When a sheep keeps the company of the dog, it learns to eat feces.
Western Nigeria was not like this when we were growing up.
How did western Nigeria deteriorate from being the first in Africa to own a television station, to a place where this image became normalized?
I just completed this painting
as a tribute to
The Birth of a Beautiful Divinity, Ajé
Ajé (The Divinity of Profit, Prosperity and Wealth)
Acrylic on canvas
They gave us an assignment when I was an undergraduate taking a Yoruba class.
We were asked to find five proverbs on mental illness.
I was in luck because Iya Oyo and Baba Oyo were visiting us in Ile Ife at that time and I found her at the back of the house, lounging.
That was easy, I thought.
The Àkòdì Orisa artists did not know how to design textiles when they joined the center.
So, the first thing they did was to produce their own uniforms. We took them through the process of designing and making their uniforms, as the picture here shows
Is it true that all men are born equal?
No.
We are born with different talents and handicaps.
But we may agree that “All men SHOULD be born equal, but the circumstances of each birth vary.”
Some people are born close to the finishing line, and many are born right at the beginning of the starting point in this race of life.
Others are placed even behind the official starting line, and they must also race with those placed only a few feet from the finishing line where all the goodies of life are stored.
Muhamadu Buhari, the president of our terminally sick Nigeria, just did what soldiers have been doing since I was ten years old—he kicked out some old soldiers, and replaced them with some old soldiers.
Buhari kicked out Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin;
Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai;
Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas;
and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
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.”