Whiles we cannot claim to have the exact same story as others, life’s experiences irrespective of time and place can pretty much leave us with parallels that allow us see ourselves in the stories of others and others in our own stories, even when there is an (ocean) Atlantic to travel across.
Across the Atlantic, the United States of America is a country that is thrust in the face of the world. A country that made ‘double history’ in as many years. Obama a decade ago and right up, Mr. T, the Commander-In-Chief of Tweet forces. America wows the world with Mr. T as was same with Obama – wow inverse.
[The] inverse of ‘America in the face of the world,’ the world has to face America on a daily basis – perhaps because as the so-called leader of the Free World, they shove ‘emselves in the faces of the world constantly. That land, America.
America, is a whole new topic for another day but for now, back on our side of the Atlantic, along the Gulf of Guinea on the western coast, Ghana's Greater Accra Region, Accra New Town, a suburb of the capital, located in the Ayawaso East constituency.
[The] town where I spent my formative years and much of my teen days. It is undoubtedly very far from where years before, the stories of Michelle Obama and her big brother Craig Robinson unfolded on the famed Chicago South Side.
[The] side where the former First Lady’s parents went about raising their two children with huge amount of sacrifices to ensure their basketball-loving son and piano loving daughter will positively change America even if in a small way.
Having read Michelle’s no holds barred biography ‘Becoming,’ I cannot but relate her upbringing and relationship with her big brother to what I have with my three older siblings, way back and till date. My review proper of the book is still in writing....
I’d start with what I adjudge as her best quote about Craig, and as if keeping the best for the last, this was at the tail end of the book specifically in the acknowledgments, Page 433 of 438.
“And to my big brother, Craig. Where do I begin? You have been my protector since the day I was born. You have made me laugh more than any other person on this earth.
“You are the best brother a sister could ask for, a loving and caring son, husband, and father. Thank you for all the hours you spent with the team peeling back the layers of our childhood.
“Some of the my best memories of writing this book will be our time together, with Mom, sitting in the kitchen reliving so many old stories,” Michelle wrote.
She relates their follies over the years, the times they ganged up against parents cigarettes, the happy times growing up and sharing a room, uniting in Princeton and their only adult time fight – over a casket after their ‘simple’ daddy died.
I arrived – as in was born – with three older siblings around the house. Rayhann, Mariam and Fuleira. I have insisted I had to arrive before Fuleira to keep the gender order in place, she jumped the queue – may be the reason why she is uniquely left-handed.
I remained fourth and last born till, Sherif arrived and then Shariffa. That effectively makes six of us. The Shaban kids born to barber Abdur Rahim Shaban and HRH Hajia Fati Idriss.
Ok, so this is effectively a rant about my three older siblings. Rayhann, our leader; Mariam, our selfless impatient patient and Fuleira, our uniquely left-handed empress.
Rayhann - Leaders' leader, gift of the Shaban's first computer
Ok, there is Mariam and Fuleira between Rayhann and me, gives a fair idea of the age difference. But here is a "big bro" as we refer to him, who comes to everyone's level in dealing with issues.
Long before he started taking family decisions - after our dad died in 2005, I must have been close to him, mom mocks me about how a young me, cried when Rayhann was leaving to secondary school (high school) at the time St. Augustine's College in Cape Coast.
Daddy never bought a TV in his lifetime, our first TV was thanks to Uncle Mustapha. But Rayhann bought us our first desktop computer, I went to get it from Osu.
It was with it that we started learning typing - the infamous Mavis Beacon, playing Road Rush, reading Al-Alim Islamic software, listening to Islamic lectures and watching films also.
To wrap up, he's taken al the hard decisions since daddy left. He's paid the largest chunk of tertiary fees. He's built mom a house, with our small backing. Called Alhaji since a kid, he only got to perform hajj in 2018 - thanks to his Christian boss.
Mariam - impatient benevolent contributor, Ummul Issah
If you see Mariam, you have seen the Queen of "rushing and classic impatience." Over and above that, she is a great selfless person. Mariam would rather she suffers than any of us.
Mariam times back singlehandedly run the house in terms of feeding and upkeep. A trainee teacher at the time, she diverted all her allowance and classes fees to cater for us back home - she did.
But long before recent events, Mariam was a financial terrorist at least to me. At a time four of us schooled at Burma Camp - Mariam will sweet talk me to agree she keeps part of my chop money. There was a point even giving me my allocation, she won't.
It was only after she completed Kotoka and went to Mfantsiman Girls in Cape Coast that my financial coast got clear. She told us a story of Mansite teacher's breakfast of "kooko and boafloat," later if we used the term, she gets angry.
