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Are We Past the Height of Culture?

The current play on my phone at this moment is a tribute ewì album to the departed Tìmì of Ẹdẹ (Febryary 1899 – May 16, 1975), a literate Yorùbá king in both the western and traditional sense. He was a drummer and a prominent culture custodian. There’s a documentary about him on YouTube as well, which you can see here.

The album was done by Lánrewájú Adépọ̀jù, a prominent Yorùbá poet and contemporary of my father’s — both foremost practitioners of the oral poetic form. Likely released in 1975 or shortly after, to mark the death of the king.

Earlier this morning, I was listening to another work by the same ewì exponent. This time, it was the album he waxed for the coronation of the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ̀, Làmídì Adéyẹmí who passed away at 83 in 2022. Adépọ̀jù himself died at 83 two years ago. What was common to both works was the depth of the poetry, the thoughtfulness of the work, and the significance of the documentation that the work have come to represent for those of us not privileged to have occupied the same lifetime as some of these prominent Yorùbá kings.

A few weeks ago, the selection of a new Aláàfin Ọ̀yọ́, in the person of Akeem Abímbọ́lá Ọ̀wọ́adé, was announced. It was, perhaps, that singular event that brought me to contemplation about what we may have lost. Along with the album by Lánrewájú in 1975, the poet Odòlayé Àrẹ̀mú did one titled Aládé Ọ̀yọ́, which I haven’t been able to date. There, too, the lineage of the then newly-selected young Aláàfin was poetically preserved.

In 1977, a new Olúbàdàn was crowned — the third Christian king of the military town. Ọba Daniel Táyọ̀ Akínbíyìí. His reign lasted for five years, ending in 1982. But at the time he was crowned, also one of the Western-educated kings of his time — Odòlayé Àrẹ̀mú waxed poetic in his honour. It’s still one of my favourite albums of his to return to once in a while, produced by Ọlátúbọ̀sún Records.

What the naming of the new Aláàfin Ọ̀yọ́ brought to me in sadness was the absence of any capable cultural practitioner of the type of Odòlayé, Adépọ̀jù, and Ọládàpọ̀ to put the new king in context, and in poetry, for a generation that desperately needs it. Look, for instance, at this collaboration between Túbọ̀sún Ọládàpọ̀ and the aforementioned Odòlayé Àrẹ̀mú when the Ṣọ̀ún Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ was crowned.

or to mark the demise of the Premier Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá…

Or Àlàbí Ògúndépò’s panegyric tribute to the crowning of the Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀, Okùnadé Ṣíjúwadé in 1980…

Over the last five years, prominent Yorùbá stools have been filled. The King of Ìwó has become a crusader for the Islamic Religion, while the new Ṣọ̀ún of Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ was chosen from a Redeemed Church in the United States. There have been at least four Olúbàdàn of Ìbàdàn kings over the last ten years, none of which have had any contemporary poet, musician, or artists do noteworthy commemorative albums in their honour. It is not just for the royal personalities themselves, mind you. My worry is what this represents for what goes for public art performance today in the Yorùbá culture.

Here are two albums created by Adépọ̀jù and Ọládàpọ̀ to mark the passing of Ọbáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀.

Adépọ̀jù:

and Ọládàpọ̀:

 

Recently, I asked Mọlará Wood, a culture critic, about this phenomenon. What was it, I wondered, that made those times welcoming of these kinds of artistic expression? Obviously, the characters that were celebrated in these notable poetic expressions were important and remarkable characters themselves. Could it be that we have only found mediocre personalities to replace them? Or, also more likely, could we also have run out of original creative thinkers able to wrought remarkable pieces of art in memorial for our departed or emerging culture heroes? Her response, in brief, was that perhaps those were the days of the height of culture.

And that is a depressing thought; that we have indeed peaked, and what is left are the dregs of society with values at variance with the collective need of a society that once thrived on intellection, art, and original creative expression and documentation. While society is being replaced by the sugar-high of popular culture — Afrobeats, Amapiano, Alte, and the rest of the modern saccharine — what is being lost is the worldview and values that once kept our head high, where entertainment was deeply embedded with information, community, and knowledge-sharing, where art was meant to last and to engage, and not just to vainly move.

Shortly before the pandemic, I started work with the Poetry Translation Centre in London to translate a number of important Nigerian oral poetry into English. One of the subjects was Lánrewájú Adépọ̀jù — a natural choice, considering his status in the genre. But what I later found was equally challenging: the near impossibility of translating what makes poetry beautiful in Yorùbá to English. Ocassionally, as you’d see in the excerpt below, the poetry manages to cross over mainly through the strenuous wringing of meaning through English prosody. But for most of his work — and those of his contemporaries — the beauty remains only when the work remains in their source language. This presents the key challenge to those who might respond to the main thrust of this blog with “Perhaps globalization is the saviour, come to save us from traditional Yorùbá poetry; so the dearth of new work should be seen through that lens, and their transmutation through modern music rather than a sign of a confirmed path to extinction. As long as we can write and express ourselves in English, and translate works from and into it, then what’s the problem?”

Well, the problem exists in the lack of new original work. If we were to agree that the culture has become confirmed to a fossilized state where all we have are nostalgic longing for what used to be, and no new creative ferments burst in to shake us out of our complacency, inspire us to new heights, and codify for us in poetic language what the moment means, then maybe we have lost something irretrievable.

I did find, at last, a contemporary work that could perhaps compete with some of the old. It was Kwam 1’s tribute to the departed Aláàfin (see below). Even if the rest of the work didn’t always engage much beyond the deeply moving poetic introduction (a result of my own taste, perhaps), it is heartening that it exists.

But how many more of these do we have before the culture is declared functionally dead?

Are We Past the Height of Culture? was published on January 22nd, 2025, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , under the Observations, Opinion, Poetry category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

What’s Happening at Randle Centre?

 

On the last Sunday of 2024, I hosted an event at the J. Randle Centre in Lagos, a newly opened and appropriately named “Centre for Yorùbá Culture and History.” 

The well-attended event was a screening of Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory, a new documentary film I wrote and directed, which examines the story of Wọlé Ṣóyínká as a young academic at the University of Ìbàdàn in the early sixties, and all the many implications of his stay there — and the house where he lived — on the Nigerian story and the conversation around memory, trauma, and legacy.

The movie was first screened in July 2024, and has travelled around the world, winning three film festival awards, and earning a dozen other official selections and shortlists. It has screened in many important places in Nigeria, including the Alliance Francaise Mike Adénúgà Centre, the Muson Centre, the University of Ìbàdàn, University of Lagos, Korean Cultural Centre Abuja, and many more. We always wanted it to return to The J. Randle Centre particularly because Ṣóyínká had mentioned it as the permanent home to some of his carvings collections which took a central role in the film, and for other personal reasons.

My relationship with the Centre dates back to its early conception — at least as early as 2016 or so — when Ṣeun Odùwọlé, a visionary architect, first showed up at my office at Google to discuss his burning idea for a visually-appealing museum of world status at that location that already held enormous historical significance for Lagos. The space was at the time a pile of debris, walled off from the neigbourhood after the demolition of the earlier structures and the famous swimming pool. Odùwọlé had secured the cooperation of the then administration of Governor Akínwùnmí Aḿbọ̀dé and other international partners to create something much more than a recreation centre: A Yorùbá Centre that would house the heritage of a people, and show a more competent presentation of history than the National Museum across the road belonging to the federal government. 

