EXPERIMENTATION ON HUMAN SUBJECT

                                                                                                                        TOLU' ELUSIYAN

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the history of human existence, the experimentation on human subject has been both meritorious and de-meritorious, but there seems to be no balance, because research with human subjects is littered with a history of scandal that often shapes people’s view of the ethics of research. Conversely, there are even examples of government run research that took advantage of the helplessness of the subjects to ensure their participation and which resulted in the subjects experiencing unembellished harms. However, our concern in this discourse is the examination of the experimentation on human subject but with a critical evaluation to awake rational minds from their slumber and this shall be run open under the following thematic outline:

A.    What is Experimentation?

B.     The Human Life and Dignity

C.     The Experimentation on Human Subjects

i. The image problem

ii. Stem cells: Technology and Ethics

Iii. Human Cloning

     D. Evaluation/Conclusion

1.2 WHAT IS EXPERIMENTATION      

What is experimentation? What do we mean when we say experimentation; it is an operation or procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known law. An experimentation or experiment is also a process carried out to support, refute or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause and effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies.

Furthermore, a child may carry out basic experiments to understand gravity, while teams of scientists may take years of systematic investigation to advance their understanding of a phenomenon. Experiments and other types of hands on activities are very important to student learning in the science classroom. Experiments can raise test scores and help a student become more engaged and interested in the material they are learning, especially when used over time.[1]

In the scientific method, an experiment is an empirical procedure that arbitrates between competing models or hypothesis[2]. Researchers also use experimentation to test existing theories or new hypothesis to support or disprove them[3]. An experiment usually tests a hypothesis, which is an expectation about how a particular process or phenomenon works. However, an experiment may also aim to answer a “what if” question, without a specific expectation about what the experiment reveals, or to confirm prior results. If an experiment is carefully conducted, the results usually either support or disprove the hypothesis.

1.3 THE HUMAN LIFE AND DIGNITY

For the Holy mother Catholic Church, there is no distinction between defending human life and promoting the dignity of the human person. The holy father Pope benedict xvi writes in caritas in veritate no.15 that “the church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized”.

As a gift from God, every human life is sacred from conception to natural death. The life and dignity of every person must be respected and protected at every stage and in every condition. The right to life is the first and most fundamental principle of human rights that leads catholics to actively work for a world of greater respect for human life and greater commitment to justice and peace. Having discussed the dignity of human life we shall now discuss the experimentation of human subjects which is the heart of this work with basic and historic examples to help us integrate and internalize the discourse in question.

1.4 EXPERIMENTATION ON HUMAN SUBJECT

THE IMAGE PROBLEM

Human subjects are body used in the process of experimentation, and yet, despite the litany of failures to maintain ethical standards in research, these remain the exceptions and a focus on scandals can seriously distort proper discussion about research ethics. Research involving human subjects is not intrinsically ethically dubious as some would say. That is not to say it does not contain ethical challenges, but these concerns can often be met. Nor does it diminish the immense social importance of human subjects in experiments and the huge improvement in the quality of lives and number of lives saved through such research. The most pressing question in research ethics is often not whether we should be doing research but how can we balance or justify exposing individual human subjects to risk for the sake of the advancement of science? Sometimes, in the case of therapeutic trials, research subjects potentially stand to benefit should the treatment prove successful.[4] However, such cases are rare when considered against the time it takes for the results the time it takes for the results of research to be fully developed. The benefits are therefore often distributed among future populations rather than the individuals taking part in the trial. Matters are made even more complicated in cases where trials are conducted on subjects who are potentially vulnerable or desperate.

STEM CELLS: TECHNOLOGY AND ETHICS

Stem cells are non-specialized cells that have the capacity to divide indefinitely in culture and to differentiate into more mature cells with more specialized functions. That means that stell cells are the origin of other cells in the human body. They are the core cells from which other cells are derived. They are the bearers and givers of being to the cells of the human species. To reach them is to reach the innermost deposit of what makes the human being what he or she is, at least from the biological point of view[5]

