Pride of place was Dad’s own brand Ajebo.
Mum's youngest brother painted this portrait for our Dad. These handmade cigars were a little cheaper than the name brands. Using the three initials of his given names Antonius Jacobus Elias created the Ajebo name, and the last two were the beginning letters of his surname.
Funny enough, to my knowledge we never had a Nigerian customer over the doorstep in those homogeneous times, he would have had a chuckle seeing Antoon’s brand name there boldly advertised,in his native tongue, Ajebo- means ‘a spoiled rich brat’! That is some description for a cigar of such standing.
As the connoisseur would say ‘the cigar is something that demands respect. It is to be enjoyed fully by all the senses, the nose, the palate, the finger, the eye,...every good cigar harbours this exquisite experience’.
O yeah, the pungent smell of cigars and the sweet aroma of tobacco still lingers in my nostril.