I was enarmored by the idea, but much more by Odùwọlé’s zeal, vision, and ambition. Not much of any of the promised funds and support had materialized at the time, but the concepts were present on his computer, with images of what the building would look like, and what an experience of visiting the future Centre would look like, combining traditional curatorial practice with modern technology. I shared some of my ideas and promised personal cooperation. I visited for the first time in 2019 to see the construction taking shape. Some photos below from March 2019.

We kept in touch over the years, and as the idea grew. And when a team was put in place to design the curatorial materials for the Centre, I joined more formally, working with scholars across the world like Jacob Olúpọ̀nà, Will Rea, Rowland Abíọ́dún, and dozens of others, to put important ideas about Yorùbá identity in black and white for the future website. The texts would be in English and Yorùbá, with the latter taking a more prominent role. I worked with Odùwọlé to procure rare books and materials for the museum, and led the translation of all relevant texts between languages. While supervising the construction of the site, Ṣeun continued his networking tasks of keeping important partners across the world to their promise. The Lander Stool, for instance, was one of the items he unofficially secured for a permanent loan/return to the museum.

The work on the texts took months of research and editing, and finally the work was done. Even the signage and instructions at the Centre was to be written in both Yorùbá and English, as befitting such an important representation of culture. You can see the result in the architectural design of the screening venue: Yorùbá town names designed and well tone-marked forming a natural frosting on the glass.

And then things went quiet. 

Through the defeat of Governor Aḿbọ̀dé in the 2018 primary of the APC and the emergence of a new governor in the person of Babájídé Sanwóolú, the work at the Randle Centre seemed to have stalled. It was no longer clear if it would proceed at all, or whether the commitment of the state to it would last beyond one administration. Even the idea of the centre as an independent custodian of culture working only with the state as a major partner seemed doomed. Politics, it appeared, had emerged to scuttle what had promised to be a departure from such typical Nigerian malaise.

In the intervening period, the transition between two administrations seemed to also lead to a transition for Odùwọlé, who had conceived and brought the idea to life through grit, hard work, and what I know to be an individual obsession. Such that when the Centre officially opened in 2024 finally, after having stayed locked for two years since its commissioning by the Head of State Buhari, the vision that brought the project to life was conspicuously missing. The website that had been created and curated with enormous research efforts had been allowed to lapse, and the only thing left was a building structure which, though still impressive in its design, content, and presentation, continued to need more intentional curatorial and intellectual handling.

With embarrassing events like this recent ‘invasion’ of the property by the state’s Commissioner of Culture confronting the centre’s appointed CEO for some inscrutable lack of deference [later explained as the establishment of an unauthorized business on the premises], it’s obvious that The J. Randle Centre needs proper intervention to make it live up to its founding ideals if it were to survive. There are sufficient examples of projects with ambitious goals like this failing because of a lack of proper structure and management system. And there are projects with far smaller budgets across the world which have been used to great success as generators of revenue and celebration of national heritage.

The architect Ṣeun Odùwọlé (R) in March 2019, showing guests around his work.

In this case, it is important for the Lagos State Government to provide answers to a number of important questions now arising:

  1. Whether the J. Randle Centre is a private event centre or a public one. Whether the state intends to continue to run it directly (through the commissioner) or via proxy. Which is more efficient, and why?
  2. How much the state is currently running the Centre with, and to which directions — including whether the state investment is bringing sufficient returns.
  3. Into which pocket the monies paid by visitors to use and visit the centre go, and how are they accounted for?
  4. Why a fully-transparent management board hasn’t been convened through which the Commisioner and members of the public can get answers to any questions they have without resorting to such a public spectacle as we saw today.
  5. When the original website and its important supplementary content will be brought back, so that the Centre isn’t just a space for Instagram reels but a true institution of learning and cultural engagement as the architects envisioned it.

Smarter people than me continue to add important points to the conversation via twitter. You can see them here, here and here. There seems to be a consensus that a more formal professional management board is sorely needed, and urgently, so as to elevate the place beyond another failed government edifice many of which already litter the land. In 2025, we need not continue to fall victim to “the Nigerian factor” in the area of arts and public engagement. We have seen how it’s done elsewhere — and they don’t have two heads. A better way forward is certainly needed.

 

Panduan Modern Mengenal Platform Gaming Online dan Hiburan Digital yang Bertanggung Jawab

Industri gaming digital kini sudah memasuki era baru beton88 yang jauh lebih dinamis. Akses yang praktis, kemudahan penggunaan, serta pengalaman pengguna menjadi bagian penting dalam perkembangan platform hiburan online. Kalau dulu layanan digital hanya mengandalkan tampilan sederhana dan akses melalui komputer, sekarang ekspektasinya sudah berubah total. Pengguna masa kini menginginkan navigasi yang mulus, tampilan responsif, halaman yang cepat dimuat, kompatibilitas dengan perangkat mobile, informasi yang transparan, serta akses yang tetap nyaman dari berbagai perangkat.

Perubahan tersebut membuat persaingan di dunia gaming online semakin ketat. Setiap platform dituntut untuk terus beradaptasi dengan perkembangan teknologi dan kebiasaan pengguna yang juga ikut berubah. Pengalaman digital yang dulu dianggap sudah cukup kini bisa terasa ketinggalan zaman hanya dalam waktu singkat. Karena itu, inovasi dan kemampuan menghadirkan layanan yang praktis menjadi salah satu faktor yang semakin diperhatikan.

Di antara berbagai bentuk hiburan bolaklik yang tersedia di internet, permainan bergaya kasino dan game dengan konsep slot masih menjadi kategori yang cukup dikenal. Mekanisme permainan yang relatif sederhana, tampilan visual yang menarik, serta sesi permainan yang dapat berlangsung singkat membuat format tersebut mudah dikenali oleh berbagai komunitas online. Meski begitu, pendekatan modern terhadap platform semacam ini tidak hanya berkaitan dengan hiburan. Transparansi, keamanan digital, penggunaan yang bertanggung jawab, dan pemahaman mengenai mekanisme permainan juga menjadi bagian yang tidak kalah penting.

Akses Platform yang Praktis dan Mudah Digunakan

Salah satu perkembangan yang paling terasa adalah meningkatnya kebutuhan terhadap akses yang praktis. Pengguna cenderung menyukai platform yang bisa dipahami sejak pertama kali dibuka tanpa harus melewati navigasi yang ribet. Situs dengan rancangan yang baik idealnya mampu menempatkan informasi penting pada lokasi yang mudah ditemukan, mulai dari fungsi akun, penjelasan permainan, layanan bantuan, informasi keamanan, hingga ketentuan penggunaan.

Daripada memenuhi halaman dengan menu berlapis-lapis molaplay atau elemen promosi yang berlebihan, desain digital masa kini lebih mengarah pada konsep sederhana dan fungsional. Intinya bukan sekadar terlihat keren, tetapi juga harus terasa nyaman ketika digunakan. Pengguna tidak perlu dibuat bingung hanya untuk menemukan fitur yang sebenarnya sederhana.

Pengalaman Mobile yang Semakin Penting

Akses melalui perangkat mobile juga menjadi perhatian besar. Smartphone kini menjadi salah satu perangkat utama yang digunakan untuk mengakses berbagai layanan online. Karena itu, desain responsif bukan lagi sekadar fitur tambahan, melainkan bagian penting dari pengalaman digital secara keseluruhan. Platform yang mampu bekerja dengan baik di komputer maupun smartphone dapat memberikan pengalaman yang lebih konsisten.