While nobody has been as of yet cured of any disease arising from the search on embryonic stem cells, there are true cures coming from adult and umbilical cord stem cells. Indeed, literally tens of thousands of people have already been cured of various ailments and treated for various disorders with adult stem cells. Numerous cures are indeed already happening with the non-morally objectionable sources of stem cells.[6] There are however, major problems to be overcome. One area of such problems is the use of adult stem cells for more expensive treatments and cures. The reasons are obvious. Adult stem cells are older, more vulnerable and less susceptible to use and further development. They are also limited in availability and can be applied to less people in comparison to need. Where they are available they are in less and minute qualities. They are also often weaker being older and having been more intensively used that the new ones from children or embryos. And this makes adult stem cells more difficult toisolate and purify, compared to embryonic stem cells, they have less potentials for flexible utilization and effectiveness.[7] Above all they contain more DNA abnormalities. This is because of the toxins, sunlight and errors in them that make them more difficult to multiply and deploy. These potential weaknesses make adult stem cells highly limited in usefulness and efficiency.

More positive however, is the embryonic stem cell.in this case, pluripotent stem cells are isolated from human embryos that are just a few days old. At this stage, they are highly fecund and can thus be used for various purposes and for numerous treatments and transfers. The brand new stem cell is a mine of medical progress and further development. They can be made pluripotent that is, endlessly multiplying in the laboratory for all intent use. Many medical experts do derive these cells from foetal tissue obtained from terminated pregnancies. Such harvested cases are then put to use in therapy, maintenance, growth or other treatment of illnesses. In another reprise, p.dixon reports: a study has shown that bone marrow stem cells from an adult human form healthy brain tissue. That means that the use of such marrow stem cells can bring about very important tissues like that of the human brain which are fundamental in constituting a human person. The reason for this wonder is not to be over wondered[8]. This should not surprise us Dixon maintains. It is because all adult stem cells contain all the genetic code needed to produce an entire clone, that is reproduction or repetition of the same human being. In principle therefore these stem cells are able to produce whatever tissues or organs that the human being needs to become a human being.

HUMAN CLONING

The cloning debate involves scientists, legislators, philosophers, and international organizations, but not always harmoniously. general agreement, if not absolute unanimity, evolved that human reproductive cloning, for the purposes of producing a human genetic copy baby is unethical. Wilmut himself explained to the united states congress that cloning animal involved a high failure rate, since of his 227 reconstructed embryos, only 29 were implanted in ewes and only one developed successfully. Similar experiments with humans would be totally unacceptable, wilmut concluded[9]. The high failure rates more than 90 percent and high morbidity of animal cloning strongly suggests its inapplicability to humans. Furthermore, cloned animals seem to suffer high deformity and disability rates.[10] Dolly herself was finally put down in 2003, at the age of just six and a half years, even though many sheep live more than 10years. She had developed a progressive lung disease, which is usually found in older sheep, as well as premature arthritis. Some cloning experts have consequently hypothesized that cloned humans might need hip replacement surgery while still adolescents and might suffer from senility by the age of 20.

EVALUATION/CONCLUSION

By way of evaluation and conclusion on the account of this discourse, experimentation on human subjects taking stem cells technology and human cloning as a case study: Human beings are more than stem cells. We need to research into cells, but at the same time we need to go higher and look at the being, values and ultimate destiny of the human person. The above proviso must colour the objectives of stem cell researchers.[11] They must see us first and foremost as persons. Then their desire and function to help us will have more authenticity and achieve better fruit. While developments in stem cell research is ongoing, while the human genome mapping has been completed and more hopes are being raised as to the benefits to come from this feat, we must nevertheless equally see that no human being is made a victim of the others. This is a clarion call to respect lives, all lives, including the life of the human embryo. Life may never be willfully destroyed in the name of research. Life is life, and all life is equal. This is a fundamental ethical imperative.it is the bottom line of all our study, research and preoccupation with science and art, with medicine. This brings us to consider the last segment of the new regenerative medicine: the medical wonder of cloning.

