You know, it was during a time of Ramadan such as this - a few years back - that I had an experience which left me shattered for months. She was my friend from our Nigerian Muslim community in the Bronx. We'd been friends for as long as I had been in the United States.... Continue Reading →

"Suke!" . There is a part of my memory that houses that fascinating demon, Fadeyi Oloro (Ojo Arowosafe). Mean, crafty and merciless, Fadeyi was the old Yoruba cinema’s Deimos – the quintessence of terror in Greek mythology. His darkened face, sometimes made more horrific by excessive cosmetics, was perhaps a reflection of what dwelled in... Continue Reading →

It's a Monday morning and I feel tired. Something about this early sunshine takes me back to Ìbàdàn of the late nineties when we lived in a story building at the banks of Ogunpa River in Mọ̀lété. There's a strange similarity in the air. I was very young, barely speaking, and I had fallen sick.... Continue Reading →

The height of happiness was when my son was born, but that state of intense joy was fleeting, marred by sadness of my sickness. My wife was in fear. So, you see, at this level of happiness there was still sadness lurking, as for the first time in my life, I actually feared that I... Continue Reading →

Just because I was privileged to attend private primary schools, which put me on a solid academic foundation, and paved the way for later successes in life, I'm not going to look at my friend who went to a failing public primary school, and now an ọmọ onílẹ̀ and call him lazy. I will not.... Continue Reading →

About two week ago, on a breezy afternoon, while being meticulous of my speed on Belt Parkway I listened to NPR where an interview of John Oliver was was being aired. It got interesting when the satirist talked about how he mimicked (mocked) Christian televangelist on an episode and had people send him money like... Continue Reading →

There is this story - a parable - of the Good Samaritan told by Jesus in the Bible. A traveler was robbed, beaten, striped off his clothes and left to die on the road. A religious priest traveling saw the beaten man and walked away and so did a Levi. It was a man from... Continue Reading →

Cold, he cuddles up on the sofa, blue laptop in hand, and fumbles through the blog, doing some updates. Shivering, he sits up and sets the computer on the thighs, field-notes to code, ethnographic analysis to write ahead of Monday. It is bitingly cold, and the hands of time shall be stretched forward tonight. The... Continue Reading →

So, a brother says to me, we hear you, be good to our wives, be romantic and all that, but how can we do these when they're not doing this and that. And more specifically, how am I going to want to come home early and spend time with her when I don't feel appreciated... Continue Reading →