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ÈDÈ as Who We Are.
Iya Oyo says language, èdè, is everything.“Do you know the meaning of language, èdè?” Iya Oyo asked me.“It’s what we speak, isn’t it, Iya Oyo?” I replied.“Yes, and no,” Iya Oyo instructed me. “Èdè is what holds us together. What is the meaning of dè?”
THE RETURN (Part one)
His ordeal began with a brief phone call.
“Hallo? Hallo? Honorable! Are you there? Your mother. She was stolen from her house.”
A sharp pain pinched him in the middle of the chest and traveled slowly down to the bottom of his stomach.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” he thought.
For the past week he had been nursing an ominous feeling that something beyond his control was going to happen. Somehow his mind kept going to his mother.
He was thinking of driving to the village this weekend to visit her.
“Hallo? Hallo? Are you still there?” the voice asked again.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1982 (Part Thirty-Two)
Steve quickly realized that it was a bad idea to take off his shirt to enjoy the breeze. He hurriedly wore it back. He had complained about the heat, which was one of the reasons we left the house.
Steve, finally, decided to take us to a place not too far from the house to show off the body of water he said he discovered. He had been raving about it, but we were unable to go and see it, distracted by the various things happening in such rapid succession.
Prominent on the list of my to-do-things was a visit to River Steve.
Ela, Offspring of Olodumare
Jumped in my Jeep,
started the engine to warm it
and listen to public radio
for 5 minutes.
Jumped out.
Ex-marine neighbor,
calling across the street:
“Mayu, come here.”
Me: Not coming. Too dangerous. Not safe. Covid 19 is ravaging Texas.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY 1982: (Part Thirty-four)
I could not believe my ears.
“You got pregnant from the rape?”
“Yes.”
“How did that happen?” I was making no sense with the question, but the situation was hardly making any sense either.
My throat felt dry. The bottles of palm wine on the table were still unopened.
I had to drink something immediately, I was thinking, or I would suffocate. This Gina was going to kill me.
PUBLIC PROPERTY
***This is a story that my Luo friend told me. She says it’s from among the Luo people of Kenya.
In Yoruba we call it “Àǹfààní àdúgbò.”
Please help me translate Àǹfààní àdúgbò to Oyinbo.
Wife 1: Our husband has not yet returned home?
Wife 2: No o. It is now 11 pm.