ÒRÌSHÁGBÈMÍ: THE REMEMBERING

Temi Esan

© 2023

ÒRÌSHÁGBÈMÍ

MOYO OKEDIJI

2023
“Afinju Eiye Oloja gboro gboro
Yèyémi Odundunlade Peregun Eiye ajimo
Yèyé Nla Elewu Osun Ajibewaji Eiye Ibaka
Elewu efun Yèyémi, mojuba ba Re, Iba she o, oye, oye o, Iba ni
t’Ìmólè
Alaso aro
Yèyémi mor’iba Re, Iba she o, oye, oye o, Iba ni
Eiye sooro moga t’Ìmólè.”
Eiye moga moga sooro
Olólá aájín
“Every Life is a life. Everybody has a right to life
Olókìkí òru and to the preservation of physical integrity”.
Afenu gbonì lógànjó Article 4. Kurugan Fuga. Ca. 1235
Ako ajá aboru mérin “The children of the Gods have gone under,
Abo ajá aboru mérin because they failed to remember the law their
awe worthy ancestry had bequeathed them... the
Ako ajá aboru méjo African...continent has one thing to offer, namely,
Abo ajá aboru méjo real puzzles whose eventual solution is merely
deferred and a question of time.”
Ako ajá aboru mérindínlógún
Leo Frobenius, German Explorer in “The Voice of
Abo ajá aboru mérindínlógún Africa” (1913)
Olojongbodi Obirin Igúnugún tí balè ajori
Àkàlà balè ajedo
Early in the 13th century, according to the present
Yèyémi Onígbá eiye Gregorian calender, Sundiata, the Lion of Mali led
a successful revolution to overthrow and drive out
Al’Awodi, Ol’Owiwi
the foreign invaders, infiltrators and religion that
Alapandede Eiye agbagba had devastated the Ancient Ghana Confederacy of
which Mali was part of.
Yèyémi Eleiye Agbe
Getting his inspiration from ancient Africa’s
Ol’Odidere, On’Iwo
knowledge systems and relying on a vast network
Òráninísé fàyà tí of this knowledge system – now domiciled in The
Hunter’s society – for intelligence, equipment,
Olójúmòràn lóríta
organisation and personnel, he won an astounding
Iba, Iba, Iba ni moju, victory at the Battle of Kirna in 1235 after some 13
Yèyé kaare, olowo ide years of war.

