a post showing Moyo OKediji art piece

ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1982 (Part Thirty-Two)

ByMoyo Okediji

Steve quickly realized that it was a bad idea to take off his shirt to enjoy the breeze. He hurriedly wore it back. He had complained about the heat, which was one of the reasons we left the house.

Steve, finally, decided to take us to a place not too far from the house to show off the body of water he said he discovered. He had been raving about it, but we were unable to go and see it, distracted by the various things happening in such rapid succession.

Prominent on the list of my to-do-things was a visit to River Steve.

a picture showing moyo okediji sitting with his arms crosseed in front of one of his art piece

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

ByMoyo Okediji

Is it merely a coincidence that the news of the abduction and assassination by suspected Fulani invaders of Oba Israel Adeusi, the Olufon of Ifon, happened the very same day that the United States is celebrating the annual Thanksgiving event?

There is no coincidence in history.

Nature times things with organic orchestration.

a post showing Moyo OKediji art piece

VISUAL PROVERBS: ABO

ByMoyo Okediji

VISUAL PROVERBS: ABO

Let’s play with words.

Let’s play with images.

Let’s construct figures of speech.

Let’s do òwé, and ride it down the lane of memory.

Let’s break things all down; then pack them all back together.

Let’s see what will fall out, what will fall in.

Let us now begin to speak in proverbs.

a post showing Moyo OKediji art piece

I looked into the middle of the Opon Ifa and what did I see?

ByMoyo Okediji

In 2016, I looked into the middle of the Opon Ifa and what did I see?

I saw women, simple, rural, agrarian women carrying automatic weapons on their way to their farmlands.

Some of them were pregnant, some carrying loads on their heads, some with their children, some walking alone, some hiking in groups, all moving from one point to another.

I sat up abruptly. What was this I was seeing?

a picture showing moyo okediji eating from a plate and behind him is one of hi art piece.

THE ROADMAP

ByMoyo Okediji

I drove to my favorite drive-in coffee shop and stopped at the window to collect my standard order of “Banana bread with nuts, warmed, and a small cup of coffee, black.”

She was waiting for me. She smiled broadly. Her name tag read Jazmine.

“You always have your coffee black,” Jazmine observed. “I like mine with some cream and sugar.”

“Your shirt is cool, Jazmine,” I said. I stretched out my hand from the window of the car as she leaned out from the window of the coffee house to hand me my order.