The 5 Levels of the Value System in Yoruba Land.

The first is laaka’ye, which is the application of ogbon, imo, oye (knowledge, wisdom, understanding).
The second is valor. That is why Balogun (war commanders) are very close, in terms of hierarchy, to their kings in Yoruba land. Balogun are the individuals that can lead soldiers to war. Yoruba have no respect for cowards.
The third is integrity. Someone with integrity is a man of his words. If you have all the wealth in the world but lack integrity, it means nothing. Integrity is combined with iwa – character, which we regard as omoluabi (a respectable person).
The fourth is having a visible means of livelihood. A person must be identified with a visible means of living; that is, his or her profession or job.
The last level of importance in the Yoruba value system is money. If all you have in place of the earlier four is money, then you are a nobody.

- Chief Tola Adeniyi (former Managing Director of the daily Times).

A Tale of Two “Sweet Sixteen”.

Recently, Lil Wayne’s daughter, Reginae Carter, was reported to have celebrated her 16th birthday anniversary with pomp and pageantry. To her celebrity parents, becoming a “sweet sixteen” was a big feat. And for this huge "achievement", she was rewarded with a BMW SUV by her father while the mother gave her a Ferrari GTO.

Initially, when the news broke, I felt some sense of shame. Why so? My daughter, Ebunoluwa, also attained the age of sixteen this year. For my daughter though, becoming a “sweet sixteen” was not the only feat achieved. Earlier, at a tender age of fifteen, she got admitted into college. That was the age Lil Wayne's daughter completed middle school. Unlike the rapper's daughter, my daughter actually turned sixteen while in college and she has since been maintaining the status of a straight “A” student which culminated into her acceptance into an Honor’s society. In a sharp contrast to Lil Wayne’s daughter therefore, my daughter deserved a plane, possibly one of those luxurious executive Lear jets. But what did I give her? Some clothes and a dinner at Red Lobsters, a sea food restaurant!

In the final analysis however, my shame turned into pride when, in a subsequent discussion with my daughter, I was made to understand a salient point. She did not envy Lil Wayne’s daughter. If anything at all, she would rather sympathize with the “poor” girl. Why so? The teenager's case is like that of a Biblical phrase about the impossibility of anyone “worshiping God with Mammon at the same time”. Luxurious, exotic cars with loads of cash can never go together with a teenager’s pursuit of education, sense of values or moral standards. Sooner or later, all those material things will pass away. But nothing can ever take away an education and neither can anything surpass a high sense of values.

And I concurred.

 

The Pursuit of Excellence.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle.

Halloween and its Same old Risks.

Halloween, the day dedicated to remembering all that was paganic, evil and negative in the history of America is here again. This is the day the young and the old, dressed up in colorful costumes, spread out to eat candy and go into merry-making in one spooky manner or the other. But not everyone is all about the Halloween. Lurking in the many street corners and houses are some guys with ulterior motives and negative objectives.

It’s therefore advisable for parents to keep eyes on their kids, never letting them out on the streets alone.

According to national statistics, Halloween is the deadliest day of the year for pedestrians and especially, the kids. A child pedestrian is four times more likely to die on Halloween than any other day while many more are injured, usually at the hands of drunk drivers.

Parents and guardians are also advised to prevent their kids and wards from eating the collected candy until they return home. Back home, the candies should be carefully scrutinized to ensure that none of them is laced with marijuana. There are some crazy individuals and perverts who target kids with marijuana-laced candy. Incidentally, the candy looks and tastes like any other candy.

It’s not only kids that are at risk on Halloween though. Same goes for college students and especially, the females.

The first rule for these college students is for them to be alert to mischief makers who hide behind masks and costumes. Among those masked individuals on every campus are the sexual predators, rapists and other criminal-minded people. This is therefore all the more reason why students need to move about within groups of friends. Whenever a female student feels she has wandered off and finds herself alone or among total strangers, she is better-off leaving for home before it gets too late. It is also necessary for every female student to carry along a fully-charged cell phone, some cash (in case she might need a local cab) and important phone numbers.

The Halloween is not the time to accept an offer of a drink or Halloween “portion” from anyone, including so-called friends. This is to avoid a “date rape” stuff being casually slipped into drinks by some “friendly-looking” dudes dressed in the costume of a wizard, witch or ghost.