Yèyé dee, ibigbogbo lona
E wo Yèyé loke, lodo by Osumare
Arogidigba, Abaraminijojo
On winning, Sundiata did not become emperor.
This was not what he fought for; liberation, only
to now continue the alien ways of the oppressors
and invaders. No, he revived Ancient Africa’s way
of social organisation, one that guaranteed its
survival and built the splendour that was the stuff
of myth in the Ancient world and created the
notion of the Blameless Aethiopians whose land
was the favourite of the Greek gods;
“....for Zeus went yesterday to Oceanus, to the
blameless Aethiopians for a feast, and all the gods
followed with him.”
Homer’s Iliad Book I, 422.
More than a thousand years later, in the 10 th
century AD, Africa’s brilliance still had not
dimmed; Ibn Hawqal, Islamic writer, geographer
and chronicler, wrote of the Black Africans he had
met along his journeys:
“They are well bred in their actions and perfect in
morals and deeds. In their manners, they do not
share the pettiness of other people of the Maghrib
in their dealings and customs, but act with great
frankness. They are known for their ready charity
and show great concern for one another... They
put aside all feuds and quarrels...out of nobility,
forgiveness and natural generosity”.
Back to Sundiata. On winning victory, he
convened, what in 21st century parlance will be a
Sovereign National Conference, known then as
The General Assembly of The People, on the plains
of the battlefield, in a place called Kurugan Fuga
near the present day town of Kangaba in the
Koukikoro region in the Southwest of present day
Mali.
Here the people deliberated and agreed on the
system of government, established the
confederation that would eventually become The
Great Mali Confederacy (erroneously called an
“empire”) that would become world famous, both
in its time and in the present, and laid down
society’s structures and the laws guiding the
society so structured.
This incredible document which Nick Nesbitt of
Princeton University described in an article as:
“Five and a half centuries before the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789,...one of
the most original and important texts in the
history of political thought appeared.”
800 years ago and for millenia before then, Africa
knew how to constitute itself into constituent
units and groupings and how to efficiently manage
these for social cohesion. The Mande Charter and
its successor document, the Kurukan Fuga,
encompassed all the principles that are now being
touted as modern and hence need to be taught to
Africans.
In its 4th article, it enshrined the inviolability of the
human being and the principle of fundamental
human rights;
“Every life is a life. Everybody has a right to life
and to the preservation of physical integrity.”
In its 5th article, it banished unemployment and
institutionalised full employment;
“To win the battle of prosperity, the Kon Gben
Wolo has been established in order to fight
against laziness and idleness.”
In its 7th article, free and universal education is
guaranteed to every child;
“The children’s education behoves the entire
society. The parental authority in consequence
falls to everyone.”
In its 6th article, it enshrined social cohesion;
“It has been established among the Mandekans,
the Sunankunya (the joking relationship) and the
Tanamanyoya (The Kinship Pact). Consequently,
any contention that occurs among these groups
should not degenerate; respect for one another
being the rule...tolerance should be the principle.”
In its 12th to 14th articles, women’s rights are
enshrined;
“Do never offend the women, our mothers
Do never beat a ...woman.
Women, apart from their everyday occupations
should be associated with all of society’s
managements.”
This was in the 13 th century AD...1235... some 788
years ago.
In one of a recent series of a spectacular
outpouring of pure Energy from a source deep
within Africa’s memory bank, in an intriguing self
portrait, Moyo Òkédìji invites into an incredible
journey of remembrance, restoration, renewal
and rejuvenation.
With bold strokes, striding across time and space
to a time before the Seasons of Anomie to throb
with the rhythms of celestial harmonies, he takes
the viewer on an intoxicating journey into the
pathways of ancient systems – now mostly
forgotten but whose faint trails remain for those
with eyes that see, ears that hear, endowed with
Ojú Onà – that lead to The Awakening.
The androgynous figure sits cross-legged and in
Òkédìji typical style, with its chiselled face. With
the urgency and weightiness of the message, he
dispenses with his usual mind bending, brain
teasing multiple optical illusions to focus the mind
on the seriousness of his message.
Beside the figure is a golden mirror. Non
reflective. A puzzled viewer wonders why the
mirror is non reflective until one sees that the
mirror is not a mirror at all but a metaphor for the
past...the ancestors.
“Iya ni wura, Baba ni jingin” – Mother is gold and
Father is the mirror – Òkédìji combines both
proverbs to invoke Sankofa; a return to the
Ancestors, to the deep heritage, to seek, to know,
to acquire the tools with which to build a better
future.
Embedded into the mirror are the faint shapes of
the Ancestors calling out to us to a remembrance
of The Way.
