I know we like to say Yoruba people emphasise respect. I believe this 100%, but increasingly I doubt Yoruba people meant for respect to be as one-sided as it can be these days. Plan to do more reading on this, starting by reading on the origins of the term, ‘Àgbàyà’.

And even if Yoruba respect is one-sided I still think there are ways that calling and thinking of ‘authority’ as an Àgbàyà (where—my translation—it means dishonourable adult/power) can liberate and embolden the less powerful. Anyway, na to read.

[And it’s possible—a reach maybe, but who says we can’t reinvent?—that’s one reason why the term exists.]