Lamidi Fakeye: The end of an era
Toyin Falola
From: aderonke adesanya <ron...@yahoo.com>
Subject: The end of an era
To: Toyin Falola <toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>
Yoruba art world has lost yet another icon and fillip to a tradition
that is a paradox: an enduring yet vanishing heirloom: Lamidi Fakeye,
the most prominent of the Fakeye artist passed on today and has been
buried in his home town Ila-Orangun at 4.00pm. Dr ademuleya of O.A.U,
Ile-Ife announced his demise this evening. May his soul rest in
peace. His brother Ganiyu Fakeye, one of those I documented also in
my study passed on 3 years ago. I sope with his son two years ago at
their residence at Odeoolo area. He has since withdrawn from
woodcarving and taken up some other business.
>
>AAA
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--
---------------------------
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
laolu akande
No way, this man was in the US only last month or so and was honored by Morgan State?
Wow!
Great sculptor of international repute!!
--- On Sat, 12/26/09, Toyin Falola <toyin....@mail.utexas.edu> wrote: |
|
Dr. Valentine Ojo
A liittle-known Historical Footnote
The Late Lamidi Fakeye actually launched his career as a Carver of International status in Ondo.
Lamidi Fakeye came from Ila Orangun to settle in Ondo when I was still a child. He rented quarters in one of my grandparents houses at Oke Alafia Street, Ondo, just a stone throw from the St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Ondo. We the children would often go there to watch him at work, and to hand him his utensils (carving knives, chisels, etc.) whenever he called on us to do so.
Or to help him fetch water from a nearby-well...
One evening, my late father, Sir Chief Jerome Ojo (he was knighted by the Catholic Church), took one of the Irish priests who had come visiting with him to see Late Lamidi Fakeye at work in the backyard. The priest (Rev. Fr. O'Shaugnassy was his name I think) introduced the other priests (all Irish) to Fakeye's work.
It was then the Parish priest decided to ask Lamidi Fakeye to carve the 14 Stations of the Cross, and the Main Door to the St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Ondo, after obtaininig clearance from the Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese at Akure, the Right. Rev. Bishop Field.
The Main Door and the Stations of the Croiss are still in use in St.Matthew's Catholic Church, Ondo, to this day.
Sometime later, some priests came to visit from Ibadan. They liked the carved Stations of the Cross, and the Main Door to the St. Matthew's Church which was also carved by Lamidi Fakeye.
They therefafter invited him to Ibadan, to do some major carvings - the Main Door, statues of some saints, and the 14 Stations of the Cross - for the Catholic Cathedral that was being built in Ibadan.
Fakeye also did some work for the Peter and Paul Major Seminary at Bodija, Ibadan.
It was from there that the Late Lamidi Fakeye joined the staff of the Obafemi Awolowo University when it first opened in Ibadan, before moving to its permanent site at Ife...
And the rest is now history.
During my days teaching at Ife, Late Lamidi Fekeye continued to be like an uncle to me, and I frequently visited with him and his family.
Among one of his early works is the front door to our family house at Fidipote Street, New Town Layout, Ondo.
May his soul rest in peace!
Ki Olorun fi Orun rere ke won o!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 12:34 AM , laolu akande akan...@yahoo.com sent:
Tony Agbali
C'est la vie! That is life. One is here today and gone tomorrow. That's why those who make the world a better place invests themselves credibly in etching their eternal memorials on the minds of many and provide soothing templates upon which are inscribed their honored legacies. That is why the Latin adage "Ages quod agis" (what is worth doing is worth doing well) and to use our time more qualitatively in producing outputs of immense value and out of our maximal capabilities become all the more even crucial, directed away from the cheap, lagging, and sluggish drives that shape the momentum of consciousness that incrementally continues to shape the Nigerian imagination in engaging reality.
--- On Sat, 12/26/09, laolu akande <akan...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
Adeniran Adeboye
jegede, dele Dr.
Lamidi Fakeye, who has now joined our ancestors, will forever remain the personification of the astute artist. His oeuvre is a testament to the criticalness of art as the embodiment of societal norms and mores, and as the physical manifestation of those fugitive and spiritual elements that characterize and distinguish cultures. Lamidi Fakeye straddled the past and the present at the same time that he presaged the future. His passage is worthy of celebration for he lived a fulfilled life.