Conversely, the ethical ramifications of cloning, especially with regard to humans, seem to defy easy limitation. Even if cloning technique problems are resolved with time, many questions remain. On what grounds could reproducing children by cloning be allowed or prohibited? Should cloning be used for sterile couples or for homosexual couples who want biological offspring? How would a child born by asexual reproduction experience life, as a unique individual or as a genetic ‘prisoner’? Is a cloned child simply a twin of its genetic donor, with a certain time lag? Should parents choose the traits of a future child, as is possible with cloning? Those and other such issues now preoccupy scientists and bioethicists who see in cloning procedures the potential to endanger human identity[12]. Consequently, after several considerations, several countries have formulated opinions and regulations on human reproductive cloning. In France, the national consultative ethics committee for health and life sciences addressed central dilemmas when in 1997 it rejected human reproductive cloning. The notion that perfect genetic similarity would in itself lead to perfect psychic similarity is devoid of any scientific foundation, stated the committee, adding that human reproductive cloning would cause a fundamental upheaval of the relationship between genetic identity and personal identity in its biological and cultural dimensions. And finally the life and dignity of man must always be respected.

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[1] Stohr Hunt Patricia, An Analysis of Frequency of Hands on Experience and science achievement, Journal of research in science,pdf

[2] Griffith W. Thomas, The physics of everyday phenomena: a conceptual introduction to physics (third edition) Boston: Mcgraw hill, pp.3-4,pdf

[3] Wilczek Frank, Fantastic Realities: 49 mind journeys and a trip to Stockholm, New Jersey: world scientific.pp 61-62,pdf

[4] Some have argued that this should go even further with the recruitment of the terminally ill for experimental drugs.

[5] Pantaleon Iroegbu Stem cells: Technology and Ethics, lecture note, Dr. Philip Edema, Saints peter and paul major seminary, Bodija, ibadan p.623

[6] ibid

[7] Ibid p.624

[8] ibid

[9] Human cloning: Lecture note, a photocopied material, published by united nation edicational scientific and cultural organization: preface written by Koichiro Matsuura, the director general of UNESCO,P.11

[10] IBID

[11] Pantaleon iroegbu stem cells: Technology and ethics, op.cit p.633

[12] Human cloing, op.cit,p. 11-12

EASTER SEASON

EASTER SEASON

The Gospel of Matthew 28:5-6 expresses the fundamental tone of the Easter season “the angel spoke to the women. You must not be afraid, he said. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has been raised, just as he said”, as a follow up to this, the resurrection of  Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith; but the Easter season is an opportunity to reflect and put into practice the transformation that the risen Christ has brought into our lives. The Easter season which is a celebration of seven Sundays, presupposes how much credibility the church gives to this season; being a moment for the mysteries of our faith to deepen in our hearts and lives, the acts of the apostles usually make up the first readings and that helps us to understand how the early church took their experience of the risen Jesus Christ to modify the universe. Conversely, the gospels of this season narrate the stories of the various resurrection appearances of Christ Jesus. Consequently, we hear later in the season almost exclusively from Jesus’ last discourse in the gospel of John to prepare us for the ascension and for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

ELUSIYAN TOLU’ FRANCIS

AFRICAN LITERATURE IN THE PHILOSOPHER TOOL KITS

AFRICAN LITERATURE IN THE PHILOSOPHER TOOL KITS

                                                                                    TOLU' ELUSIYAN

1.0 INTRODUCTION

There is evidence, in contemporary times, of the need to develop the intial structuring nodes of the African literature. It is therefore imperative for contemporary African philosophers to question, thematise, structure and share with each other their experiences of the problems of writing and mannerism of presentation of the African experiences, and in this way, to define the modalities of acess to the totality of the discipline in the continent. This is the only means of constituting the history of African literature in contemporary times. However, our concern in this work is to examine African literature in the philosopher tot kits, and this discourse shall be run open under the following thematic outlines to set on fire the rational minds and to wake them from their slumber.

*Understanding African Literature

*Features of African Literature

*Philosophers tool kits: Logic and Language

*Logic and African Literature

*Language and African Literature

*Evaluation/Conclusion

1.1 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN LITERATURE: THE PARADOXES, THE COMPLEXITIES AND THE PERPLEXITIES

Harold Scheub explicitly stated in his article on African literature that:

African literature is the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages.[1]

So one could simply say that an African literature is literature of or from Africa and includes oral literature. Echoing on the understanding of African literature, Joseph George notes in his chapter on African literature in understanding contemporary Africa, whereas European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:

Literature can be the parts of Asian also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone. Traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching, rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.[2]

