Live from New York: The Audacity! Global Stories of Daring: The Moth Radio Hour
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What is the theme of the Moth Radio Hour episode?
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm your host, Sarah Austin Janess. This episode was recorded live at our Moth main stage at Symphony Space in New York City. What you're hearing is the Honk Family Band, a community band based in New York. They have a brassy New Orleans feel, and they play world music, and 30 members of the band opened this show by walking down the aisles of the theater playing this song. The host for this event is a writer, entrepreneur, and activist who flew in from Johannesburg to MC for us. Here's Nolo Mokoena, live at The Moth.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the moth. I'm your cousin from the moth family all the way in South Africa. I know there's another South African here. I heard a cheer. Today's theme is actually fantastic. It's called the audacity. Global stories of being daring. Think about the world we live in today where doing the most ordinary human things we fought to do can be seen as daring. Listening to someone with a different political opinion is daring. Loving your neighbor is daring. Allowing people to be is daring. And it seems in some parts of the world protecting the very freedoms we fought for is the most daring. Before the storytellers come up, I asked them one question. And the question we asked them today was actually, what's your go-to method to psych yourself up for a challenge?
This next guy is absolutely amazing. When I asked him the question, as you go, what is your go-to method to psych yourself up for a challenge? He says he spends time with people who have overcome great challenges themselves. And I thought to myself, here's a guy who knows what it's about. Ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome up Mr. Simei Michael.
So I had this very special bond with my mother. I was her only boy child, and she had waited for so long to have a boy. We shared a very dear relationship. You know, in Nigeria, a boy child is like a king, and I enjoy being treated like one. But then, it also made me have a feeling of responsibility. I had plans. I was going to be there for my mother, and I was going to grow up to be a shoulder she would be able to rest on. But if I would accomplish that, I was also going to work hard, so I had to move to the city to be a grown-up man, be a rich boy that would be able to help my mother. I remember in 2014, I was at home, and I got a WhatsApp message from my nephew. And it was a picture of a maggot. I was shocked.
I called him. What is this? Is that a mistake? And he said, oh, no. The picture, that is a maggot that came out of my mother's leg. OK. Just a few months ago, she had complained of sensations in her right leg. I thought I had you to keep a tap on it. What changed? I quickly drove and went to the village. When I got to the village, the sight I saw was horrible. They've rubbed different traditional ointments and medicine on that leg. I immediately said, you know what, we're going to the hospital. But then, My mother said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Sameer, this is not an hospital matter. This is a spiritual attack. Don't worry. Oh, they contacted some traditional healers. Oh, the pastors are praying. I'm like, what?
With this situation? My nephew stood with my mother. The other elderly women, they stood with her. I was alone. I had to go back to the city, hoping things would improve. I would call, and then they said, oh, things are getting better. But two months down the line, I received another WhatsApp message. the leg has gotten worse. So I placed a call to my sister who lives in another community, and then we drove to the village. This time, I made up my mind. Nobody would dare stop me from taking my mother to the hospital. And with the face they saw on me when I got to the village, nobody dared stop me. In the village, everything was traced to one spiritual issue or the other. And they rather choose to use traditional medicine rather than trying alternative healing processes.
And so many people have lost their lives in this process. But I made up my mind, my mother was not going to be one of them.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the theme of the Moth Radio Hour episode?
0:13–11:01
2
How does Semiye Michael break with tradition to support his mother?
11:01–15:56
3
What daring decisions does Semiye Michael make regarding his mother's health?
15:56–31:47
4
What challenges does Korto Momolu face in pursuing her fashion dreams?
31:47–51:12