The last time that I met him at the University of Lagos—in the 1980s when he came to visit Abayomi Barber, his very close friend—he exuded all the charm that only wisdom and humility could bestow, and without any hint of the narcissism that seems to be an attendant consequence of superstardom. During one of his numerous north American tours, he called and we exchanged courtesies. Such is Fakeye’s humility and humaneness. Generations of Nigerian artists, art historians, and culture merchants will not be disappointed by the richness of his work. He was a student of culture and went through the apprenticeship system in its most demanding phase. Fakeye’s creative imagination, which he nurtured at Father Kevin Caroll’s Oye Ekiti workshop,was enriched during his tenure at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he was in the company of some of Nigeria’s foremost artists and art historians, including Rowland Abiodun and Babatunde Lawal. His prodigious skills earned him the respect of his peers and the admiration of Africanists, scholars, collectors, and humanists across the world.
Here is one golden opportunity for those who hanker after branding Nigeria to seize the passing of Lamidi Fakeye to memorialize his work.
May his soul receive eternal repose.
*****************************
dele jegede, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair,
Department of Art. 124 Art Building
Miami University. Oxford. OH 45056
Tel: 513.529.2900. Fax: 513.529.1532
websites:
http://dele-jegede.com/
http://art.muohio.edu/
From: Toyin Falola <toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:05:30 -0500
To: <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>, <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lamidi Fakeye: The end of an era
Oyedeji, Kale
May Mr. Fakaye’s soul rest in peace. I had the honour of meeting him when I was at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He carved the door to the residence of the President of the University. Very down-to-earth humble man.
'Kale Oyedeji
Tony Agbali
I wonder too, whether this artist genuis, Lamidi Fakeye was he also associated with Fr. Carrol, the priest who also loved African art work. Would anyone know?
Further, there are some pieces of artwork that exists at the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Makurdi (actually the chapel of St. James' Minor Seminary before the site was used to house St. Augustine Major Seminary, Jos, Makurdi campus and it in turn morphed into St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Makurdi), with the Yoruba artwork motiff/genre on the doors, the pulpits, and the altar.
This artwork I think was commissioned by Fr. Taylor, an Irish or English spiritan priest and architect, who built that chapel, and also the constructed the current Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, (Ankpa quarters), Makurdi.
I have always found the Makurdi seminary chapel artwork very fascinating and original. If Lamidi Fakeye was also the carver, then he helped to mark my early view of religion and spirituality as one that can be defined by a creative African motif and ambience that leads toward soulful spiritual communications and offered a scenery of relaxation. It made the early morning mass often intoned song, "I am coming to your altar" very endearing.
Even, if he is not the carver, I imagine that this world of African arts can offer something meaningful in shaping African interactions with the self, the divine, and other cultures, in ways that are soothingly vivifying. --- On Sun, 12/27/09, Dr. Valentine Ojo <val...@md.metrocast.net> wrote: |
Oyedeji, Kale
Well, with the crop of “born again” parading themselves these days, only God can help us. I was a witness to a naming ceremony of a friend’s son very recently where the so-called born again pastor condemned the traditional Yoruba way of naming ceremony as idol worshiping. Is that ignorance or what?
'Kale Oyedeji
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Adeniran Adeboye
Sent: 27 December 2009 14:42
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: laolu akande
Oyedeji, Kale
I forgot to add that most of Mr. Fakeye’s artistic works displayed at the VC’s lodge at Ife when Prof. Wande Abimbola was the VC were stored away by another “more-christian” than the Pope VC after Professor Abimbola.
'Kale Oyedeji
Dr. Valentine Ojo
"Here was Lamidi, a Muslim, being hired by Catholic priests to carve the cross and the Main Door to their churh in Ondo and their Cathedral in Ibadan. Who says that Muslims and Christians cannot co-exist in one geography, each group respecting the mode of spirituality of the other and even benefiting therefrom."
Ojogbon Adeniran Adeboye:
I am rather inclined to ascribe that to the CULTURE of TOLERANCE for which Yoruba Culture is very well known.
We are the only part of Nigeria for example where Christianity, Islam and Traditional Beliefs co-exist, and we never have incidents of religious-motivated riots.
I for example have all three in my extended family, and we all celebrate family functions together according to the religious inclination of the family member most directly concerned...
