Description
Ọmọdé Kò Sọ̀rọ̀ is a tribute to the unspoken childhoods of many Nigerian boys raised on survival instead of sensitivity. The child’s eyes confront the viewer with unfiltered innocence — not naïveté but a rawness born of watching too much too early. Raised on the dusty corners of Mile 2 and Egbeda Macanjy paints this figure not as a child merely seen — but as one shaped by the city’s noise but not its nurture. The swirls in the background evoke ancestral whispers street dust and untold histories — the chaos behind the calm. The burnt orange garment reminiscent of Yoruba aṣọ-òkè or market-bought knitwear becomes a symbol of inherited identity — imperfect worn yet dignified. The child doesn’t speak in this portrait — but the silence is full ancestral and watching. This work is a visual incantation. It remembers the weight of being misunderstood. It asks: “What becomes of a boy who only knew how to hold it in?” Part of the Silent Narrative collection this is not just a painting — it is a confrontation with the consequences of cultural silence and the spiritual resilience hidden behind young Yoruba eyes.