Ukuran teks harus tetap mudah dibaca pada layar kecil, tombol harus cukup nyaman untuk disentuh, dan informasi penting tidak seharusnya tersembunyi di balik navigasi yang membingungkan. Detail-detail kecil seperti ini memang terlihat sederhana, tetapi justru sangat menentukan apakah sebuah platform terasa nyaman atau malah bikin pengguna cepat meninggalkannya.

Performa Website dan Kecepatan Akses

Selain tampilan, performa website juga memiliki peran yang besar mpo88. Tidak ada pengguna yang senang menunggu halaman loading terlalu lama, apalagi ketika sedang menggunakan koneksi mobile. Kebiasaan masyarakat terhadap layanan digital yang serba cepat membuat performa menjadi salah satu tolok ukur pengalaman pengguna. Website yang lambat dapat mengurangi rasa percaya dan membuat interaksi terasa kurang nyaman.

Struktur halaman yang efisien, media yang telah dioptimalkan, server yang stabil, serta sistem teknis yang responsif dapat membantu menciptakan pengalaman browsing yang lebih smooth. Di era ketika orang terbiasa mendapatkan informasi hanya dalam beberapa detik, kecepatan bukan lagi sekadar nilai tambah. Performa yang baik sudah menjadi bagian dari ekspektasi dasar pengguna digital.

Keragaman Game dalam Platform Modern

Keragaman game juga menjadi salah satu karakteristik yang sering dikaitkan mpo88.cfd dengan platform gaming modern. Setiap pengguna tentu memiliki selera yang berbeda. Ada yang menyukai desain klasik dengan tampilan sederhana, sementara yang lain lebih tertarik pada tema modern, animasi interaktif, atau mekanisme permainan yang lebih inovatif. Karena preferensi setiap orang berbeda, katalog digital yang beragam dapat memberikan ruang lebih luas untuk eksplorasi.

Meski tampilan dan konsep permainan dapat berbeda-beda, prinsip dasarnya tetap perlu dipahami dengan realistis. Hiburan sebaiknya tidak dijalani dengan asumsi bahwa hasil tertentu sudah pasti akan terjadi. Terutama pada permainan yang menggunakan mekanisme acak, hasil sebelumnya tidak dapat dijadikan jaminan terhadap hasil berikutnya.

Memahami Istilah Promosi Secara Realistis

Hal ini menjadi semakin penting ketika membicarakan permainan bergaya slot. Istilah seperti “gacor”, “easy win”, “jackpot”, atau “win rate tinggi” sering muncul dalam bahasa promosi di internet. Namun, istilah tersebut tidak seharusnya langsung dianggap sebagai bukti bahwa sebuah permainan mampu memberikan keuntungan secara pasti. Mekanisme permainan yang menggunakan sistem acak berarti hasil pada satu sesi tidak secara otomatis menentukan hasil pada sesi berikutnya.

Sebuah sesi kemenangan memang mungkin terjadi, tetapi kemenangan tersebut tidak dapat diperlakukan sebagai sesuatu yang pasti atau dijadikan sumber penghasilan yang dapat diandalkan. Memahami perbedaan antara hiburan dan peluang finansial merupakan hal penting agar pengguna tidak memiliki ekspektasi yang keliru.

Menerapkan Batas Pengeluaran

Pemahaman tersebut juga membantu seseorang mengambil keputusan dengan lebih rasional slot777. Daripada memasuki permainan online dengan harapan memperoleh keuntungan yang sudah pasti, pengguna sebaiknya memahami bahwa aktivitas tersebut memiliki kemungkinan mengalami kerugian. Menentukan batas pengeluaran sebelum memulai dapat menjadi salah satu cara untuk menjaga aktivitas hiburan tetap berada dalam batas yang wajar.

Ketika batas yang sudah ditentukan tercapai, melanjutkan permainan hanya karena ingin mengejar kembali kerugian sebelumnya dapat menciptakan pola yang tidak sehat. Keputusan sebaiknya dibuat berdasarkan kondisi saat ini, bukan semata-mata karena keinginan untuk mengembalikan sesuatu yang telah hilang.

Pentingnya Transparansi Platform

Transparansi juga menjadi aspek penting ketika seseorang mengevaluasi sebuah platform gaming online. Pengguna sebaiknya memperhatikan apakah sebuah website menjelaskan ketentuan penggunaan, kebijakan layanan, metode pembayaran yang tersedia, prosedur akun, serta pilihan layanan pelanggan secara jelas. Informasi yang mudah dipahami dapat membantu pengguna mengetahui apa yang sebenarnya ditawarkan sebelum menggunakan sebuah layanan.

Klaim mengenai lisensi, sertifikasi, standar keamanan, atau kerja sama tertentu tebaknomor juga sebaiknya diverifikasi melalui sumber yang kredibel. Jangan hanya percaya karena sebuah klaim terlihat meyakinkan di halaman promosi. Di dunia internet, informasi dapat dibuat terdengar sangat profesional meskipun belum tentu memiliki dasar yang kuat.

Keamanan Data di Lingkungan Digital

Keamanan digital juga tidak boleh dianggap remeh. Ketika menggunakan layanan online, seseorang dapat berinteraksi dengan akun, kata sandi, sistem pembayaran, dan berbagai informasi pribadi. Kebiasaan keamanan yang baik dapat membantu mengurangi risiko yang tidak diperlukan. Menggunakan kata sandi yang unik, tidak membagikan kredensial akun, serta berhati-hati terhadap website yang meminta informasi tidak wajar merupakan langkah dasar yang penting.

Tautan mencurigakan, janji yang terdengar terlalu bagus untuk menjadi kenyataan, serta promosi yang memberikan tekanan kepada pengguna merupakan beberapa hal yang patut diperhatikan lebih lanjut. Jangan sampai rasa penasaran atau tergoda oleh promosi membuat seseorang mengabaikan keamanan data pribadi.

Konsep Hiburan Digital yang Bertanggung Jawab

Konsep hiburan digital yang bertanggung jawab juga semakin relevan di tengah perkembangan teknologi. Akses internet yang semakin mudah memang memberikan banyak pilihan hiburan, tetapi kemudahan tersebut juga dapat menjadi masalah ketika seseorang mulai kehilangan kendali terhadap waktu atau pengeluaran.

Batasan pribadi menjadi bagian penting dari penggunaan yang sehat. Seseorang seharusnya dapat berhenti tanpa merasa harus mengejar kerugian, membalas hasil sebelumnya, atau terus bermain hanya karena sesi sebelumnya tidak berjalan sesuai harapan. Kemampuan untuk berhenti merupakan bagian dari kontrol, bukan tanda kegagalan.

Pengaruh Komunitas dan Konten Digital

Komunitas gaming online modern juga banyak dipengaruhi mpo77.icu oleh media sosial, forum diskusi, platform streaming, serta kreator konten digital. Berbagai kanal tersebut dapat memengaruhi cara seseorang menemukan game atau layanan baru. Namun, rekomendasi dari internet tetap perlu disikapi secara kritis.

Testimoni pribadi atau pengalaman seorang pengguna tidak otomatis menjadi bukti statistik yang dapat berlaku untuk semua orang. Apa yang terjadi kepada seseorang belum tentu menjadi gambaran yang akan dialami orang lain. Karena itu, pengalaman personal sebaiknya dibedakan dari fakta yang dapat diverifikasi.

