Choosing to Prosper

CHAPTER 1The Beginnings of Who I Am

Reflecting on who and what has shaped you has the power to help you craft your future.

Everyone calls me Bola for short, but my full first name is Mojibola. As with most Nigerians, I have multiple names, and my first name was given to me by my paternal grandmother. It's a name from Yoruba culture in southern Nigeria and directly translates to, “I woke up to meet wealth.” In Yoruba, the word wealth, “Ola,” doesn't actually refer to money. Instead, it refers to the wealth associated with joy, happiness, abundance, and well‐being. In many instances, when a child is named by the Yoruba, they're named based on the prayers, hopes, and aspirations the family has for this new child. When I reflect on this, I imagine that when my grandmother named me, she had many prayers and aspirations for me, especially given the day and age she lived in.

My paternal grandmother was the only grandparent I got to know. Two of my grandparents had died long before I was born and the third died when I was only four years old. So I grew up just knowing the one grandmother whom we affectionately called “Mama.”

Mama was born in 1908 and got married young. She was the fifth of the seven wives my paternal grandfather had. (Yup, my grandfather had seven wives.) Polygamous families in Nigeria were quite the norm, and my family was no exception. Culturally, polygamy had a lot to do with financial and societal status. Marriages were brokered by fathers on behalf of their ...