Seasoned performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, has released the main video of EKUN IYAWO, the poetry with which the Yoruba bride celebrates her departure to her husband’s house.
The highly entertaining and educative chant was, in the past, used as a spinster’s eve show during which the bride expressed herself in moving poetic verses.
She exploited the performance to thank her parents for bringing her to the world and for having taken good care of her. The mum, understandably, got the longest eulogy based on the more intimate role she must have played in the daughter’s life. But the father and other members of the family were also celebrated by the bride and her friends.
In the course of the performance, she also elaborately expressed her joy and fears about the marriage. She was eager to hit her husband’s bed, but was at the same time puzzled by the uncertainties of having to spend the rest of her life with another person and family. As a result, EKUN IYAWO was well punctuated with tears, prayers and stanzas of hope.
Lasisi notes that he decided to recreate the poetic form to save it from extinction and enrich the entertainment experience of the people. According to him, although EKUN IYAWO has always been interesting and engaging, he decided to make it more entertaining and inspiring by recording it in the studio and shooting it like a movie or musical
“I have the blessing of having worked with star performers such as Kabirah Kafidipe (Araparegangan), who is the bride in the video; and Feyikemi Bodunrin Olayinka, the mother. The production started as a documentary – in 2001 – with the support of the Ford Foundation. But I later decided to recreate the poetic legacy so that it can resonate with the present and the future.”
He adds that he enjoyed the collaboration of the co-publisher of IROYIN OWURO, a Yoruba newspaper, Mudasir Alabi, on the project.
A trailer of the video has been on air in the past few years, and has done well on various stations, including DSTV. Now, the main offering has just been released on Akeem Lasisi & the Songbirds on YouTube. Lasisi adds that the book, audio and video are also available for sale on Phenomenal.co.ng.
Meanwhile, below is an ‘episode’ of the video:
