The Nature of Truth

Truth is a calabash of water in calm hands.

In search of it many ask to drink.

But it is only one gourd.

So they leave with a pour from it,

Tucked away in en-bowl(ed) palms…

Finding the water too small they decide to harmlessly add a little spit.

Then reach the next friend who says, “Oh Truth, may I have a drink”

He too receives some from the little saved in his friend’s palms.

Tucking it in his palms walks along and adds his own spit,

Then finds another friend thirsty for a drink

And so it goes on and on…

Until what remains is all spit and no water.

And all who drink are satisfied that spit is water

By Kwaw S.O. Peppeh Ra

Language is a figure of speech

IX

Never talk of right and wrong to me

Nor of left and right when I'm near.

We stand

On a facet of iceberg

Left is not right

Our heads pierce up

And our feet nail us down

Spectacles can't make us see

Down below is quite tartarin

What shall we name

What we cannot see or know?

X

The hand had five fingers

And they were equally short

But one finger out of spite

Decided to add an inch

To raise him above Dickenharry

The others, out of aggrandisement

Imitated likewise

The competition

No sooner begun

Than ever will end

One finger added more breadth

Than height and another

Shrunk out of size

In order to show them

What can be achieved

With a little trying.

XI

This hunter was my neighbor

One day he went to wash in the river

While he was putting his trousers on

He failed to balance steadily

On the right foot

And the left foot muffled by the trouser leg

Stumbled into the muddy water

Realising that the trousers 

Had not drunk water for a long time

And therefore were naturally thirsty

He told them to drink away

To their heart content

With this resolution made

My hunter friend sat down in the muddy water

Whereupon the trousers were mightily glad

And drank water to saturation

By Taban Lo Liyong
- A Selection of African Poetry (Revised and enlarged edition), Introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, Longman Group Limited, 1976

Hausa Folklore: A story about a giant, and the cause of thunder

There was once a man who claimed he was ‘A-Man-Among-Men’

Whenever he came back from the forest, he threw down the firewood on his shoulders and shouted ‘I am A-Man-Among-Men!’

But every time he said this, his wife said, “if you meet A-Man-Among-Men, you’d run.”

He thought otherwise and dared the one who also thinks he is a man among men to show up.

One day, his wife went to fetch water from a well, but the bucket attached to the well was such that only 10 men could lift it.

As she returned home with her empty calabash, she met an older woman with a baby on her back.

After exchanging greeting, the wife of ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ informed her about the bucket at the well.

The old woman said “Oh, let’s go my son would do it.” So they returned and the baby fetched the water for them to the astonishment of the wife of ‘A-Man-Among-Men.’

She returned home and told her husband what she had seen. He was so eager to see this family that he didn’t sleep.

At dawn they were off to the well and co-incidentally, the old woman was coming there to fetch water. The one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ tried to fetch the water from the well but almost fell in with the bucket, only to be saved by the baby.

After dusting himself off, the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ demanded to see the father of the child.

So he followed the old woman and baby home. When they arrived the child’s father had gone to the forest. The old woman hid him in a room with a peephole where he could see the child’s father and cautioned him to escape when he was asleep.

The child’s father came back from the forest and ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ trembled at the voice that shook the building. Indeed he was a giant - a man among men.

The child’s father said “I smell a human being around,’ but his wife convinced him there was no one around. 

At midnight ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ escaped from his hiding and made for the forest in top speed.

The child’s father heard him run and tracked him into the bush.

Running all night with the child’s father not far behind, ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ met a group clearing a farm. They said “why are you running,” and he replied “a man among men is chasing me.” They thought they were strong enough to stop whosoever it is so they told the man who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ to stand. As they waited, the force of his pursuer’s steps caused a great wind to push all of them to the floor, the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ asked “are you sure you can fight him?” this time they said “no, please go”.

So he continued running until he met a man and his relatives clearing a farm, they stopped him and asked why he ran, after explaining what has happened they said “stand there, we would stop him.”

But as they waited the wind came and pushed them to the floor and they all scattered.

So the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ continued running until he met a giant under a baobab tree who was twice the size of his pursuer. The giant asked why he ran, and after explaining the giant said “sit, let us wait for this man among men.”  As they sat the wind came and he was thrown yards away, but the giant was still as though the wind was scared to come near him.

