Mr. Paddington sailed from the shores of Louisiana in search of the gold mine located somewhere in the heart of Africa. On his first expedition, his wooden ship had wrecked while it faced a storm close to the heavy current of Taqua bay. Thanks to the anchor of the Titanic ship that hooked him back upland.
Amid his travails, Paddington boarded the Titanic until it reached the gold coast.
Louisiana is thousands of miles away from the gold coast. The guys he met here couldn't speak his language. This is purely the heck of a place he ever thought ot imagined to be.
It appeared the gold coast isn't representing what he had heard, that gold can be found on the streets. Without much ado, he contemplated:
This isn't the place for me.
Back To The Shores
On getting to the shores where ships from all over Europe offloaded goods, he joined a ship from St. Louis heading west. It was a long trip but not as far as from Louisiana to the gold coast.
The ship docked at Opobo, a kingdom in the south southern part of present-day Nigeria. There he met the local king, Jaja who could speak the queen's English fluently.
King Jaja was happy to meet someone with whom he could speak English from time to time.
On his first night, Paddington could not close his eyes to sleep because there was no electricity. He wondered:
How can people be without a power supply?
As they say,
If you can not beat them, join them.
For the first three months in the land of Opobo, Mr. padding had to sleep with the light of a later, which emits heavy smokes that when he wakes up in the morning and blows his nostril, black particles would emerge.
Being a friend of King Jaja, Mr. Paddington advises the king to find a lasting solution to this problem.
The people are very hardworking. In their local ways, they engage in the trade of commodities from their farmlands. Those who are fishermen, exchanges aquatic splendor for yam tubers or any other available farm produce.
One of the most economic farm outputs in Opobo was palm oil. Me. Paddington thought this could be a good trade since palm oil was needed all over Europe since the industrial revolution, to lubricate machines.
Together, the king and Paddington agreed to enter into a trade agreement. He would supply the Opobo and communities around with power and they will pay him in palm oil.
King Jaja assured the people that Mr. Paddington meant well and that a new era of about to be born for everyone.
Some natives still feel that the trade agreement is a form of enslavement for the entire populace. So, they backed out of the King's decision. But since the agreement have been signed with King Jaja of Opobo, Mr. Paddington journeyed back to Louisiana to make the necessary content with electric companies to bring their services to Africa but first with the Opobo Kingdom.
When the deals have been signed and compromised reached, the team of power engineers, led by Mr. Paddington flocked Opobo.
Work began almost immediately. They first got permission from the King to fell trees to use as electric poles. The King agreed to their request.
There were electric poles in every street of Opobo. Like the Biblical antagonists, Sanballat and Tobias, the same people who never supported this idea kicked against and prevented the engineers from going anywhere near their lands to cut trees for electric poles.
It was four months to Christmas and the engineers wanted the people to feel what it means to have a power supply. They worked assiduously with the assistance of some of the village youths, the work went well and in no time, the cables have been fixed.
Opobo is blessed with so much natural waterfall that made the engineers happy to work, knowing that there is an already made source of power that could be gotten through the dam that would be constructed from the waterfalls.
On the eve of Christmas, the project has been completed but power was supplied only to the King's palace. It was secluded only to the chiefs and the king.
The experience is quite different. The first set of people to witness it were the very ones who stood as a stumbling block to the electric project.
Musical sounds we installed in the palace too. It was the first of its kind. Now King Jaja could sleep with his two eyes closed.
The light and music sound from the palace attracted all the natives that they come out in their numbers to celebrate.
When it was exactly mid-night, the engineers put on the light in every part of Opobo. Special lights were hung on trees on strategic points.
Everyone and communities that heard out this innovation dropped to Opobo on Christmas day and the celebration lasted into the new year.
Light indeed is life.
What a nice story about light, @mrenglish! Electricity and lights are transformational for the developing world, but it's not surprising that some prefer their currently lifestyle without modernization. There is no going back to the old ways once progress begins.
Development will always have hitches anytime it's about to spring up. Looking back in 2020 when the 4G network was to be launched, people frowned at it to a very large extent as saying it causes some symptoms of the covid-19 virus.
In the long run, the vision prevailed.
There are still many part of the developing world where lights haven't got to. We hope the people will embrace the truth.
There is nothing good in darkness.
Beautiful. It shows how much people can be against themselves and later with dedication and total focus, like Mr. Paddington, change lives.
In the attempt to bring about a change, one may come in contact with hurdles. At such times, we just keep moving towards the goal.
Thanks for coming around, @deraaa
❤️
And God said let.there be light and there was light. Light is necessary in the life of human being.
Thank God for the engineers who don't want to sleep in darkness. I knew it that Mr. Paddington will be so excited to see the light.
An interesting story, @mrenglish that has almost an epic feel to it. Progress. As the reader follows Paddington's adventure thoughts about the challenges to progress, its virtues and its costs. People have light, but to do so they must sell their precious forest to make palm oil for distant Europe.
Thank you for posting this story in the Ink Well community. We appreciate that you engage with other writers.
@silentbot star 4
Truthfully, this story blew my mind.
I know personally I can get better and the characters used especially that of the great king Jaja of Opobo kingdom.
Thanks for the inspiring post.
At some point I forgot I was reading a fiction because I was caught up in the emotion of how your unwelcoming people can be to obvious positive change.
Good job @mrenglish !
Your story tells about just how much man has come since the dawn of time. Evolution is inescapable.
This is a beautiful use of the prompt, thank you for sharing. I'm glad I read it.
Now here's an interesting story with a touch of history lesson lol. It was interesting reading this.