Perkembangan Desain Visual Gaming

Perkembangan lain yang cukup mencolok terlihat pada desain visual. Game masa kini dapat menghadirkan grafis yang lebih detail, tema yang imersif, efek suara dinamis, hingga animasi interaktif. Semua elemen tersebut memang dapat membuat pengalaman bermain terasa lebih menarik dan hidup.

Namun, tampilan yang keren tidak seharusnya disamakan dengan peluang yang lebih baik atau hasil yang sudah terjamin. Grafis dan animasi merupakan bagian dari sisi hiburan, sedangkan mekanisme matematis dari permainan tetap memiliki karakteristiknya sendiri. Visual yang semakin canggih tidak otomatis mengubah sifat acak dari suatu permainan.

Memilih Layanan Gaming Secara Bijak

Bagi pengguna yang sedang mencari informasi mengenai layanan gaming online, meluangkan waktu untuk memahami keseluruhan platform sering kali jauh lebih berguna dibanding hanya terpaku pada bahasa promosi yang bombastis. Layanan digital yang kredibel seharusnya mampu menjelaskan kebijakannya dengan jelas, menyediakan bantuan yang mudah diakses, dan menghindari janji yang tidak realistis.

Semakin terbuka sebuah platform dalam menjelaskan cara kerja layanannya, semakin mudah pula pengguna membuat keputusan berdasarkan informasi yang cukup. Transparansi pada akhirnya bukan hanya memberikan kesan profesional, tetapi juga membantu menciptakan hubungan yang lebih sehat antara layanan digital dan penggunanya.

Masa Depan Gaming Online

Melihat perkembangan teknologi saat ini, masa depan gaming online kemungkinan sbobet.ag akan terus bergerak menuju personalisasi yang lebih tinggi, pengalaman mobile yang semakin baik, interface yang lebih cepat, serta teknologi yang semakin canggih. Artificial intelligence, analitik real-time, cloud infrastructure, dan teknologi grafis modern dapat terus memengaruhi bagaimana hiburan digital dirancang.

Berbagai inovasi tersebut memang membuka banyak kemungkinan baru. Namun, semakin canggih teknologi yang digunakan, semakin penting pula kemampuan pengguna dalam memahami informasi digital. Literasi digital membantu seseorang membedakan antara fakta, opini, promosi, dan klaim yang belum tentu dapat dibuktikan.

Gaming Online sebagai Hiburan

Pada akhirnya, gaming online modern sebaiknya dipahami sebagai bentuk hiburan, bukan sebagai peluang finansial yang memberikan hasil secara pasti. Menikmati permainan dalam batas yang wajar bukanlah persoalan, selama pengguna memahami risikonya dan tetap mampu mengontrol keputusan sendiri.

Memahami mekanisme permainan, memeriksa klaim penting, menjaga keamanan informasi pribadi, serta menentukan batas sebelum mengeluarkan uang merupakan bagian dari pendekatan yang lebih bertanggung jawab. Dengan pola pikir seperti ini, aktivitas digital dapat tetap ditempatkan sebagai hiburan tanpa menciptakan ekspektasi yang berlebihan.

Pengalaman Online yang Lebih Seimbang

Pengalaman online terbaik juga tidak selalu datang dari platform yang paling banyak membuat janji. Justru, layanan yang mampu menyediakan informasi secara jelas, fungsi yang stabil, navigasi yang sederhana, keamanan yang memadai, serta ruang bagi pengguna untuk mengambil keputusan secara mandiri memiliki nilai yang lebih kuat.

Di tengah budaya internet yang dipenuhi hype, istilah viral, dan berbagai klaim sensasional, pendekatan yang lebih realistis terasa jauh lebih relevan. Pengguna tidak harus mengikuti setiap tren hanya karena sedang ramai dibicarakan. Memahami informasi dan mengambil keputusan secara sadar tetap menjadi pilihan yang paling masuk akal.

Pentingnya Berpikir Kritis di Era Digital

Seiring berkembangnya industri hiburan digital, jumlah pilihan yang tersedia bagi pengguna juga akan semakin banyak. Kondisi tersebut membuat kemampuan berpikir kritis menjadi semakin penting. Daripada mengejar janji berlebihan atau menganggap pola tertentu sebagai jaminan keberhasilan, pengguna dapat lebih fokus memahami teknologi, mengevaluasi sebuah platform secara objektif, dan menjaga kendali terhadap kebiasaan hiburan mereka.

Pada dasarnya, pengalaman gaming modern merupakan perpaduan antara kenyamanan, teknologi, desain, serta penggunaan yang bertanggung jawab. Dengan perspektif yang tepat, seseorang dapat menikmati perkembangan hiburan digital tanpa mencampuradukkan bahasa promosi dengan kepastian hasil.

Tetap update, pahami batas pribadi, lindungi informasi penting, dan perlakukan gaming online https://www.ktravula.com/2022/08/is-akata-a-bad-word/ sebagai hiburan, bukan sebagai pemasukan yang dijamin. Pendekatan seperti ini menjadi semakin relevan di tengah dunia digital yang terus terhubung, berkembang cepat, dan menghadirkan pilihan baru hampir setiap hari.

What’s Happening at Randle Centre? was published on January 9th, 2025, with the tags , , , under the Observations, Opinion category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

My Korean Nostalgia

It has been about two weeks since I returned from the Korean Peninsula as a guest of the Ministry of Culture for the PyeongChang Humanities Forum, a culture Olympics of sorts, but my heart has remained in the country. It had dawned on me, long before I got on the plane that took me out of Incheon Airport, that this is a special place. From the first welcome, through all the stops at Seoul, Pyeongchang, Busan, and other places in-between, the country warmed itself (a curious word since it was freezing cold in the subzeroes for the duration of my trip) into my bones. And now, I realize that I will never be able to read any news story about the Korean crises without a personal pull.

There is a story in the Wall Street Journal this morning about a successful concert at the at the Gangneung Arts Center by the North Korean orchestra attended by an audience of South Koreans of all generations in which the prospect of peace and unification again came within reach, even if only sentimentally. While I was in Korea, we had taken a trip to the Demilitarized Zone and learnt through a television in the bus, right before entering the Civilian Control Line, that a delegation from the North had entered the country through the same entrance just a few minutes earlier. They had been sent by Kim Jong Un as an advanced team to prepare grounds for sending the athletes that the North had agreed to have participate in the Ice Hockey event under the same (unification) flag along with the South, and in the same team. It warmed my heart up. (This has happened, by the way).

Almost everywhere we visited in South Korea, but none more pronounced than the DMZ areas, there is a palpable sense of hope for an eventual unification of the two countries under peaceful terms. It sometimes felt too jarring when compared to the rhetoric I’d been familiar with, from outside looking in, about a prospect of war that appeared real almost every day and with every tweet from the POTUS. Almost everywhere at the DMZ had something about ‘unification’ or ‘freedom’. The road we were on was called Freedom Road. There was a house at Paju that had boldly written on it “End of Separation, Beginning of Unification” in English, Chinese, and Korean. It’s unlikely that any North Korean would see it from across the border a few miles from there, but it showed an attitude that permeates everywhere I looked. The people of the South would want nothing more than a chance to reunite with their long lost national siblings.