He invites us to remember Basil Davidson’s words
of deep wisdom:
“It may be fairly easy [to say that Africans] have to
modernize their institutions… Very well. But why
then adopt models from those very countries, of
systems that have oppressed and despised you?
Why not modernize from the models of your own
history, or invent new models?”
Òkédìji sings that the mirror is not for self
preening vanity – because what we will see then
will only be delusions invented by the desperate
ignorance of rapacious invaders – but to truly see
our selves as who we truly are... an extension and
descendants of a fecund and intellecting heritage;
to look at our forbears, own and know them and
who they truly were and not what we have been
told about them by looting destroyers.
So how exactly were African societies structures
before the Seasons of Anomie began?
The figure in Òkédìji’s piece, on one level,
represents an installation/the initiation of the
Guardian/Leader of a society.
Before the deluge, Africa had its excellent
educational system. It is how knowledge,
condensed and encoded over a hundred millenia
has managed to survive the vicissitudes of time
and come down to us still in the present time.
The main figure itself is an embodiment of coded
and compacted knowledge swimming in an ocean
of time.
In ancient Africa’s philosophical system, the
Universe emerged as a great and continuing
Becoming. From the Source, the Primordial
Source, emerged the Great Becoming;
“This Primordial Matter, was elevated to the level
of Divinity (called Nun in Egyptian cosmogony),
[Odù or Yèyé Nlá The Great Mother in the
cosmogony of those now know as the “Yoruba”
and all the other Great Mother Divinities of
Africa].
Thus from the start, each principle of explanation
of the Universe is doubled as a Divinity.
... Primitive Matter also contained the Law of
Transformation, the principle of evolution of
Matter through time, equally considered as a
Divinity: Khepera. It is the Law of Becoming, that
acting on Matter through time, will actualise the
archetypes, the essences, the beings who are
therefore already existing in potentiality, before
becoming in actuality.”
Cheikh Anta Diop
Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic
Anthropology
This Source and The Becoming duality is what is in
Yorùbá cosmogony, the Yemoja-Eshu duality.
“It is I the Becoming of Khepera, when I Became
the Becoming of those who became after my
Becoming...the Becoming of my numerous
Becomings of my Becomings in the becomings of
the children, and in the Becomings of their
children”
Chapter 17, The Book of The Coming Forth at
Dawn. Ca. 3,000BC Ancient Egypt
And hence in Ancient Africa, society itself was a
continual Becoming, continually being
created/recreated by its people led by the
Guardians – Mothers who are the earthly
representatives of the Universe’s Becoming.
Just as the Energy Eternal in a perpetual cycle of
creativity creates the Universe; of symmetry,
beauty, harmony and balance – in the first
instance and in continuity in the present instance
– just so the eternal Guardian embodied in the
current guardian of the society who is a
continuation of all guardians that have come
before – and hence all creativity that has come
before – but is the embodiment of the present
creativity. In striving to be like the Energy Eternal,
the work of the Guardians of society must be to
replicate this by creating a symmetrical, beautiful,
harmonious and balanced and hence just society.
Each society was a creation of Ojú Onà in the
plural guided by the leading Ojú Onà of that
generation in conjunction with the entire society.
Each society was a work of “art”, bringing
together different materials (peoples), integrating
and balancing all their energies to form a
harmonious and balanced society. It is therefore
only natural that the “leaders” of this system and
type of society must be the leading, most
endowed and best trained and best learned
leaders of intellection and creativity.
This is the real meaning of “Igbakeji Òrishà” (the
second in command of the Òrishà) that is part of
the Oríkì of current Obas in Yorùbá country. The
distortions translate it to mean domination and
oppression – the supposed authority to wield
“power” to suit his whims. This was not the
original meaning. This is the lie that the original
has been reduced to with the invasions and
infiltration of traditional African ways of being and
knowing.
Furthermore, each member of the society was a
practitioner of Onà (intellecting creativity) or
training to be one. A member of any of the many
guilds and specialisations of Onà; brass-workers,
ironworkers, beads makers, weavers, etc.
The famous Benin bronzes were not created by
“artists”, but by expert Artist-Engineers skilled in
metal technology with specialisation in alloys of
copper. The works of wood were not made by
sculptors but by those skilled in botany and
biology with deep understanding of different trees
and their attributes and how to utilize wood to
create materials which serve different functions in
the society which must be intrinsically beautiful. A
door cannot just be a door, it must serve the
functions of the functionality, the aesthetics as
well as an illustrated repository of knowledge to
pass on to the next generation.

