A Journey through Life's Interstices

Big, BIG Change

2005-10-18T07:20:58Z

Dear Friends:

We're redesigning the loft!

As you may have noticed, we've got a new name: moremi

Moremi is deep, yo! It's the name of an ancient queen of Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba people. Queen Moremi Ajasoro was a diva originale.

When marauders (the Igbo) started pestering the ancient Ile-Ife, she asked the Esinminrin river for help and promised to give offerings if she could save her people. The orisa told her to allow herself to be captured and to understudy the Igbo people. She did, and discovered that these were not spirits; only people with raffia for dress. She escaped, and taught her people the trick. The next time that Igbo people came to sack the town, the townspeople set fire on their raffia costumes, and they were roundly defeated. Moremi then had to go back to Esinminrin to thank the gods. Every offering she offered was refused. On divination, she was told that she had to give Oluorogbo, her only son. She did. The lesson of Moremi is the lesson of patriotism and selflessness. The reward may not be reaped in one’s life time. Moremi passed on and became a member of the Yoruba pantheon . The Edi festival celebrates the defeat of the Igbo and the sacrifice of Oluorogbo till today.

Coincidentally, my grandmother is a direct descendant of Moremi - a bead-bearing princess in the Ile-Ife royal family. My grandmum, Adeola, passed away last year and it's only fitting that I name my livejournal in her memory, and in memory of that ancient diva - Queen Moremi.

Ladies and Gentlemen and fellow Divas, enjoy Moremi!

These Are My Heroes

2005-04-04T00:29:11Z

- Kehinde Wiley, "Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes The Presentation
of Jesus on the Temple"
oil on canvas, 82-1/4" x 72" framed 2003

…those who have reached far into their pain, into the inner recesses of their sacred experiences, into the cut-throat negotiations of their social identities, and have brought forth representations of life marked with such startling poignancy, they simultaneously remind of life’s beauty, and of its pain. My heroes are those labeled “anti-heroes” who have dared interrogate the spaces culture has dictated they occupy, antiheroes who have awakened and like blossoming chrysalides, have broken society’s silken cords of restriction and strangulation, shaping for themselves and for progeny, a new vision of possibility and a radical reconfiguration of being. My heroes are those who have reached and have dared.

These are my heroes.

- dUNmoMi

(inspired by Kehinde Wiley)

LJ friends - I love you All!

2005-02-17T18:45:47Z

~moremi~

LiveJournal friendsCollage. Brought to you by pratibha75 and teemus.

I Swear... this thing did guess my one single passion... scary

2004-12-09T05:55:44Z


law school is love
brought to you by the isLove Generator

Modernity

2004-05-30T23:59:13Z

"To be modern is to live dangerously and courageously in the face of relentless self-criticism and inescapable fallibilism; it is to give up the all-too-human quest for certainty and indubitablility owing to the historicity of our claims."

- Cornel West, in his introduction to The Cornell West Reader