The Adventures of Cosmic Yoruba
& Her Flying Machines too
Have you seen Shuga yet? The amazingly well-made MTV produced Kenyan series on love, sex, sexuality, youth culture and all things connected? Well, here I’ve gathered all episodes of Shuga for your viewing pleasure. They are up to date and I will make necessary edits when/if newer episodes are released. Season 1 Season 2 TW:…
I wrote this essay immediately after watching the film Aramotu with a colleague from work, that was months ago. I delayed posting because I wanted to learn more about the gelede masks in Yoruba tradition (and I won’t lie, also because I grew distracted with other things). ~ Aramotu is an amazing movie that has…
Taafé Fanga is a film about a group of Dogon women who, with the power of a mask, manage to subvert gender roles in their mountainous village. Taafé Fanga has elements of comedy (which may not translate well outside a West African audience) yet, the heart of Taafé Fanga is female empowerment. The film begins…
Before actually writing about my fun times in Western Asia, can I write about the process of getting there? I counted and in the past weeks I have boarded six planes. SIX. And I am not counting the two flights I had to catch from Abuja to Lagos because I went with Emirates (and came…
I recall a period in which I was searching desperately for films directed by Ousmane Sembene, always coming up empty handed. Now I have watched most of his iconic movies from Xala (1975) to Ceddo (1975). The latest addition to that list is Faat Kiné (2000). I had no idea that he released a film…
Date Wine (1998) is a movie directed by Radwan el-Kashef. I only caught the movie halfway through but I enjoyed it thoroughly because it reminded me of Almacita, Soul of Desolato. Date Wine explores the effect on an Egyptian village when all the men abandon home in search of greener pastures leaving behind the women…
Hyenas (Hyènes) is a movie directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, a.k.a "the most paradoxical filmmaker in the history of African cinema", "the African Dionysus," "the prince of Colobane." Hyenas is part of Mambéty’s trilogies about the ‘power of craziness’; [It] tells the story of Linguere Ramatou, an aging, wealthy woman who revisits her home village…
I watched this interesting movie last night using valuable sleeping hours. It happened by mistake, I was trying to show my mum this channel, Magic World Africa and it was just my luck that as I tuned in, the next scheduled movie was Almacita, Soul of Desolato. Magic World Africa is one of the many…
Osun is the Yoruba goddess of love, lust, fertility, fresh waters, women’s health, witches and wealth. Osun has been compared to and is sometimes thought of as the Yoruba representation or reincarnations of goddesses from other cultures such as Nekhbet, Sekhmet, the Chinese goddess Kuan Yin and Hindu goddess Laskhmi. Each year a large festival…
It is no secret that I am a huge fan of movies and series set in the fictional past. I’d rather watch historical dramas than those set in the modern times. I love all sorts of dramas set in different periods and I tend not to discriminate as I enjoy European historical movies alongside wuxia…