YORUBA RONU By Late Chief Hubert Ogunde and the English Translation By Silas Ola Abayomi.

YORUBA RONU

By

Late Chief Hubert Ogunde
and the English Translation

By

Silas Ola Abayomi.

Mo wo Ile Aye o, aye sa mala mala;
Mo ma b’oju w’orun okunkun losu bo’le;
Mo ni eri eyi o, kini sele si Yoruba omo Alade,

kini sele si Yoruba omo Odua;
Ye, ye, ye, yeye, ye awa mase hun, oro nla nbe;
Yoruba nse r’awon nitori Owó,
Yoruba jin r’awon l’ese nitori ipò;
Won gbebi f’alare, won gba’re f’elebi;
Won pe olè ko wa ja, won tun pe oloko wa mu;
Ogbon ti won gbon lo gbe won de Ilé Olà,
ogbon na lo tun padawa si tunde won mole;
Awon ti won ti n s’Oga lojo to ti pe,
tun pada wa d’eni a n f’owo ti s’eyin.
Yo, yo, yo, Yoruba yo yo yo bi ina ale;
Yoruba ru ru ru bi Omi Òkun;

Yoruba baba nse…Yo yo Yoruba ronu o!

Yoruba so’ra won di boolu f’araye gba;
To n ba gba won soke, won a tun gba’won s’isale o;
Eya ti o ti kere te le ni won ge kuru;
Awon ti ale f’ejo sun, ti di eni ati jo;
Yoruba joko sile regede, won fi owo l’owo;
Bi Agutan ti Abore n bo orisa re o!
Yo yo Yoruba r’onu o!

Ori ki ma i buru titi, ko bu ogun odun;
Leyin okunkun biribiri, Imole a tan;
Ejeka pe Olodumare, ka pe Oba lu Aye;

k’ayewa le dun ni igbehin, igbein lalayo;
Ile mo pe o, Ile dakun gbawa o, Ile o;
Ile ogere, a f’okó yeri…ile!
Alapo Ìkà, o te rere ka ibi…ile!
Ogba ragada bi eni yeye mi omo adaru pale
Oge…Ile, dakun gba wa o…Ile!
Ibi ti n pa Ika l’enu mo…ile!
Aate i ka, o ko ti a pe Ile…Ile!
Ogbamu, gbamu oju Eledumare ko mase
gbamu lowo aye…Ile…dakungba wa o…Ile

Ehen, ehen awa gbe ori ile yi pe o;
Eni ba dale, a ba ile lo…peregede o…

ehen ehen awa gbe ori ile yi pe o;
Oduduwa bawa tun ile yi se o…to’wo,
t’omo o…ehen…awa gbe ori ile yi pe o;
Oduduwa da wa l’are o, kaa si maa r’ere je o…
ehen awa gbe ori ile yi pe o!
yo yo yo Yoruba ronu o!

               

The English Translation of Yoruba Ronu

Musical & Poetic rendition

of

Late Chief Hubert Ogunde

Translation

by

Silas Ola Abayomi.

Yoruba Nation-Be Cogitative:

I look upon the earth

the earth looks very stale,
faded, and fallow ,
I gaze into the sky, the earth is
covered in darkness;
then I say: yes (ehen) yes (ehen).
What has happened to Yorubas,
oh! The Princes
what has become of Yoruba-
the children of Oduduwa
Chorus: very sorry-yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yorubas have become enemies of

themselves because of money,
Yorubas are betraying themselves
because of position;
judgment, they reverse-
declare guilty innocent, and
innocent guilty.

They will invite robber to rob-

also, inform farm owner
to make arrest,
their wisdom-once-
backbone of their success,
same wisdom and knowledge,
today’s albatross;
a pacesetter and frontrunner for years,
same people now are back-benchers,
watching from the rear;
Oh! Oh!! Oh!!! Yoruba be reflective and reasonable.

Yoruba-like nightlight-they shine

Yoruba-like sea waves-they swell and
rise;
Yoruba, forever, father and old wise
one you shall be.
Chorus: Oh! Oh!! Oh!!!
Yoruba, be Cogitative.

Yoruba turn themselves to football,

everyone tosses up and down,
if toss up, they toss down,
a small race before, now reduce
by half,
elders we should consult for
comfort,
now are inconsequential and
de minimis;
on the floor, they sit with
hands on jaws,
confused without knowledge of
what to do,
like a sacrificial lamb to
mother earth in hands of a priest,
they are.
Chorus: Oh! Oh!! Oh!!!
Yoruba, be reflective and reasonable.