Additional Historical Footnotes:
At one point in his career at Ife, there were discussions to make Lamidi Fakeye a full professor. It was under Wande Abimbola as Vice-Chancellor.
The main objection was his lack of formal education (no one was sure he actually finished elementary school, though he did some adult education courses later, and even learnt to speak some French), which some panel members argued, would prevent him from being able to function effectively as 'Dean of Faculty', or 'Vice-Chancellor', offices for which he could have legitimately contested, were he to have been made a full professor.
That argument finally carried the day...and Late Lamidi Fakeye was never promoted a full professor at Ife.
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 2:41 PM , Adeniran Adeboye aade...@mac.com sent:
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Arakurin Kale Oyediji:
You are right about that!
I believe it was one Prof. Oshuntogun, the Vice-Chancellor who turned the Museum-like Reception Hall of the VC Lodge at OAU, Ife, into a Worship Hall for his fellow Born Again Christians. (He was later chased away by the students who did not allow him to complete his term in office!)
He removed all the valuable artifacts which Wande Abimnbola had carefully collected there - terra cotta figurines, ibeji carvings, brass and wood carvings, including some of Fakeye's most representative works!
I was very conversant with the exhibits at the Mini-Museum at thew VC Lodge since I was a frequrent visitor there.
Some claimed Prof. Oshuntogun destroyed them. His detractors claimed he sold them to collectors of African arts and foreign museums for good hard cash!
But only the the Yoruba Gods know the truth. And they ain't talking.
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 4:21 PM , "Oyedeji, Kale" koye...@morehouse.edu sent:
I forgot to add that most of Mr. Fakeye’s artistic works displayed at the VC’s lodge at Ife when Prof. Wande Abimbola was the VC were stored away by another “more-christian” than the Pope VC after Professor Abimbola.
'Kale Oyedeji
From: Oyedeji, Kale
Sent: 27 December 2009 16:14
To: 'usaafric...@googlegroups.com'
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lamidi Fakeye: The end of an era
Well, with the crop of “born again” parading themselves these days, only God can help us. I was a witness to a naming ceremony of a friend’s son very recently where the so-called born again pastor condemned the traditional Yoruba way of naming ceremony as idol worshiping. Is that ignorance or what?
'Kale Oyedeji
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Adeniran Adeboye
Sent: 27 December 2009 14:42
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: laolu akande
Adeniran Adeboye
Dr. Valentine Ojo
"I was a witness to a naming ceremony of a friend’s son very recently where the so-called born again pastor condemned the traditional Yoruba way of naming ceremony as idol worshiping. Is that ignorance or what?"
'Kale Oyedeji
Ogbeni Kale Oyedeji:
Yes, that's ignorance!
In 2002, I held a Traditional Yoruba Naming Ceremony for our last daughter in our remote Southern Maryland residence, about a month after she was born.
We put up 3 canopies to accomodate the guest, had all the ingredients (obi, orogbo, oyin, atare, dried fish, etc.) flown in from Nigeria (sent by my late mother.)
In addition to friends from all over the US and mainly Maryland, the functions was graced by two US senators, and a member opf the house of reps, the president and all the commisioners of the county where we reside, the police chief, president of the local college and my former colleagues - maybe some 250-300 guests in all, many of whom must have come out of curiosity: What is a 'Yoruba Naming Ceremony'?
The ecermony was conducted by an Elder invited from Washington DC specifically for that purpose.
And all the invited guests participated acticvely after the procedure was excplained to them, tasting the things the child tasted, and putting money in the bowl to give her a name of their choice.
The money collected that day was used to open her first savings account.
The party that followed lasted all night...
The ceremony was covered by the local newspaper, radio and TV stations, and people still talk about it locally to this day, everytime anyone who attended sees the now 7-year old child.
When you abandon your own culture totally only to embarce someone else's culture, you are dead! And people will stop to respect you.
