Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: The Trial of the Snail and the Tortoise
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
THE CHILD BREAKS THE SHELL OF A SNAIL, NOT THAT OF A TORTOISE.
–Akan proverb.
Rikki Wemega-Kwawu
Were the world ruled by the snail and the tortoise, there would be no war on earth.
–Akan proverb
Bröther Owusu-Ankomah
***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.
Iya Oyo!” I hailed. “Baba Oyo told me this story about Orí, and it doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever.”“What story?” she asked. “Is it from his Bible? There are lots of incredulous stories in that book of his.”“No, it’s not from grandpa’s Bible,” I assured her. “He said it’s a story his mother told him.”
How could I have missed Obaseki’s car as he followed us from the campus? I prided myself in being careful on the road, paying attention to the vehicles around me, and particularly in making sure that I was aware of my environment.
But as a Yoruba proverb says, one cannot be as clever as the sneak who is observing one’s activities.
The situation was critical. Obaseki was in attack mode and was no longer in full control.
Any careless statement from Gina or me could escalate the delicate matter into a full-blown crisis.
“Obaseki,” I said, “there is a misunderstanding. You are not reading things correctly.”
Yesterday, my friend, Femi, called from Maryland and we had a long and beautiful conversation on the art of social distancing.
He wanted to buy a painting.
I told him I was happy to sell a painting and sent him a picture of the work.
I said the painting would look good as a Zoom backgrounder—like when FOX News calls and wants your opinion.
Are you going to panic because the artless interior of your home would suddenly become exposed to hundreds of millions of people on television and social media?
I ran into one of my childhood friends in Ile Ife two years ago. He is now a university professor.
We decided to go and get a drink and as we started drinking, we discussed the pleasures of living together in the same house as children for many years.
We all lived together as one family in that house.
He was the son of Baba Alhaji, the landlord.
Henry Drewall, the philosopher of sensiotics, wrote a couple of days ago that, “Moyo mi owon — you have turned pain into paint…for us to see and feel….”
He should know. Sensiotics is the archeology of feelings within the human sensibility.
This painting shared here is about the pain and joy of departures and arrivals, as one of my Transatlantic Series: in 1992, I started it in Nigeria just as I was relocating to the to the United States, where I completed it.