Finally the child’s father arrived and demanded to know who ran from his house. In the argument that followed the two giants got into a fight.

Legend has it that they fought until they both levitated into the clouds - the sound of their tussle in the cloud is said to be the origin of thunder.

-          Adapted from Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, Etc, R. Sutherland Rattray, 1913 Claredon Press

A common hate enriched our love for us

A common hate enriched our love for us:

Escape to parasitic ease disgusts;
discreet expensive hushes stifled us
the plangent wines became acidulous

Rich foods knotted to revolting clots
of guilt and anger in our queasy guts
remembering the hungry comfortless.

In draughty angles of the concrete stairs
or seared by salt winds under brittle stars
we found a poignant end to tenderness,

and, sharper than our strain, the passion
against our land's disfigurement and tension;
hate gouged out deeper levels for our passion -

a common hate enriched our love for us

By Dennis Brutus

To the Judge’s Wooden Hammer

Do you know the meaning of what he says?

Can you see reality from his 'down to earth' perspective?

In your seat posted at the zenith of ‘holier than thou’…

How do you look up-on the “ignorant”!?

What is wisdom?

Is he really blind in the mind?

Or we have subjected his thoughts to torture

What is meaning?

What is what?

Is it really possible to know what is what?

What is in the farmer’s boots that makes us believe it mocks alligator shoes?

Our experiences have erected bars;

Between ours mind and his thoughts...

All messages crash against blindness.

You so passionately curse and pound him

And with each strike he pleads “Stop”,

All we really  hear is our fears,

…what if the thing we so enviably battle against in him,

Only exists in the bloodied halls of our consciousness

By Joko

Come Thunder (1967)

Come  Thunder

Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street corners,

Remember, O dancers, the thunder among the clouds…

Now that the laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the teeth,

Remember, O Dancers, the lightning beyond the earth…

The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of the afternoon.

The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power;

And a great fearful thing already tugs at the cables of the open air,

A nebula immense and immeasurable, a night of deep waters —

An iron dream unnamed and unprintable, a path of stone.

The drowsy heads of the pods in barren farmlands witness it,

The homesteads abandoned in this century’s brush fire witness it:

The myriad eyes of deserted corn cobs in burning barns witness it:

Magic birds with the miracle of lightning flash on their feathers…

The arrows of God tremble at the gates of light,

The drums of curfew pander to a dance of death;

And the secret thing in its heaving

Threatens with iron mask

The last lighted torch of the century…

By Christopher Okigbo

The History of Odudua

As is usual with the founders of ancient civilisations, there is much controversy about the history of Odudua (also Oòdua, Oduduwa, Obarisa or Olofin Adimula). This post only presents the history as reported by trustworthy sources – we make no claim to present any final opinion on this matter.

As discussed in our earlier post (The Yoruba – KMT Connection), there are many similarities between the Yoruba culture and that of the Nile Valley states. One often ignored area of similarity is in the personalities of Ausar and Odudua.
The Kemetic creation myth states that Ausar is the son of Geb and Nut, (these deities represent the earth and the sky respectively). Ausar later became ruler of Kemet and introduced agriculture, law (by inference a system of rulership) to the people of Kemet. According to The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazier, “Osiris [Ausar] reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws, and taught them the worship of the gods”.

Similarly, Odudua is attributed divine origins and is said to have descended from the sky on a golden chain. He subsequently founded the Yoruba Kingdom and introduced a system of rulership. Another version of Odudua’s history has it that, coming from the east (most likely the Nile Valle states), “They [Odudua and his people] came to Ile-Ife and fought and conquered the pre-existing Igbo (unrelated to the present Igbo) inhabitants led by Oreluere (Obatala).”

According to information made available on RaceandHistory.com by Olomu and Eyebira, in Kemet the word ‘Dudu’ was used to describe the black image of Ausar (who also went by the title ‘Lord of the Perfect Black’).  In the Yoruba language, Dudu means black or a black person. A.B Ellis in his book ‘The Yoruba –Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa’ wrote that Odudua literally meant “Black One” (Although he erroneously described Odudua as a female deity).  An article by the Olokun Festival Foundation provides a different meaning of Odudua, the post stated thus “Oduduwa means Odu to da iwa i.e how to behave”. The emblematic nature of this name points to the divine origins of Odudua and gives us a hint of the prime position Odudua occupies in Yoruba culture.