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 4:14 PM , "Oyedeji, Kale" koye...@morehouse.edu sent:
Adeniran Adeboye
Samuel Amadi
The Best Way to Celebrate Christmas
The best way to celebrate Christmas is to encounter the Jesus whose birthday it is presumed to be and to develop intimacy with him. Many people have different descriptions of Jesus, his life and message to suit either their interests, intentions or personalities. But reading through the gospel one encounters the unmistakable fact that the truest meaning of Jesus is his unparalleled commitment and advocacy of the truth. I guess the Christian bible is the only book that clearly identifies truth as a person and a life lived in historical moment. Jesus Christ clearly declared himself to be the truth (‘I am the truth, the way and the life. No one comes to the father except by me’). Apart from being the human embodiment of the truth that existed before creation and actually created everything other, Jesus, as a man, a citizen of Galilee in the Province of Judea, spoke the truth, lived the truth and died for the truth. That is his unique qualification to be called the ‘Savior of the world’. Nothing can save the word except truth. And the only one who justifiably claimed to be ‘the truth’ is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is described as ‘full of grace and truth’. This is about the best testimony for Jesus. He lived totally for truth and his teaching is that we must all respond unreservedly to the summon of truth. This is not truth as we know it, scientific, theological or analytical truth. This truth is moral. It is the total commitment to purity and righteousness. It is unbending response to God. Most prophets and religious icons before and after Jesus Christ have spoken the truth about some aspects of the human experience but none had lived in perfect response to truth because none before Christ had such intimacy with God as the son of the father who lived in the bosom of the father.
To celebrate Christ is to encounter him. To encounter Jesus Christ is to clearly perceive the singularity of life lived without violence to truth in any form. Jesus made the call for his disciples to live for the truth. And in his own life he lived the truth. Even his critics admitted that he was different from other prophets and spiritual leaders in one fundamental sense. Unlike the scribes and the Pharisees he taught with authority: the authority here is the perfect synchronization between his words and his deeds.
Now, what does it mean to follow Jesus and live the life of truth? Jesus did not leave this important question to a guess. He put it clearly:
“If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23)
Anyone who desires to follow Jesus to answer the summon of truth must first deny himself. Self-denial is not self-immolation. It is not even abandoning the bustle and hustle of everyday life and migrating into religious asceticism. To deny oneself is to denounce the selfishness and self-realization that is the very essence of sin and falsehood in the world. To ‘deny himself’ means elevating the summon of truth far above any other realization, above the desires and entitlements of earthly life.
Commitment to truth does not end with renouncing selfishness and self-realization. The one who wants to live truthfully must allow the spirit of truth to move him against all forms and manifestations of falsehood in his or her life and in human ecology. This is where the journey becomes dangerous. As long as the world lies in falsehood, commitment to truth is the most dangerous undertaking. Jesus did not promise those who answer the call to truth ease and tranquility. Just as he took up his cross and was ultimately hung on it, such co-travelers must take up their crosses and have reasonable expectation that they could be hung on them. The vocation of unrestrained and unremitting commitment to truth is life-threatening. Those who make this vow are carrying the cross of their possible execution.
The call to truth is so powerful, really intoxicating, that those who truly heed it are ready and willing to lose their lives because they have taken a new life. Note that this confrontation with death is daily. We carry our cross daily. The dangers to a life of truth does not end as our environment civilizes or upgrades in material and intellectual contexts. Once we make a commitment to speak and live in truth we are exposed to the same life-threatening risks as the preacher at the hands of religious and political establishments in Palestine in 32AD
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” Luke 9: 24
To save our life is to cling to the desires of life and to continue in the life of selfishness and the quest for self-realization. We cannot answer the call of truth if we hold strong allegiance to selfishness and self-realization. If our objective in everyday life encounter is to protect our life (privileges, acquisitions and opportunities for social advancement) then we have lost the truth. And life devoid of intimacy with the truth is just what it is: death. If we live life totally devoted to truth we risk losing our life (privileges, acquisitions and opportunities for social advancement) but we have already obtained life. We cannot achieve eternal life (intimacy with the truth) if we fear to lose our life. Only those who have lost their life (renounced the love of privileges, acquisitions and opportunism) are true devotees to truth.
“For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”
To seek to save our life is to lose it. There is no real profit in losing intimacy with the truth for the brief glory of this life. If for fear of losing our privileges, acquisitions and opportunities for social graces we abandon commitment to truth we have lost everything of value. The value of life is our commitment to truth.
So, as we celebrate Christmas we ought not to forget the meaning of the unusual life of Jesus Christ. He life underlines the central importance of answering the summon of truth. It is truth that saves the world. And those who must obey the demand of truth should be ready to lose their life (privilege, acquisitions and opportunities for social advancement ) in living the truth.