Moreover, in Africa, there seems to be various kinds of literature which include oral literature, pre-colonial literature, colonial literature, and post-colonial literature. When we talk of oral literature, it could be in prose or verse. The prose is often mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster character. Storytellers in African sometimes use call and response techniques to tell their stories. Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual verse, praise poems rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers, bards sometimes known as griots, tell their stories with music.[3] as a follow up to the above, as rightly stated, we also have pre-colonial literature, for they are even numerous; so oral literature of west Africa includes the epic of sundiata composed in medieval Mali, and the older epic of Dinga from the old Ghana empire. In Ethiopia, there is a substantial literature written in geez going back at least to the fourth century AD; the best known work in this tradition is the kebra Negast, or Book of kings. One popular form of traditional African folktale is the trickster story, in which a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include anansi, a spider in the folklore of ashanti people of Ghana; ijapa, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and sungara, a here found in central and east African folklore.[4] furthermore, we also made mention of colonial African literature; the colonial African works best known in the west from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as olaudah equiano’s the interesting narrative of the life of olaudah equiano (1789). In the colonial period, Africans exposed to western languages began to write in those tongues. In 19911, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford of the Gold Coast now Ghana punlished what is probably the first African novel written in English, euthopia unbound: studies in Race Emancipation[5] although the work moves between fiction and political advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the western press mark a watershed moment in African literature. Postcolonial African literature: with liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their independent in the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown dramatically in quantity and in recognition, with numerous African works appearing in western academic curricula and on best of lists compiled at the end of the 19^th century. African writers in this period wrote both in western languages, notably English, French, and Portuguese and in traditional African languages such as Hausa. Ali A. Mazrui and others mention seven conflicts as themes: the clash between Africa’s past and present, between tradition and modernity, between indigenous and foreign, between socialism and capitalism, between development and self-reliance and between Africanity and humanity.[6]

1.2 PHILOSOPERS TOOL KITS: LOGIC AND LANGUAGE           

Logic and language seems to be the most crucial parts among the tools that is used in philosophizing by the philosophers; the formal patterns of correct reasoning can all be conveyed through ordinary language, but then so can a lot of other things. In fact, we use language in many different ways, some of which are irrelevant to any attempt to provide reasons for what we believe. But then logic also helps us to identify bad reasoning from good ones. Dwelling on language now, the informative use of language in the real sense of it is set to involve an effort to communicate some content. When I tell a child, “the 5^th of May is seminary’s holiday,” or write to you that “Logic is the study of correct reasoning”, or jot a note to myself, “Jennifer- 566-456,” I am using language informatively. This kind of use presumes that the content of what is being communicated is actually true, so it will be our central focus in the study of logic. An expressive use of language, on the other hand, intends only to vent some feeling, or perhaps to evoke some feeling from other people. When I say, “Friday afternoons are dreary,” I am using language expressively. Although such uses don’t convey any information, they do serve an important function in everyday life, since how we feel sometimes matters as much as, or more than what we hold to be true. Lastly, directive usage of language aim to cause or to prevent some overt action by a human agent. When I say “shut the door”, or write “read the textbook,” or memo myself, “don’t rely so heavily on the passive voice,” I am using language directively. The point in each of these cases is to make someone perfume a particular action. This is a significant linguistic function, too, but like the expressive use, it doesn’t always relate logically to the truth of our beliefs. Having explicated briefly on the two basic tools of philosophizing for the philosophers, that is logic and language; we shall now see the relationship between logic and African literature and language and African literature respectively to serve the interest of this discourse.

1.3 LOGIC AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

But it seems to me that modern philosophy is not so happy to converse with literature any more. I think this is partly due to the general specialization that occurs in modern university disciplines. I think the rest of the explanation comes largely down to a particular kind of philosophy, analysis, being the dominant paradigm at the moment. And analysis is based upon the propositional analysis of language as discrete yet systematic logical statements.
Not that I have a problem with any of this kind of logical analysis per se. If you are doing certain kinds of philosophy, such as epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language and so on, the truth condition of logic is perfect for structuring questions and evaluating answers. I do have an issue, however, when these truth conditions are imposed on other areas, even in philosophy itself.  I was a voracious reader of fiction as a kid, and still I am. What I love about literature is its ability to open up worlds to us. Or, expressed philosophically, the ability to illuminate the irreducibly subjective quality of perception. Characterization, voice and tone in literature remind us that there is always an “I” perceiving the world. Literature, on the other hand, is a more subtle genre for explicating the complexities of human action. It can render emotion and intuition realistically while integrating large themes that may contain logical impasses or big philosophical questions. In this way literature certainly does analyze human behaviour, by showing us human choices and their consequences and hypothesizing about whether this or that philosophy can be the basis for a life. It's just not logical, functional analysis.