And just as the Universe is beautiful, the society
hoping to replicate it must be beautiful too.
African societies were built on the principle of Onà
itself. All members of the society were Onà
practitioners and the Society itself was a work of
Onà as it is the Universe which it is supposed to be
a copy of.
Beauty in Africa is not really about aesthetics or
just the visual. That thing, for it to be beautiful,
must also be good, be balanced; referencing
equity. So for instance, a society with poor people
is an ugly society as is one with criminals. This is
why when the Europeans appeared on the coast
of Africa from the 15th century, they continually
wrote about the orderliness and lack of criminals
in those societies they encountered that were still
largely untouched by the Seasons of Anomie.
This is why as late as the 19 th century, Felix Dubois
in his book “Timbuctoo The Mysterious”, could
still quote a Djenne elder;
“It is a disgrace to beg here, for among us, it is
possible for everyone to earn a living. However
poor he may be, a man has but to work to become
rich.”
Every epoch was a new becoming from exactly the
same matter as the becomings that came before.
Like Òkédìji’s optical illusions, in which the same
components rearrange themselves to form new
becomings, this was/is how societies were/are
and the work of its Guardians, the Vanguard Ojú
Onà, working with its people was that of arranging
the Becoming on earth in tandem and consistent
with that of The Great Becoming of the Universe –
the societies thus created being works of Onà
themselves – what is present day referred to, for
want of an appropriate translation, as works of
“art” – a concentration of different peoples,
talents and energies to form a harmonious and
balanced society.
It was therefore only natural that the
leaders/Guardians of such societies were the
Vanguard Ojú Onà - those specially gifted and
rigorously trained to assume the task and burden
of Igbakeji Òrishà in the proper sense of the
phrase.
To be an Igbakeji Òrishà – to continue the work of
perpetual creation – the individual must be
endowed with the natural intuition of an Ojú Onà;
one who is able to appreciate and connect to
creativity. But this natural intuition is not enough.
In the African Philosophical and Knowledge
System, an Onà – that is a deep thinker, an
intellectual – must produce, must create; and
whatever is created must be Beautyful. It was not
just enough to be just an intellectual. That
intellectual has to be part of the creative process
of life and the process of creating a harmonious,
just, balanced, activated society which, of course,
will then be a Beautyful society of diverse
intellecting components. Diversity is encouraged
and celebrated in such a society because it leads
to an expansion of knowledge. A yearning for
sameness is a yearning for an ignorant society and
hence dead one.
Each member of the society was educated to be
an Onà in diverse disciplines along each
individual’s talent. This is why “ori” (the head) is
premised by the Yoruba. It is not progeny that is
most important but the gifts and ability that each
individual came equipped with. This ability/talent
needs to be developed and the best way to
develop it is by studying with the Ojú Onà, the
Emeritus Professors of the particular knowledge
stream; eventually called High Priestesses and
Priests because there was no equivalent system in
the strange languages we have been having to
bend our tongues to....all these two thousand
seasons of drought, of loneliness.
From the age of 4, immediately after weaning,
each child, male or female, enters into the
educational system, becomes a member of the
society of the specialisation of knowledge in which
the child has a special affinity.
The vast corpus of knowledge itself was divided
into 16 main streams – 16 divisions of the body,
the heavens, the earth, all living beings, all
knowledge – with thousands of sub disciplines and
specialisations and each child born was initiated
into wherever his gifts lie.
This division of 16 is maintained all over African
traditional Knowledge systems and in the Kurugan
Fuga itself, the very first article divides the society
not along lineage lines but along the 16
knowledge streams, the 16 Ojú Onà, known as the
Quiver Carriers;
“The Great Society is divided into 16
communities/clans of Quiver Carriers”
The 16 streams/books/disciplines that Ancient
Africa’s knowledge system was coded into for easy
education and transmission.
The Quiver originally stood for the Alápò (the
satchel carriers) – a direct equivalent of the scribal
satchels of Ancient KMT (Egypt) – of the Ona and
Ojú Onà of the different knowledge streams who
always carried a pouch/satchel containing basic
instruments for learning and documenting and
serves as a container for any new plant/natural
object they see to take back home for further
investigation. The satchel eventually became used
for other purposes as the Season of Anomie set in
