The witty dele Jegede on Coronavirus
“Always look on the bright side of life” goes the comedy song by Monty Python. South Africa’s cartoonist, Zapiro does a beautiful MACORONA cartoon and from his base in the US, Dele Jegede (name stylised as dele jegede as he signs his cartoons and paintings) Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Nigerian-American painter, art historian, cartoonist, curator, art critic, art administrator, and teacher writes a hilarious letter about his experience of the Coronavirus, panic-buying in shops, flavoured with bits of the Yoruba language, to his artist/painter colleague and friend Kolade Oshinowo in Nigeria. Now please read on below…
A note to my buddy, Kolade Oshinowo on COVID -19
Wo o, ọmọ, (Look here friend) we are pushed into uncharted paths at this time, one of such rare occasions in human history. while we can say that we are privileged to be witnesses to history, we must be conscious that the earth upon which we stand tremors at the least provocation; that the breath from our mouth may ruffle entire landscapes; that the enemy that now threatens humanity is armed not with any man-made weapons but with invisible but extremely deadly fangs. our schools have been shuttered and all students sent home: no deadline for return; clubs and restaurants, movie and opera houses no less than places of worship have been rendered comatose: ask the pope. for the first time in my American life, essential items are disappearing from the shelves faster than they can be replenished. Just three days ago, I traversed the streets of my neighbourhood and hop-shopping, burst into store after store in search of-guess it-eggs!..
..none. How about bread then? ditto…. ok, mama Ronkẹ lo ran mi lọja (It is my wife, Ronke’s mother who sent me shopping).
Now, how am I going back home to tell my doting wife that I’ve got none of the four items she sent me to buy? what would I be proving? ..that I’m now too big a boy to be sent on errand? I burst into Aldi’s and went straight to the bread shelves. damn it! There was only one solitary loaf looking quite dejected and abandoned. No matter what, out of a self-preservation instinct, I kuku (intentionally) grabbed it: this ugly bread left on the tail end of one of the two empty rows devoted to bread. Guess what, the bread was not only ugly (shhh: it is Italian), it felt like pákó! (wood) still, I grabbed it. Is this America? really? I bet I could have gotten Agege bread before getting to Iyana Ipaja.
Now I am in Otà, still not even a wrap in sight. The times, man…the times: they are a-changed. Pray and pray hard. Pray for all of us, that we be ensconced in the invisible protective armour of the good lord, which works majorly when we all observe our voluntary self-quarantine. We now shelter in place and go out only when we need-must-replenish household stuff. So, jọ̀ọ́ to ba rẹ́ni tó mbọ̀ ni America from Nigeria, dákun bami ra orange juice ranṣẹ́ o! bó dẹ̀ ṣe bread Agege (So please if you know of anyone coming to America from Nigeria, please send me orange juice or be it Agege bread). We hunker down. We shall not be beaten. Covid-19 is not our portion!
– dele jegede –
RELATED: TAYO Fatunla Cartoon/Essay: Coronavirus – Bad for Business
Coronavirus cartoons
And to date, I have done up to 7 cartoons about Coronavirus…..Here are four. Like a radio presenter said in London on his show….“We will come through this”. I pray the world comes through this.
TAYO Fatunla is an award-winning Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer and Illustrator. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US. and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated in the UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France. He has done work for the BBC World service and Guardian UK newspaper.
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