Omidan (Damsel)
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Omidan (Damsel)
Medium: terracotta
Date: 2010
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A wonderful gift
Afolabi Damilare’s portrait of Moyo Okediji.
Thanks for this wonderful gift, Afolabi
THE TRUTH
You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
The rubber is beginning to bite the tarmac.
‘Ògidi ọmọ Yorùbá ni mí, mò fẹ́ràn èdè àti àṣà Yorùbá púpọ̀’.
TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER ON GRANDPAS DAY
TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER ON GRANDPAS DAY
I landed a fish last summer.
It begged me to catch and release.
I said I was hungry
It said better to hunger than kill
“We are all fishes”, it reminded me,
“angling in a lake of love.”
I saw the same fish this summer
There’s nobody who will see this place and not be afraid
“There’s nobody who will see this place and not be afraid,” the two men on the bike said this morning as they stopped and kept looking at our newest installation at the Àkòdì Òrìṣà.
Bí ìwọ́ bá ṣe rere, ara kì yíò ha yá ọ? I wonder where I got that quote from. Is it a Yoruba proverb?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was from the Bible.
Orin Yorùbá: Yoruba Hymn:
YORÙBÁ DÌDE
Ọmọ Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ẹyin Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Gbogbo Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ọjọ́ ti pé, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ẹ má sùn mọ́, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Iṣẹ́ ti yá, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Èrù ò bà wá, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Àyà ò fò wá, ẹ dìde
Sabbatical leave
I’m on sabbatical leave this spring semester.
Forward to my origin
I will go for the next year
to learn Ifa computation,
in which my ancestors
have hidden the secrets of life
knowing that one day my eyes would open
and see the truth hidden in plain sight.