Never shall innocent soul suffers

indefinitely,
after darkness comes sunshine,
let’s call on God, the King of
universe-that it may go well
with us at the end,
as game changes pattern toward
the end;
mother earth, I call you-
please, rescue us-mother earth.

Slippery land, natural barber with
instrument of hoe,
owner, bag of cruelty, spread to
check evil;
spread-on-mat, mother who sprays
ashes to heal the earth,
Chorus: mother earth, please rescue us.

One who restrains and shuts down

evil doer,
irremovable life-long mat, name of
mother earth,
untouchable and unreachable, no one
dare look, gaze at Creator’s face;
Chorus: mother earth, rescue us,
yes, yes, forever, we shall live on
our land.

Whoever betrays shall be paid

in same coin,
Chorus: yes, we shall live on
this land forever.
Oduduwa, correct matters for us,
give us wealth and inheritance,
Chorus: we shall live on this
land forever,
Oduduwa, bless us
that we may be successful
in our engagements and undertakings;
Chorus: we shall live forever on this
Land.

As Humanity Remember World Peace Day

As Humanity Remember

World Peace Day

Everybody is crying for peace
who are the peace breakers?
Every living soul wants peace,
tell me the enemies of peace;
daily, mankind preach peace,
hate-he displays in speech,
war he purses by action.

Love thy neighbor-
mankind daily anthem,                        
discrimination he glorifies in
all spheres of life,
unity in diversity-mantra man
proclaim always,
preference he gives to colors,
contents of character
he care less about.

Justice, equality, and fairness,

nutrients that produce peace;
hymns man sings every day,
but selfishness, narcissism or  
“me first” good-for-nothing-sons-
of-Adam adopt as a way of life.

Righteousness man adores in
the open,  
but the work of evil he cherishes
behind the closed doors,
darkness he condemns in
public,
light he hates when alone,
morality-he defines by-
convenience, choice, and
preference.

Conscience-he had sold to

give evil unlimited power
over good,
throne of justice-he had
replaced by temple of injustice.

Instead of love and kindness,

enmity and meanness man
worship,
rather than giving and plough
back to his society,
profit and gain man put first;
instead of brotherly love and
human feeling,
desensitize heart and
impassive mind,
man encourages and displays.

Daily, man craves for peace

wars and conflicts he promotes,
by means of arms and ammunition
he manufactures and,
willing agents of death who buy them
to commit crimes against humanity.

Merchants of death-they make fat

from immediate neighborhood
turned-battlefield,
harvests from ethnic cleansing,
massacre, pogrom, and genocide,
humanity reap daily.

Violence-man continue to promote

in the media-
hypnotizing and sedating minds-
on the altar of catharsis and
purgation.

Absurdity-media make look

reasonable and acceptable
just as man turns crimes to
entertainment and weapons of war-
he makes into toys-of-pleasure;
murder, robbery, bootlicking,
homicide, and gun-caused
deaths have overtaken neighborhood.

Morality he treats with disrespect,

by the day human society behaves
less than honorably,
abuse, waywardness,  and
molestation he loves,
because heart-of-beast
man prefers to heart-of-man.

Lies and falsehood tools in hands

of politicians who always sabotage
mankind’s march to peace,
corruption, payola, and
malfeasance weapons of
big businesses which undermine
world peace;
hypocrisy, fleecing, and flimflam
means by which organized religions
threaten and subvert world peace.

Humanity should help self to

make earth a little more peaceful,
corruption-let man tone down-
hate and associated evils,
let man play down;
politicians, big business, and
organized religions should
relax hold on mankind’s jugular,
to give man a little breathing
space.  

---

 [SA1]

World Poverty-Score Card

World Poverty-Score Card:

Hunger:

On empty stomach

eight hundred million
souls go to bed each night,
on the empty stomach
they wake up every morning
without hope of any meal to eat;
for the unfortunate
three million children-
malnutrition-will deny them
witnessing next birthday,
their parents,
mostly, mothers-
hunger-may reduce them to
moving corpses.

