They would come to us first on the ground floor to say hello because we were working and then go upstairs. Up there the ladies would kneel to my dad and the men would drop down and lie on the floor in front of him. Usually, when the men went down on one knee with a leg stretched out behind and their heads bent, he’d stop and lift them up and hug them, but sometimes he’d let them go the whole way down and touch their heads to the ground and stay there. Then you knew they were in trouble and he wouldn’t look at them as they greeted him, he’d turn up his nose, pick his ear and just ignore them. That’s when everyone would start talking at once and the trial was on.

It could go on as long as they wanted with voices for and against, pleading the case or accusing them of even more. Sometimes he wouldn’t decide it then and there but put everything off until after people had eaten and had time to digest. When they felt a bit better, they’d go at it again – this time, though, they were reasoning and my dad’s voice was urging and consoling, so I could see he had to work hard at it.

Once, when a woman came in and went to lie all the way down on the floor in front of him, her starched clothes ballooning out everywhere, there was the biggest explosion of shouts I ever heard. Her wig fell off along with the tangled up headwrap she was wearing. It was like her head had been cut off and was rolling on the floor, and her scalp was grey and grisly. People were screaming and shouting, pulling her up off the floor with the lampshade swinging from the ceiling, and my dad jumped up and went out the room. The whole house was shaking and it spilled out on to the street. From the window, I saw people pulling each other on the pavement and passers-by being startled. A man crossed over to walk past on the other side but then started running, and a car went into reverse and backed all the way up to the top of the road.

I ran to find out what was happening. In the downstairs kitchen, Mr Adebisi was busy restraining his wife who wanted to go up and slap the woman with her wooden spoon, so I didn’t ask him. Mr Lawal was smoking in the backyard, he was the only one not bothering about what went on and it suddenly occurred to me he was the cause of it, so I went out and asked him.