20APRIL2025 Echoes Across Time: an intimate gathering with Yéyé Taiwo Lijadu of The Lijadu Sisters in conversation with her niece, filmmaker Olukemi Lijadu, ahead of her upcoming project Sister Sister, a film about The Lijadu Sisters’ legacy. The evening featured an introductory screening, and a deep dive into the timeless music and legacy of The Lijadu Sisters.
This conversation takes us through the personal, spiritual and political legacies of the Lijadu Sisters, foregrounding music as both cultural memory and radical testimony. Yéyé Taiwo Lijadu and Olukemi Lijadu weave stories of creative partnerships, Yoruba spirituality and postcolonial critique to reflect on the power of song to archive collective struggle, and transmit ancestral wisdom. The event examines the ethics of artistic inheritance, the psychic weight of twinhood, loss and the role of women in disrupting patriarchal and imperial histories, revealing the enduring power of music to serve as archive and prophecy.
Selected quote by 99 Canal’s team
It means to be a mother, a grandmother. Yéyé means you are of knowledge—when you have studied Ifá and Orisha, and you have bowed your head down, meaning you have humbled yourself. Ifá is a gentle current. You cannot be arrogant, no matter how powerful you may be. You are nothing. You have nothing. It's not about money, it's not your opulence. It is the wisdom that has been put in front of you, that you have been invited to survive and help other people survive.
Yéyé Taiwo Lijadu
Speakers:
Yéyé Taiwo Lijadu is one half of the legendary Nigerian duo, the Lijadu Sisters, whose bold mix of Afrobeat, psych-rock, soul, and highlife lit up the music of West Africa in the 1970s and 80s. Together with her twin sister Kehinde Lijadu, they created fearless, politically charged songs full of harmony and distinctive rhythms—paving the way for women to thrive in a male-dominated scene.
Born in Ibadan and raised in a home overflowing with music, Taiwo has always carried a spirit of resistance, intuition, and radical self-expression in her work. Singing in both English and Yoruba, the Lijadu Sisters called for Pan-African unity, women’s strength, and truth-telling about life in postcolonial Nigeria. Their voice reached far beyond their homeland, with tours across Europe and the U.S., collaborating with artists such as David Byrne, Ginger Baker and Afrodisia, creating a sound that continues to inspire generations worldwide.
Olukemi Lijadu is a multi-disciplinary Nigerian artist with a focus on moving image and sound. Her work explores collective memory across the Atlantic, diasporic music and family history. She graduated from Stanford University with an M.A. in Philosophy, focusing on Greek and African philosophical systems, and is currently exploring the interplay between these two traditions in her work.
Interested in forms of communal listening, and recent recipient of the CIRCA Public Vote Prize 2025, she is a past artist in resident at 99 Canal through Magnet.
TRANSCRIPTrecorded on 20.04.2025
Yéyé Taiwo Lijadu (YTL) Are you having fun?
Olukemi Lijadu (OL) Wonderful. Thank you so much Auntie Taiwo, well, Yéyé Taiwo, it's important to address her correctly. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you for doing this with me. I love you so much, and I've been so excited to share the magic of my auntie with you all. So today is a very special day for all of us. Yes… I want to think about when we first met.
I grew up in Lagos, and Auntie Taiwo and Kehinde had lived in New York for over 30 years, so my whole life, they were based in America. So whenever I said my name, Olukemi Lijadu, people would always be like, “Are you related to the Lijadu sisters? Where are they now?” So that was a question ringing in my mind for years and years and years. Where are my beautiful aunties I saw on TV, and then I came to university in the States, and my beautiful friend, Witt, came to me in the dining hall and was like,
“Oh, your Aunties are performing in San Francisco”. And so, yeah, we drove up to San Francisco, bought tickets, got to the security man at the door, and I showed them my student ID, and I was like “I promise you I'm related to these ladies”.. And he was kind enough to take it backstage and show it to Auntie Taiwo and Kehinde, and they invited me backstage. And then we have thick as thieves ever, ever since, yeah, so yeah, I was searching for you.
YTL Tell them what we do.
(Laughter)
We get on the bed and jump like children.
(Laughter)
We still do!