If, in spite of all these precautions, a female student still finds herself in some dangerous situation, she is strongly advised to use her vocal cord in raising alarm. A mere scream of the word “HELP” a few times can go a long way in attracting a much-needed help or assistance.

 

 

 

 

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child.

A colleague once narrated an incident that took place in her Wilmington, DE neighborhood. After getting off work in the middle of the night one fateful day, she saw a group of people loitering around her home. Seeing the fully-armed officer approach, the group dispersed. Then she realized that among the group were teenage girls and kids ranging from seven to twelve. Angrily, the officer scolded the girls and the kids for staying up so late in the company of grown men.

The following morning, her porch played host to some furious women who wanted to know why she scolded their kids. In spite of her explanation about feeling concerned for the kids’ safety, she was warned to mind her business next time. A few days later, the same officer arrived at her neighborhood to see the teenage girls “making out” with some of the men at various corners of the street. Shaking her head sadly, she ignored them. A few months afterwards, a couple of the girls were pregnant, victims of “babies having babies”.



All over the United States, too many people are shirking in their primary responsibilities as parents. And they would not tolerate anyone getting involved in their kid’s discipline. It’s no wonder therefore that the country is replete with too many rude, lazy and ignorant young people. Unfortunately, there is a staggering manifestation of this sad consequences in schools, work places and neighborhoods across the nation.

In many middle schools and high schools across the nation, it takes individuals with lion hearts to work as teachers. With metal detectors installed at several schools to prevent lethal weapons, the job of a teacher is filled with as much hazards as those of soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

When a typical high school churns out some irate, undisciplined kids either as drop-outs or as half-baked graduates, they usually end up at the hands of unlucky employers of labor. Yet, with a sordid foundation laden with laziness and indiscipline in formative years, these individuals who are now “grown” adults will sooner or later begin to exhibit their negative attributes.

Some of the kids who are unable to fit into a regular work orientation or too desperate to get rich quick, will end up as a menace to their neighborhoods. If they are not selling drugs at street corners, they get into street gangs to unleash terror on hapless people. Before long, these characters will get busted, tried in courts and jailed. And that is if the guys don’t first get killed by fellow drug dealers, opposing gangs or a frustrated police officer who is also a victim of some very poor parenting.

There is still hope in the horizon. But that is only if we all can return to the “old school” tradition where "it takes a village to raise a child".

The Civil War in the World of Islam.

Once again, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (a.k.a. ISIS) has beheaded another fellow human being. Their latest victim was a British aid worker, Alan Henning. And the very sad irony, after the dastardly, barbaric act, must have been the guys’ usual exclamation of “Allah Akbar!” (God is great!)

However, the cold-blooded murder of Alan Henning and other foreign “unbelievers” has been just one of the two major “important projects” in the agenda of these lowest of human species. The other major objective of the ISIS (a military arm of the Shiites) is in its violent conflict against other Muslims who are called the Sunnis. Just a few months ago in Iraq, several people belonging to the Sunnis sect, were brutally shot (execution style) by these same ISIS. Unfortunately, the Sunnis are not angels either.



As an individual, I have often wondered why brothers in Islam would be at each other’s throats in such a most violent manner. The sheer mutual hatred these two Islamic sects harbor against each other is horrific. And it keeps reminding one of a similar horror that was demonstrated, in a not too distant past, by the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland. The question therefore is why the civil war between the two Islamic sects?



In the Middle East, religion is government. Scripture is law. And the past defines the future. Islam has been divided between the Sunnis and the Shiites since the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD.

Upon the demise of the prophet, a bitter dispute ensued over who would be the next leader of Islam. The Sunnis called for an election by which a new leader would emerge. But the Shiites preferred to support the desire of the direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad who wanted to have one of them to succeed the prophet.

This disagreement has since led to a bitter war between these two sects. And the war has been very hateful and brutal, leading to the cold-blooded murder and destabilization of people in the Middle-east and across the world.

The two sects have two distinct geographic, political, ideological and cultural identities. But so far, the Sunnis make up the 90% of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims while the Shiites (with the most militant orientation) are in a minority with headquarters in Iran.

 

Tom Brokaw on Gun Control.