If we take the view that philosophy is purely functional analysis, and literature is incapable of analysis at all, then yes. You could be mistaken into thinking there is a necessary division.

1.4 LANGUAGE AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

Language becomes a problem for just one reason which audiences are you writing to, the foreign audience or the inhabitants of Africa? If we agree that Africans know Africa, then the answer to the above question will be the foreign audience. The best of the best of African writers started out by debunking the erroneous views of Europeans/Americans about Africa. How else could the message be passed across if the intending receiver could hardly understand the language of the message? Chinua Achebe said he had to write in English, rather than in his native Igbo, because that's the only way his message will be understood by his targeted audience. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o decided not to have anything to do with the oppressor's language, English, and started writing in his native Gikuyu. He has a point in it, but how many people are interested in taking that effort in reading his writings now that he has taken that journey?

Language has been an issue in African literature, but I think we should write in the language majority of the other world will understand. At the end, we write to correct erroneous views about us and our culture.

There are numerous reasons:

1.      Africa is not some monolithic cultural unit and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of different languages, cultures, and historical experiences in Africa. We don’t really use terms like “European literature” or “Asian literature” for those exact same reasons.

2.      The languages of the colonizers became the languages of many people in Africa (especially as lingua francas between innumerable different groups, and as languages of education and therefore prestige). So many would-be authors, most likely educated (at least in higher education) in English or French (most likely), would most likely write in those languages because they would have a better mastery over them and understanding of the literature, etc. of those languages as opposed to the most-likely non-existent literature of the vernacular language (or former language) of their respective countries. As in most African countries, a vast many people are not only illiterate but have very basic grasp of the languages of higher education such as English and French. This is why the most well-known literature to come out of Africa was made famous outside of Africa and not from within it.

3.      Publishing houses are almost non-existent in Africa for the aforementioned reasons. Also, to make a large generalization, cultures of the African continent largely relied on oral transmission of stories/etc. until only recently and even now this is still the case for so many people living in villages with little education.

There are many more complex reasons and many have written about the struggle of literature in African countries.

1.5 EVALUATION/CONCLUSION

            From all indications one would see that the discourse on the problem of African literature is very controversial, for there has been debates and arguments among scholars has to what should be regarded as African literature, and this has created land-mark of discussion in the historical trajectory of African literature and as such by way of conclusion but we have been able to examine it by making allusion to the proper understanding of the meaning of African literature, conceptually and historically. We then proceeded to the philosopher’s tool kits which we referred to as Logic and language which was explicated summarily to serve the interest of the discourse and finally we were able to examine. the relationship, as well as the influence of those tool kits that is logic and language on African literature and with that we believe we have serve the purpose of this discourse.

BIOGRAPHY/REFRENCES

Harold Scheub, African Literature, unpublished Material,pdf, global.britanniaca.com/art/African-Literature, retrieved 25/01/2017

Joseph George, African Literature, in Gordon and Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa (England: warlock publication, 1996)

African Literature, www.wikipedia.com/retreived 24/01/2017, 2:30PM

Stephaine Newell, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to play the game of life, (Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University press, 2002),

Ali A.Mazrui, The development of modern literature since 1935,in UNESCO’s General History of Africa, Vol. VII,P. 564F,PDF

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[1] Harold Scheub, African Literature, unpublished Material,pdf, global.britanniaca.com/art/African-Literature, retrieved 25/01/2017

[2] Joseph George, African Literature, in Gordon and Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa (England: warlock publication,1996),p.304

[3] African Literature, www.wikipedia.com/retreived 24/01/2017

[4] Ibid

[5] Stephaine Newell, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to play the game of life,(Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University press, 2002), p.135

[6] Ali A.Mazrui, The development of modern literature since 1935,in UNESCO’s General History of Africa, Vol. VII,P. 564F,PDF.