Abuja, Nigeria
234-803-329-9879
Cc: koye...@morehouse.edu; akan...@yahoo.com; ron...@yahoo.com
Sent: Sun, December 27, 2009 10:56:25 PM
Qansy Salako
“And all the invited guests participated acticvely after the procedure was excplained to them, tasting the things the child tasted, and putting money in the bowl to give her a name of their choice. The money collected that day was used to open her first savings account.” Valentine Ojo
Val,
This one, na Americanized “Isomoloruko Ile Yoruba” o.
So you collected dollars at the naming ceremony…..I bet you turned around and changed a portion of the till collection into Naira, ehn?
I don’t remember this bureau de change/bank account version of our age-old “Isomoloruko” custom rara at all.
I do know that contemporary Yoruba customs now have some form of fundraising/money making sidekicks to them, such as aso ebi (buy ceremony clothing attire from celebrant), spraying celebrants with money at follow-up party, etc.
But in the real Isomoloruko, anyone who wants to make money gifts to parents/new child may do so in private. Carrying calabash till across the hall among attendees may be regarded as innovation, probably borrowed over from the church or mosque ceremonies.
Poor senators, county police and 250 other curious onlookers, they probably believe till today that all Yoruba children have plenty of money at birth.
Hahahahahaha…..
Qansy Salako
….laughing out loud, clapping (lolc)
PS: Kwabby, I take one eye read una in-between my stops. Your accusing the usual West of biasness over the craziness of the Nigerian decadent Abdul Muttalib has gone largely un-retorted/un-rejoined because I have been so busy. Cab driving in winter is hard, it’s not like professing History in some elephant tower! Another time, you won’t sound so unanimous you hear me!
Layi Abegurin, Ph.D
Olayiwola Abegunrin
--- On Sun, 12/27/09, Dr. Valentine Ojo <val...@md.metrocast.net> wrote:
> From: Dr. Valentine Ojo <val...@md.metrocast.net>
Joseph Faniran
amioladejoe
From: Tony Agbali <atta...@yahoo.com>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, 27 December, 2009 21:55:47
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Qansy:
Hey masn,it was not just "Poor senators, county police and 250 other curious onlookers" - even our Catholic parish priest was in attendance. He too paid up! Call it a little refund for all the Sunday-Sunday contributions we have been making over the years. And the child was also baptized at the church - with its own attendant 'thanksgiving' and follow-up party at the parents' residence!
On a serious note, that was how naming ceremony was done in Ondo.
You would put a plate there, and each persosn who got up to give the child a name, would put some money in the bowl - of course, it was 'toro, kobo, sisi,' in those days, 'sile kan' - if the person was monied!
Or maybe it was a personal variation introduced by my mother who was Ijebu - you never know!
Happy New Year in advance, my brother!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 9:24 PM , sent:
“And all the invited guests participated acticvely after the procedure was excplained to them, tasting the things the child tasted, and putting money in the bowl to give her a name of their choice. The money collected that day was used to open her first savings account.” Valentine Ojo
Val,
This one, na Americanized “Isomoloruko Ile Yoruba” o.
So you collected dollars at the naming ceremony…..I bet you turned around and changed a portion of the till collection into Naira, ehn?
I don’t remember this bureau de change/bank account version of our age-old “Isomoloruko” custom rara at all.
I do know that contemporary Yoruba customs now have some form of fundraising/money making sidekicks to them, such as aso ebi (buy ceremony clothing attire from celebrant), spraying celebrants with money at follow-up party, etc.
But in the real Isomoloruko, anyone who wants to make money gifts to parents/new child may do so in private. Carrying calabash till across the hall among attendees may be regarded as innovation, probably borrowed over from the church or mosque ceremonies.
Poor senators, county police and 250 other curious onlookers, they probably believe till today that all Yoruba children have plenty of money at birth.
Hahahahahaha…..
Qansy Salako
….laughing out loud, clapping (lolc)
PS: Kwabby, I take one eye read una in-between my stops. Your accusing the usual West of biasness over the craziness of the Nigerian decadent Abdul Muttalib has gone largely un-retorted/un-rejoined because I have been so busy. Cab driving in winter is hard, it’s not like professing History in some elephant tower! Another time, you won’t sound so unanimous you hear me!