A question I’ve been asking since I’ve been back is not just the North feels the same way (we have seen many defections to know that some appetite for this exists) but whether the outside forces will let it happen. In this case, we have China on the one hand whose communist hegemony is threatened by a unified Korea under capitalistic/democratic terms, Russia (which, to my surprise at its enormous size, does share a national border with North Korea as well) on another who has formed an inscrutable relationship with Kim Jong Un and would want nothing more than another outpost with which to poke the US, and then the administration of Donald Trump in America who have done nothing more than stoke flames of war in a transparent attempt at shoring up support for their unpopular domestic and conservative agenda. Listening to the media tell us about the possibility of peace, it comes through an inevitable path of war or denuclearization where America wins and Kim Jong surrenders to the will of Mr. Trump. The latter seems improbable, leaving us only the possibility of war. But the situation on the ground didn’t seem to offer only this binary. Watching Koreans live their life as normally as anyone can, with nothing resembling the worrying anticipation with which others around the world look at the peninsula brings up the possibility that some other less inflammatory resolution to the conflict can be found. I don’t know what it is, but maybe we should ask the Koreans rather than saber-rattle from afar as we’re wont to do. By ‘we’, I mean Donald Trump and the US.

In any case, this was supposed to be a recollection of my fond memories of Korea, and not a rant on global politics. When I watch the winter games on television today, I will remember walking through the ski village in Pyeongchang, watching the workers prepare the venues for the athletes, and wondering why anyone will leave their house to come compete in such a cold weather. But I will also retain a hope for the eventual unification of the country on more favourable terms to those who live in it and whose futures are tied to its peace and security, away from the many competing interests of the global powers.

Memahami Pengalaman Platform Gaming Online Modern

Industri gaming digital telah mengalami perubahan yang cukup bos67.link besar dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Jika dulu aktivitas gaming online lebih sering dikaitkan dengan website yang diakses melalui komputer atau desktop, sekarang ekosistemnya sudah berkembang jauh lebih luas. Akses melalui smartphone, tampilan responsif, navigasi cepat, hingga pengalaman pengguna yang semakin personal menjadi bagian penting dari perkembangan dunia hiburan digital saat ini. Pengguna pun dapat menemukan berbagai macam platform gaming melalui smartphone, tablet, maupun komputer, dengan masing-masing layanan menawarkan konsep desain, aksesibilitas, dan interaksi digital yang berbeda.

Pengalaman Platform yang Lebih Sederhana

Platform modern kini semakin mengutamakan pengalaman yang simpel sejak hokihoki.sbs pengguna pertama kali membuka halaman. Tampilan yang bersih, menu yang tertata, halaman responsif, serta navigasi yang tidak ribet menjadi elemen penting dalam membangun pengalaman digital yang nyaman. Pengguna masa kini umumnya menginginkan website yang dapat dimuat dengan cepat, berjalan lancar di berbagai ukuran layar, dan memberikan informasi yang mudah dipahami tanpa harus membuat mereka berkeliling mencari hokihoki menu atau fitur tertentu.

Perkembangan Teknologi Mobile

Perkembangan teknologi mobile juga memberikan pengaruh yang sangat besar koko11.cfd terhadap perubahan tersebut. Smartphone sudah menjadi bagian dari aktivitas internet sehari-hari, sehingga layanan gaming online pun ikut beradaptasi. Platform yang sebelumnya lebih nyaman digunakan melalui desktop sekarang banyak dirancang dengan pendekatan mobile-first. Artinya, pengembang harus memperhatikan ukuran tombol, posisi menu, kualitas grafis, kecepatan loading, hingga kemudahan navigasi pada layar yang lebih kecil.

Desain Visual dan Interaksi Pengguna

Tampilan visual sebuah platform gaming juga dapat memengaruhi koko188.cc bagaimana pengguna berinteraksi dengan layanan tersebut. Website modern biasanya memadukan tipografi yang kuat, elemen animasi, struktur halaman yang rapi, serta komponen responsif untuk menciptakan lingkungan digital yang lebih menarik. Namun, desain keren saja tentu belum cukup. Tampilan yang estetik harus tetap didukung fungsi yang jelas. Website boleh terlihat modern dan stylish, tetapi kalau pengguna kesulitan menemukan koko288.top informasi atau berpindah halaman, pengalaman yang diberikan tetap terasa kurang maksimal.

Variasi Game Digital

Kemajuan teknologi juga membuat variasi game digital yang tersedia secara online semakin beragam. Setiap kategori permainan dapat memiliki mekanisme, tema, gaya visual, serta sistem interaksi yang berbeda. Ada permainan koko303.bid yang mengusung konsep hiburan klasik, sementara lainnya menghadirkan visual modern, dunia fiksi, elemen strategi, hingga fitur interaktif yang lebih kompleks. Keberagaman tersebut memberikan ruang bagi pengembang untuk terus bereksperimen sekaligus memberikan koko303 lebih banyak pilihan kepada pengguna.

Performa dan Infrastruktur Platform

Di balik tampilan depan sebuah platform, performa teknis koko33.top juga menjadi faktor yang tidak kalah penting. Infrastruktur yang andal dapat memengaruhi kecepatan loading, respons halaman, serta stabilitas keseluruhan layanan. Pengguna tentu berharap sebuah website dapat berjalan konsisten, terlebih ketika diakses melalui jaringan seluler yang kualitasnya bisa berubah-ubah. Karena itu, teknologi hosting, sistem distribusi konten, kompatibilitas browser, serta optimasi website menjadi bagian koko5000 penting dalam menciptakan pengalaman digital yang lebih smooth.

Keamanan dan Transparansi

Aspek keamanan juga semakin mendapat koko5000.link perhatian dalam lingkungan online modern. Pengguna sebaiknya memperhatikan apakah sebuah website menjelaskan kebijakan privasi, ketentuan penggunaan, prosedur akun, serta cara data pengguna dikelola. Layanan digital yang bertanggung jawab idealnya memberikan informasi secara transparan dan mudah dipahami, bukan menyembunyikan ketentuan penting menggunakan bahasa yang berbelit-belit. Transparansi seperti ini dapat membantu pengguna menentukan apakah suatu koko5000.sbs platform memang sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan batasan mereka.

Teknologi Pembayaran Digital

Teknologi pembayaran turut mengalami perkembangan seiring meningkatnya penggunaan kokogacor77.sbs layanan digital. Saat ini, transaksi online dapat dilakukan melalui berbagai metode elektronik, tergantung negara, penyedia layanan, dan regulasi yang berlaku. Kemudahan tersebut memang membuat proses transaksi menjadi lebih praktis, tetapi bukan berarti setiap metode pembayaran otomatis aman. Pengguna tetap perlu memeriksa legitimasi layanan, memahami ketentuan transaksi, serta memperhatikan mami188.top biaya yang mungkin dikenakan sebelum memberikan informasi finansial.

Informasi Gaming di Internet

Popularitas hiburan digital juga menghasilkan banyak sekali pembahasan mega288.link mengenai berbagai platform gaming di internet. Mesin pencari dipenuhi artikel yang membicarakan game terbaru, mekanisme permainan, fitur website, perbandingan platform, hingga pengalaman pengguna. Masalahnya, kualitas informasi di internet tidak selalu sama. Ada konten yang informatif, tetapi ada juga tulisan yang terlalu berlebihan atau hanya dibuat untuk mengejar traffic. Karena itu, pengguna sebaiknya mempertimbangkan megawin188.link kredibilitas dan objektivitas sumber sebelum menganggap setiap klaim sebagai fakta.

