Painters, blacksmiths and wordsmiths: building molues in Lagos

African Arts, Autumn, 2008 by Damola Osinulu

[FIGURE 15 OMITTED]

RIDING ON WORDS, WRITING ON MOLUES.

As already noted, the intended meaning of some of the images is supplemented by texts. Texts, however, are often deployed independently. In many places they take the prominent positions that would otherwise be occupied by images (Fig. 16). While the texts are often in English, they are just as often in Yoruba. Yoruba's history as an oral language becomes apparent as one finds multiple variations on the language's orthography used on buses. It is also rare to find diacritical marks on the words. The possibility of alternative pronunciations and meanings therefore require the reader to properly contextualize words in order to understand their meaning.

To understand the prominence of written prayers on molues and other buses, it is necessary to enter the spiritual world within which the owners and drivers operate. It is a complex world layered with Christian and Islamic elements, but these elements operate in a spiritual world constructed by the drivers' and owners' explicit and implicit Yoruba religious beliefs. In this construct, the road is understood to be a dangerous place where malignant forces abound. The high number of accidents on Nigerian roads provides a physical confirmation of the spiritual dangers of the road.

Central to this Yoruba spiritual construct is the concept of Aiye--a system against which the individual struggles. Olatunde Lawuyi provides a primer on this concept:

   More generally for the Yourba, aiye serves as a key to a value
   system, conveying those self-conceptions, motivations, and
   understandings by which the individual relates to society. Indeed,
   with appropriate linguistic modifiers, it means pretence, time,
   tribal territory, the dominion of a political leader, a market, the
   whole world, the evil ones, witches and sorcerers, unformed and
   dangerous characters, spiritual forces and a point on a journey. It
   represents the good and negative aspects of human development
   (1988:9-10).

In de Certeau's terms, aiye becomes a system with "will and power" that can be isolated and identified and whose strategies can be deployed against the individual. Lawuyi writes regarding the dichotomy of the T and 'the world' that "T, unless strengthened by spiritual forces is never equal to but is opposite and complementary to aiye" (ibid., p. lo). Aiye then is a system against whose strategies, tactics must be deployed.

[FIGURE 16 OMITTED]

Also central to Yoruba religious thought and encompassed in the concept of aiye is that of ota--enemy or enemies. These ate persons or entities that have malignant feelings towards the individual. Akintunde Oyetade reminds us that while the idea of an enemy or enemies is a universal one, it "is very strong and widespread among the Yoruba and it is evident in their everyday speech." He further informs us that "The Yoruba believe that every living human being has one type of ota or another" (2004:81).

Beyond these spiritual adversaries, one must also recognize that driving in Lagos is a truly confrontational affair. The spiritual struggle against aiye and ota is experienced quite literally by the parallel struggle against other drivers in Lagos traffic. It is these other drivers and their passengers who read the texts displayed on the buses.