KISIThe Republic of Kisi
Active citizen

Small Fẹ́mi “The Far Side”

Olúfẹ́mi

One of the twelve chicks who went out the far side of Coop Two. He was the last one through, and he is the one who asks the questions the adults are avoiding.

Tribe
Noiler
Age
Young cockerel, still growing
Laying status
Not yet laying
Favourite food
Crumbled maize, softened

The story so far

Small Fẹ́mi was the last of the twelve out of Coop Two, because he went back for a smaller chick who had frozen. He does not think this is worth mentioning and becomes irritable when it is mentioned, which is often.

He sleeps badly and has been given a spot at Grace's side, which he accepted on the condition that everyone stop making a fuss. He has asked Minister Okpara three separate times, in public, whether the lizard is still out there. He has received the same answer each time, and he has said each time that he prefers a true answer to a kind one.

He has announced that he intends to be a coop guard. Sergeant Danladi has told him to finish growing first. He has agreed to this in principle and is already walking the fence line on Saturdays, at a distance, where he thinks nobody can see him.

Life events

  1. 9 July 2026

    The night of Coop Two

    The grate moves shortly after midnight. Bantu gives the alarm and holds the doorway while twelve chicks go out the far side. Every one of them gets out. Danladi reaches him in under a minute.

    Coverage in The Coop Times →

  2. 21 August 2026

    Who owns the dawn?

    Small Fẹ́mi does not do anything loudly. He was the last of the twelve out of Coop Two the night of the drain, he wants to be a coop guard more than he lets on, and he had worked out something simple: a guard is awake before everyone else anyway. So one grey morning, with no cheek about it at all, he told Vice President Baba Ṣẹ́gun that this year he meant to be the bird who called the dawn. Baba, The Dawn Himself, has crowed the sun up over Kisi for years and takes full personal credit for its arrival. The Republic, which will take a side on absolutely anything, took sides at once.

  3. 21 August 2026

    The training camp

    Small Fẹ́mi trained the way he does everything, quietly and stubbornly. He was already up before the light, walking the fence line on his rounds where he thinks nobody can see him, so he simply added the crow to the patrol. Baba Ṣẹ́gun, magnificently, trained not at all. He slept in, took a long dust bath, held court about mornings he had crowed up decades ago, and still, out of sheer habit, beat the youngster to the warm-up crow twice. 'The dawn is not a race you can train for,' he told the newspapers. 'It is a calling.'

  4. 22 August 2026

    The duel at first light

    The whole flock gathered in the dark to watch, which is a strange thing to do and everyone did it anyway. The grey came. Both roosters filled their chests. And they crowed at the very same instant, so exactly together that not one bird, not even Chief Justice Yèyé Àlàbá, who was asked to rule, could say who was first. The sun came up on the two of them, old and young, crowing their hearts out side by side, and it was, everyone agreed, the best dawn in years.

  5. 22 August 2026

    The dawn belongs to everyone

    Instead of a rematch, Baba Ṣẹ́gun did something better. He made Small Fẹ́mi his apprentice, which is as close as the old rooster comes to admitting he was impressed. Two birds wake Kisi now, one from the tall perch and one from the water tank on his way round the fence, so the sun has never once been late since, and a coop woken and watched by the same serious young bird sleeps a little easier. But here is the honest part Baba will tell you himself: he can wake the farm, he cannot light it, and when the sun goes down the coops still go dark. Help us change that. This is the Solar & Light campaign, at farm.kisi.africa/support.

  6. 26 August 2026

    The rooster clock

    The answer came from the smallest voice in the room. Small Fẹ́mi, the young cockerel who now shares the dawn crow with Vice President Baba Ṣẹ́gun, put up a wing. 'Two of us crow the sun up on the dot now,' he said. 'Baba calls the first light, I call the second, and the second crow lands near enough to seven that no hen can argue. Peg the bell to my crow, and Order No. 1 keeps itself, because a rooster is never late.' The room went quiet, then delighted. The farm had owned a perfect clock all along. It simply had feathers, and a very good opinion of itself.

  7. 9 September 2026

    The volunteer

    Before the unease could harden into fear, a small voice spoke from the back. Small Fẹ́mi, the last of the twelve out of Coop Two on the night of the Drain, the young cockerel who has been walking the fence line on Saturdays where he thinks nobody can see him, offered to keep watch through the dark hours. 'I would rather sit in a true dark than pretend it isn't there,' he said, and this time nobody laughed. Vice President Baba Ṣẹ́gun, who has crowed up every dawn at Kisi for as long as anyone can remember, and who these mornings shares that dawn with this very cockerel, did not hesitate. The bird he already trusts with the morning, he decided, he could trust with the dark. 'Then you will not sit alone,' he said. 'I will crow the watches, and you will walk them.'

  8. 9 September 2026

    How a flock holds a night

    And so the longest night was not faced by one bird but by all of them, each doing the small thing they could. Amina Daybreak rationed the last of the panel's charge to the youngest coops, where the chicks sleep, and let the grown birds roost in the dark the way their grandmothers did. Baba Ṣẹ́gun crowed softly at each turn of the night, so every coop knew the hour and knew it was not alone. And Small Fẹ́mi walked the fence line, slow and watchful, no longer pretending nobody could see him, because tonight the whole Republic was glad that somebody did. Nothing came out of the dark. That was the point. A flock that keeps each other company does not have to be afraid of a night.

In The Coop Times

Keep exploring

More citizens

← Back to the full registry