Matilda McCrear lived long enough to become a human bridge between Africa, American slavery, and the modern era. Born in West Africa around 1857, she was captured as a toddler and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Clotilda in 1860—the ...

Classes of Egbe (Heavenly Mate of Every Human) Also known as Alaragbo in some areas of Yoruba land, Egbe is generally more associated with children than with adults according to Eji-Ogbe. Based on the character traits of human on Earth, ...

DAY FORTY-FIVEHave They Eaten Today?The Nigeria Union of Teachers members in Oyo State have been asked to return to the classrooms.In return, they have reportedly been promised more than ₦8 billion as an incentive to reopen the schools.That is approximately ...

A Personal Reflection I stopped eating beef in January 2018.That choice helps me to maintain a healthier lifestyle.In 2018, reports of attacks, kidnappings, and violent incursions into communities across parts of the Southwest were becoming increasingly common. I felt that ...

MOREMI AND BANDITRYHistory teaches us that the banditry the Yoruba people are experiencing today is not new.Long ago, the people of Ile-Ife lived under constant attack from a group of raiders known as the Ugbo.To be clear, the Ugbo were ...

Some say Isese is a religion.Some say Isese is a spirituality.I say Isese is the collective culture, traditions, worldview, and ancestral heritage of the Yoruba people.Before Christianity and Islam arrived in Yorubaland, our ancestors already had names, languages, governance systems, ...

They aren’t synchronized with anyone. Sango is NOT a mute white woman, trapped inside a castle. Eshu is not a cute holy child that you give candy to. Because these saints may have displayed traits of the Orisha does NOT ...

Legalizing State Police I do not normally praise the Nigerian government. But tell me: why should anyone not praise President Tinubu for taking measures to inaugurate State Police? To my amazement, the Nigerian House of Representatives has passed legislation to ...

Growing up in Ile-Ife during the late 1950s and 1960s, our taxi was a Morris Minor. The same was true in most towns and cities across Southwestern Nigeria. Motorcycles were not used as taxis.By the 1970s, Datsun, Toyota, and Peugeot ...

The Yoruba traditional calendar, called Kọ́jọ́dá, starts the new year on June 3rd and ends on June 2nd the following year. It’s a lunar calendar with a 4-day week (each day honoring different Orisa), 7 weeks in a month, and ...