Memahami Istilah Promosi

Istilah seperti “gacor”, “jackpot”, “maximum win”, dan berbagai istilah populer pulsa303.link lainnya juga sering muncul dalam konten promosi gaming online. Bahasa semacam itu memang terdengar catchy dan mampu menarik perhatian, tetapi sebaiknya tidak dianggap sebagai jaminan hasil. Mekanisme suatu permainan dapat melibatkan sistem acak atau mekanisme tertentu sesuai dengan teknologi yang digunakan. Oleh sebab itu, bahasa pemasaran perlu dibedakan dari informasi faktual ketika seseorang sedang menilai sebuah layanan gaming online.

Konsep Hiburan yang Bertanggung Jawab

Konsep hiburan yang bertanggung jawab juga semakin relevan karena akses virtusplay.link terhadap gaming digital menjadi jauh lebih mudah. Kemudahan memang menawarkan fleksibilitas, tetapi akses yang tersedia hampir setiap saat membuat pengguna perlu lebih sadar terhadap waktu dan pengeluaran. Aktivitas hiburan sebaiknya tetap dilakukan sesuai batas pribadi. Permainan yang melibatkan risiko finansial juga tidak semestinya dianggap sebagai cara pasti untuk memperoleh penghasilan.

Pentingnya Transparansi

Pengguna modern pun semakin kritis terhadap masalah transparansi. Mereka tidak hanya melihat iklan atau tampilan visual, tetapi juga ingin mengetahui siapa yang mengoperasikan sebuah platform, aturan apa yang berlaku, bagaimana data pribadi dikelola, dan seperti apa layanan bantuan yang tersedia. Informasi yang jelas dan terbuka dapat menjadi salah satu faktor penting dalam membangun kepercayaan terhadap sebuah layanan digital.

Layanan Pelanggan

Layanan pelanggan kemudian menjadi bagian lain yang tidak kalah penting. Platform yang dikelola secara profesional seharusnya memberikan akses yang cukup jelas bagi pengguna ketika mereka mengalami kendala teknis maupun pertanyaan mengenai akun. Bentuk dukungan dapat berbeda-beda antara satu layanan dengan layanan lainnya, tetapi kemudahan menemukan bantuan tetap menjadi indikator yang berguna untuk melihat seberapa tertata sebuah platform.

Kualitas Konten Digital

Kualitas konten juga tidak boleh diabaikan. Banyak website membuat artikel semata-mata untuk mendapatkan posisi di mesin pencari sehingga akhirnya menggunakan kalimat yang repetitif, keyword berlebihan, atau klaim yang terlalu bombastis. Pendekatan yang lebih baik adalah menghadirkan penjelasan yang original, relevan, dan informatif. Pembaca tentunya akan mendapatkan manfaat lebih besar dari artikel yang benar-benar menjelaskan cara kerja sebuah platform dibandingkan tulisan yang hanya mengandalkan bahasa promosi.

Perubahan Perilaku Pencarian

Perilaku pencarian informasi di internet pun terus berubah. Pengguna sekarang semakin sering mengetik pertanyaan dengan gaya percakapan ketika mencari informasi mengenai aksesibilitas, kompatibilitas, keamanan, kategori game, maupun fitur sebuah platform. Perubahan ini mendorong publisher untuk menghasilkan konten yang terasa lebih manusiawi, natural, dan langsung menjawab kebutuhan pembaca.

Artificial Intelligence dan Otomatisasi

Kecerdasan buatan serta otomatisasi juga berpotensi memberikan pengaruh lebih besar terhadap industri gaming digital. Sistem rekomendasi, customer support otomatis, personalisasi konten, hingga analisis data sudah mulai menjadi bagian dari berbagai layanan digital. Teknologi tersebut dapat membuat sebuah interface terasa lebih responsif dan relevan. Namun, penerapannya tetap harus memperhatikan privasi serta transparansi. Personalisasi yang terlalu agresif tentu tidak ideal apabila dilakukan tanpa memperhatikan hak dan kenyamanan pengguna.

Konsistensi Antarperangkat

Konsistensi antarperangkat juga menjadi salah satu ekspektasi utama pengguna masa kini. Seseorang mungkin memulai aktivitas browsing melalui smartphone dan kemudian melanjutkannya menggunakan laptop. Karena itu, platform modern perlu mempertahankan struktur dan identitas visual yang konsisten di berbagai perangkat. Responsive design bukan lagi sekadar fitur tambahan, melainkan sudah menjadi standar dasar bagi banyak layanan digital.

Masa Depan Gaming Digital

Masa depan gaming digital kemungkinan akan terus dipenuhi eksperimen baru dalam bidang grafis, teknologi browser, pengalaman mobile, dan hiburan interaktif. Para pengembang terus mencari cara untuk menciptakan interface yang lebih ringan, pengalaman yang lebih smooth, serta lingkungan digital yang semakin engaging. Di sisi lain, regulator, perusahaan teknologi, dan pengguna juga semakin memperhatikan isu privasi, keamanan, penggunaan yang bertanggung jawab, serta transparansi layanan.

Pendekatan Bijak bagi Pengguna

Bagi pengguna yang sedang mengeksplorasi platform gaming online, pendekatan paling bijak adalah tidak mudah terpancing oleh headline yang terlalu heboh. Tampilan profesional bukan otomatis menjadi bukti bahwa suatu layanan dapat dipercaya. Begitu pula istilah promosi tidak seharusnya dianggap sebagai jaminan hasil. Memeriksa informasi yang tersedia, memahami aturan, mempertimbangkan risiko finansial, serta menetapkan batas penggunaan jauh lebih penting daripada mengejar klaim mengenai keberhasilan instan.

Kesimpulan

Pada akhirnya, pengalaman gaming online modern bukan hanya tentang kumpulan permainan yang tersedia di sebuah website. Di dalamnya terdapat kombinasi teknologi, desain interface, aksesibilitas, sistem pembayaran digital, kualitas konten, keamanan, dan ekspektasi pengguna yang saling terhubung. Seiring industri terus berkembang, platform yang mengedepankan kemudahan penggunaan, transparansi, keamanan, hiburan yang bertanggung jawab, dan komunikasi yang dapat dipercaya akan memiliki fondasi yang lebih kuat dalam menghadirkan pengalaman digital yang berkualitas.

Dunia online akan terus berubah, dan teknologi baru hampir pasti menghadirkan cara-cara berbeda dalam menikmati hiburan digital. Bagi pengguna, tetap update dan memahami informasi menjadi langkah yang paling masuk akal. Daripada terpaku pada hype atau janji yang terdengar terlalu manis, memahami teknologi, mengenali risikonya, serta mengambil keputusan secara bijak dapat membantu menciptakan hubungan https://www.ktravula.com/2019/06/approaching-thirty-five-or-a-pedagogy-of-departure/ yang lebih sehat dan seimbang dengan gaming online maupun hiburan digital secara keseluruhan.

My Korean Nostalgia was published on February 9th, 2018, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Observations, Opinion, Travelling category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Another Kind of Poverty Gap: The Erosion of Language Diversity

(Being a paper delivered at the PyeonChang Humanities Forum at the Seoul National University Seoul, South Korea, on January 20, 2018 by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀ṣún. The audio recording of the talk can be found here)

 

Ẹ káàrọ̀ o. Good morning. Annyeonghaseyo.

