SeaBorne
SeaBorne
acrylic on canvas
36×48″
2021
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SeaBorne
acrylic on canvas
36×48″
2021
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Bèbè Ìdí (Beaded Waistline)
Medium: Terracotta
Date 2010
The Proposal
(To the colonial master)
Oga, will you marry me,
and take me home?
I can be your second
even third or fourth wife
You look so handsome
and I giggle
THE BAIT
To trap a chicken,
a few grains of corn.
to trap a dog
just a bone
to trap the antelope
okra is enough
To trap a cobra
the egg of a chicken
“Ó dàbọ̀,” which is what stands for the idea of goodbye, actually is the very opposite of goodbye.Why? Because “Ó dàbọ̀” does not say that you are leaving.Rather, as you depart, you are speaking of “àbọ̀,” meaning, “the return.”As you depart, you begin to celebrate your return.
NAME YOUR TEACHER
Who taught you
that you must breathe?
Who taught you
that you must eat?
that you must crawl?
that you must walk?
that you must talk?
that you must listen?
Who taught you
that your culture is inferior?
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.