This connection between the names and accomplishments of Ausar and Odudua supports the tale of the Nile Valley origin of Odudua. The story states that Odudua led a migration of Yoruba people westwards from the Nile Valley (presumably from Kemet, Nubia or Cush). According to the post on RaceandHistory.com cited earlier, this migrating population settled at illushi and around Asaba. It is generally agreed that the migrating Yoruba people met a pre-existing civilisation at Ile-Ife - this group would later be conquered and integrated into the Yoruba kingdom.

It is possible to estimate the period of the migration of the Yoruba people to their present location. Olomu and Eyebira on RaceandHistory.com wrote the following, “If the Yorubas left the Egyptian or the Nubian axis, they must have left during turbulent periods of war, economic stagnation or religious persecution….
The first crop of migrants or southward push of the Egyptians took place about 2000BC – 500BC. The Hyskos invasion (2000 – 1500BC) caused some of these southern migrations. Many of the black Egyptians seemed to have moved to Yoruba land during this period.

The second wave of migrations will correspond to what Laoye Sanda, of the department of Public Administration [at] The Polytechnic [of] Ibadan refers to as the black Nubian emigrants. The Nubians were [are] black, they occupied present day Sudan, which was an integral part of the Egyptian Empire. The vocabulary, body scarification, and religious discourse resemble those of the Ijebus and more so, the Itsekiri [this proves that they are of a similar origin as the Nubians]. These migrations [the second wave] occurred about 500BC.

A third wave of migration took place between 90BC and 30BC. The present writers feel the personality called Oduduwa, came in that migration trend.

A fourth migration will correspond to the Christian conquest of Egypt, about 100AD.

The last wave of migration will correspond to the Arab enforced emigration, between 700AD – 1100AD, when the Arabs had consolidated their control over Egypt; they chased the last batch of traditional worshipping Egyptians from Egypt. This occurrence would have led to many Yoruba claiming that their ancestors were chased from somewhere in the Middle East for not accepting Islam.”

According to another post on NigeriaVillageSquare.com, “Oduduwa must have been here before Christ, going by parallel archaeology of the Yoruba, Egypt, Greece and Rome with the history in the Bible or the Koran. Unless those before him were many centuries old before he was born! He travelled through the Nile valley, spread Yoruba civilisation and religion. Yoruba, named in Arabic writing, were noted for their religion, before their present country brothers became aware of them. See Beginning of Ethnic Formation. During Oduduwa's exploration, he had children Yoruba [sic] usually name[d] AdeTokunbo, Omowale, Magbagbeile and others overseas. He was revered because his descendants were kingdom builders and they also unified the Yorubas. Oduduwa proved his Ife royal blood to Agboniregun or Setilu in care of Ifa oracle by displaying his crown, a book in verses and an obelisk. Zo Giwa mentioned these three items in his article in case any dynasty had missed them.”

The other tale of the origin of Odudua is more cosmological. The Olokun Festival Foundation tells it like this, “The creation of Ife began with Olodumare, who sent Obatala and oduduwa to the world for important purposes, while they were going Obatala came across a group of people drinking palm-wine, he decided to join them and abandoned the task assigned to him and oduduwa by Olodumare. On seeing this, Olodumare instructed Oduduwa to collect the cockerel on Obatala`s shoulder and to proceed to Ife to accomplish the assignment. It was however, Oduduwa who completed the job which was [due to] the fact that he carried a handful of earth, a cockerel and palm nut. He then scattered the earth over the water and the cockerel scratched it to become the land, Ife. The word Ife was derived from the Yoruba adjective `Fe` meaning, to be wide.

The duo later went back to heaven and olodumare queried Obatala for getting drunk and sleeping off. Meanwhile, Olodumare praised oduduwa for a job well done and promised to make him the king of Ife. Prior to this time, Orunmila had informed the people of Ife that a king was coming and would be recognised by the Aare (the crown) he would be wearing. Also before this time, Obatala had come to Ife with other deities and boasted that he would become the king of Ife but had [sic] turned out to be a mirage. Eventually, when Oduduwa was descending with a chain from Heaven with the Aare, the people of Ife recognised him immediately.