(Laughter)
OL Yes, and then you came to school, you came to Stanford, and you performed, did an incredible concert, and then it's been beautiful seeing the resurgence of your career since then. You know we're reissuing your albums, and you're bravely taking on this journey now, with Auntie Kehinde in spirit.
YTL My twin sister, she went with her boyfriend. It's been a journey of pain, but a journey of very, very memorable things that you can never forget. She was the brain behind the singing. She started singing at age 10. We went to see a movie, and when we got back home, she got her school exercise. My sister started writing a song. My mom's heart jumped. Was she writing a love letter? She's 10 years old. But mom looked at it and said, “What is this?” “It's not a love letter, it's a song” she said. How? That song we never recorded it. That song was too mature for a 10 year old to write. She would write songs like if she was 40 years old.
I mean, but here I am today. I am here to represent, because I have a long way to go to showcase the leader, the sisters legacy and our mom's legacy. If you have good parents, listen to them. Don't feel too grown up to listen.
Listen. Take what is comfortable for you to work with, and let your parents know.
She loved us. We also had other pillars, parents of our friends, of our cousins and nurses. I have my parents right here. It's not about their age. It is their maturity. It is how they speak to you. It is how we're going together. Love one another, but don't be stupid. Please.
(Laughter)
Don't let a man take you for a ride too many times, and don't let a woman take it for a ride THREE many times. We all know how to perform those tricks. NO TRICKS. Okay, if you're not sure of somebody, don't go to bed with them. Do not! Don't do that thing. I know it is sweet. Hey, don't do it. I cried for years…
(Laughter)
OL So aunty, who was your favorite boyfriend?
YTL Was, did you say?
(Laughter)
My kid's dad, he passed. I'm so sorry we did not match. I loved him… we did not match. I was angry. I did not understand that we were not a match.
When I met my match, he's married.
(Laughter)
But you know, the best part of it, is that's a gift from God. I've been in love with this guy for 23 years. We never said a word about it to each other. I cried for 22 years. I would take a look at his picture and every difficulty in the fork of me, every bitterness, every sorrow, every pain will fall off. This guy is not even here, and I'm getting all these beautiful feelings. Almighty God, thank you. It means that in time the one will come. It's not about needs, not about him. It's about where my body is, where my mind is, where everything is. Here, take this one, love this one and feel better. So I am lucky…
If you have the chance to love somebody, love them for themselves, not what they got. Not what you want from them. Go get your own.
OL Shall we listen to another one of your songs? Auntie, shall we listen to another song? Yes, dear, this is one of my favorite of your songs, and I think it's very fitting for today.
Song plays
YTL This song was written for our mother. Was waiting for our mom?
Song continues playing
OL Auntie your music embodies such joy and hopefulness, horizon unlimited, there's a sense of the future and confidence. Where did you and auntie Kehinde get that from? How were you able to be so brave as to be one of the first female bands in Nigeria, going forward in uncharted waters.
YTL Our mother, simple, everything we have ever done successfully was our mom. She was eclectic. She came like 1000 years before her time. If she met all of us sitting here together this evening, and you repeated your name three times, the next time, she would call you by your name. She was a respecter of people's spirit. She does not judge people. She does not compare anybody. She would tell you you're all different, just like Kehinde is different from time.
OL And auntie, can you tell us a little bit about the importance of twins in your culture?
YTL Twins? They're the only ancestors that walk on the surface of the Earth.
One twin has four eyes, we can see beyond what normal people see. We're very psychic. Very sensitive and very, very sensitive to family matters. They can feel something coming a year before it will happen. Matter of fact, my twin sister will tell you, something will happen, and it will happen now.
Now that's what twins are. Who they are. They are very sympathetic to family and friends, their deities, of all the deities of the universe. Twins are one of the most important, and they are the ones that will keep ancestral homes of multiple ancestors. I have 30 ancestors in my home now that my sister and I started together, and you understand life, you understand life. Twins are a blessing to every home that has them.
OL And twins also disrupt time in an interesting way. Kehinde is older, but she's actually born second.
YTL Taiwo is the one that came to taste the world first.
OL They are fierce, yes, and they're bossy, bossy from the womb. So literally, from the womb and Auntie Kehinde always took care of you so well.