but always as a repository of knowledge. The
famous Akan goldweights, with their intrinsic and
incredible mathematics were stored and carried in
these satchels.
The term Alápò is still used in the Odù Ifa to
describe Agba Awos...elders of the secrets.
The training of the future Onà begins in the
particular stream of the many streams of
knowledge as the streams on Òkédìji’s figure
indicate. The child moves to live in the Udile – the
University Faculty – where the Emeritus Professor
and all other leading Professors of that knowledge
stream are gathered.
Udile/Idile Ogun, (depreciated to Idile Alagbede)
originally those that work with metals and their
alloys but now simply said to be blacksmiths; Udile
Alaro, House of the knowledge of the chemistry of
plants, pharmaceutical sciences, textile science
and arts, gynecologists; Udile/Idile
Jakuta/Arara/Shango, Udile/Idile Olosun,
Udile/Idile Oramfe, Udile/Idile Obaluaye etc, etc.
Udi-Ile/Idi Ile: Udi/Idi is known to be the gathering
place of Awon Iyami, of the Odù; hence Udile/Idile
– the House of Gathering for Knowledge
referencing Ancient Egypt’s Per Ankh; The House
of Life.
This was what the Universities and training
institutes and hence the societies of Ancient Africa
were called. In the Season of Anomie, the Life was
thought to be place of birth. Lineage thus replaced
knowledge as the fundamental principle of
organising society.
This structure based on knowledge systems and
creativity is the most intelligent way to promote
innovation and development.
Ancient Africa cities and hence societal
organisations were not built around lineage or
family blood lines. They were built as knowledge
based coming together of like minds with shared
interests and abilities.
Even today, this system still proves to be most
effective; The Silicon Valley and Hollywood are
both examples of communities built up and
structured based on specialisation.
This is the really the only way to have ensured the
continuity and innovation that attended Africa’s
ancient systems. Only people with a passion for
any particular skill or knowledge stream can
advance it. For it to have survived these thousands
of years, it could not have been trusted to Ebi.
Once societies became conglomerate of lineages
as opposed to knowledge, the degradations
started and halted Africa’s development systems.
None of the children may be interested, nor have
the passion or aptitude. In three generations, the
knowledge stream is already diluted, being kept
alive only through rigorous repetition and the
mandatory Ancestor worship . And eventually
even this is not enough. Nobody in Ife today
remembers how they made beads from sand nor
even know which sands to use and nobody in Igbo
Ukwu has any bronze casting skills. With the
disruptions in Benin, as is obvious from the Benin
Bronzes, workmanship depreciated over the ages.
Once it becomes limited to lineage, creativity
suffers.
The Dogon maintain the memory of the ancient
ways. The groupings in Dogon society is based not
on land or family ties but on PURPOSE: a purpose
of knowing; a specialised study of a particular
discipline of knowledge.
The so called “tribes” are subdivided according to
intellectual activity and specific knowledge. It has
now been gradually codified into familial
relationships but this is only because of the
calamities of the past millenia. And so, according
to Professor Cheikh Anta Diop,
“the Ono study Venus; the Dommo, Orion’s
Shield; the Aru, the moon; and the Dyon, the sun”
Other branches of the some 250 Dogon groupings
specialised in different branches of knowledge;
biology, mathematics, chemistry of plants and
animals etc, etc.
Africa, remember your awe-inspiring heritage.
Most children become life long members of these
university/societies in which their innate abilities
are developed and guided to bloom. These
societies acquire renown as centres of excellence
for particular streams of knowledge.
Oshogbo was a university/society built around the
knowledge stream deified as Osun which included
the expertise in the chemistry of Indigo and its
many pharmaceutical streams and hence became
known not only as a centre of the “worship” of
Osun but also as Ìlú Aró – The City of Indigo. Next
door is Ede, “awon onise ide” – those that work
bronze/brass – also associated with Òshun.
Those however that would be future leaders,
either political or academic travelled wide and
spent time in different cities/universities seeking
more knowledge to eventually become Emeritus
Professors or Guardians of societies.
The ones with the sharpest minds and
administrative skills go through all the streams of
knowledge so they can have a panoramic – a
bird’s eye view and deep knowledge in
preparation for eventual guardianship.
For anyone to be qualified for the position of
guardianship, they must have undergone rigorous,
extensive and intensive training in all the different
departments of the larger society which they must
