Kayla Blackburn

The lecture on September 29, 2010 was given by Segun Gbadegesia. He started off by giving homage to certain things and people. Some of the things that he paid homage to was the creator and the created, ancestors, giants before him, giants after him, and the class of 2014.  After giving homage to several other things, he told the students attending the lecture that we should thank our parents for putting us on the right path.

After that, Mr. Gbadegesia told us the story of Iwa. According to him Iwa, is our existence and our character, but in the story it was portrayed as Olounmila’s wife. During the story Olounmila lost his wife, thereby he lost his existence and his character.  The story ended with Olounmila desperately searching for his existence and character (his wife.) Like many African folklores this story had a moral. The moral is you can’t lose Iwa because if you do you lose everything.

Mr. Gbadegesia also said, “Wisdom is how you use your knowledge to benefit others.” I completely agree with Mr. Gbadegesia, I feel like there is no point in having knowledge if u aren’t sharing it with others. I personally strive to learn as much as I can from people with a lot of knowledge. Sometimes learning from someone else about what they know personally can be more rewarding then learning from a textbook.

Mr. Gbadegesia also introduced the class to what some may consider pagan religions. He stated that before Jesus, Moses, Sophocles, and Plato, there was the Goddess Ma’at, Vizier Ptahhotep, and Pharaoh Amenemope. He also stated that before the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, there was the Sharia.

Overall, this lecture was interesting. I learned more about African beliefs and traditions.