FISHING OUT AFROFUTURE
FISHING OUT AFROFUTURE
Will they choose gills
rather than human lungs
to swim and live below the sea?
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FISHING OUT AFROFUTURE
Will they choose gills
rather than human lungs
to swim and live below the sea?
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Orò Ilé
Medium: terracotta
Date: 2010
How many people can be really, really true friends?
Or is friendship restricted to just two people?
Is friendship possible among three or more?
First, Yoruba people are cynical about friendship: the culture outright dismisses the notion of friendship as naïve.
“Ọ̀rẹ́ òtítọ́ ò sí,” is an adage that means “There are no true friends.”
“Ojú larí, ọ̀rẹ́ ò dénú,” means “We see the eye service, but the friendship is not deep.”
Èdè means language in Yoruba.
In truth, however, èdè means bond.
Èdè is formed from dè, a verb that means, “to bind.”
PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS
Egbé lifted me up and away,
down the tunnels of clouds
and we alighted inside the ground
a million years and a thousand days
below the level of my house.
“Browse,” Àjà said, “read the entries.
Look to your weakness, because therein lies your strength.
Where you are strongest is where you are weakness.
Focus not on your achievements
Closely embrace your failures.
LOOKING BACK
I
Exile, however sweet,
for home makes the heart yearn.
Àjò kìí dùn
kónílé gbàgbé ilé.
I colored the Yoruba proverb above for emphasis.
Why?
Because everybody living in Nigeria is a hero.
It is often akin to being a kamikaze pilot in WWII.
They just survived the #EndSars uprising.