Two nights b4 we left the ranch, I had dinner (these guys at the Ranch cook very nice dishes. For example, we ate…. no, let me not make your mouth water). When I finished, there was a live band outside playing for the guests, but I was too tired to attend and went to my room to sleep.

Later, I learnt that during the band performance that night, one of the guests to the ranch walked up to the band singer, took the microphone, and b4 the gathered crowd, got on his knees and proposed to the lady he was with. The surprised girl broke down in tears. (Yes, she said “Yes”). When I was told, I thought to myself, oooh, that’s so romantic. Later, I learnt the guy had just came back from Yankee. I said, aah, no wonder.

However, during lunch that day, this big discussion broke out. We were talking with this grey-haired Yoruba Baba and his wife. He was a professor and had lived a long time in Zimbabwe , Kenya , America and many other countries. The baba objected strongly to what the man had done. “Why should he kneel down for a woman? Which kind romantic be that one? We are Africans, and we have to keep our culture you know!” I was even more surprised when his wife supported him “As a man, he is not supposed to kneel down for a woman. If anything, it is the woman that is supposed to kneel down for the man. Listen, one of my sons has told me that he would not even propose to any lady o! It is the lady that would have to ask him to marry her.”

(When she talk that one, for my mind I just talk say, “Hmmm. E go tae small before that guy marry o!”)

“And besides”, she continued, “A proposal is a private thing. The man should not have proposed to her in public like that. What was he expecting her to say? No?”

Well I agree on the he should not have done it in public part. BUT, I no gree on the romantic part. My view is that African men are not very romantic.