Two New African Proverbs:
1. The same people who place their knee on your neck will also be the first to ask “Why can’t you breathe?”
2. The same people who are causing your sadness will also be the first to ask “Why can’t you laugh?”
(Adapted from the Yoruba proverb, “Ẹ́ni tí ó bá sọ ni di olóríburúkú ni ó kọ́kọ́ má a ń fi bú ni:
Three weeks of painting. It started as a butterfly.
Day and night, for three weeks.
And finally, it is done.
I just completed this painting
as a tribute to
The Birth of a Beautiful Divinity, Ajé
Ajé (The Divinity of Profit, Prosperity and Wealth)
Acrylic on canvas
I turn the same painting upside down, as Iya Afilaka instructed me. And it still remains legible.
Why?
Because we have paid Iba (homage)
to the vagina that is turned
upside down, yet
does not drip
I studied with the Ìyàmi,
the Power Mothers who
suspend the global ball
on a single frail string,
yet it cannot snap.
After they gave me the name Ọ̀rìságbèmí Arígbábuwó, I transcend the boundaries of gender, race, time, and geography.
Here is the story of that transcendental embodiment, in its most concise form.
Title: Lyrics of Joy
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Where art you joy
that we all seek you
and find you not?
Joy is in eating less,
and eating carefully, simply.
Joy lives in giving more,
and consuming little.
Title: Lyrics of JoyMedium: acrylic on canvasDate: 2018Where art you joythat we all seek youand find you not?Joy is in eating less,and eating carefully, simply.Joy lives in giving more,Title: Lyrics of JoyMedium: acrylic on canvasDate: 2018Where art you joythat we all seek youand find you not?Joy is in eating less,and eating carefully, simply.Joy lives in giving more,
As the Chinese launches successfully the second wave of the colonization of Africa, after learning from the techniques of divide and conquer that Europe used for the first wave of conquering the continent, it became necessary for me to do this painting.
I also want to refer to the poem I wrote a couple of months ago, titled, “My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense.”
The countdown begins
as moments tick down
A stream of joy
when the sun
is not enough.
and when the sun
is febrile, she
offers needed shade.
Another painting that I just extracted from my garage is this dark work.
There is an interesting story behind it.
In the year 2000 or 2001, the British Museum invited me to give a lecture as part of the ceremonies held in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and also to mark the completion of the Great Court built as an extension of the main museum building. They wanted me to address the body as my topic.
Yesterday at age 79,
Tony Allen, joined the ancestors.
Allen, born in Ghana,
was Fela’s lead drummer and bandleader
for many many years.
But the drummer is typically positioned
at the background of the stage,
and you hardly ever see them.
The singer is always in front.