My Space
The online dictionary.com defines Space as an unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur. To ordinary people, it could be where one sits. To elites, it is expanded to resources we own, places we create, time, power, fame, and names we attached to meaning. All these will define space and often, we abuse these spaces.
These defined or created spaces have huge complexities. Some are unequal while others are fair. Some spaces are created while others are inherited and each calls for a different context. Some spaces are given to us especially spiritual spaces which are the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are not spaces considered as positions, I mean spaces that go beyond your status, your position, and your access to resources in life. Spaces that transcend beyond the physical cosmos. However, space is nothing but space.
Many defined spaces like physical or outer spaces accommodate inequality, racism, poverty, segregation, and the likes. If we are part of these spaces, we have two options, keep the status quo or find the status quo — none of them seem easy. By humanity’s demand, we have to transform these spaces to accommodate the humanity of others.
Please allow me to become a bit personal. I have occupied or created spaces in my advocacy, in challenging a popular culture and a status quo. I called spaces that look beyond the ordinary true spaces. When I look at a specific space and focus on the relationship between those occupying the space and the space itself, I can say, we need CHANGE. Imagine the effect both are having on the general outlook of the environment and those within — this could be people, objects, and animals. You will surely agree with me that yes, we need CHANGE.
To many, these spaces we often belong to are either created by God, or spaces created by culture. These are two dominant spaces and often the most challenging spaces. A typical example is the ongoing story of the British Monarchy about how Harry is still trying to find his space. I am aware of spaces created by greed and pride, but many of them are actually part of the first two.
By logic or moral obligation, we know that these two spaces suppose to be accommodative for everyone supposedly without discrimination, fear, or favor to anyone. I am not saying that there are no forms of inequality in those spaces, what I am saying, they were never intended to have any form of inequality.
Please allow me again to come back to me.
What space defines me, I am sure both the culture and the God-made spaces. These two spaces I have inherited. I also know what space I occupy in the spiritual space realm through Christ Jesus. I equally hold in huge esteem the space culture has given me- part of my worldly inheritance. You will only agree with me that I inherited God-given space if you are a Christian and trust that long ago, God began his redemptive work for mankind and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Many recognize that these spaces exist within human errors and flaws. So, let us be mindful of our conclusions. We need no evidence to note that some spaces have been exercised badly and others for the benefit of mankind. Christ used his space to redeem the world, Juda Escaliot used his space to betray Christ. Nelson Mandela used his space to fight for peace, equality, and freedom while the very colleagues who suffered with him later used their spaces to accumulate wealth.
Space, as it is available to all men and women, can be positive and negative depending on how we use it. Many people are preoccupied with how abundant, how long, and how much we can hold on to each space and how we utilize it. Quoting William Shakespeare:
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.
And since the world is a stage and we are all players, we need a space or a role to exercise our place. It could be in government, in business, in sports, or in civic spaces where we can hold our leaders accountable for the social contract we signed with them to rule us. please allow me to cite some examples:
To talk more of our civic spaces, we demand our government to allow us to enjoy peace and tranquillity as part of their stage performance. However, this has not been an easy task. Our duty bearers have become demigods while the citizens have become rioters, campaigners, protesters; demanding food, water, shelter, and education. And if the breathe we have was a commodity, we would have equally beg for it. If we can convince any human person about the need for forests, rivers, trees, and swamps to exist, then there is no need to have politicians.
another example is around greed exercised in families. In families for instance, especially communities where fetish and other forms of cults exist, we have heard of stories where the father wants all the space there is allocated to his entire family to himself. In this case, such a father or sometimes mothers will seek extra powers for fame, money, and power in exchange for the life of their children. They collect in their witch crafting the prosperity of the children, parents, or some other human persons just for them to have more space. It is more the reason we keep hearing of ritualist killings and it is shamefully happening all over the world; whites do it, blacks, Asians, and Arabs, everyone is doing it. People have shared blood to occupy spaces that are not truly theirs and they have owned it falsely — no wonder why the world is upside down because we are in the hands of the wrong people.
Moreover, among racial classes, we have seen where one single country owns more than 40% of the world wealth or more than 50% of the regional block’s wealth controlling the economy without any remorse but with white teeth, smiling faces, and deep commitment to the alleviation of poverty, illiteracy, and racism.
I am not sure how we can achieve the universality of everything, but in my lifetime, we are implementing the second part of the Development Goals still having the same problems. with the above examples, we can surely see why?
What is interesting though is that we are not the beginners — Satan started it with God, he wanted to occupy the space that was not his and now, man, becoming victim is struggling to save himself in the middle of all this. This is why it is often said that when two elephant fights, the grass suffers. It is a good adage to suggest that while politicians fight on who to rule and who is best suited to rule, the people are going hungry.
I have wonder around thinking what my space is. Is it physical or spiritual, is it known or unknown — what is my space?