First of all, let me express my profound appreciation to the organisers of this event for choosing me out of many to be here, among all these important people from around the world, to give you my own perspective on an important discussion. These are precarious times. And to be here in this place at this time to give a talk on a topic that is dear to my heart, is an honour. So, thank you. As we say in my language, adúpẹ́. I bring you greetings from West Africa.

I am here to speak about poverty. But before you assume that I am going in a predictable direction you have been familiar with from watching cable news from your different parts of the world about Africa, let me advise that you set a different expectation. My talk is about a different kind of poverty, one caused by exclusion, and one relating to one particular type of exclusion: language.

I come from Nigeria, a country of about 170 million people with over five hundred different languages and cultures. It is a place that offers as diverse a landscape in terms of both viewpoint and attitude to life. On the one hand, binaries can be found: The north is mostly conservative while the south is mostly liberal. The north is mostly arid and desert while the south is mostly rainforest and humid. On the other, we have an assemblage of cultures and languages which range from mildly intelligible dialects to distinct languages with no discernable cognate, even when they live around each other. This has made my country, Nigeria, a country created from a British colonial experiment, a very interesting place. From what I have read, this is not the same as what obtains here on the Korean peninsula, where Korean is generally described as a “language isolate”, with no discernable genetic or genealogical link with any neighbouring tongues.

Human migration and mandatory inter-mingling of tribes ensured that we are all exposed, in some way or the other, to characteristics of each other’s culture. Through warfare, conquests, and other forms of domination, a number of us have also become subservient, linguistically, to some larger languages around the country, such that, before the British came to colonize the whole swathe that makes up the country Nigeria, a certain linguistic mosaic had emerged. A mosaic, because it was not just one language which every others must speak, but several big languages, and several small ones, each occupying a particular space in the society, fulfilling particular roles in facilitating contact.

I bring up the linguistic character of my hometown to create an image in your minds of both diversity and richness. Even many decades after the colonial processes that were set in place to create a homogenous society out of colourful and diverse peoples, the mosaic is still evident, though not in as bold a colour as was many years ago. The changes started with colonialism, and the prevailing mindsets of the invading strangers from Europe and newly “educated” Africans that our languages could be discarded without consequences. It was a gradual change, reinforced with every government policy, every textbook recommendation, every change in the educational syllabus, and every recommended dress code in government offices. Today, we are a people whose worldview is being conditioned and defined by competence in a new language, English, to the exclusion of our own.

Let me address an important irony: that which concerns the fact that I am presenting this talk in English and not in my own language. I have, after all, advocated that Nigeria’s president use his own language (Hausa/Fulfde) whenever he is out of the country. If I were the president of Nigeria in this instance, Yorùbá nìkan ni mo máa sọ. Aá fi sílẹ̀ fún àwọn ògbifọ̀ láti ṣàlàyé (I’ll be speaking only in Yorùbá, leaving it to the translators to explain). This is a suggestion borne out of my belief that the head of state represents the country and its multilingualism. His or her decision to speak the nation’s language outside shows a pride in the language and provides jobs for translators living in that foreign country while portraying a complexity of that country’s cultural landscape.

The irony comes because the purpose of my talk here is to advocate for a return to the local language use and support, and to explain why I believe that the poverty of imagination is equally as tragic as a poverty of the stomach. You, my hosts in Korea, don’t seem to have this dilemma. Your language is one (unless we discuss the widening gap that is happening between the version spoken here in the South, and that one spoken in the North). You don’t have too many dialects of the language, and citizens of this country do not have hundreds more competing for attention. But you are also lucky in another way. Even though English is spoken here as a second language, Korean still holds an important place as a vessel for the culture of the people. You can think in the language. You can conduct all your daily activities in it. It has a distinct writing style, and children are taught how to use it. And big technological giants care enough about it, and your buying power, that they carry it along with every new tool they create.

This is not the same for the languages in my country.

The problem, like I mentioned earlier originated in the over-simplistic tools we chose for dealing with diversity, and in colonialism. But it has also been carried along by an attitude of the population that rather than assert individual identity or spend valuable time developing each language through use in literature and other means of transmission, we might as well surrender and adopt English as the only “uniting” language. Don’t ask me how successful that drive for unity is. But the result is a gradual attrition of local languages. As at the last count, about twenty-seven languages in the country are either vulnerable, critically endangered, or severely endangered. It doesn’t look like the situation will improve anytime soon because unlike what obtained in the country a couple of decades ago, we no longer teach local languages in schools. The new students we produce from schools each year will only claim English as their first language. This doesn’t mean that they will be accepted abroad as first language speakers since the term “native speaker” is imbued with more than mere language competence, but with both political and cultural characteristics. I’ve spoken about this in other forums. This leaves us, Nigerians, and many other post-colonial outposts around the continent, at a terrible psychological, social, economic, and even political disadvantage.

A more noticeable example of this kind of poverty comes with technology, which is my current focus as a writer and linguist. In some ways, it will be proper to look at the progress of today’s modern inventions through the lens of colonialism, carried into every part of the world on the back of convenience. From my part of the world, where we consume technology much more than we create it, a pattern has emerged. The new technological tools created to make life better for us are monolingual in nature. For an environment where thousands of languages are spoken, this is grossly deficient. And there’s no poverty as great as one that prevents a person from interrogating life in the language with which they are intimately familiar.

When I was in the university between 2000 and 2005, I used to wonder why Microsoft Word underlined my name with a red wriggly line whenever I typed it. But the answer was simple: Microsoft simply didn’t recognize a Yorùbá name. As long as the name wasn’t an English name, the red wriggly line showed you that something was wrong. So when I wrote my long essay, I did it on a project called a Multimedia Dictionary of Yorùbá Names. It was my way of introducing Yorùbá names to technology. Ten years later, I expanded the project to a fully functional and crowdsourced multimedia dictionary to which people can add new names, and improve current ones. And I did this not just for Yorùbá this time, but under the umbrella of what we called the African Language Project, we want to document all African languages and other intangible cultural materials like names, customs, norms, and words. As at this moment, there is no multimedia dictionary of Yorùbá on the internet. None that Africans can access on their phones at a moment’s notice. We are trying to create one. If more Africans who do not speak English at all, or as a first language, cannot interact with technology in their own language, then they are being left behind in the progress of technology. And that’s a powerful kind of poverty.

Around Nigeria today, there is barely any ATM machines that one can use in a local language. This means that people who only speak a local language will not put their money in banks, since the process of getting it out is onerous. Because of this, they are excluded from the big economy and thus remain poor. In a part of Northern Nigeria, poor farmers who need to work with modern implements have to first learn English before they can understand how to read the manuals. I know a couple of my friends who are working on artificial intelligence applications that can help these farmers communicate in Hausa and get access to all they need in a language they speak. But these efforts are far in-between. There’s a lot of work to be done, not just with widening the access that technology provides, but also in reading and producing literature, in engaging with participating in and discerning the details of our politics, and engaging with our everyday life. Like we say in Yorùbá, ọwọ́ ara ẹni la fi ń tún ìwà ara ẹni ṣe (“we have to use our own hands to fix our own issues”).

There are different kinds of poverty, all of them damaging to the dignity of man. A deprivation of language is one that is more pernicious than the rest because it deprives not just the body, but also the mind. The world is a colourful and delightful place to be in because of the multiplicity of languages and culture. I do not want to live in a world where only ONE language is spoken. That is a world that has lost its storehouses of wealth. We are all richer by the experiences we share from participating in each other’s cultures, language, worldview, and way of life. By working hard, and fighting hard in my own part of the world, to make sure that the movement of technology does not leave us behind in our own languages, we attack poverty, and build a new and exciting future that better reflects the mosaic; the colours, and the realities of the African – and our global – existence.

