Gbigbo aja ki paja,
Kikan agbo ki i pagbo,
E je n jise ba mi,
Itakun to ni kerin ma g’oke alo,
O ti te,
Oba to gbe Mose nija, ohun lo mu wa bori,
alleluia lo mu mi g’oke mawon ota lowo,
Alleluia lo mu mi g’oke Odo.
These are part of the lyrics from the album that was a monster hit about four decades back. It was sang by Mama Deborah Adebola Fasoyin and her CAC Women’s choir.
The album has become a yearly ritual in South-West Nigeria since then for its ‘Odun nlo s’opin’ title track.
We would never know if there was a strong condemnation of the album or Mama Fasonyin then because of some of the lines, especially the ones I have quoted above.
What we were sure of then was album sales.
I wondered what would have happened if Mama DA Fasoyin released the album in this social media age and present day Nigeria.
We should read the Bible more, read it in our languages which has our socio-cultural millieu embedded in it. We should understand that language is dynamic and historical as well. The bible we read today is an account of the Hebrew replete with its socio-cultural contexts.
It is then written in the English language, which is of a different people and culture.
Already, there is a mix of languages and cultures and contexts. I know that the Bible is inspired of God by His Spirit.
Yes.
When Bishop Ajayi Crowther translated the Holy Bible from English to Yoruba language, he dipped into his cultural repertoire to give expression to what he decoded.
The society he wrote for then, and the society we are in now are markedly different in their appreciation of their Yorubaness and their understanding of the evolution of the language.
Today, we see demons where there are none. We equate ewa ede – the beauty of our language – with idolatry. Our similes and metaphors are now demonised for their morphology.
We cancel the ‘othered’ one and ferociously too. The online mob is the new mob, and they spare no one from their rage.
We need to understand our culture more. We need to know that you use the familiar to describe and understand the unfamiliar.
A Fuji musician sang, I forget which of them now, that he only understands how he worships his Maker.
Really, we need to stop this ‘conform or be damned’ attitude. We judge too much, we condemn too much. And we sneer endlessly at those who are different from us. He waters the earth for us all, regardless of our religion.