YTL But twins are funny. Twins fight a lot. I think it's because we're too much alike, and we expect too much of each other.
OL Auntie, I'm very curious about how you found harmony with your voices. How did you learn and what inspired your form of harmonization?
YTL Our mom helped. She helped a lot. She played the harmonica. Our dad played the piano. But the lesson of this is that when she discovered that we wanted to sing, she said “You cannot go professional until you finish school”. And so we used to go represent Lagos colony. They used to call Lagos colony because of the colonization. So we used to go and present Lagos colony. From school, we lived in Lagos, so we used to go to Ibadan and Abeokuta, to all of those places.
But one thing that our mom told us was “don't write songs that will die on the spot”. There will be songs you write and everybody's singing and jumping and dancing, and next year, nobody wants to hear it anymore. She said, write songs that talk about situations in the world, not just your own country, the one all over. Listen to it. Find facts. Make sure that what you're writing and singing about are facts, because what happens today, happens tomorrow, happens 10, 20, years, 100 years later.
So when you write your songs according to what is going on, there may be enough songs, there may be any kind of style of songs, but make sure the lyrics tell about what is going on, not necessarily your own personal experiences, but you watch what is going on.
OL And shall we listen to one of those songs?
(Song plays: )
OL What are you thinking about as you're listening to her?
YTL Several things, when there were coups in Nigeria, the military will take over, and the military will promise they are going to be better, do better than the civilians. They will get there as that to *F us and then we will say, “F* you too, go! We don't want you anymore”. And then the politicians will come back. They will repeat it. We say, no, no, no, we don't want you anymore. Military will come.
Confusing, period, confusing.They are bringing more. They are bringing everything to the people. And we will just say, “Listen, let's cut to the chase, we don't want this country anymore.
Let everybody go home. Nigeria is a contraction. It's not a country. It's a place where they do business. Politicians do business with foreigners who come to rape our lands, take everything we have, make us non entities, take everything, our history, our everything, and pull us backwards. You see, no, at the time this song was like, let's not do that. Let's come back together. I have written it. It's not going back. Nobody can survive in a country or in a contraption where the people don't speak the same language, don't eat the same food, don't have the same ideology.
So when you are in your power, it's just your own people in power over the rest. No me. So all that, please don't cut the relationship. Please don't do this. I said, “Hey, no, bye, bye”...
(Sings)
Mother, please, let us cut this relationship. End this bad marriage. Father, let everybody find our ways to where we came from, distinguish who we are, and if we are going to do business together as neighbors, so be it. But this one, no, and I need it.
Don't stay in a bad relationship, especially where kids are concerned. Do not stay in any bad relationship, because one person is going to end up killing the other.
OL Auntie, I remember when I was living in New York, and I spent a lot of time with you, filming you and Auntie Kehinde, and we went to Central Park. You performed there. Auntie Kehine was quite psychic about what that moment meant. And can you share a little bit about it? I was in denial.
YTL Well, let me tell you, Olukemi, this film you're making, take care of it, because both of us were dying of cancer…
Because of arthritis, the medications which were being given to us, to me particularly… I've had five strokes and six cancers have cured everything by myself. My sister had more. She had more than her body could take. And what would cause those things? Some of them are psychic. Some of them are from foods that we eat.
We don't eat out. We cook our meals. But what are those peppers, onions and things that grow with? What are the chicken and fish and meat mixed with? People were facing problems. We, the people in power all over the place, F*you all!
OL And auntie, you've graduated from being Auntie Taiwo to Yéyé Taiwo. Can you tell us a little bit about Ifá and what that title means, and your spiritual practice
YTL People have Ifá. Ifá is universal. Ifá comes before every other religion in the world because it holds the key to everything. Ifá defies the computer, defies mathematics, defies history—it defies everything. You can call it religion, you can call it anything, but it contains everything in life. This is how the Yorubas lived—we had systems of governance even before the advent of colonization. It was a fast way, our way that the British have copied that. Uh, all the Western ones have copied.
OL And auntie, what does it mean to be Yéyé?
YTL It means to be a mother, a grandmother. Yéyé means you are of knowledge—when you have studied Ifá and Orisha, and you have bowed your head down, meaning you have humbled yourself.
