a picture showing moyo okedijis art piece

Your Mother is My mother is Your Mother is My Mother.

ByMoyo Okediji

Your Mother is My mother is Your Mother is My Mother.

“Iya Oyo, does your name mean the mother of Oyo, or the mother in Oyo?” I asked Iya Oyo one day.

“It means both,” she responded. “To my entire community of Oyo, I am the mother of all, young and old. If anyone is hungry and comes to me, it is my responsibility to feed them. Anybody who needs a place to sleep and comes to me, I will roll out my mats to them. I am their mother, and that is why I am Iya Oyo. At the same time, I live in Oyo, therefore if I travel anywhere, I am the mother who lives in Oyo.”

THE YAM FARMER WHO LOVES PIZZA

THE YAM FARMER WHO LOVES PIZZA

ByMoyo Okediji

THE YAM FARMER WHO LOVES PIZZA

The naira is getting weaker daily and the poor man is suffering.

The problem of the Nigeria naira/dollar exchange crisis seems to me like this: a farmer produces yam tubers worth $1 a day, but has cultivated a taste for imported pizza worth $10 a day.

The farmer can do two things: curb his taste for pizza and learn to enjoy his yams, so he stops ordering pizza from Pizza Hut; or produce ten times the number of tubers of yam to support his taste for pizza.

a picture showing moyo okediji sitting next to his artwork

Iya Oyo

ByMoyo Okediji

They gave us an assignment when I was an undergraduate taking a Yoruba class.

We were asked to find five proverbs on mental illness.

I was in luck because Iya Oyo and Baba Oyo were visiting us in Ile Ife at that time and I found her at the back of the house, lounging.

That was easy, I thought.

a picture showing moyo okedijis art piece hanged on a wall

IT IS A GOAL

ByMoyo Okediji

IT IS A GOAL

The population of Senegal is only 15 million.

It is less than the population of the city of Lagos alone.

But Nigeria got defeated and Senegal is the holder of the African Cup of Nations, the most prestigious trophy in soccer on the continent of Africa.

WHO IS GUILTY?

WHO IS GUILTY?

ByMoyo Okediji

WHO IS GUILTY?

Iya Oyo was smiling. That was frightening. I knew I was in great trouble.

Iya Oyo never smiled. When she looked like she was smiling, trouble was brewing, and the only one that trouble could brew for that quiet evening was me.

The only way I knew she was smiling was because I turned and looked at her as she tapped her pipe on the arms of the seat on which she reclined with my grandfather, who was still quietly smoking his pipe.

a picture showing moyo okediji sitting next to his artwork

Iyalode: Before the Invention of Women

ByMoyo Okediji

Iyalode: Before the Invention of Women

My grandmother, Iya Oyo, belonged to the generation of women who didn’t experience what the sociology scholar, Professor Oyeronke Oyewumi described as the “invention of women.”

What Professor Oyewumi means is that nowadays, there are lots of rules and regulations that appear to specify what a woman is supposed to do, and what she is not supposed to be.

A picture showing moyo okedijis hand holding a bowl of vegetable soup and garri

Food for Thought

ByMoyo Okediji

Food for Thought

My mates at the secondary school called me a foodie.

They served us starvation grade food in the hostels where we were warehoused, and we were always hungry.

The only grace was that there were lots of ill-fated weevils (kòkòrò) cooked with our beans providing us enough animal protein to supplement the plant protein in the beans.

a picture showing moyo okediji sitting next to his artwork

CAMPUS TALES

ByMoyo Okediji

CAMPUS TALES

She said, “I’m certain I’m not a C grade material,” she complained to me. “During my School certificate exam, I scored A grades in most of my courses, and was admitted to the university. Once there, I attended all the lectures, studied really hard and was always ready for the exams. But then, whenever I got my scripts back, I always scored a C grade. I became curious and confused because my friends who did not study, partied throughout the semester and paid no attention to classes, always scored A and B+ grades.”