Exactly One Year Ago

Exactly One Year Ago

Exactly one year ago, I made the following statement about the impending presidential election, President Buhari and the state of the Nigerian nation.

Please read on:

The presidential election in Nigeria is postponed for another week.

Who will win between Buhari and Atiku?

(In all seriousness, all other names are not on the ballot).

The question is not whether Buhari will be reelected into office as the president of Nigeria.

a post showing Moyo OKediji art piece

Captive No More (III)

Captive No More (III)

7.

Music is the language of tragedy,

and dance, the vocabulary of trauma.

Silence, the death of feelings,

marks the beginning of madness.

After my great grandmother in vain

yelled the name of her son, Akin,

several times, and got no response,

she stepped outside and scanned

where he was playing,

and yelled his name again,

when she did not see him there

her stomach sank

because down in the pit of her womb

she knew he was gone.

a picture showing moyo okediji poised for the camera

Captive No More

Captive No More

1

What you are reading is not poetry. It is not fiction. It is my true family history.

I am an ascendant from slavery. Yes.

It means I am a descendant of enslaved bodies. Yes.

Inside me, they locked iron collars,

leg fetters, and hand lockers. Yes.

Yes. Does it sound weird? Yes.

Slavery was real in Africa. Yes

Africa was the Ground Zero of slavery. Yes.