The Hen or the Egg, Which Existed First?

By Joshua Ibirogba

Before my mother thought to put diapers on me as an infant, she had put waist beads on this infant. She held me up like a trophy, it was fair she took my loud cries as a consent to the adorning—that is all babies ever do, isn’t it?

I am African, so rather than my mother let me pull at her blouse, she let me crawl on the ground and beat dust out of sand grains instead.

These sand grains: they looked like shiny and edible stars, so I ingested them occasionally. While I discovered a cluster of crunchy stars, it provided her the allowance she desperately needed, and everybody won.

So, I grew up “knowing” everything had a solution. It took a while to realise it was improvisations. But it didn’t matter at the time—everything had a solution.

Before I learnt to love my siblings, I learnt to hit back harder when they hit me, that was how they were to learn respect.

Before I learnt the expressions of my native language, I learnt the gestures that accompanied them.

Before I learnt safety, I had accidents and injuries from the firsthand experiences.

Before I knew ethics, I lived by superstitions.

When I grew older, before my mother settled every misunderstanding with my father, I had heard of it and consoled her.

And these improvisations became the solutions to the many difficulties that raising me posed.

I became creative, always brimming with ideas but I have had to question if my ideas are actually solutions or improvisations, and with the test of time the realisation was bare to me;it was the latter.

It took me to strip off myself the false adornments, to unlearn the temporary relief that comes with improvisations, to learn to proffer real and long term solutions, to consider consequences. But which really comes first, birth or growth—the egg or the hen?

Joshua is a talented poet with a published chapbook. He has a keen eye for language and a passion for exploring the depths of human emotion. As a content writer and strategist, Joshua has applied his poetic sensibilities to crafting compelling narratives and effective messaging. Now, he’s eager to venture into the tech space, bringing his unique perspective to the digital landscape.