And oh, legend has it that Mariam flatly refuses that I drink kooko - a local porridge - as a kid because I will sleep in the car on our way to school and that my head was too heavy - today, she wants her kids to drink kooko just so they'd sleep. God is good.
Fuleira - Our lovely leftie, Accra Girls morning hustles, mom of Mom
Fuleira, I have pitied since she was small till into her adult age. She suffered Hajia Fati’s "military drills," and as a mom, her boys continue to "drill" her - she'll say tweaaa, but I have said it.
Mom forced Fuleira to wash the dishes every morning before she could go to school even if it was just one pan. Mariam was in boarding school and Fuleira was the main target for household chores - Mom won't buck down on her position on dishes not even if Fuleira had exams or any pressing engagement.
Fuleira was our chief mathematician, I put her above Rayhann and Sherif. As for Mariam, I hate Maths but ayam better at it than her, most likely because she is impatient even with formulas. Sheriffa is equally bad at it.
Fuleira and controversy belong to different whatsapp groups. She splits money as was expected. Till date, Fuleira keeps money with admirable commitment and accounting.
My journalism project was typed in her home. A poor me couldn't afford to pay a typist. I walked to her home and used her husband's PC to painstakingly type the project and saved it on a floppy disk, that's right, on a floppy.
She has also adequately paid tertiary fees for me, Sherif and Sheriffa. She is our party queen. Fuleira knows what's up when it comes to chilling, that I give up to her.
Our first to buy a car and to learn to drive. That car has served the family in a thousand plus ways and continues so to do. She usurped my third spot but she's lived up to that spot.
Wrap up
Back to Michelle Obama and her brother Craig. She wrote about him: "Craig and I are not quite two years apart in age .... The two of us have always been tight, in part thanks to an unwavering and inexplicable allegiance he seemed to feel for his baby sister right from the start."
Well, I had three older siblings always looking out for me. Mariam always called me a fool and taught me to not cry over bullies back in the day. Rayhann taught me to never give anyone a fight over trivialities and Fuleira always shielded me every turn of the way - especially at Islamic school.
One day when I write a more detailed version of growing up, I'd expatiate on how these trio are everything a little brother could have dreamt of. Al hamdu lil Laah - All Praise Is Due To Allah.
17 Rabi'ul Awwal, 1440 = 24th December, 2018
Across the Atlantic, the United States of America is a country that is thrust in the face of the world. A country that made ‘double history’ in as many years. Obama a decade ago and right up, Mr. T, the Commander-In-Chief of Tweet forces. America wows the world with Mr. T as was same with Obama – wow inverse.
[The] inverse of ‘America in the face of the world,’ the world has to face America on a daily basis – perhaps because as the so-called leader of the Free World, they shove ‘emselves in the faces of the world constantly. That land, America.
America, is a whole new topic for another day but for now, back on our side of the Atlantic, along the Gulf of Guinea on the western coast, Ghana's Greater Accra Region, Accra New Town, a suburb of the capital, located in the Ayawaso East constituency.
[The] town where I spent my formative years and much of my teen days. It is undoubtedly very far from where years before, the stories of Michelle Obama and her big brother Craig Robinson unfolded on the famed Chicago South Side.
[The] side where the former First Lady’s parents went about raising their two children with huge amount of sacrifices to ensure their basketball-loving son and piano loving daughter will positively change America even if in a small way.
Having read Michelle’s no holds barred biography ‘Becoming,’ I cannot but relate her upbringing and relationship with her big brother to what I have with my three older siblings, way back and till date. My review proper of the book is still in writing....
I’d start with what I adjudge as her best quote about Craig, and as if keeping the best for the last, this was at the tail end of the book specifically in the acknowledgments, Page 433 of 438.
“And to my big brother, Craig. Where do I begin? You have been my protector since the day I was born. You have made me laugh more than any other person on this earth.
“You are the best brother a sister could ask for, a loving and caring son, husband, and father. Thank you for all the hours you spent with the team peeling back the layers of our childhood.
“Some of the my best memories of writing this book will be our time together, with Mom, sitting in the kitchen reliving so many old stories,” Michelle wrote.
She relates their follies over the years, the times they ganged up against parents cigarettes, the happy times growing up and sharing a room, uniting in Princeton and their only adult time fight – over a casket after their ‘simple’ daddy died.
I arrived – as in was born – with three older siblings around the house. Rayhann, Mariam and Fuleira. I have insisted I had to arrive before Fuleira to keep the gender order in place, she jumped the queue – may be the reason why she is uniquely left-handed.