administer.
The position of Guardianship itself was dual,
referencing the duality of nature. There was at the
same time a Male and a Female Guardian. At
initiation, the female is ritually transformed into a
male and the male is ritually transformed into a
female. Balanced, they work together, the
weaknesses of one being balanced by the
strengths of the other.
Requiring incredible self discipline and self denial,
and a deep, extensive and intensely rigorous
training in all branches of knowledge, its onerous
responsibility ensured that it was not an attraction
to be fought over. Only those gifted with the spirit
of selfless sacrifice were eligible and in the very
spirit of selfless sacrifice, none of those qualified
were interested nor capable of struggling or
fighting to attain the position.
The many privileges that are now taken as
“natural rights” of those that occupy the position
in its degraded form – the kings – were originally
“bribes” by the community to soften the hardships
and the burdens of the position of
Guardians/Mother of Society.
These rights and benefits were not God made, the
better the Guardians performed their duty, the
more the community bestowed its gifts and
rewards. Any deviation from the strict obligations
of the position led to a corresponding withdrawal
of those same rights and benefits by the
community.
The Ebi system in the Yoruba and all the other
lineage based groupings all over the continent, for
example is a recent degradation of the original
systems after the Seasons of Anomie had began
with the initial invasions, about 1,200 years ago,
from the desert with their religion. They couldn’t
conquer the people on ground so they decided to
give them their daughters to marry.
To extricate and destroy the political and
knowledge systems, it was gradually changed to
Ebi system so that the invaders could get a
foothold and control power.
If only Ojú Onà trained in the traditional systems
could lead societies, there can be no “royal
families” and the invaders needed royal families
so that the descendants of the children now born
by their daughters will be able to claim a right to
rule, fossilising the “reign” of the Vanguard that
was in charge at the time of their intrusions.
Furthermore, the knowledge and political systems
can now be distorted and gradually diluted and
infiltrated since it is now on the authority of “my
father told me” and citizens will no longer aspire
to know. Being born to a particular family is
enough to lord it over the rest of the citizens.
Education was no longer the path to honour, just
as happened in Ancient Egypt at the collapse of
the First Kingdom; bandits and vagrants had taken
power. Honour was now bestowed by birth and
no longer by ability, rigorous training, discipline
and high education and intellection honed by
study and discussions – the Age of The
Philosopher- Guardian was over. Banditry and
violence now installed “dynasties” imbued with
“royal blood”.
And gradually society passed from highly educated
and in tune with Odù to one of ignorance. The
Seasons of Anomie had begun.
In one hand, Okediji’s figure holds a bird – present
at all initiations including those of Kings even
today – the Symbol of The Odù.
In the context of the Guardian, it represents in the
first instance, the beginning of the dual
stewardship. Balancing this is the bird on the
figure’s head, the Akalàmàgbò and/or Agbigbo
(both hornbills) signifying in one context death,
the end, the transition; to remind the Guardians
of the eternal cycle of beginnings and transitions
and of the accounting of stewardship that is to
come.
The iconography of the bird also represents the
Igba Ìwà. The Calabash of both The Mothers as the
source and repositories of all knowledge which of
course leads to wisdom, as well as The Calabash of
Wisdom.
The Oríkì of Yèyé Nlá/ The Mothers celebrates and
encodes their deep mysteries.
Odù/The Great Mother is the Embodiment and
The Source of all knowledge and all knowing and
the Children of Odù, the Beautyful Ones are
repositories of knowledge on earth.
My Mother, The Mothers of the 200 birds.
Birds in most cultures have always been accorded
special status and across Africa, they are signifiers
and identifiers of The Great Mother; The Mothers
Great. Awon Yèyémi, Iyon Iyèmi, The Fundamental
Ìmólè, the Foremost Imolè, The Source...The Odù.
The birds of Odù are deep symbols of the
attributes of each specific bird, the scientific study
of these birds by the Ancient Ojú Onà hence
served as encoded textbooks of knowledge;
Odidere; the parrot and its fidelity to the Truth.
Iwo; the super intelligent Raven, (together with its
close cousin, the Crow) historically the bird of the
Mothers. With their large brains they have the
capacity to transmit information about objects
distant in space and time.
Ravens and crows stand for Community, Truth,
Equity, Justice, Wisdom, Intelligent Creativity,
Transformation and Prophecy.
Insightful and mysterious, these intelligent birds
