Ẹghọn'la Baba

This composition draws from the wisdom of the Okun proverb, “Ẹghọn'la baba muu ẹka baba jẹẹ”, which translates as “The father’s cow has eaten the father’s corn.” It is a scene rooted in my own early life experiences growing up in rural Nigeria, where cattle rearing was not only part of my daily life, but part of my identity, responsibility, and family survival.

The figures depicted a child herder with a stick and an elder in traditional attire waking early, guiding the animals, and learning the delicate balance between nurturing and protecting. The cow, painted in striking yellow, stands for both sustenance and disruption, a reminder that sometimes, even what we cherish can undo us, not out of malice, but through the natural course of life.
The proverb speaks to more than livestock and corn. It speaks to family, inheritance, and the quiet conflicts that occur when personal and communal interests overlap. In the background, the huts and forest reflect a world that once shaped me, a world of simplicity, tension, and unspoken lessons.

Through this work, I honour not just a proverb, but a lived truth. It is a tribute to the complexity of growing up in a place where survival was both communal and individual, and where every day carried the weight of meaning.