Akinwumi Isola.
Akinwumi Isola (1939-2018).
One of the greatest.
The only Honest Man
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Akinwumi Isola (1939-2018).
One of the greatest.
The only Honest Man
For the first time in my life, I traveled out of Nigeria in 1983 to visit London for a solo exhibition of my work at the Africa Center.
Rufus Orisayomi had arranged the exhibition for me.
Tunde Fagbenle and his wife, Ally Bedford, offered to host me at their home.
Ally was writing a Master’s thesis on my work, therefore, it was convenient for her to keep me close by to enable her to have access to me for clarifications when needed.
Once Obaseki realized that Iya Ngu was busting him, and called him out that it was from him that the smell of marijuana was coming, for some inexplicable reason, his nervousness reduced. He smiled and said, “Madam, it is true. I just smoked a tiny joint.”
Obaseki’s sunken face took on a different appearance. I observed his face holistically the way Madam Ngu taught me to study the human face. On my first meeting with her, in the drawing class, she took a look at my drawing and she said, “Moyo, what am I going to do with you? You don’t know how to draw. Come, let’s go to my office. You are still young. I can mold you.”
Yahoo boys hide in the most unlikely locations.
So, we went to this village that is blessed with very fast network facility, because at home we hardly hit one bar on our cellphone bandwidth service. You can always trust to hit four bandwidths in this village. We saw a really posh hotel in this village and decided to check it out, buy some drinks and use their fast network services.
I have traveled to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Toronto, Sofia, Beijing, Paris, Athens, Rome, Tokyo and Kyoto.
I have been to several other cities of the West and the East.
Let me bring you something I observed from my travels:
The natives of these places don’t speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Twi, Zulu or any language form Africa.
It’s much better now, but in those days, when I felt embarrassed, my nose would break out in beads of sweat. My nose was clammy, and I knew that my entire face would soon be covered in sweat.
Rufus laughed, saying, “You didn’t bring your handkerchief Moyo.” I didn’t know whether he was mocking me or being sympathetic. I shook my head.
(Computer + Odu Ifa)