"The relating of news does not equal seeing with the eyes." African Proverb

Director’s Statement: Directing and producing the documentary Etu & Nago: The Yoruba Connection was an act of faith. It became a burning desire after discovering that Nigeria, West Africa and Jamaica, West Indies had locales that shared the same name--Abeokuta.. I discovered that Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel Prize winner for literature who is an indigene of Abeokuta, Nigeria had visited Abeokuta, Jamaica. During this visit he asked a citizen from Abeokuta what the name meant. She responded with the exact Yoruba translation "Under the rock". As a Jamaican who has climbed to the top of Olumo Rock in Abeokuta, Nigeria, I felt obligated to learn more about the inhabitants of Abeokuta and other towns in Jamaica where the citizens had visible ties to Nigeria. Akan and Congolese cultural influences are well known and have been incorporated into Jamaican popular culture in language, music, dietary practices, and dance. But the presence of Yoruba culture is practically unknown to the majority of Jamaicans. After further research, I met the family of the deceased Alberta Fenton who was a citizen of Abeokuta. Her family now lives in the Waterworks District in Westmoreland. There is an active Etu group in the parish of Hanover who performs a traditional Yoruba ceremony for their ancestors on special occasions. During the research and filming of this project, I was astonished that these people whose ancestors had left their native land for almost two centuries had retained this ritual. They had had no physical connection with their homeland, but had protected and internalized a meaningful aspect of their cultural heritage. This was exhibited in the integral parts of the Etu ritual. Etu is the contraction of the Yoruba word "etutu", which means atonement. Etu & Nago: The Yoruba Connection bears witness to the endurance of ancestral memory against time, distance and bondage. Spending countless hours with the film’s subjects and observing their undying faith in and love for the traditional ways of their forefathers, I developed a deep respect for these individuals who have managed to preserve such a vital part of their heritage. Independently researching, directing and producing this project was a race against time because the majority of the film’s participants are in their seventies and eighties. The research for this project was carried out in university and private libraries and with oral historians in Nigeria and Jamaica. I shot the entire documentary without any other technical assistance because of budgetary constraints. However, this experience has taught me how important it is for respect and trust to co-exist when documenting subjects with whom there has been no long standing relationship. I am of the opinion that elders who have nurtured traditional forms of cultural expressions must have their knowledge recorded before they die and the wisdom of the irreplaceable past is lost in antiquity.