Molara Wood

Arts polymath.

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

If you have a copy of this beauty, don't let go of it, because it's now out of print. The good news is that "Indigo" will be back in a new edition to be published by Paperworth Books. Watch this space. 💙

[Dami Ajayi @JollyPaps1]

Yoruba actor Taiwo Hassan has passed away. Aged 66, he was a pioneer of the travelling theatre, a bona fide member of the Odufa Caucus, whose work contributed to the transition to home videos, which reached peak popularity in the 90s and 00s. Renowned in his earlier career for poetic recitals, he entered our lives through TV as a fine boy actor, Ogogo, with a dapper dress sense and stoic manners. In every film, about five minutes was reserved for him to lose his temper. His best role, in my opinion, was as the adult protagonist/antihero in Tade Ogidan’s 90s masterpiece Owo Blow. Something of a Robin Hood character, Owolabi remains legible in Nigerian collective imagination. Check out Olamide’s 2016 song, Owo Blow, and Burna Boy’s Last Last, which playfully extrapolate those words from one of Ogogo’s characters. God rest his soul and comfort his family and colleagues.

[Axel Folio, PhD, White Tears Distiller 🪁 @ISASaxonists]

If you want to learn new things go get a PhD in molecular biology and earn your title, you sell out.

[Bunmi @olubunmi_J]

I pray our Ọbas will learn a thing or two from his sombre regal demeanor. It used to be that whenever we saw an Ọba u would also see the "dansaki" around him. The regal aura. Nowadays, they frequent parties even more than the commoners, shaking hands everywhere they go.

[Bunmi @olubunmi_J]

@dayo_os @molarawood It's not tribalism. It's the God-honest truth. We as Yorùbá people need to come to terms with the fact that our traditional institutions are becoming objects of ridicule and scorn due to the occupants of the thrones who are supposed to be custodians of our traditions but are not.

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

@olubunmi_J @dayo_os What manner of 'tribalism' even? I am 100% Yoruba and I love us. Love is not blindness.

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

The Olu of Warri needs to be exactly as he is. He knows the sacredness of the role he occupies as custodian of Itsekiri culture and he carries himself in manner befitting the position, with gravity and sobriety.

I prefer him to the laulau anyhowness of many of our Yoruba kings

[Adetutu ⚘️Oluwatumininu 🖤🌹♉️🖤 @Asakemijimi]

He's too serious. Even down to his voice

He needs to loosen up a bit.

[Mide Olushola @OlusholaMide]

@molarawood 💯! The loss of regality from the monarchy only makes a king who still possesses it stand out even more

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

@OlusholaMide We have some traditional rulers that drive culture lovers to shame and despair in private. Intemperate, garrulous and chaotic in public demeanour, circulating constantly at middle of the road events, unmindful of protocol; always a vulgar and unseemly jostle & bustle around them.

[Aareologun @aareologun]

@molarawood I watched the 2021 coronation this morning because I saw your write up. What a composed young king. A somber beautiful ceremony. (We need to learn crowd control,tho)

[ASIRI Magazine @ASIRIMagazine]

Princess Elizabeth Udinoghameyan Olowu (1939–2026), daughter of Oba Akenzua II, was a true pioneer.

She challenged the belief that okhuo-isẹ-ẹrọnmwọn “a woman does not cast bronze” and became a trailblazing sculptor, educator and the first woman to major in sculpture and

[H.O.B. Makanju @HOBMakanju]

@molarawood Absolutely, he’s exactly what true kings used to be. You don’t see him at every party or standing in front of every musician.

He carries himself with class yet connects with his people effortlessly; he is in a class of his own and the others could learn a thing or two from him.

[Servio Gbadamosi @betaservio]

You should read this beautiful collection, and buy a number of copies for your friends and associates. You'll thank me later! 😂
Copies available from @Noirledge storefront, https://t.co/K06e7RtNdF

[Malorie Blackman @malorieblackman]

Just watched Anansi the Spider at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Fun and laugh out loud funny. And what a perfect setting. If you have children - and even if you don't! - I highly recommend it. 😊

[Sophia Proneikos @Pergament_F]

"The bookseller is not afraid that his goods will be stolen, because readers do not steal and thieves do not read."
Arabic proverb

[Chuck D @MrChuckD]

Goals

[SAVE A SEAT FOR ME (Simon & Schuster, 2026) @NewBlackMan]

"In his rise from accidental lead-singer to his emergence as singular star, to his downfall because of hubris and addiction, and to his rehabilitation and redemption via the Black church, Michael Wright’s Eddie King, Jr. was a doppelganger for the proverbial Soul Man."
https://t.co/lNuSEd9IQ3

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

@Lord_Of_Warri As a Yoruba reader, I understand many of these lines! 🙌

[Lord Of Warri @Lord_Of_Warri]

Ọba Omì, Ọba Oke!
Jẹnẹkpó-Ọsọndádá!
Áfọmàsín!
Áfọtsẹ!
À tsé ùrún ùbẹrù má bẹrù!
Ẹkùn!
Ogbowúrù!
Áfọwẹrẹ-tséwẹrẹ!
Úgbó-bríkítì!
Ọba N’amẹ!
Ódìhí N’amẹ!
Áfẹfẹ-lẹghẹlẹghẹ!
Ọlẹrùbìbá!
Ekun Kpregedé ọson!
A gbe ọjọ uku da
A tse ayẹ maa sọ asọ
Ẹkun yẹyẹyẹ
Ẹkun to gbe Ẹkun fẹnmi
Ọláyẹ̀!

ỌBA ALẸ IWẸRẸ

Long live the king

Ogiamẹ Suoooo!

[Ẹ́lọ́hór is Fictional | Editor📚 @Enuvie_PEARL]

Learnt Twi proverbs from reading novels btw.

Please, use google if you don’t understand words in books.

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

🧵 For the avoidance of doubt, in this day and age, the only time a fiction writer should use footnotes is when it is tied to the conceptual formalistic style of the work, when it connects to meaning at a deeper literary level. Like in Manuel Puig's "Kiss of the Spider Woman". 📚

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

Same being asked of authors. Someone asked authors to put footnotes on the page to explain/translate words. Dictionary, Google, maybe? Do you know how many decades of African literary thought have brought us to the place where we assert the right to write "Egusi" without apology?

[Molara Wood @molarawood]

📍Five years ago.

#Thread on the coronation of the Olu of Warri, now celebrating five years on the throne.

#Itsekiri