I remained fourth and last born till, Sherif arrived and then Shariffa. That effectively makes six of us. The Shaban kids born to barber Abdur Rahim Shaban and HRH Hajia Fati Idriss.
Ok, so this is effectively a rant about my three older siblings. Rayhann, our leader; Mariam, our selfless impatient patient and Fuleira, our uniquely left-handed empress.
 |
| The four of us plus our late daddy. |
Rayhann - Leaders' leader, gift of the Shaban's first computer
Ok, there is Mariam and Fuleira between Rayhann and me, gives a fair idea of the age difference. But here is a "big bro" as we refer to him, who comes to everyone's level in dealing with issues.
Long before he started taking family decisions - after our dad died in 2005, I must have been close to him, mom mocks me about how a young me, cried when Rayhann was leaving to secondary school (high school) at the time St. Augustine's College in Cape Coast.
Daddy never bought a TV in his lifetime, our first TV was thanks to Uncle Mustapha. But Rayhann bought us our first desktop computer, I went to get it from Osu.
It was with it that we started learning typing - the infamous Mavis Beacon, playing Road Rush, reading Al-Alim Islamic software, listening to Islamic lectures and watching films also.
To wrap up, he's taken al the hard decisions since daddy left. He's paid the largest chunk of tertiary fees. He's built mom a house, with our small backing. Called Alhaji since a kid, he only got to perform hajj in 2018 - thanks to his Christian boss.
Mariam - impatient benevolent contributor, Ummul Issah
If you see Mariam, you have seen the Queen of "rushing and classic impatience." Over and above that, she is a great selfless person. Mariam would rather she suffers than any of us.
Mariam times back singlehandedly run the house in terms of feeding and upkeep. A trainee teacher at the time, she diverted all her allowance and classes fees to cater for us back home - she did.
But long before recent events, Mariam was a financial terrorist at least to me. At a time four of us schooled at Burma Camp - Mariam will sweet talk me to agree she keeps part of my chop money. There was a point even giving me my allocation, she won't.
It was only after she completed Kotoka and went to Mfantsiman Girls in Cape Coast that my financial coast got clear. She told us a story of Mansite teacher's breakfast of "kooko and boafloat," later if we used the term, she gets angry.
And oh, legend has it that Mariam flatly refuses that I drink kooko - a local porridge - as a kid because I will sleep in the car on our way to school and that my head was too heavy - today, she wants her kids to drink kooko just so they'd sleep. God is good.
Fuleira - Our lovely leftie, Accra Girls morning hustles, mom of Mom
Fuleira, I have pitied since she was small till into her adult age. She suffered Hajia Fati’s "military drills," and as a mom, her boys continue to "drill" her - she'll say tweaaa, but I have said it.
Mom forced Fuleira to wash the dishes every morning before she could go to school even if it was just one pan. Mariam was in boarding school and Fuleira was the main target for household chores - Mom won't buck down on her position on dishes not even if Fuleira had exams or any pressing engagement.
Fuleira was our chief mathematician, I put her above Rayhann and Sherif. As for Mariam, I hate Maths but ayam better at it than her, most likely because she is impatient even with formulas. Sheriffa is equally bad at it.
Fuleira and controversy belong to different whatsapp groups. She splits money as was expected. Till date, Fuleira keeps money with admirable commitment and accounting.
My journalism project was typed in her home. A poor me couldn't afford to pay a typist. I walked to her home and used her husband's PC to painstakingly type the project and saved it on a floppy disk, that's right, on a floppy.
She has also adequately paid tertiary fees for me, Sherif and Sheriffa. She is our party queen. Fuleira knows what's up when it comes to chilling, that I give up to her.
Our first to buy a car and to learn to drive. That car has served the family in a thousand plus ways and continues so to do. She usurped my third spot but she's lived up to that spot.
Wrap up
Back to Michelle Obama and her brother Craig. She wrote about him: "Craig and I are not quite two years apart in age .... The two of us have always been tight, in part thanks to an unwavering and inexplicable allegiance he seemed to feel for his baby sister right from the start."
Well, I had three older siblings always looking out for me. Mariam always called me a fool and taught me to not cry over bullies back in the day. Rayhann taught me to never give anyone a fight over trivialities and Fuleira always shielded me every turn of the way - especially at Islamic school.
One day when I write a more detailed version of growing up, I'd expatiate on how these trio are everything a little brother could have dreamt of. Al hamdu lil Laah - All Praise Is Due To Allah.
17 Rabi'ul Awwal, 1440 = 24th December, 2018
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