AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
When the civil war officially ended in Nigeria in 1970, a different type of civil war began.
It is what you may describe as the asymmetrical civil war: the war by the desperate and poor against all others in the country.
TRUE STORY AGAIN: She was fully dressed when she climbed into bed next to me. She…
TRUE STORY
This story actually happened to me.
I am making up none of it.
It was just another boring day in 1987.
I left my house early in the morning for the University of Ife where I was teaching art.
The beginning of time.
Is it a house?
Or a kolanut?
Is this thing an insect inside the mystery of life?
OLÓDÙMARÈ is what I have written here, using the Yoruba alphabet that I just designed. It…
I have returned to drinking coffee again.
For a long time time, I boycotted coffee.
My entire system just needed a break–coffee, alcohol, and all other vices you could imagine or not imagine–I threw away.
I wasn’t feeling good with myself.
After some six months, things have changed.
DANCING WITH WORDS
Do we dance while talking, sometimes?
Usually, we talk with our mouths.
But the eyes are also part of the conversation.
ÌYÀLẸ́NU: SURPRISE
Yoruba people use words to paint convincingly sharp pictures.
When surprised, they call it “ìyàlẹ́nu.”
It means “mouth-opening,” or jaw-dropping.
You say, “Ó yà mí lẹ́nu láti gbọ́ pé ….: It opened my mouth to learn that ….”
We Never Die
“Òkú is not dead,” said Iya Oyo. “In our [Yoruba] culture, we do not die.”
“How is that possible?” I asked her, astonished.
“We already defeated Ikú (Death),” Iya Oyo announced. “The defeat of Ikú is what the Odù Ifá called Ọ̀yẹ̀kú focuses on. Olójòǹgbòdú, the wife of Ikú is the great woman who accomplished the defeat of Ikú, and since then we no longer die.”
Michael Harris
My brother, Michael Olonade Harris, has transitioned.
This loss is enormous.
He was my inspiration, critic, supporter, strength, teacher, collector, promoter, everything.
I knew.
The Rain and Olodumare
I just returned to Austin, Texas, from Ghana where it has been raining all summer.
The landscape in Ghana is lush and green.
The farm products are in abundance. It rained on my last day in Accra and I enjoyed the sweet scents of the soil stimulated by the falling drizzles.
YORUBA ALPHABETS: Vowels and Consonants
The Yoruba language is unique in one aspect: it doesn’t have consonantal clusters.
This means that in Yoruba language, you don’t have two consonants together: every consonants MUST be followed by a vowel.
Almost all other languages in the world have consonantal clusters.