Ospreyshire Origins: Art Theft series (Benin, Nigeria, Senegal)

Benin Lyrics:

[Yoruba]

O ti ja aworan wa
Mase paro ki o so pe o se awon ohun-oso wonti
Awon ile iso re je awon ewon
Je ki a je ki eyi se alaye si o

[French]

Rends-nous notre art maintenant!

Nigeria Lyrics:

[Igbo]

I bu ihe nleda anya

[Yoruba]

Nitori ti o ji wa aworan

[Hausa]

Bidajen kayan tarihin ku ya sa aka kama su. I ghotara?

You better return what’s ours!

Senegal Lyrics:

[Wolof]

Luy sa tiis?
Am nga tere xewoonu Afrig?
Yeena ngi saacee yi

[French]

Comprends maintenant?
Vous ne possedez pas notre histoire!

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Here’s a triple header for the Art Theft series! These were challenging songs to write lyrics and Art Theft: Benin was actually an Ospreyshire first for me. That was the first poem I wrote that contained absolutely no English words in it! The Senegal one was even tougher because I really had to work on my Wolof since you can’t use Google Translate or any easy online sources for example. Fortunately, I bought a book on a whim that has words and phrases in Senegal’s native language.

These three countries among others in Africa are quite ticked and rightfully so. Their art, crafts, and artifacts have been looted by Europe. They’re held in museums in that continent and these African nations are suing these countries to get their stuff back. To add insult to injury, some of these nations are giving things back…as LOANED items. No, I don’t want to see loans whether temporary or permanent. You stole them, so you give them back to these nations! I really hope these nations get full returns on their art.

Here are some videos from Dr. Mumbi about the matter:

Even Dr. Y. had some choice articles about this situation:

Europe’s Largest Museums to “Loan” Looted Benin (Nigerian) Artifacts back to Nigeria

Bronze Cockerel from Benin Kingdom to be returned to Nigeria

France urged to change heritage law and return looted art to Africa

Wouldn’t it also be crazy if this situation was featured in a mainstream movie even though a character is portrayed as the bad guy for wanting the artifacts back? Oh, wait… Side note: Notice how Benin is mentioned in this clip.

Say what you will about Killmonger, but he was absolutely right about his questions involving the curator’s “ancestors” and that’s historical fact even though Wakanda doesn’t exist.

Here’s another random fact: I’m also part Beninese and I have a tiny bit of Senegalese in my DNA from my mom’s side. #ForTheCulture

The Beninese flag is from Wikipedia.

The Nigerian flag image is from Wikipedia.

The Senegalese flag image is from Wikipedia.

All videos from the Dr. Mumbi show are from Dr. Mumbi’s YouTube channel.

The museum scene is from Black Panther and is property of Marvel Studios.

Been a while since I did one of these tags: The Geeky Childhood Tag

So, I got hit with various awards and tags across two of my blogs. I’ll interrupt the usual Ospreyshire Origins posts, and give you something more fun. This is the Geeky Childhood Tag, and I was tagged by Merlin. He’s a blogger I’ve contacted with various posts and we’ve had interesting conversations for some topics. Merlin, I do apologize if I came off as some pessimistic person when it came to some of your Sunday Wisdom posts. There are no hard feelings here and I do like reading certain posts of yours. This does feel kind of weird doing this kind of post since my tastes in media is drastically different more often than not when I was a kid, but I think some of you might find this mildly entertaining. Here we go…

Where did your geek come from? Parents? Siblings? Destiny?

Good question. I’ll jokingly say destiny with the things I watched and read. Then again, I was geeky about multiple things. Not just nerdy things like animation or comics, but books, history, and geography (we’ll be going back to that subject later) came naturally since my parents encouraged me to read when I wasn’t watching cartoons or movies.

The First Geeky Thing You Got Into

I guess Marvel. I was a huge fan of the 90s X-Men cartoon and I had a collection of action figures of various superheroes. I did pay attention to some of the DC stuff since the Batman cartoon was there as well.

Favorite TV Show as a Kid

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, all the way! Not the cartoon version, but the game show. That show is responsible for getting me into geography in addition to finding an interest in so many cultures which continues to this day. I learned a ton about countries, flags, landmarks, etc. Not to mention this has one of the best theme songs in 90s TV bar none. It was a dream of mine to be a contestant on the show, winning the whole thing, and saying “DO IT, ROCKAPELLA!” when I was a child.

Favorite Movie as a Kid

This is a tough question because I did like a bunch of different films, but I hate or are apathetic to a bunch of them that I like. Granted, I’m ashamed to admit that I used to like a certain rip-off movie that came out during my childhood, but we’re not going to talk about it. Maybe as some placeholder, I’ll say Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation. I used to know most of the lines of that film after seeing it so much.

Favorite Video Game as a Kid

I was big into fighting games and a lot of old-school Sonic the Hedgehog games. For me, it was Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Yes, I know that game is broken as heck, but that crossover series was nerd heaven for me. As a kid, I was like…”Wait, Megaman and Wolverine are in the same game? I NEED TO PLAY THIS!”. The tag team fighting was really fun and I remember beating so many people at that game including getting high scores in the local arcade. Not to mention I felt like getting hipster points because I knew who most of these characters were before the MCU existed. Just saying.