Poor Homes and Unsanitary Living

Conditions:

In slums and ghettoes
more than six hundred million
individuals live,
under conditions far less human;
in homes without clean water-
they dwell-
homes without adequate ventilation,
houses without electricity and fixtures,
homes lacking basic human needs,
dilapidated homes with fallen roofs.

Over half of world’s population

live in remote and isolated areas,
areas not readily reached by roads,
places without infrastructures to
sustain life;
places that may technically
be regarded as prisons,
unfortunate habitations
where dwellers become prisoners,
not by default but by accident of birth.

Sickness and Diseases:

Sickness and diseases have  

become un-welcome and
permanent stay-in with bivouac
of humans for ages,
over one-and-half-billion
women with low income or no job,  
account for more than half of
world sick patients,
with little or no dignity
death treat them more than
male folks,
because of socio-cultural and
biological reasons.

Every year, more than three million

children die of preventable diseases,
shots to strengthen body immunity,
most people can’t afford;
every year, over half-a-million
pregnant women die of
child birth related complications,
HIV/AIDS continues to claim lives,
fifteen million children had lost
their parents to the disease.

Every year, venereal, heart, cancer,

diabetes, and mental illnesses
harvest millions,
poverty and ignorance  
hamstring vast majority on
medical conditions that could
have been controlled,
if victims had economic and social
powers;
sadly, children are orphaned,
live never to have or to know
parents in a continuous vicious
cycle.

Literacy and Education:

Every year, more than hundred million

children are shut out of schools,
as more schools are closed down
because of global economic
downturns;
social services-under which schools
fall suffer tremendously-as cuts in
budget limit services schools’ can
provide.

More worrisome is the quality of

education and its products-globally-
teacher-student ratio keep declining,
higher education in economically
prosperous lands is becoming a
luxury and unaffordable in
developing economies.

Instead of being oases of knowledge,

moral development, and sound spiritual
training grounds,
schools and their managers have gone
into syncope,
leaving students to their fate
and human society keep reaping
rotten fruits from abandonment
with deadly consequences that
threaten future of mankind.

Social Services:

Hospitals, health, and medical

facilities have become the victims
of budget cuts on social services
provided by governments world over,
elderly, children, women, and
people living with disabilities are
getting reduced assistance by the day,
standard of living from where quality of
good life emanates keep going down.

Globally, workers are compelled to

work more jobs under unfavorable
labor laws that are barely different
from slavery;
today, half of world’s population
live on $2.50 per day, 
another billion souls live in
extreme poverty of less than-
$1.25 per day.

International Dimension:

Globalization! Globalization! Globalization!

Removal of artificial and natural borders,
integrating world economic order
into a single powerful economic order
by multi and trans-national corporations
through mergers, acquisitions,
down and right sizing, and
international market dominance
keep shrinking economic powers
of world workers.

Gender pay gap, color lines pay,

pay by specialization and knowledge
based on locations now on the rise;
workers live from hand-to-mouth,
more salaried workers are now
destitute living from
paycheck-to-paycheck,
as global economic condition
worsen.

Multi and trans-national corporations,

International organizations-governmental
non-governmental have become
modern-day slave owners,
through slave camps 
they run worldwide
in the name of commercial activities-
of demand and supply.

Gains and profits from masses’

misfortune create more wealth
and power for the super-rich,
technology and collapsed borders
they keep maximizing to have
unfettered access to man’s
collective wealth.

Let the world know:

a child without food and  
other necessities constitute
a crime against human.

Let humanity know:

women build nations,
a nation will be half-built or
remained stagnant  
when women have no
access to medical care,
have no food to eat,
have no homes to raise their
children,
have no education and
are denied economic power.

World must know:

future may be ruined when
a child is raised in a slum or in
a ghetto,
moreover, job ethics and
morals may be compromised,
when workers are underpaid and
unfairly treated.

Proclaim from public squares,

declare from rooftops,
advertise from your windows,
pronounce from agoras,
trumpet from the theaters,
herald from on the streets,
broadcast from highways:
a little more help-
a little plough back to-
the society by every one
will certainly create an oasis of love,
belongingness, and brotherhood
everyone shall be proud of.

The Two forgotten Great Nigerian Rivers: Niger and Benue-

The Two forgotten Great Nigerian Rivers:

Niger and Benue-

By the sides of two rivers:

Niger and Benue,
our founding fathers converged,
on the sides of these great
rivers-a nation called Nigeria
born.