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dr. Valentine Ojo
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 4:15 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Oyedeji, Kale; laolu akande; aderonke adesanya
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lamidi Fakeye: The end of an era
"I was a witness to a naming ceremony of a friend’s son very recently where the so-called born again pastor condemned the traditional Yoruba way of naming ceremony as idol worshiping. Is that ignorance or what?"
'Kale Oyedeji
Ogbeni Kale Oyedeji:
Yes, that's ignorance!
In 2002, I held a Traditional Yoruba Naming Ceremony for our last daughter in our remote Southern Maryland residence, about a month after she was born.
We put up 3 canopies to accomodate the guest, had all the ingredients (obi, orogbo, oyin, atare, dried fish, etc.) flown in from Nigeria (sent by my late mother.)
In addition to friends from all over the US and mainly Maryland, the functions was graced by two US senators, and a member opf the house of reps, the president and all the commisioners of the county where we reside, the police chief, president of the local college and my former colleagues - maybe some 250-300 guests in all, many of whom must have come out of curiosity: What is a 'Yoruba Naming Ceremony'?
The ecermony was conducted by an Elder invited from Washington DC specifically for that purpose.
And all the invited guests participated acticvely after the procedure was excplained to them, tasting the things the child tasted, and putting money in the bowl to give her a name of their choice.
The money collected that day was used to open her first savings account.
The party that followed lasted all night...
The ceremony was covered by the local newspaper, radio and TV stations, and people still talk about it locally to this day, everytime anyone who attended sees the now 7-year old child.
When you abandon your own culture totally only to embarce someone else's culture, you are dead! And people will stop to respect you.
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
On Sun 12/27/09 4:14 PM , "Oyedeji, Kale" koye...@morehouse.edu sent:
Well, with the crop of “born again” parading themselves these days, only God can help us. I was a witness to a naming ceremony of a friend’s son very recently where the so-called born again pastor condemned the traditional Yoruba way of naming ceremony as idol worshiping. Is that ignorance or what?
'Kale Oyedeji
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Adeniran Adeboye
Sent: 27 December 2009 14:42
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: laolu akande
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lamidi Fakeye: The end of an era
Dr. Ojo,
Here was Lamidi, a muslim, being hired by Catholic priests to carve the cross and the Main Door to their churn in Ondo and their cathedral in Ibadan. Who says that Muslims and Christians cannot co-exist in one geography, each group respecting the mode of spirituality of the other and even benefiting therefrom. We have that to be proud of, somewhat. What we need, additionally, is for both Christians and Muslims to extend the same accommodation to the indigenous modes of spirituality. I have yet to find any moral or ethical basis for the put-down of indigenous faiths that evolved with our peoples in preference to those faiths imposed on them by conquests. Ki Olorun Olodumare, oba arinurode, olumo okan, fi orun ke Ogbeni Lamidi Fakeye.
Best regards,
Adeniran Adeboye
On Dec 27, 2009, at 12:15 PM, Dr. Valentine Ojo wrote:
Tony Agbali
Oga Ojo,
Your Catholic priest showed up, eh? Wetin you give am chop?
He sure does not know that you were laughing hard as to the command influence you had exerted to bring him to your home to pay up some of your God's cart investment! If he knows how you have been bad mouthing his church and his colleagues he would have found some tufiakpa haram for you! But you be pikin of Papal Knight, so wetin I go talk.
But me I think say you don give up organized religion patapata, so you now don come get Catholic priest for your yard? I know sai na only "Madam" na him dey go that end- so na affirmative association you don dey do, dey claim poor Catholic "fada" come chop him money for once. Oga, me dey here dey laugh for dis your wayo wayo wey plenty. Oga you too much! You sure don do your "reinvented tradition" well and of course, you plucked off the dollar tree small. But this dollar tree sef don Americanize the naming ceremony now? That one still be Yoruba one so?
Anyway, sha na the pikin na him benefit with college saving, else me I for basket mouth you for here small small. |
|
Felicia Oyekanmi
| What one can explore is what people resort to when they are in real trouble. Cases abound of where so called devout Christians or Muslims call on ancestral spirits in order to solve such problems.So who is deceiving who? Prof Felicia A. D. Oyekanmi Department of Sociology University of Lagos Akoka, Yaba, Lagos Nigeria Tel: {234} 1 7941757 Cell: {234}8056560970 --- On Sun, 12/27/09, Adeniran Adeboye <aade...@mac.com> wrote: |