Between You and I... there is something missing
we both know that there is something missing
that we might probably not find in this generation.
we know that there is something that burns,
much more stronger than what we attach ourselves to.
Do you think there are flames that
burns so fast and last longer?
America burned really fast to catch up with
her first cousin, Europe.
America has become a monster that needed
to be re-born in order to get things right again.
between you and i
Africa has been seen and told from western eyes,
unconsciousely we tend to see ourselves
from the slants of the western judgement
and you and i continue to dance
around these laid down stereotypes.
let you and i ask each other,
if auto-mobile was made by Africans.
what would have been the speed limit.
cos we tend to run too fast,
shall we last long with this pace?
we are becoming uncivilized
of our proper civilization
with the hope of catching up
with this capitalist world
in the shadows of globalization.
the title of my presentation in school
as part of my final year degree.
is AFROPOLITAN
African and citizen of the world.
though the autorities claim i'm not African enough
i'm not making them realize that we live on trees
that i tend to be blind to the fact that
Africans are dying of DISEASES and HUNGER.
that there is an issue of child soldier
that Africa strongly need to catch up with the world
because we are retarded.
i think there is something missing again
that i might probably not find.
but let me say it to them in the simpliest way.
and showing them simple images
like the way i was thought in nursery school.
This is Ali,
Ali is a boy
This is Simbi,
Simbi is a girl.
Simple right?
I think teaching was made easy to the highest level
in nursery school days.
PS: nursery school teachers needed.
This is Africa
Africa is not my country!
the Africa you know, is in the media
Thats not Africa!
This is Lagos
if Lagos is as dangerous as you portray it
there won't be 14 million inhabitants remaining in it!
AFROPOLITAN is here at home
not in the artificial luxeries of London
nor in the pitiful paradise of Paris
but in the whispering desert of Lagos.
a lake fresh for new ideas, that will spring up
to find the alternative to a self-fascist way of living
that might just be the saving grace and hope for the future.
A white friend asked me yesterday,
how do i manage to be happy always...
you and i know that this is a question
i have never came across in my entire childhood
in Lagos that even seem more fun.
when i am in Europe
i'm not an African, i'm YORUBA
when i'm in Lagos
i'm not YORUBA, i'm an African...
its time to turn around clichés
use them to our own advantage
The Afropolis is still not big enough
we will keep on the pilgrimage of advocacy
keep going away with our roots or roofs
or perhaps with our peper pot
"do we need cola-cola to dance?"
is a project i did around 6 countries of africa in summer 2007
Lagos, Cairo, Jo'burg, Maputo, Nairobi and Yaounde.
to retrace a path, that may lead to the discovery
of the things i find missing
watchout for the amazing documentary film
that followed this revolutionary jest.