On Thursday's "Morning Joe," Brokaw declared that the raging gun control debate reminded him of another chapter in America's history.

Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004.

Speaking on the salient topic, the veteran broadcaster said “It reminds me a lot of what happened in the South in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. Good people stayed in their houses and didn't speak up when there was carnage in the streets and the total violation of the fundamental rights of African-Americans as they marched in Selma, and they let Bull Connor and the redneck elements of the South and the Klan take over their culture in effect and become a face of it. And now a lot of people who I know who grew up during that time have deep regrets about not speaking out."

Above picture shows the 9-year-old girl that accidentally shot her trainer. But why, in God's name, would anyone with common sense put an Uzi in the hands of a little 9-year-old?

Brokaw stated further that "Now it's time for the people who do have strong feelings, who are feeling that they can't do anything about it, to kind of band together and have something to say here."

 

When “Keeping it Real” is Dumb.

Have you heard these words “keeping it real” lately? These words, as simple as they look and sound, have created a lot of issues and problems for a lot of young Americans. So many of them are indeed in jails across the nation because they have no clue as to what “keeping it real” is really all about!

In many black communities, for instance, “keeping it real” among the young people is the same thing as being disrespectful, doing badly in school, dropping out of schools, speaking poor English grammar and having pride in being an ex-convict. Another form of “keeping it real” is for a guy to dress like a thug, speak like a thug and act like a thug. The irony of this stupid attitude is that when real thugs get into trouble and appear in courts, they know better than to act like thugs. In fact, they suddenly speak and dress properly. So, this means they know the right thing to do in order to be taken seriously.

It’s terribly shameful that when some other young black folks do the right things such as staying in schools, studying to acquire good education, speaking proper English, dressing decently and being respectful, they are called names. The worst is that such nice young black folks are branded as “acting white”.

But when did the resolve to do the right thing become a monopoly of the white people? As a thoroughbred African, I take a very strong exception to the idea that black people are the custodians of negative stuff while white people are solely created to do the right things. But this is the crazy message some young black folks are unwittingly sending out to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cosmic Implications of African Names

On August 12, 2005, The News Journal did a story on Delaware’s African community. One of the interesting aspects was the exotic array of African names of those of us who were interviewed. My non-African friends and colleagues who have known me for several years were suddenly eager to satisfy their curiosity about those names. One friend actually pointed at a couple and wondered why anyone would bear such “mouth-twisting” names.

In the sub-Saharan African continent, a name says a lot about the circumstances of birth of a child—his or her ancestral and religious background. It’s a spiritual chain that also indicates the positive vibrations a chosen name is expected to exert on the child.

To Africans, names are too fundamental to be trivialized. They are rooted in social and cultural significance. No African would name a child without careful consideration. This explains a proverb of the Yoruba in southwest Nigeria that “we have to appraise the circumstances at home before naming a child.”

For instance, shortly before my birth, there was an obvious manifestation of abundant blessings in the lives of my parents. It was therefore easy for my father to showcase his gratitude in my first name, Olufemi (God loves me). My mother’s choice of my middle name, Olabode (the arrival of wealth) also derived from this sentiment. In appreciation of the circumstance of my birth, three factors were considered to be crucial for my life’s journey. These were the positive vibrations in the combination of God, love and wealth in my first and middle names. The last name also plays a monumental role. It’s not only considered a precious family possession worth more than gold, but a special privilege conferred on the bearer. In my ancestral homeland, it’s a disservice to bring a surname to disrepute. Indeed, the worst sin anyone can commit against his or her last name is to be convicted of a crime.

The advent of British, French and Portuguese colonialism and foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam in Africa by the 19th century eroded a great portion of the people’s culture. One major casualty is child-naming.

Consequently, many Africans have been turning their original first names into middle names upon conversion to Christianity or Islam. And Africans have adopted foreign names upon migration to the Western world. This was done under the pretext of having easily pronounced names. However, this excuse is silly. Every African name has its short, easily pronounced version. Olugbemileke can be shortened to Olu or Gbemi or Leke. In the same vein, Olufemi is often shortened to Femi or Olu.

