Love in the Yoruba Language: Recent Episodes
Rachael Afolabi
This podcast series will elucidate words, proverbs, songs and poems from the Yoruba language by applying the maxim to modern relationships.
Future compatibility is something very crucial to think about at the onset of a long term relationship because spouses tend to outgrow each other. Ogun omode ko sere fun ogun odun.
There's a song in Yoruba that says aimo asiko lon damu eda, meaning not knowing our timing is the problem of humans. This episode is dedicated to single folks out there. When it's the right time the right person will come along. Before then, don't let anyone pressure you into marriage!
Committing suicide over someone who left is not worth it. If someone is too blind to see what a great person you are, let them go. Ti eyan ba ti itori okunrin kan ku, egbe gberun e ate ori sare e koja, meaning, if you die because of a man, a thousand men will step over your grave stone, vice versa.
This episode covers a poetic piece I wrote on love not being enough to make a relationship work. The yoruba translation is ife oto, love is not enough, not to be mistaken for true love which has the same exact words, ife oto.
Based on a common Yoruba adage about being careful of who you share information with, on this episode, I discuss social media intelligence and etiquettes.
On this episode I discuss knowing and respecting boundaries in relationships. Love is not an excuse to take your partner for granted. The Yorubas will say "Obe ti bale ile ki je, iyawo ile ki se" meaning a dish that the husband does not eat, the wife does not cook.
This week's podcast is based on the Yoruba saying "ile oko, ile eko ni", which means marriage is a school. It's a place where people go to learn and must be taken seriously.
In this week's podcast, I raise the question, "could one of my exes be the one?" This is based on the Yoruba saying "ma foko sale, ma fale soko" which is the idea that a woman should not turn what's meant to be a fling into a life long commitment. But how do we ever make this distinction in our dating process?
This episode sheds light on a Yoruba adage about marriage which is based on the idea that marriage is a gamble and we don't quite know what we are in for until we are married. This episode also discusses the societal pressure on black women to get married.
In this episode, I elucidate a Yoruba proverb "Iwa lewa" which means character is beauty. It raises the question of what is more attractive to men, is it a woman's physical beauty or her character? Also on this episode, I discuss the concept of women proposing and why men cheat.