Vigilant Things: On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and The Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria

Corncobs (Ṣùkù Àgbàdo)

280 CornCobs (Ṣùkù Àgbàdo) As a grain, maize yields more food per unit of land than any other. Yet, to those in Africa and in the non-industrial world seduced by maize’s obvious virtues, corn has also revealed a darker side. —James C. McCann, Maize and Grace the sUPPort of the MUltitUDe hat supports the people if not maize?” (Igba dodo lí àgbàdo, igbà ni?) asks a phrase collected by Alfred Burdon Ellis (1894:241). The question is a play on the phonemes contained within the Yoruba word that connotes maize, àgbàdo. Ellis provides no context for the phrase—it is simply listed among several hundred collected proverbs—but he refers to it as a “punning sentence”—a game for the voice and the mind. Yoruba is a tonal language, a virtual playground of possible puns. This aspect of the language is obviously not lost on Yoruba men and women, who tend to delight in linguistic play, and prize the finely honed abilities that such play exhibits. Beyond its sheer musicality, however, the phrase also underscores in a rich metaphor the importance of maize in Yoruba life. Àgbàdo chimes with igba (two hundred, a number associated with plenitude, as in “the many” or, in this case, “the people”), igbà (the rope belt worn by a palm-wine tapper), and dodo (suggesting something suspended or supported). Thus, we can translate Corncobs (Ṣùkù Àgbàdo) 281 the phrase more appropriately, “Maize supports the multitude; is it not like the rope that secures the life of the palm-wine tapper?” The precise historical moment of maize’s arrival in the region is unclear. Nowadays it is generally agreed that maize was brought to Africa from across the Atlantic early in the sixteenth century, as the world shifted into a new economic register.1 And in 1822, Captain John Adams wrote that maize (Zea mays [Gramineae]) was being exported from Lagos as early as 1790 (1970:84). M. D. W. Jeffreys surmises that maize “must have been growing in the Yoruba hinterland before that date” (1963:128). This seems probable, given the report of the British captain John Lok, who testified to the presence of maize in the kingdom of Benin in 1555. Lok wrote of the crop as “very faire wheate, the ear where of is two handfuls in length, and almost four inches around where it is biggest. . . . The grains of this wheate are as big as our peason, round also. . . . The ear is enclosed in three blades longer than itself, and of two inches broad apiece” (quoted in Jeffreys 1963:122). Today, maize is a staple crop on farms throughout southwestern Nigeria, and is an important part of a typical Yoruba diet. It is served fresh, boiled on the cob, or roasted over an open wood fire. The kernels are ground into fine, starchy flour (ògì) and transformed into �k�—served hot as a thin, slightly sour gruel, or cold in the form of a fist-sized wedge, leaf-wrapped and gelatinous . Maize flour is also blended with palm oil and salt to create a porridge called àádùn, and sweetened popcorn (gúgúrú) is a much-loved snack-food on university campuses throughout southwestern Nigeria. The significance of maize in Yoruba culture is not limited to cuisine. Maize also has an important place in popular thought and in the divination orature of Ifá as a model of cultural excellence. In order to understand the profound moral impact of ààlè, we also need to explore Yoruba conceptions of maize as a model: as actor, as analogy, as index, as metaphor. Stripping away these layers of meaning, we can arrive at the dry, exposed core that stands as the inverse of Yoruba ideals, the corncobs that are often used as ààlè. 1 For an excellent history of maize in Africa, see McCann (2005). There was once a moment of contention regarding how and when maize arrived in West Africa. Frank Willett suggested that it was imported from across the Atlantic, from “the Guianas and Brazil via Portuguese and Dutch vessels” (1962:2). A year later, M. D. W. Jeffreys presented a different case, arguing that maize was likely brought to African shores not by seafaring Europeans, but by Muslims traveling across the continent from the east along well-trodden caravan routes (1963). 282 Portraits and Punishments Maize retUrns hoMe With gooD lUCk According to...