By the side of River Niger-

our first political headquarters-
Lokoja located;
Niger-the river that
breathed life into
modern Nigeria,
through her-Christianity-
entered the hinterland,
by means her of her-
Islam spread down south.

By means of voyages on her-

trade and commerce boomed-
through her water-palm oil,
kernel, timber, cotton,
cocoa, ferried to Atlantic
to begin trans-Atlantic journey.

On the bank of Niger-
the largest sugarcane
plantation established-
On your shoreline-
Nigeria’s largest sugar company-
Bacita Sugar Company formed.

On the bank of River Benue

comes “food basket” for
our land;
by means of never ending water
from Cameroon Highland-corn,
millet, yam, beans, yam, rice-
you continually give to the land. 

Niger-in you are Kainji Dam-

Hydroelectric power source,
in you are adjacent dams-
Jebba and Shirorro-
electric power sources and
irrigation outlets for food
production in the land.

In you are Bussa-

city of Waterloo-
for European explorers-
Mungo Park and fellow;
still Niger and
through  Bussa-other
European explorers
Hugh Clapperton,
Richard Lemon Lander,
Captain Pearce and Dr. Morrison
reached Sokoto up north in 1826.

In you are Mokwa,

Shintaku, and Kotonkefir-
the popular Niger Bridge-
link between north and south,
now a death trap.

In you are Asaba-Onitsha

Niger Bridge-the only
west-east link use by
one million travelers–a day-
now-a dead bridge.

Why are these rivers

wailing and nobody listens?
Why are these gifts of nature
shedding tears, and
no one cares to pacify them?
I ask-why did we fail these
natural phenomena as a people-
with so much-they had given us?

Oh! My people,

When will Niger and Benue
be appeased?
Will these great waters ever
get attention they deserved?
Politicking-water- 
a non-political item-
further drives the wedge,
when will it be over?

Niger dredging, second-

Niger-Bridge,
new Shintaku-Kotonkefir
Bridge have become permanent
campaign topics for decades-
when will politicians find new
campaign topics?   

I ask: when will

Niger-River-Selective-
Development-Initiatives
NIRSEDIN by federal government
be over?

Neither cherry-picking nor

pretermit will help Niger-Benue or
people of Nigeria,
rather-an-all-inclusive
development-
a road-map that cares for all.

Nile, Amazon, Yangtze,
Mississippi, Chang-Jiang, Ob,
Yellow River, Irtysh,

and Congo Rivers are rivers like
Niger and Benue,
but their owners gave them
personalities-they deserved;
today-they have commanding
effect on global geography.

I ask-when will Niger-Benue

join the league of great earthly
rivers?
Until Shintaku-Kotonkefir
bridge constructed,
till Second Niger Bridge
constructed to sustain
east-west link;
till good roads are
constructed,
life and property of Nigerians
are protected,
then the peace of these rivers
shall return.

At this time: every Nigerian will

chorus: “by the sides of Rivers Niger
and Benue” where we converged,
there an extra-ordinary-land-
Nigeria was created.

Female Genital Mutilation-Another Abuse.

Female Genital Mutilation-

Another Abuse

Leave me as I’m created

touch not any part of my
body,
recreate me not and
my womanhood
I say treat with respect and
dignity.

Subject me not to horror of pain,
deliver my soul from eternal
mental and emotional torture;
hold your scalpel for it produces
no medical benefits,
spare my body of un-necessary
surgery with no biological or
social gains.

My sexuality do not reverse,
my divinely created sexuality-
do not violate or
infringe upon it,
trample not upon my body and
trespass not upon my body space

Let no primordial culture

limit my sexuality,
my desires, pleasure, and
energy within me-
the temple-where altar of
human intimacy resides,
let no one destroy.

I say-my clitoral hood,
leave alone,
my inner labia touch not,
infibulation-the pharaonic  
circumcision- I do not want.

Let my sexual potency stay,

let nature take charge of
my sexual power,
let mental clock control
my body;
leave my body alone
let no culture haunt my soul.

My essence as a human,

reduce it not by half,
rather let me live a full and
complete life of a woman.

This work is dedicated to womenfolk-their struggles and fights in the cultures, societies, and countries where female genital mutilation is sacrosanct.

Places like Yemen, Iraq, Kurdistan, Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti, Egypt, Sierra-Leone, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Benin, Togo,  Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and Cameroon.