Ifá is a gentle current. You cannot be arrogant, no matter how powerful you may be. You are nothing. You have nothing. It's not about money, it's not your opulence. It is the wisdom that has been put in front of you, that you have been invited to survive and help other people survive. Therefore, no matter what kind of miracles you can perform, in other words, spiritually, if you have been fortified, you know things, it's not your power. It does not belong to you, and if you misuse it, you're going to be sorry for yourself. You can hang your blame on other people.
Simple, Yéyé is the mother who takes care of everybody. You are my children. My grandmother is my child, my great grandfather, if he was living today. By the virtue of the fact that I am a woman, I am your mother. There are no small mothers, and there are no small fathers. The way there are years, there are Baba. Baba means father. If you are dead, as it be, they will call you Baba very soon, because you are responsible for everyone around you with lineage and true spirit.
OL Thank you, Auntie. I love you so much. And with that, I'd like to invite people to ask questions.
Would you like to come up if you want to ask a question, and you can use my mic.
(Mike passes to the audience)
Audience I'm with the BSU, Black City—and thank you for allowing us to be here. I’ve myself been trying to weave my spirituality into the arts, and creativity has been difficult because I feel so protective, you know, of Ifá and the blessings we receive. So, how have you—especially now, on this new journey of making music and putting yourself out there after your sister’s passing—how has spirituality and Ifá maybe guided you. Or how do you find yourself weaving your spirituality—your connection to Ifá and your role as a Yéyé—into your narrative practice?
YTL We've been with the first since 1991 and you have to learn. You have to go. You finally pick yourself back up. You meet with real spiritual people, and you meet with fake people who have no spiritual income at all, and you have to listen to your instinct. The world is full of deceptive people, okay? Therefore, it is huge. Have to know where you are going. Some people are going to find other spiritual ways for power. No, you have to find yourself spiritually. You will sleep and fall, get up and walk. It's not a matter if I'm falling down and I can't get up. Get up, crawl. Look for something to support yourself to get up. Once you're trying to get up, you will find that looking under a table, maybe something that you forgot to look at again. You put something there, and it can make money for you, and you're looking for a job. You're looking for money. What you need is right here in your house. You don't need to struggle. You don't need to snatch anybody's thing.
If you're a Christian, a real Christian, Christ will tell you, if you're a Muslim, they will tell you, there are real people in religions, but the fake is more than the real thing, so keep it real.
Audience It's a pleasure to be here. I just wanted to know how important is the drum for you, and what does the drum mean? The drum contest for me, I feel like the drum was the original form of wireless communication, so I'm thinking about that as I hear you talk.
YTL Thank you very much.
The drum for the Yoruba, especially the talking drum. Talking drum talks. It's a spirit. It is a spirit, just like anybody, if you pick up a stone somewhere, like a later, right as a shoe, and you consider and you speak, it will respond. The Talking drum is something that tells of old times, that tells of impending dangers, that announces good tidings.
OL Someone has a talking drum here, can you display it? Yes, maybe you can do a little sort of show and tell.
(Plays the drum)
YTL The talking drum is one of the most important instruments in your ballot. It can bring happiness. It can repair any situation. That's why we are saying, don't leave God.
YTL Are you a couple?
(Laughter)
Audience We're collaborators, so we are not a couple, we make music together.
So lovely to meet you. I am a writer. I grew up making music, singing. I made that piece, that kiss. I'm Cameroonian. I grew up listening to Makossa music and Bikutsi. And one thing I think a lot about music in its capacity as like a memory bank, music being an institution in of itself, music being the archive. And I guess my question for you is twofold, one, when you think about the music you made with your sister. In what parts? Where does the memory sit heaviest for you? Is it in the lyrics, the bass line? Is it in the harmonies? And then the second question is, what song reminds you most of your sister?
YTL
Every song, every song, because she might wake up writing a song and get stuck, So she would tell me, I have this song. I sing it to you. She sings it and we brainstorm over it together and we collaborate. She's my teacher. She's still my teacher, because it seems that she left in the flesh and yeah, my face has totally changed to that of my sister. My voice has changed to that of my sister.
