The Heavy Secret
The Heavy Secret
Sometimes some secrets
are just too heavy to carry.
When you load people
with a secret they cannot carry
they will drop it
and it will break
The Heavy Secret
The Heavy Secret
Sometimes some secrets
are just too heavy to carry.
When you load people
with a secret they cannot carry
they will drop it
MAMA
MAMA
Mother is a tree
with fruits, rooted in
Traditions of nurturing,
watered in the womb of affection
Her milk flows
down the hills of time
from one generation of love
to another recuperation of hope
The Orange Seller
THE ORANGE SELLER
This is my fruit
eat it while ripe.
The harvest season yields
oranges and apples that you
must first taste
with your naked eye
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: The Orange Seller
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part Thirty-One)
Rape?
That was the last thing on my mind although it was clear to me there was something amiss about Gina. I was lost for words. My body felt numb.
It was an experience I could not imagine as a man. All I could think of was how humiliating it must have felt for a person you didn’t want to pin you down and force entry into your body.
I sat there for a long time and could not utter a word. I could not find any statement of consolation to bring calm to Gina. She looked paralyzed. It seemed the best thing to do at the moment was not to say anything. Perhaps by not saying anything, I could pretend it did not happen.
Orin Yorùbá: Yoruba Hymn:
YORÙBÁ DÌDE
Ọmọ Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ẹyin Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Gbogbo Yorùbá ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ọjọ́ ti pé, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Ẹ má sùn mọ́, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Iṣẹ́ ti yá, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Èrù ò bà wá, ẹ dìde
Dìde, dìde, dìde.
Àyà ò fò wá, ẹ dìde
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part Thirty-One)
ENGLISHMAN IN BENIN CITY, 1981 (Part Thirty-One)
Gina did not look glad or relaxed. I could read it in her posture, without even getting close to her.
Rufus said, “Moyo, Gina is back!”
Steve hardly allowed the bus to stop properly before jumping down to run and hug her.
“Is that her?” Adolo asked Felicia rather softly.
“Yes,” Felicia responded. “That’s her.”
I got down slowly, and took my time locking up the door. Then I went to Gina. She looked down and didn’t meet my eyes. I thought, “She must be mad because she didn’t see us at her father’s funeral.”
YORUBA HISTORIOGRAPHY: FROM YORUBA RONU TO YORUBA DIDE
YORUBA HISTORIOGRAPHY: FROM YORUBA RONU TO YORUBA DIDE
Hubert Ogunde did the opera “Yoruba Ronu” fifty years ago.
It means Yoruba, use your sense.
We are now beyond the stage of Yoruba Ronu.
We are now in the phase of Yoruba Dide.
Yoruba dide means Yoruba, stand up.
Let us begin with Yoruba historiography.
YORUBA OR ODUDUWA?
I prefer the name Yoruba Republic.
Oduduwa Republic would be a second choice.
I prefer Yoruba Republic because the word “Yoruba” already has a global circulation and reception.
Yoruba language is taught in many universities in the world, including the University of Texas, Austin, with two full-time professors giving lectures to undergraduate and graduate students.
In addition to the professors teaching Yoruba language, I teach Yoruba art, and there are distinguished professors teaching Yoruba history.
After I painted her
After I painted her,
she looks down at me
and asks me
what is the meaning
A HISTORY OF THE YORUBA NATION
Who are the Yoruba people?
A mayor of the British army, Alfred Burdon Ellis, who served in West Africa for about two decades, published a book about the Yoruba people in 1894, the same year that he perished of malaria fever.
He wrote the following in the book:
“The territory now inhabited by the Yoruba tribes is bounded on the west by Dahomi, on the south-west by Porto Novo and Appa, on the south by the sea, on the east by Benin, and on the north by the Mohammedan tribes from the interior, who have within recent times conquered and
We are all mere dust and equally so.
One day, I was having a discussion with a friend at the University of Ife in the early seventies.
I was seventeen years old.
Somehow the conversation drifted to “superiors.” I think he said something about “your superiors.”
I told him quite candidly that “I don’t have any superior.”
He was angry with me. Seriously, I don’t think he had heard that sort of response before.
But I was shocked that he was furious.