Browsing the archives for the Uncategorized category.
I spent some time, while in London a couple of weeks ago, on the video channel of Khafi Kareem, a brilliant multilingual video blogger who lives and works in the city. We talked about a number of things including our work at YorubaName.com. The video was published yesterday. See below.
You can see more videos on her YouTube channel called A Cup of Khafi
Over a week ago, I was announced as the winner of a prestigious international prize. Since then, I’ve been tagged in a number of Facebook postings of the news about the prize, and something has caught my eye: the spelling of my name.
It’s not a recent issue, anyway, as some of the variations on the spelling of Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún have come to my attention in different circumstances from the time I’ve started thinking about it: completing forms, applying for jobs, newspaper interviews, emails, and in other less formal circumstances. In each of them, when it’s convenient, I gently correct the user. In others, I simply ignore.
In any case, my writing it completely with the tone marks is not an ancient phenomenon either. A while ago, I realised that it made no sense to care about the survival of Yorùbá (and other African languages) in writing if one does not lead by a good example. The orthography of Yorùbá that we use for conventional writing came from the hard work of generations of volunteer linguists, returnee slaves, missionaries, and scholars.But contemporary use, especially in written English (in newspapers, books, and other publications) seems to have totally ignored that earlier work. And it has become commonplace now to write African names with English conventions.
It seemed counterproductive for a country with regular lip-service to pursuit of cultural development. After all, a name like José in Spanish would mostly likely never be written without that accent on the last vowel if it must be contrasted with the word Jose. Nor would Molière be written as Moliere by anyone willing to be considered scholarly. So why then should Kọ́lá, a name with its own distinct meaning carrying generations of cultural viewpoints, be written as Kola? The kola is a fruit, out of which Coke is made. He who brings kola brings life. But when that proverb was formed, they certainly weren’t thinking about me.
The director of the stage adaptation of the Lọlá Shónẹ́yìn’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, Mr. Fẹmi Elúfowójù Jr., sent me these pictures from Workshop Production last month in London. The Elufowoju jr Ensemble will be meeting with the Theatre Royal in a couple of weeks with a view to discussing securing a firm and positive decision re a full co-production for later this year.
The adaptation was written by Rótìmí Babátúndé.
The Susanne Wenger Adùnní Olórìṣà Trust is currently exhibiting artworks at the Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos. They are photos, drawings, paintings, and other art works done by Òsogbo and Òsogbo-influenced artists and about the sacred Òsun Òsogbo Grove where Susanne Wenger lived for a number of decades, and died.
According to the accompanying literature, the campaign is intended to raise awareness for the sacred groves. “Funds from the proceeds of the exhibition will be used to restore the monumental sculptures and buildings in the grove which are in need of urgent repair.”
Artists whose work currently feature around the Wheatbaker currently (a few pictured) are Sàngódáre Àjàlá, Adébísí Àkànjí, Rabiu Abesu, Buraimoh Gbàdàmọ́sí, Kíkẹ́lọmọ & Ajíbíkẹ́ Ògúnyẹmí, Bísí Fábùnmi, Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, Muraina Oyèlámì, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Nike Okúndayé, Chief Tọlá Wẹ́wẹ̀, Polly Alákija, Wúrà-Natasha Ogunji, and Adolphus Opara.
You can get more information about the campaign at Àdùnní Olórìṣà Trust.
by Emeka Ofoegbu
This is one of the highly anticipated book chats of the festival. On the one hand we have Igoni Barrett the author of the tastefully written Blackass and on the other we have Nnedi Okorafor one of Africa’s answers to fantasy, African-based science fiction and magical realism. The moderator for the book chat is Ainehi Edoro editor of Brittle Paper.
“Fiction is fantasy that’s why it’s fiction.”
“Realism depends on a worldview. Fantasy depends on one’s world view.”
These are the statements that color the chat as both Igoni and Nnedi tackle questions about the place fantasy and fiction occupy in African literature.
Nnedi talks about the boundless nature of fantasy writing and how, multiple times, her writing is influenced by the things she observes about her — a habit of hers which she jokingly apologizes for. She then regales with a tale from her childhood to further buttress the point of how her surroundings inspire her stories. It is a tale about how her and her sisters had observed pink ducklings on their way to her home state.
“Because it wasn’t important to the story” is Igoni’s response when asked by the moderator why he had chosen to keep silent on the reason why and how his main character in his latest novel wakes up a completely different race. He stresses how he did not wish to distract the reader with meaningless information and take their attention away from the story he was telling. In his words “the book would have ended in the first paragraph if I’d explained that.”
On talking about the similarities shared by both novels one being based in Lagos state, Nnedi and Igoni seemed to arrive at one conclusion. Lagos is prime material for works of fiction, science-fiction and fantasy. Referring to an article he read a while back, Igoni quotes the writer who said “it feels like Lagos is a city that had been built by aliens and abandoned” to which the audience laughs.
Nnedi talks about Lagos and the chaotic nature of it. She tells us about an incident which put her off the city for years. “You cannot see Lagos without seeing the chaos,” she says.
Ainehi then mentions their novels and their relations to digital technology. A lot of Igoni’s plot moves through social media. His character seems to have two personalities in the book. His real self and his social media portrayal of himself. Igoni responds by saying “social media allows people do what fiction allows the writer do. It allows you wear multiple faces.”
Nnedi then talks about how rhythm is used to inspire people and can therefore be considered a superpower. She cites Drake, the American rapper, as an example.
“Drake says complete nonsense in his song and makes sense in it. That’s a superpower.”
It is now time for questions and a lot of them come in. One of which is directed at Igoni. He is asked why his main character in his novel is aged 33 to which he responds “Jesus died at 33. I like 33 the lager and I was 33 at the time I wrote the story.”
The Book Chat comes to a close.