TAWAKALITU

TAWAKALITU

                             ……..ELUSIYAN TOLU’ FRANCIS

This is virtue her self

As the dwindling candlewicks flirted

With the dawn, she watched us slowly

Awakening with loving familiarity

She taught us how to wash

She taught us how to cook

She taught us how to behave

At a glance of her eyes

Conveys so many messages

Which is not always difficult,

For us to decode.

Hard-work is her paradigm

A woman of great virtue

Whose ways of life cannot but enthuse

Her discipline cannot be restrained

Neither can it be measured

Her order is final

Her instruction is firm

So steady and firm that it cannot be dared

If you become hard

War becomes her implement

The war you cannot win

Because she is mother exqusitus

A mother excellentus

Cooking becomes so easy

Humility becomes our virtue

Respect becomes our model

Favour that we received from her

As she allows thoughts to wash over us

Like the miniature diamond-backed fish

That swam underfoot and shuffled

Through memory folders

In the back of our minds

Placing in us morality and discipline

Tawakalitu[i] (mo ba olorun oba duro)

I stand with God alone

A woman without fear

Whose courage can elude that of Abija-wara[ii]

Rich in texture

Vivid in description

Impressive in thought

Massive in hard-work

What can we do without you

We own everything to you

If we are to come to this world

Again and again

We would love to come through you

Mother! Be strong.

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[i] The poem is dedicated to Mrs. Rita T. Elusiyan, the mother who gave birth to me! I love you mom!

[ii] Abija-wara is a name of the most powerful warrior in ancient Yoruba language movies

OKEIGBO PEOPLE AND CULTURE

OKEIGBO PEOPLE AND CULTURE

............Tolu’ Elusiyan

Okeigbo! That bush in the hill

That is her popular name,

That is what she’s known for,

Her comic language can make heavy hearts light

The mother of great people

Kind people they are,

But their minds you cannot know

They are people of tradition
Who can never do without their History

You make good name hear

It follows you for ever

You make bad appellation here

It lingers in the hearts of many

What a place, what a people

Whose welcoming attitude,

Can make an illness healed.

The journey of two royal men,

Of the houses of the Oni of Ife

Derin and Kugbayigbe and other comrades,

Founded it in the midst of the hills

Time has passed away, years have passed away

But then it has move from where it used to be

Maybe a bit of influence

By education and innovation

Freshness and newness

Stylishness and inventiveness

And so education now becomes her tools

Igbo-Olodumare acclaimed evil forest emerged

A forest of doom! Fagunwa exclaimed!!

Long walk to its bosom

First glance was the tortoise,

Bigger than human being

With an old man scary like scape

Dazzled with a hint of cape

Fuzzes like sight of tape

Upon closeness, what I saw bits my imagination

My imagination becomes illusion

My illusion becomes transformation

The transformation becomes my mission

My mission becomes my task

The task that was never asked

I saw, I felt, I touched and I grasped

All were creative works of art

And maybe they were there in the time of Fagunwa

But nothing was visible to me

All were creative works of arts

Myth and folklore they were.

Aluku! Aluku!! Aluku!!!

Do not put on your light

Do not work at Night

Do not talk, it’s her time

He or her we do not even know

Mystery they are, is all we know

The owner of the night

Respect his night

Oh Aluku! A mysterious festival

Who’s secretive is enigmatical

Men of fury, manipulating the Spiritual world

Spirit of bilocation is what we experienced

Double voice effect cannot be replaced

Abusive words of Aluku are like thorns in the flesh

So mouthed than that of the parrot

As I journey through exodus

Certain revelations began to unfold

Egungun! Egungun!! Egungun!!!

Also trop in like a chameleon

A cooking pot for the chameleon

Is a cooking pot for the lizard

Long sticks I could see

Pointing sorrowfully towards the sky

It does not come down with reason

But will surely come down to inflict

Unlimited flogging

With passion, aggression and pride

I could see the paradoxes

I could taste the complexities

I could feel the perplexities

Oh Okeigbo people and culture

Histories were made, stories were told

Okeigbo! I am proud to be from you

We are not Okeigbo people

Because we were born in Okeigbo

But we are Okeigbo people

Because Okeigbo was born in us

This poem was composed by TOLULOPE ELUSIYAN on the 21st of February, 2017