with their large brains create and manipulate
tools. They abhor cheating of any kind and they
have been observed to stop cooperating with
other ravens that they observe cheating in group
tasks.
Awodi; the large and powerful Eagle,
Ologiri; alubembe, alubata, Alukírìnjìngìnígí Odù,
the beautiful Palm Cockatoo; now no longer seen
in Southern Nigeria as the population of its
favourite palm tree, that which produces the
special palm nuts used for divination, has been
decimated by foreign religionist who deemed the
tree “evil”.
Àkàlàmagbo; the long lived – with an average life
span of about 40 – 70 years – Ground Hornbill
associated with longevity as well as death sits atop
the figure’s head. While invoking long life for the
Guardian, also a reminder of the day of death and
the accounting of stewardship to be done
afterwards.
Alapandede; the swallow, with its long pointed
graceful shimmering wings and slender and
streamlined body for greater maneuverability and
endurance.
Agbe; lo l’aro, the Great Blue Turaco, owner of the
pots of Indigo.
Sankofa
“A mind attacked and conquered is guided away
from the paths of its own soul...Where I come
from revolution is the only creation and the
revolutionary the only artist...Disgust with
injustice may sharpen the desire for justice.
Readers who don’t see this connection merely
wish to be entertained, and I have neither skill nor
desire to turn the agony of a people into
entertainment”
Ayi Kwei Armah
Òkédìji works invokes and calls us to see beyond
our present labels and divisions imposed upon us
by ravaging invaders to conquer, divide and rule;
first by the rampaging hordes from the north and
then other hordes from the Oceans in the south,
turning us into museum pieces and labelling us in
ignorance and greed. He calls us to reclaim our
higher selves and not to fulfill the aspirations and
dreams of our rapists.
What if we remember our fundamental essence
and The Fundamental Essence and strive to be
one with The Great Becoming, Every LIFE will –
once again – be a LIFE....
And Òkédìji asks again, do we know who we are
that we now bicker like confused orphans,
deranged and stranded in a jungle of modernity.
Vibrating and Activated with and by the Energy
Eternal, packed full with Love, bursting at the
seams with creativity, filled with knowledge
whose source is deeper than memory, regal,
strong, silent and confident, Africa sits, gazing
beyond the now, into the far horizon, far beyond
and above the raging fires and turmoil of the now,
into the far future, in the characteristic repose of
endless sages; waiting for its children to wake up,
take the bird in hand and lift Africa up for the
dancing to begin anew.....
We are not coming from “primitivism”....we have In adire semiotics, the chameleon’s tail is usually
descended from a place of awesome beauty and depicted as up and usually curled. In traditional
splendour – from a state of Onà. Yoruba mythology, Ògà’s tail and tongue are said
to hold up the Sun and the Moon. Indigo workers
Òkédìji reminds us to look into our jingin and wura
need the sun and no rain for the leuco-indigotin to
(our mirror and our gold; our ancestors) and
effectively combine with oxygen in the air and fix
reclaim our broken and forgotten selves in order
the resultant Indigo to produce a faster and
to heal and then restart the work of creativity,
deeper Indigo colour.
regeneration, rejuvenation and progress; to
recapture, transcend and improve – to create new Òkédìj’s Ògá’s tail is down – the rains are here...
ways of being, firmly rooted in the ancient, deep finally...
and accumulated expertise and sophisticated
knowledge systems.

Òkédìji’s androgynous Ojú Onà sits alone, in the

desert, resting in the ever flowing river of the
Ancestors on which the pot of the desert plant
sits. The Ancestors who fertilise the desert plant,
which has had to develop deep, deep roots to
reach life giving waters, deep under the punishing
sands of the desert.

The water storing desert plant is the only

nourishment for our Ojú Onà all these seasons.

The figure is in restraint and not relaxed. The

viewer can feel the tautness, the holding in, the
vibrating stillness of the figure. It is contained but
brimming full. It needs release but it is holding
itself aloof, waiting for the children of The
Becoming to remember and relieve it of its
burden; to start again the cycle of Eternal
creation; Eternal Becomings.

With the golden sky behind, having been

energized by the Sun, the primal Source of Energy,
having looked deep into the mirror and learnt as
much as can be learnt, the figure sits, filled with
knowledge and knowing, alone in the desert
where the knowledge of Nwn, Odu, Awon Iya,
Yemoja-Eshu has been covered by a millenia of
desert sand, waiting for the rain.

But there is hope, Òkédìji exults. On the right hand

of the figure is the adire symbol for the Ògá – the
Chameleon – also another of Yèyémi Odù’s pet
animals.