Akinwumi Isola.
Akinwumi Isola (1939-2018).
One of the greatest.
The only Honest Man
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Yesterday at age 79.
Yesterday at age 79,
Tony Allen, joined the ancestors.
Allen, born in Ghana,
was Fela’s lead drummer and bandleader
for many many years.
But the drummer is typically positioned
at the background of the stage,
and you hardly ever see them.
The singer is always in front.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY 1981 (Part Five)
Obaseki, looked cornered. He certainly was not anticipating an encounter with me at the restaurant. His shrunken face looked collapsed with fatigue. The anxiety that he was feeling was palpable. His face began to twitch. It was bad enough when he saw me entering the restaurant. But the moment I informed him that Rufus was on his way to join us, his system could no longer handle the tension. He stood up. He patted his pockets.
“What is the matter?” I asked him. “Is everything fine?”
“Oh, I was-was-just checking my—my—my pocket. For my-my-my-house keys.”
“And is it in your pocket?”
I gave my paper titled, “Can’t Kant Count: Ifa Divines for African Art History
I gave my paper titled, “Can’t Kant Count: Ifa Divines for African Art History,” at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, over the weekend.
Many people gave me warm responses.
Here I was, doodling on my coffee cup while listening to another talk at the conference.
The Hausa did not name us Yorùbá.
The Hausa did not name us Yorùbá.
The Hausa cannot even pronounce Yorùbá.
They say they pejoratively called us Yarubawa and we creatively changed it to Yorùbá. Rárá o. It’s the other way round.
We call ourselves Yorùbá and they pejoratively call us Yarubawa.
To be able to pronounce Yorùba correctly, you must understand the nuances of our triptych intonation.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY,1981 (Part Six)
Rufus was almost done eating the plate of food abandoned by Obaseki, and was washing his hand, still chewing the last piece of the goat meat. Then to my amazement, we saw Obaseki as he returned, walking through the door, straight into the buka. He looked dazed, as if he was walking in his sleep. He hesitated briefly, before making directly for our table. Dede Mabiaku took one look at him, and said, “Dis man don shack very bad Igbo.” (“This man looks like he has been smoking pot.”)
The first woman president in Africa Visited my class
The first woman president in Africa, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, visited my class yesterday to talk to students taking my DIASPORA VISIONS course.
A Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and one of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the world, President Sirleaf was a delight to spend time with.