When I became the Curator of African art in 1999 for a major art museum in the United States, the irony was not lost on me.How do you steal, loot, confiscate or pillage something, display the stolen or contraband goods publicly in your house, and hire the owner of the objects as the guard for the contraband or stolen goods?
Multiverse: Agbedeméjì and Agbédèmejì
A friend just asked me to comment on Agbedeméjì.
But didn’t ask me about Agbédèmejì.
Dede Mabiaku was an undergraduate studying drama at the University of Benin in 1981 when I was a graduate student there.How did I meet Dede?Late one evening, I packed my Volkswagen car, popularly called Bintu, near the University of Benin theater during a drama rehearsal.I was the stage-design director for the Convocation play in December 1982.
My friend called me that they scammed her of $750 last Monday.
After listening to the story of how they scammed her, I realized it was the same syndicate that scammed me in 2019 that scammed her last Monday.
As a Nigerian, I consider it a disgrace to be scammed—after all, I belong to a country that is notorious for always winning the Olympic gold medal in the 419 game.
Ijapa (Mr. Tortoise) went and bought Aja (the Dog) in the market.
Ijapa took Aja home.
The following day, Ijapa put Aja on a leash, and told Aja, “Let’s go out.”
Aja was surprised that he was put on a leash.
He had never been put on a leash before.
Aja asked Ijapa, “Where are we going?”
Ijapa answered, “To the market.”
Yesterday we met again to see if they had hot pepper soup at the local African joint.
Logically, when these simple folks enter a pepper soup joint, it is like Ṣẹ̀lẹ́ enter spirit: matters get philosophically historical like magicadabra.
“We are in October again,” I said, just because the bottle of stout looked chilled.
My annual (NOT monthly) salary as a Senior Lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1992 (right before I left for the United States) was N9,600.
It’s not a typo. N9,600 only, for the entire year.
William Shakespeare, KING CHARLES III, Act 1, Scene 1 (#4) EGUNGUN: How, oh king, would you…
William Shakespeare, KING CHARLES III, Act 1, Scene 1, #3 EGUNGUN: With what magic do you…
KING CHARLES:
Behold! Oh, Apparition.
If you must speak for your people, do it now. Or remove back to whence you came. It is night and Camilla and I long for the comfort of our bed.
EGUNGUN:
Address me by my name, I already told you who I am.
KING CHARLES:
The light is awful! Ha! who comes here? Are my eyes seeing double? What is this strange object in our bedroom? Camilla, do you see what I see? Are you for real? Speak, you apparition, trying to scare a new monarch!
EGUNGUN:
Ayam Egungun, the Ancestral Spirit of those your ancestors named Southwest Nigerians.
KING CHARLES:
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil?
Queen Elizabeth did not wait for my arrival in 1956 before she returned to England.
She arrived Lagos by air January 28, 1956, and returned February 16, 1956.
I arrived Lagos by birth February 25, 1956.
I was disappointed when I arrived and was told she already returned a week before I landed.