With her tiny hands wavering from side to side, 7-year old Titi matched, her friends, three of them, in an unplanned chorus and choreography. They sang:
“When I get older, I will be stronger; they’ll call me freedom, just like a waving flag; a waving flag, a waving flag, a waving flag, oh, oh, oh.”
They sang and danced other songs including “Waka waka”, trying hard enough to replicate Shakira’s World Cup stage performance [surely they watched it]. They continued until they got bored again and dispersed to other things to spend their holiday on. Mind you, this happened in Lagos, Nigeria.
But the point is this. Though the world cup ended about 2 months ago, its echoes are still with us. Our vuvuzelas are still with us. We blow them at large gospel crusades and at big open-air shows.
Octopus Paul is now being invited to predicted trivial things like whether or not there will be ‘go-slow’ on the Third Mainland Bridge by 6pm on a regular Monday, or more serious things like whether or not Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida [IBB] will the president of Nigeria in 2011. Well, the octopus has not obliged us yet, but we believe it can do a good job.
South Africa has thought us something.
Wait. Don’t miss the point. Our minds have been colonized by an event that lasted only a month. We were exposed to it just a little over one month and since then we have amplified it.
The lesson is: when you passionately and repeatedly expose yourself to a particular influence, it sticks. If you can package whatever you need to learn in formats that you enjoy [like DVD, story-line, songs, etc], the chances are that you will not forget.
Any information that is associated with emotions is indelible. This is because it is far easier for your brain to internalize and recall feelings than facts. When it is repeated, it becomes ingrained – accessible by the subconscious you.
Definitely, when Titi gets older [and stronger], the next 10 years or so, I’m certain that these songs will be playing, like movie sound tracks, in her mind whenever she recalls 2010 World Cup. And if she ever hears any of these songs again, she will remember the South African World Cup.