On getting to the world this time around, Orunmila was the first to sight them and he immediately recognised Oduduwa as the king of Ife, a place which had been lacking a well structured political leadership. It is significant to note that what the Aare wore is that which is been [sic] worn by Yoruba Obas today.”

The claim by Samuel Johnson that Odudua was the son of Lamurudu has been stringently questioned by some historians, as there is no evidence to support this theory. The other theory that he migrated from Mecca has also been questioned for lack of evidence. Some scholars deduce that Odudua could have been to Mecca given the proximity of the Nile Valley states and the Middle East – this however, hinges on an acceptance of the theory of the Nile Valley origin of Odudua.

What can be said certainly is that after being installed as the Ooni of Ife, Odudua is said to have conquered the surrounding settlements and created a powerful kingdom with a centralized structure.  According to some sources, Odudua introduced many ancient practices and institutions such as the Ifa spiritual system to the Yoruba people. He subsequently established the renowned Ogboni cult to protect these teachings.

Like other deities, Odudua is said to have transcended death. The Olokun Festival Foundation says, “Oduduwa, the great progenitor of the Yoruba race, never died. He was said to have angrily entered the earth (ground) with the chain he had used to descend from heaven initially. To this end, Oduduwa still live[s] like any other deity or spirit but can not be seen by ordinary humans except by individuals who have supernatural powers to see and communicate with him in the spiritual realm.”

Different sources have presented varying accounts of how many children Odudua had – some say they were 7, others say they were about 16. What is certain is that upon his departure from earth his children dispersed and expanded the Yoruba kingdom.

According to information provided by the National Association of Yoruba Descendants in North America, “Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ife to found other kingdoms. These original founders of the Yoruba nation included Olowu of Owu (son of Oduduwa’s daughter), Alaketu of Ketu (son of a princess), Oba of Benin, Oragun of Ila, Onisabe of Sabe, Olupopo of Popo, and Oranyan of Oyo. Each of them made a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.

After the dispersal, the aborigines, the Igbo, became difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and the Ife people would flee. Then the Igbo would burn down houses and loot the markets. Then came Moremi on the scene - like Deborah of the Old Testament. When no man could dare the Igbos, Moremi asked the Esinminrin river for help and promised to give offerings if she could save her people. The Orisa told her to allow herself to be captured and to understudy the Igbo people. She did, and discovered that these were not spirits; only people with raffia for dress. She escaped, and taught her people the trick. The next time the Igbo people came to sack the town, the townspeople set fire on their raffia costumes, and they were roundly defeated. Moremi then had to go back to Esinminrin to thank the gods.  Every offering she offered was refused. On divination, she was told that she had to give Oluorogbo, her only son. She did. The lesson of Moremi is the lesson of patriotism and selflessness. The reward may not be reaped in one’s life time.  Moremi passed on and became a member of the Yoruba pantheon. The Edi festival celebrates the defeat of the Igbo and the sacrifice of Oluorogbo till today."

A post on NigerainVillageSquare.com adds a very crucial piece of information to the quote above (although the writer fails to mention his source), “Oranmiyan, one of the grandsons of Okanbi became the founder of Oyo and Benin Empires. He was the one who wanted to go back to the Nile Valley on his return from Benin to avenge those who kicked Oduduwa out.

[To conclude with the words of the same writer] “Civilization has a very simple meaning but today it has exotic attachment for self gratification. It is the ability of people to live amicably among one another. It is not modernization, invention of weapon[s] of mass destruction or the ability to destroy the world in a second. The Yoruba were farmers who had enough to eat and drink because they lived on fertile soil in the rain forest and might have changed locations to take advantage of fertile environment. See Professor Ade Obayemi about eight locations of Ife. This gave the Yoruba the time to think, reflect, engage in Arts, build, organize a civilize[d] community and practice their religion that was known through out Africa in ancient time. Those looking for solutions, predictions, cures, wisdom, artists and rulers went [came] to Ife.”

By Kwaw S.O. Peppeh Ra