Favorite Book as a Kid

I was really big into the Animorphs series when I was a kid. I thought the concept and cover art in each volume was so fascinating. There was that TV adaptation, but I want to pretend it never existed. If we’re talking about poetry books, then it would be Shel Silverstein’s works.

Favorite Memory as a Kid

Definitely my 6th birthday party. My birthday is in late October and we had a Halloween-themed party where my friends and family were in costume. I remember getting cool presents, there were multiple activities going on, and everyone had so much fun. My party had people of all ethnic groups, class, and creed which was amazing in hindsight. One funny thing that happened was the pinata wouldn’t break, so my granddad got out a chainsaw to open it, so we could have the candy!

A Character You Looked Up To as a Kid

In a weird way, I would say Bishop from X-Men. Okay, he was only in a few episodes throughout the entire series, but he was the first black male superhero I had ever seen in my life, so (interracial parentage aside) this was the first hero who was like me. Bishop was tough, had cool powers in the cartoon and the comics, and he’s someone you can take seriously. I wish he had his own series of sorts and X-Men: Days of Future Past (the movie) REALLY didn’t do him any favors.

A Character That Scared You as a Kid

Ursula from The Little Mermaid absolutely terrified me as a kid. I didn’t know all the reasons why. I wasn’t sure if it was the whole octopus/human hybrid design, her just being nasty in general, and/or having multiple nightmare fuel scenes for me at the time.

A Movie That Scared You as a Kid

I certainly wasn’t allowed to watch a lot of objectively scary movies as a kid. Keep in mind, I didn’t watch my first PG-13 movie until I was 13, by the way. I guess the scariest movie I was allowed to watch then might have been Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom which I saw at school of all places when I was in 6th grade. That scene with the guy getting his heart ripped out legit disturbed me. How was this ONLY PG?!?

Now I get to tag others for this thing…

Inskidee
Karandi
Scott from Mechanical Anime Reviews
Irina
Ameithyst

The Petty Priorities of Society

The Amazon is burning, yet the masses care more if Peter Parker can still be in that multi-million cinematic universe.

Domestic terrorists wreak havoc, yet the masses care more about spicy chicken sandwiches.

Artifacts have been stolen for centuries, yet the masses care about the new T-Swizzle (I use that nickname pejoratively) album.

Police brutality remains unfettered, yet the masses care more about geriatrics trying to relive their action movie careers.

Tariffs are upcoming because of trade wars, yet the masses happily shop for trinkets paycheck by paycheck.

Why are people so petty and stupid? I guess they prefer living in comfortable illusions than the morbid reality around their entitled bubbles.

So I’m neat? I was nominated to get the Real Neat Blog Award!

It has been quite a while since I was tagged in any posts of this kind, but I still appreciate it. I was nominated for the Real Neat Blog Award. The person responsible for nominating me is Scott from Mechanical Anime Reviews. Thank you very much, Scott!

The Rules:

1) Display the logo
2) Thank the blogger for the award
3) Answer the questions the one who has nominated you
4) Nominate 7-10 bloggers
5) Ask them 7 questions

Here are the questions I have to ask from Scott.

1. What is your favorite spaceship design from anywhere?

That’s a tough question. I guess some of the most unique spaceship designs would be the grappler ships from Outlaw Star. Say what you will about that anime, but I thought that was a creative concept of spaceships with robotic arms that can fight in close-combat.

2. What is your favorite comic book movie right now?

I’m not the best person to ask given my tendency to shy away from so many mainstream movies. The last comic book movie I saw was Black Panther last year. Wow, time really flies by.

3. Who is your least favorite anime character?

Most likely Kumiko from Debutante Detective Corps. She’s almost like protagonist centered morality incarnate. Anyone who tells me that Akiyuki Shinbo can do no wrong obviously hasn’t watched that crappy anime.

4. What is your favorite anime this season or if you don’t follow seasonal anime, what is one of your favorite anime?

I haven’t seen any new anime this year so far. Some of you anibloggers already know this about me, but my favorite anime series is Haibane Renmei.

5. How do you feel about Avatar: The Last Airbender?

I have only seen bits and pieces, so I don’t have much of an opinion on that matter.

6. If a wood chuck could chuck wood, what is your favorite fictional forests or woods in fiction?

That’s a clever question. Haha! I guess my favorite forests or woods in fiction would be something from Mushishi. I can’t think of too many at the moment, but some may come to me after this post.

7. What were you doing before you worked on this blogger award entry that I tagged you in?

Nothing too exciting, but I wrote and scheduled some reviews for my other blog Iridium Eye. I won’t say which ones, but they involve an Argentinean film, an obscure anime ONA, and a two-episode anime that got the remake treatment recently. You’ll see those reviews in March.

My nominations will be as follows:
1. Ameithyst
2. Xena
3. Dr. Y.
4. Lumi
5. Moyatori
6. Scottie
7.  Terrance A. Crow

Here are my questions for those who were nominated.

1. What three places on Earth would you like to visit that you’ve never been to before?
2. What is your favorite poem?
3. Who do you think is the most underrated musician or band in your opinion?
4. If you could enact one law in your home country, what would it be and why?
5. How do you feel about plagiarism controversies in regards to media (film, TV, art, literature, etc.)?
6. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
7. How are you creative and in what way?