Thank you for listening. Kamsa hamida.

Another Kind of Poverty Gap: The Erosion of Language Diversity was published on January 21st, 2018, under the Academic, Linguistics, Observations, Opinion category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Suspended Leg of the Tripod of Identity: Yorùbá Around the World Today

By Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún

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“Il suono di pan” (2017)

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I am Yorùbá by birth and by blood, a privilege that has sat me in good stead, professionally and personally, through a wide network of associations, resources, legacies and traditions. From great award-winning novels (many in translation) to great art works curated in museums all over the world, there are many valuable responses that attend my questing glances around the world for validation and direction. In today’s world, to be Yorùbá is to embody all that is complex and dynamic in a culture and civilization that predates even the birth of Christ.

But due to centuries of colonial contact, my identity today is a complex one. I say complex, because saying “incomplete” would carry too much of a burden of judgment. My identity is complex because were we to return to early Yorùbá societies of 4th Century BC in Ifẹ̀, what I am would embody not just the language I speak, my racial composition, the clothes I wear, the scarifications on my face and my role in society, but also my religion, yet untouched by the crusading powers of Christianity that would come centuries later. 

In that 4th Century BC in Ifẹ̀, I would either be a citizen, with roles and responsibilities, or a member of the priesthood – which isn’t the same as the Christian one, but which carries similar significance to the proper ordering of society, or a royal. An important group of citizens, a hybrid between genuine plebeians and important religious personas, are the sculptors. The working class men — it was a more gendered time — whose role was to continue the tradition of preserving and interpreting the culture through the moulding of bronze heads. (A similar tradition would take root decades later in Benin — 270km SE of Ifẹ̀ — with more bronze heads of different shapes and styles moulded in the same lost-wax tradition not before conceived in the capitals of Europe). 

Because of the hard work of thorough artistry sustained through both civic and religious significance by the practitioners of those times, a record of who the Yorùbá were, what they did, and how long they have been around, was set. This would be helpful in 1938 when Leo Frobenius and his crew came across them at the Wunmonije Compound in Ifẹ̀, buried deep into the soil. So stunned were the European archeologists at the sophistication of the art works (they “compared them to the highest achievements of ancient Roman or Greek art” – source: Wikipedia) that they began to doubt that they could have been created by Africans. They must have been imported from Greece or Rome, they suggested, full of hubris.

In today’s Yorùbáland, I am still a citizen with roles and responsibilities. But I have embodied a new role, that of a citizen of a larger entity called Nigeria, brought into being in 1914 through colonial force, and before that by other forces of globalization, including the transatlantic slave trade and Christianity. (I’ll speak more on that in a second). The internet is a latter-day version of that movement, arriving in time to complete the cycle of connecting what is an individual culture and worldview to a supposedly larger one. In submitting myself to the forces of this expansion of our social and religious space, I also surrender to a new way of thinking. Christianity, in the intervening period, has taken over the world, through the invading forces of colonialism and slave trade. Our religious and cultural autonomy was destroyed and replaced with what is said to be superior and benign.

A friend of mine once visited Brazil and met with a number of caucasian residents of Bahia. In approaching him, because of his mode of dressing, they were curious about his origin. When he told them that he was Yorùbá, they were very excited, and they told him that they, too, were Yorùbá. Never before been exposed to this kind of unfamiliar acculturation, he became disoriented. How, his face wondered, could people of this skin tone and racial make-up be Yorùbá? Then, after recovering himself in a few seconds, he began to speak to them in the language. And to his consternation, they could neither speak nor respond. “But you said you were Yorùbá” he wondered. “Yes,” they responded. “We belong to the Yorùbá religion. We do not speak the language!” That cleared it up, and he learnt something new. Belonging to a religion is not always the same as belonging to the culture.

The Yorùbá religion, consisting of hundreds of Òrìṣà in a dynamic network, centers around Olódùmarè as the supreme being. And through Ifá divination, and its founding father of wisdom—Ọ̀rúnmìlà—the will of the divine one is made known to the people. Ifá as a symbol of divination has been the bedrock of Yorùbá belief system since its recorded history. Along with a corpus of stories, admonitions, aphorisms, songs and chants, that body of knowledge is one through which Ifá priests and priestesses predict the future and understand the past, and one with which the inidividual Yorùbá citizen understands his/her place in the cosmos. So when, in the 16th century, the transatlantic slave trade began, and citizens from inside Yorùbá country were stolen and sold off into the new world, the only valuable resource not capable of being destroyed by the invading slavers and their accomplices across the ocean was the knowledge of these old systems of religious knowledge. Though their bodies were broken down by hard labour, dehumanization, mutilation, separation and other forms of indignity, they held onto these songs and religious rituals and passed them to their children, sometimes in secret.

It is unclear why the religion did not survive in a stronger form in the United States as it did south of the Rio Grande. But we know that in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, and Jamaica, variations of the indigenous African religious practices, particularly from the Yorùbá country survived, sometimes in isolation but mostly in syncretism and other forms of mutation, so that today, there are racially and culturally different people who are nevertheless religiously Yorùbá. Their worldview may be Western, as is their racial composition and language, but their soul and heart are Yorùbá, or aspires to be. This is in a sharp contrast with the homeland where many Yorùbá citizens today are Christian or Moslem (converted through a later trans-Saharan slave trade that came through the north), but Yorùbá only in cultural and linguistic heritage, that is, possessing everything but the third leg of the tripod of identity.

It is tempting, then, to assume that the spiritual identity of the Yorùbá has undergone a weakening since the dawn of European civilization. This would have been true only without the knowledge of the depth of hold that the religion has had around the new world, and among those at home who have retained the independent cultural, spiritual, and mental identity away from what the imported religions recommended. In any case, the “suspension” of this leg in Nigeria and much of Africa, deplorable as it is, has only deepened the support for the religion among those to whom that is all that is left after centuries of plundering. And so there is the silver lining. Over the last couple of decades, practitioners of Lukumi (a religious variation of the Yorùbá Òrìṣà religion, which uses Ifá as its divinatory centre, and modified Yorùbá incantations and songs for liturgy) have made pilgrimages to Nigeria and connected the relevant dots of their religious ancestry. And through a fertile continuation of that relationship, the practice of Ifá and Òrìṣà worship has resumed around the country. A number have also started taking to learning the Yorùbá language as well, as something to add to what they already have in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. And while the Yorùbá in the home country have also shown a lukewarm attitude to the language, the diaspora comes in to save it through a warm embrace.

In 2008, Ifá became classified as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage” by UNESCO. There is a sort of delightful ending in the fact that Ifá had to travel all the way across the world in a slave ship before returning home to rescue its people at home. But maybe that was necessary, especially in its now inevitable expansion across all hitherto forbidden spaces. 

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(first published, in a slightly different version, in English and Italian; in Il Suono di Pan, an anthology edited by Prof. MM Tosolini and launched at Cividale del Friuli, near Udine in Italy. November 2017)

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For Further reading

The Suspended Leg of the Tripod of Identity: Yorùbá Around the World Today was published on November 20th, 2017, with the tags , , under the History, Opinion category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.