I looked at this picture and I was drawn to its intimacy. This photo which is credited to @Adforumco caused some mild drama on the company’s Twitter thread when it was published. Majority of the people tried to talk down on the size of the woman and some other unprintable things were said. Isn’t it interesting how people will talk down what wouldn’t suit them rather than moving on and allowing others connect to what suits them?
As I read the thread, I got thinking. This is just the same challenge we have with Gospel music. Hip Hop is bad! Makosa is a sin! The East will talk down music from the Riverine side and even worse, I have experienced Church heads talk down a song in a dialect they do not understand.
Practically I have seen a Pastor flare up because somebody said “Ko mole”, which means bend down and another placed a ban on Okaka by Frank Edwards in his Church stating “Iyo yo yo” was meaningless. At the risk of being criticized, I have taken the pain to sight practical examples.
Lastly, I recall sometime back listening to another gospel artist talk down another on the grounds that he feels his music was not “Spiritual” and I wondered to myself who does the measure? You or God?
I understand the dynamics and I know scriptures can fly in the defense but I choose not to. We fly scriptures many times to suit our debate and we fail the test of reasoning and empathy.
Everybody is wired differently. We resonate to different sounds, for some it is rap, others it is Highlife, for some others it is Rock (I still remember someone telling me that Rock Music is the devils Music), for some other it is Fuji, juju, akpala, just to mention a few. Many people have their musical influences as cultural and they connect easily to God with those sounds ask the Jamaican.
We must learn to be elastic, to embrace our difference and uniqueness, I have no doubt that we have limited God and many times ‘truncked’ his reach because we feel our preference in music is the way.
We must rethink this role of playing God that we so righteously, sincerely but wrongly do.
Just like every woman has a man, every man has a sound.
Written by:
Olumati, Isaiah. C
Principal, Mirus Empire
081-741-03182 | 080-387-78408
Twitter/Instagram @mrolumatii @mirusempire
www.mirusempire.com
