Yoruba Day at Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls

We weren’t exactly sure why we were there. The five of us sat with straight faces and glassy eyes around the shiny conference table, listening to the voice of the CNN reporter discuss the implications the natural disaster in Japan will have on the electronics market. We were tired–Oyinbos dislike waking up at 5:30 a.m. [...]

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A different kind of funeral

I finally got out of Ibadan this weekend. My host mom invited me to go with her to a funeral in Ilobu, a village in Osun State, about 100 km north east of Ibadan. I was ecstatic at the idea of traveling to another part of Yorubaland, especially for a funeral. When an agbalagba (old [...]

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Strange symbols

On a recent trip to the Baagi cloth market my host mom had me on the lookout for fabrics with images and symbols that do not relate to African culture. She is writing a paper about how these foreign symbols are coming to be recognized and accepted in Africa through clothing alone. My job as [...]

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A 21st Birthday Yorùbá Style

When Kevin “Kayode” Barry turned 21, his host family threw him a modern-day Yorùbá birthday party. Naturally, I made a video. Enjoy! Here is a video of Keegan “Kolade” O’Neil’s speech to the birthday boy, all in Yorùbá of course.

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The Cloth Market

One thing stands between me and full Yoruba-ness, well maybe three if you count the color of my skin and the fact that I’m American. But that one important thing is clothing. Yoruba women dress in vivid, colorful, patterned cloths. In a woman’s traditional outfit, an iro and buba, the buba is wrapped around their [...]

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