EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT
Eye witness account, we looked at this work in class today.It is part of much larger door panel carved by a Yoruba sculptor called Dada Arowoogun.He is one of those we refer to as a “traditional” African artist.
SIMPLE QUESTIONS?
When I arrived in the United States thirty years ago, I couldn’t call the US a new land.
It might be new to me, but it was not new to those who were born there.
But if the history of the United States were written by me, I would call the United States, “new land.”
That has been the experience of peoples in Africa.
30th ANNIVERSARY
Today, exactly thirty years ago, I arrived the United States.
Also, it is exactly thirty years ago I was in a plane crash.
It was the Nigeria Airways. Thirty odd years ago, and the memory is so vivid it feels like it happened yesterday.
A plane crash is not like a car crash. I’ve survived a couple of car crashes. A Car crash feels like a slow-motion movie.
A plane crash is different.
FORGIVE US OUR SINS
When are we going to have orisa legislations in the southwest Nigeria to prosecute blasphemy against indigenous Orisa and Irunmole, with the imposition of death penalty on anybody who blasphemes against our indigenous holy names?
For example, should there be a death penalty imposed on anyone who calls Esu “Satan,” as believers do in churches and mosques daily in Yorubaland?
BOY or GIRL?
If you were given the choice as a parent to produce just one child in your life, would you rather have a boy or a girl?
Traditionally we would all say a boy.
Now take a look at the pillar that these Amazon women are building.
It is made of steel inside, and it is covered by clay.
SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME
I have traveled to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Toronto, Sofia, Beijing, Paris, Athens, Rome, Tokyo and Kyoto.
I have been to several other cities of the West and the East.
Let me bring you something I observed from my travels:
The natives of these places don’t speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Twi, Zulu or any language form Africa.
My first day of classes today.
My first day of classes today.
I am teaching “Africana Women’s Art.”
The class is remote with about fifty students in it.
Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì.
Do you know why people say Ọbá wàjà (the monarch climbed the rafter) and not Ọbá kú (the monarch died)?
You will find the answer to the riddle in Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì.
Orunmila was a monarch, who gave birth to several other monarchs including Alárá, Ajerò, Ọlọ́wọ̀ and several others.
You will also find out in Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì why Yoruba people (ọmọ a yọ orù bá wọn tọ́jú) do not die, but climb the rafter.
Fear Not the Storm
Fear Not the Storm
Àwa kò bẹ̀rù (We are not afraid)
Àyà kò fò wá (Scared are we not)
Olódùmarè lalákǒso (The Almighty is in charge)
Kò sí bí ìjì náà ṣe lè tó (However wild the storm may rage)
Àwa ọmọ Irúnmọlẹ̀ (We are the children of Divine forces)
BEFORE THE BLACKOUT
As I think about my new granddaughter, my daughter and what they know about me, about Africa, and about their tradition, a tormenting thought ran through my mind:
We, members of my generation, stand between the light and the void. And we are the last stand holding up the ancestral heritage. We must mine what is available and keep them in a culture bank, or too much will perish.
ARRESTING MOMENT
Yesterday, my daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter.And I almost got arrested yesterday.I met this police officer at my favorite coffee shop.One of those cops who rode huge bikes. As he got down from his bike, I was parking my jeep.I guessed he came for coffee as I did.