Adetola Wewe, is with me in Austin, Texas, posing with the first painting he completed and signed as an artist in residence at the University of African Art Residency, Texas, Austin.
YORUBA DISINFORMATION IS MUNGO PARK
This morning, a friend of mine who is a professor at a university here in Texas woke me up with, “Hey Moyo, what is the meaning of Yoruba?”
This professor called me on WhatsApp video.
Disinformation is as old as the human tongue.
Let me take that back.
Disinformation predates the human tongue.
Disinformation started with the body language of making signs.
When you smile, when you really are plotting to hit a fellow, that is disinformation.
I’m a refugee
An exile, a stranger
In a gold residence.
Home died decades away.
Those who opened their door
To welcome my wandering legs
Point to me their tables
decked with wine and sweetbread.
I know you’re tired.
I know you are broke. Very broke.
I know that all your friends are making it, but things are not just working for you right now.
I know you are annoyed.
THE BIRTH OF RAINBOW
One of my earliest memory is that of both my parents standing me up and inspecting me up in detail. They were worried I was not masculine enough.I was too thin and supple, even for an infant boy.Every evening they made me consume a powdery substance called CASILAN. I have googled Casilan and found that it is a protein used by bodybuilders to build muscles.
Make more children.
Many, many, many, more children.
More and more and more.
Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn kids.
Let every Amotekun woman produce ten.
Let every Amotekun man make 50.
There is food in the land to feed them.
Moyo Okediji
Title: The Butterfly Thinks Himself A Bird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date 2021
Size: 24″ x 30″
The title is an important line in playwright Ola Rotimi’s masterpiece, THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME.
Rotimi took the line from a Yoruba proverb, “Labalábá fira rẹ̀ wẹ́ye, kò le ṣìṣe ẹyẹ.” ̛It means, “The butterfly compares itself to the bird, but is unable to perform like a bird.”