Shola
After secondary school I opted for a new start – didnt want to be held back by those who disrupted me. From my secondary school, only me and Ahmed were the ones that went to this college. Ahmed was a best friend throughout my college years but his story will be later – this is about Shola
In college intervals between some classes were 3 hours. College was 1 hour away from where I lived and with only 2 pounds pocket money if I wanted lunch as well as enough money to get home then I could only take the bus twice a day – once to get to college and once to get home. So to kill the 3 hour slot we played football. There was no set schedule and it was hard to get players involved so I put flyers up in the canteen letting people know there would be pople on the football pitch at lunch times. Shola was one of the first people to start turning up regularly. He was built like Van Damme – arms the width of tree trunks, he spoke with a fast north London accent with a slight stutter, the funny thing was he was so polite. He rode a motorbike and always wore that type of jacket coupled with a baseball cap he wore backwards.
On the his first day I kicked the ball to him to see what he could do. He challenged me to try and take the ball off him. I told him that he didnt know who he was messing with.. I was a TOP defender after all and I didnt want to embarrass him by leaving him on the floor dazed. He then pulled off this trick that to date I have only seen him and Ronaldinho do. (youtube link). Me and Shola were going to get on just fine.
We played many games together, we were regulary football buddies, never a bad word said against each other. I introduced him to my gf at the time Rachel, haha and he didnt believe me or her when we said we were together. She was toooo.. sigh – never mind this is not her story. There was one occasion when we both had finished early and made our way to the football pitch. No one was around to start a game so we took turns shooting the ball at each other. We talked about how big the goals were and how it seemed impossible to be able to miss a penalty and how we didnt get what all the hype for David Beckham was about. I remember what was on my feet that day. My Fila suede boots. One foot had my green version one and the other foot had my blue pair. This was the fashion back then.
I saw an ad in the paper for players to play in a football tournament, cost was £20 per team. I posted up in the college that I needed 9 players and the cost would be £5 per person (profit). 16 people responded I chose 8 people and waited. A day before the tournament – Shola eventually bumped into me – ‘about the tournament, can I play’ I responded ‘your name was already on the list’. We knocked clenched fists together and that was that.
We lost in the semi final to the eventual winners but we all played our hardest.
Left college for Uni – Shola was going to attend Brunel University in London I opted for Southampton to get away from London. From University I used to pop down to London every so often to play football for my Saturday club. I had not heard from Shola for a while.
‘Did you hear?’ said Ahmed, ‘hear what?’ ‘….about Shola’ he continued ‘he is dead, he was found in a river in Tottenham! ‘.. ‘……’ ‘…..’ ‘……’ ‘Nah’ I responded ‘Shola lives on Campus at Brunel Uni. ‘you should call him maybe it is just a rumour’ he said .. ‘I’ll do that.. he can’t be dead’ i said
That evening I called his house.. A young woman answered the phone. ‘I am sorry to disturb you.. but some news has got to me and I need to make sure that it is not true.’ ‘You heard that Shola is dead right?’, she said. ‘Yeah, who is spr….’. I continued. ‘He is dead’… ‘…….’ ‘…….’ ‘…….’ ‘…….’ ‘why??… I mean no.. how, when?!’
The conversation went on a for a while.. I learnt that he was found in a lake. He had drowned. How he got there and why he was even there was a mystery to the young woman I was talking to. When I told her my name she knew who I was despite me never talking. ‘so you are Kwame.. she said, Shola spoke about you all the time’.. you must come to his funeral. I found out that the woman I was talking to was Shola’s sister. I found it hard to imagine what Shola’s sister would look like.. Shola had a quite manly face. She asked me if I was from Ghana, I said ‘yes’.. she replied ‘oh’ I responded ‘yes oh’.. this is a joke between friendly Nigerians and Ghanaians.
Despite discussing such a sad subject she was still able to smile. what a strong young woman.
The day of the funeral came around quite fast. I remember I was in the shops the day before searching for a black shirt. The funeral was in Tottenham at a large church. I got there nice and early. The family was ushering and thanking people as they entered the church.
She looked so much like Shola it was amazing; she guessed who I was when i approached the church entrance. Her eyes were red as red apples, she was obvioulsy someone who had been crying and was fighting the urge not to cry again. Looking at her I saw Shola talking to me, just without the stutter and the baseball cap on backwards.
I sat down in the Church and recognised a few faces from College.. and strangely a few from school. I say strangely as I had no idea that Shola knew these people and I myself had not seen them for years. Gunyi, a fellow politics classmate and Christina from secondary school who was in class S. The ceremony started and people were invited to say a few words. Shola’s brother stood up first.. he must have been about 14 years old. Looked so much like Shola too. he talked about the inspiration shola gave.. going to college, playing football and just being the perfect brother. Shola’s brother didnt cry.
Next up was Shola’s sister, She stood up and thanked everybody and started reading from her pre prepared script. There was a rnb song being played in the back ground.. dammit!! I cannot I remember the song although I remember thinking that I want this song played at my funeral. She went on for two minutes.. and then her voice changed, she was trying to suppress the tears. By this time the tears were already streaming down my face.. I had stopped listening to her speech after the first minute and drifted into the moments me and Shola shared. There is a song that I listen to that always reminds me shola’s funeral. LINK INSERT. The lyrics are appropriate but explicit edited for blog:
understand, the game it be Kinda topsy turvy; you win some, you lose some
Damn, they lost a brother – they mother lost a son
Damn!, why my BROTHA couldn’t stay ALIVE?
I’m a thug, but I swear for three days I cried
I look in the sky and ask God why
Damn I miss you
Her voice had changed, she was no longer the young woman I had spoken to on the phone, she was no longer strong…. and then the downpour began. She bawled like nobody was watching, but we were; it didnt matter though as we were howling too. Her mum came up to to support her her nose runny and eyes as red as those red apples. My eyes were streaming too. Her mum took over the reading of the speech Shola’s sister had prepared. It praised his support, his strength; his positiveness his attitude.
With the speeches over people were invited to the coffin to pay their last respects. This was something I couldnt do. I looked to my left and Gunyi was wiping his eyes. he got up and paid his respects to the coffin.. I couldnt do it.. I couldnt.. it would haunt me. Those who know me know I have no belief.. but I prayed that day, my last prayer. If anyone was listening.. I asked them to watch this family.
The funeral was eventful, many hymns were sung. When all was finished I made my exit. Just as at the start, the family were there to thank everyone. Shola’s sis talked to me for a bit. She thanked me for coming all the way down from Southampton to attend and that he would have been grateful. She didnt need to have told me that.. I knew. Shola was my best friend.