If I am to wait for answers, I wish I get them without me exchanging my pride for the answer, without sharing blood for fame, power, money, etc. God forbid that I will ever imagine accepting any space that does not belong to me; let alone demanding or fighting for it. I prefer cowardice to fruitless fame and title.
In our lifetime, we owned many spaces. I am no different — I must admit that sometimes we occupy spaces unknown to us. Let me drive us through other personal examples:
In a geographical space, I am either a victim or a hero, I am not sure which. My Identity and my being have taken a dimension including how I have used my geospatial positioning. It allows me to locate my global positioning system (GPS). Before I forget, also my geographic information systems (GIS). Technology is so vastly built that both my GPS and GIS are collected, stored, retrieved, and displayed in unrecognized domains through my own phone which I bought and owned for private use. The only challenge with this space is that while I occupy it, Google benefits economically while others benefit either socially or otherwise, but still, it is my space. Am I proud of it, I am still finding answers.
Spiritually, the only space with fairness, logic beyond logic, and the only space so created for the emancipation of mankind from the darkness into the world is God-given space. This space has affected me, making me a better person than I could have been. It is the only space through the spirit realm that position us on the physical and none physical space requiring us at all time to be sober, prepared and nurtured. It is the only space with a promise of future space. As a Christian, I am expected to first love only three things: God, my parents, and my neighbour. This is a unique space that accommodates everyone including my enemies, and the space that connects me to my God and my parents as required of me through the 10 commandments of the Christian Bible. The Bible is the compass that guides me in the spiritual space that I occupy. It is the only space available in abundance to all, men and women, children and the elderly, persons with disabilities, lesbians, and gays — everyone is welcome and interestingly no one ever remains the same once you occupy that space. It is the space of present and the future and the space of internal life. I am a member of that space, I never created it, but I have earned that space through Christ Jesus. This is the only space I can answer without hesitation that I love it, I admired it, I cherished it and with adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, I pray that God never makes me lose this space.
Thinking from above on my initial discussions, the worst of spaces I have occupied but still cannot understand is the civic space. Since our constitutions are written by the elites and the implementation by their children, we are still to find equality. I have tried and tried but still trying. In this space, I have lived happily but not without a complaint. First, a government from a distant land uninvited and unwelcome divided my people into three nations. Then, my government of those three nations happily agreed with it even though they are elitists, have acquired all the books and the knowledge. They agree with what they never participated in bringing into existence. My Civic space has been one that allows me to live amid abundant resources but every day, I have to beg for crunches. My leaders are happy to give me a bag of rice during every election as long as I can keep them in power and promote them to remain demigods. It is the only space where tribes are divided, nations are torn apart, children separated from their parents as a national policy, homes divided through divorce that has no suggestion of settling disputes, and the only space I may not understand until that day when the final trumpet is blown and we all assembled for judgment.
Another space, which I must speak to is my Cultural Space. I am of a culture that defines me according to what my forefathers have created. In my culture, spaces are created- they are transfer from generation to generation and no single generation can claim it. Those that inherit these spaces only serve as custodians for the time that we are living. So, my physical, outer, inherited and customized cultural spaces are handed down to me. Growing up in this culture, I had to practice loving it and appreciating it but more so, keeping it safe. We are trained through art to learn to not mess it up. We are trained both in the wisdom of our proverbs or the physical art of teaching and learning through other community festivities and learning activities.
For instance, I am not allowed to consider my identity being an individual. Such individualist belief disqualifies me and makes me too distant from the wisdom of an heir. My day-to-day is not defined by my space, it is uncultured and too illogic to hold such a fate. I have inherited this space for my day-to-day life and I protect it by my tenets and character — this is culturally sound to say, that we own our character, and we serve our spaces to the benefit of others. My people say, ‘’Character is like a pregnancy, it cannot be hidden’’. I protect my character to earn me my space in life including my space in my inherited space. I have done this and it’s working in my job, home, and community.
Also, my culture will define space as the way one decides. This is specific in a wisdom proverb that says that the way you make your bed, so you sleep on it. And as we practice this adage we are certain inner ward on how we create our living spaces, and how much we can allow others to share it with us — a concept of humanity that is popular in Africa as Ubuntu which helps us transform personal spaces to spaces that accommodate others. In my culture, I have no space of my own, it belongs to the dead, the existing, and the unborn. This is why my culture is nothing less than a culture that connects us to yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Yes, we make spaces. We claim spaces as well, only as part of our lineage and part of our inheritance either by God or culture. We also say that strangers cannot claim a space — but whatever place you occupy is your space, it is an accepted contradiction. So, whether you own it or not, just occupy it and enjoy it by making good use of it.
Today, my space is not just the physical, it is outer and operates in seen and unseen spheres controlled by the spirit of my forefathers and the spirit of God. Of course, being a Christian, I so dearly cherish the space God has created for me than any other space but I belong to the culture of my people with the responsibility to hold the space of my culture in high esteem.
