In 2011, I delivered the maiden annual lecture series of Afenifere Renewal Group-USA in Detroit Michigan. My lecture was entitled, Ti Oluwa ni Ile. Now that I am revising a book manuscript bringing together my lectures on African literatures, cultures, and politics in the last five years and wondering whether to include the said lecture or preserve it for another volume devoted exclusively to Nigeriana, I stumble on this concluding part where I am salivating over the rise of progressive governors in the southwest and the need for those governors to place culture at the heart of any vision for the southwest. Time flies o. Now it is Obanikoro, Kashamu and co. I wonder how much of the stuff below still makes sense in the context of the emerging Ebola leadership in the region. Will the Ebola leaders find ideas such as these useful if they overrun the region? Ti Oluwa ni Ile (excerpt from a lecture) If you want to assess the gravity of the situation in Yoruba land, you need to go on a familiarization tour of Yorubascape on Facebook and check out what Yoruba kids are doing to nice omoluabi Yoruba names. It is pure horror. I opined in a previous public lecture that we shall soon arrive at a situation where Yoruba parents would encounter their kids online and not know who they are because of the strange new orthographies that those kids are inventing for Yoruba names in order to be hip. Chinua Achebe warns us that the psychology of the dispossessed is frightening. The psychology of the dispossessed! That is what is on display when Yoruba kids land in social media and Olorunfemi becomes Horlawrunphemmy; Funmilayo becomes Phunmeelayor; Fatosa becomes Phatohsa; Oladele becomes Horlardaylay; Demilade becomes Daymilahday. Anuoluwapo, Iretiolu, Bukola, Motunrayo and so many other nice Yoruba names are all victims of this identity Boko Haram that is spreading like wild fire in the harmattan among Yoruba kids online. Sometimes I am even happy that the kids do not know Fatai Williams or Obafemi Awolowo because I don’t want them to go and rejoice on Facebook that they just heard about two old school lapel Yoruba Chiefs called Phatayi Wheeleeams and Kingphemmy Ahwolorwhaw. Remember that one of the key attributes of omoluabi is opolo pipe (intelligence). Does the cultural violence being done to the Yoruba self on Facebook translate to opolo pipe? But it would be erroneous to blame these kids. They are symptoms of a much deeper malaise that goes way beyond them. They are products of a Yoruba nation that has lost the idea of the personal example. Imagery of aspiration to the moon in order to be like Awo or of aspiration to the top in order to master the art of rhetoric and eloquence like the Cicero of Esa Oke has been replaced with imagery of the dock: Chief Bode George in the dock, desecrating aso ebi in the process, Dimeji Bankole in the dock, and lately, Asiwaju siwaju-ing all the way to the dock. So, don’t blame the youths like Orits Wiliki said in that reggae song. Don’t blame them if they ask you which examples, which iconic narratives of omoluabi you have given them in replacement of the inspirational stories of Awo and his contemporaries. With what have you filled the void left behind by the great heroes and heroines of 20th century Yoruba nation in terms of public moral and ethical capital? Or do you expect these kids to draw inspiration from your agbadas billowing in the dock? I have followed developments in the southwest carefully since that part of Nigeria was thankfully taken back from the vicious vultures in the contemptible PDP. The new governors have been saying the right things. They have been articulating ideas of economic regeneration underpinned by a deep social concern and vistas of Awoism but I am not exactly sure that they understand where the renaissance they talk about ought to begin. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for instance, likes to remind us all that his state answers the name, ipinle omoluabi. Trouble is, like every other state in Nigeria, the fragment of the population that will determine the success or lack thereof of his vision is thirty-five years old and below. That is the critical demographic that has been unmoored from culture and has been hardest hit by the loss of the power and the appeal of the personal example in Yoruba land. So, Ogbeni Aregbesola must be reminded that he cannot be boasting about his “ipinle omoluabi” when the most critical demographic of his state is out on Facebook or twitter saying that they are Phorlaryhemmy (Folayemi) from Hawshun or Horshun state. Let Ogbeni Aregbesola come and tell me about omoluabi only after he has inspired his young citizens to spell their own names and Osun state correctly.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:53:40 +0000
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