a tune you all, excuse me to say, shoemakers like?" I asked aprubtly. He looked at me with what I thought was a confused face and said, "I am very proud of what I do, kid. And that was a tune my father taught me😊 Where did you hear it?"

Then I was catapulted into my childhood days...

I grew up with my mother in her family's house at Kodie in the Ashanti Region. We had a large farm and my uncles and older brothers tended to it. I was a kid then so I stayed home with my grandmother and listened to her many stories. Whether they were true or not, I never asked her. I think I deciphered which ones were too good to be true and which ones weren't. The one I'm about telling you is one of the many I concluded to not be fiction.

My grandmother was a seamstress and she had, or we all had, a friend who was a shoemaker. He came around every Thursday to mend our shoes and slippers. His name was "y3mer3y3" (aren't we tired?) He walked with a limp in his left leg too. Funny, is it? I never could fathom why he went by such a name and I never mustered up the courage to ask him. So I asked my grandmother instead...

"Nana", she began, "Life brings us trials at every turn. It is up to us to decide for ourselves what we want and what is good for ourselves. That man's real name is Kojo Amissah. His parents were rich farmers and he grew up to love farming. He was hardworking and a very respectful guy. It was almost as if he'd replicated his parent's success. Though the envy of many women, he already had his sweetheart, Afia Adoma.

Kojo's parents convinced him to marry another even though his whole body shook violently against it. In order not to disrespect his parents, he married the 'chosen one' and told Afia Adoma to move on. One cannot be single forever right?💁🏻‍♂️ Afia found herself a man worthy of her and settled down.

Life happy ever after?! No, Kojo's wife became a thorn in his flesh. Always claiming to be tired, she refused to help Kojo on the farm and stayed home all day. It became worse when she got pregnant. She gave birth a baby boy and insisted on naming him Adade. Kojo came home one day to meet another man in bed with his wife. With his spirit crushed, he went out and came back to meet his home deserted. The 'chosen one' had disappeared with all his, well, everything. It was then that he started humming.

His life came crushing down that very instant. He lost his parents two weeks after that incident. He found out that Adade wasn't his. Weeds took over his farm because he didn't even go anywhere near it, just stayed at home pitying himself. The very day he overcame his grief, he took up a cutlass and started to work again. In the process of weeding, he cut his foot and it was left dangling as some men came over to help him. As they took him to the medicine man, he told them and all those who met him on the way that 'y3mery3?'

He healed and is now a shoemaker as you can see my dear child. He hums that tune always and I don't think he's ever gonna stop."