This is a throwback!
What do you see?

What do you see?

I just gave a talk titled “Performing African Art: Image, Motion, Text.”
Picture shows I talk a lot with my hands (funny). Lecturing also becomes a performance art, entailing images, motion and texts.
It is not an okada o.
It’s a long tori.
It started with a green snake.
It entered the house and crawled into bed with my friend.
I was in the other house, painting, when my friend came running in. “A snake! A snake. Quick!” She said, breathless. “Come, quickly. Please! Come and kill it!”
Dede Mabiaku was an undergraduate studying drama at the University of Benin in 1981 when I was a graduate student there.How did I meet Dede?Late one evening, I packed my Volkswagen car, popularly called Bintu, near the University of Benin theater during a drama rehearsal.I was the stage-design director for the Convocation play in December 1982.
“You already know that I personally like to make Gari on Xmas,” he said. “But if you want rice and chicken, Biodun will make them for you. Whatever you want, we will prepare for you and your guests.”
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1982 (Part Forty-Three)
“Hey, Moyo,” Hilda yelled. “Are you alright? Are you with us?”
“Yes, I am,” I responded. I pulled myself back to the moment.
The traffic was light and the road excellent. The Lagos to Benin expressway was the best road I had ever driven on. The bus zoomed along on it effortlessly.
“You went so silent and looked so vacant, I could have sworn you were not here,” Steve said.
“I was here alright,” I answered.
“Thinking about Gina?” Hilda asked.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part Fifteen) Where they sat was a tightly confined space. It…