Excavate.
Excavate.
Found anything?
Interested in some of my published works?
Follow Me
Similar Posts
Some of the artists
These are some of the artists at the Akodi Orisa, Ile Ife, Nigeria, taking a minute off for a photoshoot. They paint, sculpt, do installation works, perform and design in several mediums.
They are a garrison of creative spirits, using art to express the joy and struggles of being Nigerian.
They are awe-inspiring pioneers.
POLICE CHECKPOINT, BENIN CITY
It was in 1980, in Nigeria, when this police encounter occurred.
I will start by swearing
in the name of Ogun
that this event, strange
as it sounds, actually happened
in the middle of the night.
They say when you want an African to tell the truth, make the African swear to an indigenous divinity—not to the Bible or the Quran. Those two books are just books. The real book that they believe and consider real is not written. It is oral, and tied to the indigenous divinities.
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part Twelve)
Iya Ngu stopped eating. She had not touched most of the food in front of her, and did not eat the two pieces of goat meat left in her plate after Professor Wangboje helped himself to the first one. She began to wash her hands.
“Madam,” I asked, “you are not eating the meat? It’s delicious goat meat.”
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part twenty-Six)
“I just discovered a river!” Steve announced, breathless, as he ran into the sitting room with enthusiasm. “And it’s just fifteen minutes from here.”
I said, “Mungo Park.”
Rufus, spreading out on the sofa, said, “Where is it?”
“Hidden in plain sight!” Steve said. “I was driving down Ekenwan Street, and there was this dirt road by the side. I decided to explore it.”
“What’s the name of the street?” I asked.
“No signboard,” Steve said.
“There is no Benin street without a signboard,” Rufus said. “Benin people are good with signboards. Even narrow paths have signboards.”
SIMPLE QUESTIONS?
When I arrived in the United States thirty years ago, I couldn’t call the US a new land.
It might be new to me, but it was not new to those who were born there.
But if the history of the United States were written by me, I would call the United States, “new land.”
That has been the experience of peoples in Africa.
I am a grandpa now.
I am a grandpa now
and I feel good about it.
Happy Father’s Day
to all the fathers—may you become grandpas.
And to those of us grandpas