Nothing can be more encouraging than to see basketball star Dikembe Mutombo of Congo, actors Chiwetel Ejiofor of Nigeria and Djimon Hounsou of Benin and other celebrities of African origin hold on proudly to their African names. If they are not ashamed of their names, ordinary folks like us have no reason to be. Whether in Delaware, Alaska or some remote corner of the globe, every African should bear his or her indigenous name with pride.  Those names are the cosmic windows through which our souls breathe inspiration, aspiration, intellect and harmony. To do away with them is to shut down ventilation for the soul

First published in The News Journal of Delaware, United States in 2004.

Nigerians’ Obsession With America.

Some years back, I was on vacation in Nigeria, my ancestral home. And while there, I marveled at the obsessive interest that most of my folks back home have in America. For instance, I observed that almost all the young people, including elementary school pupils, appeared to be daily equipped with the latest news about America. To them, America is not just the pace-setter in every field of endeavor but also the ultimate in nationhood. Even the American currency is fondly called the “almighty dollar”. There is therefore the desperate urge to tailor personal styles and business goals along every trend that emanates from God’s own country.

I noticed that in spite of the year-long Nigerian summer, when my folks are on vacation, nothing at home attracts their interest. Not some of the popular local tourist attractions such as the Yankari games reserve and the Osun grove. And not even the mysterious Ikogosi spring which serves as the confluence for two different streams, one hot and the other cold, and both of unknown sources.  Ironically, these are the stuffs that attract foreigners, including Americans every year.

Vacationing Americans, I argued with friends resident in Nigeria, are known for visits to local attractions such as the Grand Canyon and Walt Disney. Those of them who venture out of their country often do so only to explore natural wonders of optimum interest in other lands. And while the Americans return from each vacation with a fresh outlook, their Nigerian counterparts are all stressed out. This is so because all they do is wander through the American inner cities, usually in the humid heat of summer.  It’s quite mind boggling that anyone will, on annual basis, incur outrageous expense just to see business districts, skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of a foreign city as if similar structures don’t exist back home.

All through my stay in Nigeria, I listened as my people made frequent comparisons between their nascent democracy and the over 200 year-old American political system. I also noted their habitual cynicism and routine assumptions that corruption and inefficiency are a monopoly of the corporate managers in their home land. When reminded of the scandals that rocked Worldcom and Enron some years back and the current financial indiscipline of such a company as AIG, they only shrugged their shoulders nonchalantly. Not even tales about the dwindling fortunes of several American corporate entities in the wake of the current economic melt down would convince them that human nature is the same all over the globe.

And there is the issue of animals. To those folks back home, America is simply a replica of the biblical Garden of Eden where Man and animals co-habit amicably. On satellite TV channels, Nigerians are ever amused to see deer, squirrels and other animals roam about the American neighborhoods without let or hindrance. This is in sharp contrast to their “cat and mouse” relationship with animals. Over there in Nigeria, animals are smart enough to confine themselves to some far-away, thick jungles. Even favorites among pets and domesticated animals such as dogs, rabbits and goats have to watch their backs lest they end up in the cooking pots of some lurking human predators.

Nowhere however, is the obsession of Nigerians for America so glaring as in the lifestyles of the younger generation. American-oriented funky churches, Hip-hop, rap music, fast food joints, fashion and technological trends are all over the nation’s social and economic landscapes.

Incidentally though, there still exist some no-go areas. For example, counselors and psychiatrists are often rendered idle in such a communal setting where payment for an advice is considered absurd. It comes freely from an experienced parent or older relation with age-long wisdom to share and ready shoulders to offer.

There is also the idea of a man adorned with ear-rings. While this is a popular fad in America, it is anathema to most Nigerians.  The few visiting American-based Nigerian men who dare try to “show off” with ear-rings are often jeered at and stared down with ignominy by the locals. It’s indeed worse when the same man braids his hair. Over there, in the most populous Black nation on earth, it’s religiously sacrilegious for a man to braid his hair.  Besides that, Nigeria is a man’s world. Therefore nothing can be more ridiculous and scornful than a man who looks like a woman. But as they say, one man’s meat is another’s poison. There are some other peculiar habits and orientations that Americans tolerate but which Nigerians consider as taboos and assaults on societal sensibility.

Much as the young Nigerians sheepishly eye every fad from America, the conservative society at large knows where to draw the line. Therefore, just as rice is separated from chaff, so are existing local core values constantly protected from the negative influences of all eroding foreign cultures, American included.