A while back, I got curious about whether playlist curation could help me tackle my discomfort with using the Yorùbá language in intimate contexts. Somehow, this turned into seven remote interviews, three playlists — or sex tapes — across different genres, and one video essay that took almost a year to make.
I started this as someone who reserved Yorùbá for the “village”, or for whenever I stepped outside the European/African American construct I had built for myself in my own mind. I had no interest in the Fújì on Tape II, and I vehemently condemned everything on Tape III as shameless and misogynistic, even though I’d enjoy them secretly.
Some things have changed. I let Yorùbá slip into my monologues now. I let Odùduwà take control of my tongue, just as I’m about to say words like ‘honourable’. I live for Fújì. And I’ve come away with better questions about the genuinely problematic songs on Tape III than when I started.
Yorùbá is considered too vivid for intimacy and too primitive for inner life. Beyond Hollyweird and the lasting effects of colonial programming, we were also actively shielded from the indigenous erotica that existed — so much so that the thought of using the language elicits disgust, even outrage for some. Which raises the question: should more indigenous erotica exist to tackle this discomfort? More nude scenes in epic Yorùbá films, more indigenous rappers being vulgar, more Níníolás and St Janets? Why tackle this discomfort at all, and why with art? These are some of the questions this video essay explores.
I think I accidentally found another piece of my identity through the curation of these playlists and this essay. I hope it does something for you too.
In conversation with
Boye
Rash the Greatest
Tomide Marv
Hodovai
Keji
Anthony
Victoria
Referenced work
Tomide Marv — I’m Decolonising Dirty Talk By Speaking Yorùbá During Sex
Ayomide Tayo — Old Nollywood Revolutionised Sex, and Punished It
Adeleke Fakoya — Endargement scenario: The case of Yorùbá
S.A. Dada — Language Contact and Language Conflict: The Case of Yoruba-English Bilinguals
Tomide Marv — Will Female Sexual Liberation in Nigerian Music Ever Have a Champion Like St. Janet?
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o — Decolonising the Mind
Hodovai — MOJO AF: Fearless, Authentic, and Ready for a New Era
Dennis Ade-Peter — The Shuffle: Revisiting “Mofe Mu’yan”, the song that brought Dr Victor Olaiya to a younger generation
Travis Astria — Hip-hop feminist Joan Morgan on hip-hop’s misogyny
