a picture of moyo okediji working at the akodi orisa

When a man is talking.

ByMoyo Okediji

“When a man is talking, the woman must shut up,” the young bricklayer was yelling. His colleague confirmed, “Yes, this is man to man talk. You need to keep quiet and let us settle this matter.”

My jaw was hanging in disbelief. I’ve been away too long from Nigeria. Nobody spoke to and about women like this when I was growing up. Now these young men drooling blasphemous vomit, where did they drop from? Am I hearing these statements, or am I dreaming? Is it just my imagination, or what?

When I arrived…

When I arrived…

ByMoyo Okediji

When I arrived the United States in 1992 to start a doctorate at UW, Madison, I had only $98 in my pocket.

My professor, Henry Drewal, quickly came to my assistance. He immediately paid my school fees for the first semester, and gave me $1,000 in cash to start me off. Then he provided me with free accommodation in the posh part of town for the first year of my studies, while I found my feet.

Yahoo boys hide in the most unlikely locations.

Yahoo boys hide in the most unlikely locations.

ByMoyo Okediji

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.

a picture of a sculpture at the akodi orisa

There’s nobody who will see this place and not be afraid

ByMoyo Okediji

“There’s nobody who will see this place and not be afraid,” the two men on the bike said this morning as they stopped and kept looking at our newest installation at the Àkòdì Òrìṣà.

Bí ìwọ́ bá ṣe rere, ara kì yíò ha yá ọ? I wonder where I got that quote from. Is it a Yoruba proverb?

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was from the Bible.