My attitude, I used to think she was a hard person. She wasn't hard. She was truthful. She was very, very factual. She knows, I mean, she knew what people were doing, and she who stood right there, she moved so everything about the life we lived together has not been interrupted. The only thing is her person, being here with me is not here, but the spirit is right here. So nothing has changed. Only I have changed because I cannot sing two parts at the same time. I'm going to be too careful.
Audience Thank you so much. Thank you.
Audience First I wanted to thank you both so much for hosting this event. I feel like there's an obvious uptick in interest in Nigerian music of the 60s, 80s, and it's really lovely to get a first person account of that history, and the time I met you for the first time at the elders corner screening a few years ago. Thank you so much, both of you for your work and really archiving that history live. I think my question for you is that you mentioned that you've been writing and creating music recently, or have been building a newer body of work recently. And so I have like, a two fold question about if there's a way for us as fans and supporters to support you in that journey, or when we may be able to hear more music, and what your songs and lyrics have been about lately, what you've been writing about.
YTL New songs every day, because as you leave, don't forget things roaches crawl in front of you and you say, hey, roach, this is not you go home to your mother. Just go home. Now with that, you begin to write a song, you begin to envisage things, you envisage which is coming to video because you see get out of there, and then you put that in. And of course, when I think of roaches and then think of politicians, they're like coaches, they're like chicken. They're never fed you. You use bread, food, corn, or anything in front of chickens. They will rush there, finish it. You think they are done, put another. They will go there. See with songs. They come every day. If I have to record 10 albums now from the songs that we had before my sister passed. Add more to that. The only thing is, it was hard for me to find myself before she passed. I was just too sick. She was sick. We didn't know who was going to go first. So, Kemi, the day we went to shoot, as we finished, do you remember what I did?
OL I remember and I don't want to hear you say it.
YTL Don't worry. Everybody is going to die. We are born to die. I said, "Do you know we are all dying?" Both of us are dying. I became sicker. We were very sick during that time.
OL Yeah, actually, it was very difficult looking at the footage, because especially Auntie Candy coughs a lot.
YTL Yes, so I became sicker, and she just jumped out of bed. She said, You're not going anywhere. You're the one who's been keeping me alive? You're going nowhere. She came downstairs, I mean, down the bed, took care of me. Couple of days later, she was gone. Couple of days later, after we finished, came this movie, she passed. She met me, she passed, and I died, and for the next three years, four years, half of me went with her. I struggled with that, Dad, Mom, it took care of me, dad over there, mom over here, took care of me. And my sister will come and say, What did you do? Get off your butt and then find something to do. I would start crying. It's just like when we lost our mom. I'm still looking for my mom. I'm still missing my mom, even at the age of 40, I still used to lay on my mother's bosom if I was sick, no matter how sick, I will go lay on my mother's womb, nothing is gone. Love each other, I beg you. Love works and forgives each other, right there and there, but there are some things you cannot just forgive somebody if they want to kill you, by all means, turn around and give them a hard good kick. Bye.
OL Thank you all so much for being here and sharing this moment with us and auntie, you represent bravery, freedom, beauty, grace. You're an inspiration to me.
YTL You are to me too, and all of you are to me too. Everybody is teaching.
OL And you mean so much to so many people here. Thank you.
YTL Thank you very much. Thank you. I want to say thank you to someone who is not here right now. Her name is Char. I hope this message will get to her. She called me. I was being dressed. I could not respond. I love you. We love you Char, I love my son and daughter. My son turns 48 years old tomorrow.
(The audience sings happy birthday)
OL Love for so many beautiful, incredible collaborators, Philo specie, woman Jupiter magazine, Camille Asli, airtime, Fauci 99 canal, aunty Taiwo, your team for giving us the green light. Sebastian designed the beautiful fold outs that you guys can all take away with you as a nice poster. Yeah, there's so many, oh my gosh, Gala and Lula, who sat with me till the early hours of the morning, editing the film that's playing in there. So after the talk, feel free to go in and watch the film. And also, if you want to support the project, there's a little bookmark. Just scan the QR code, yes, but yeah, there's been such generosity… Rafa, Hannah, Sean, Katie, yeah, I don't know. There's so many people to thank that made this moment happen. But most of all, we have to thank you Auntie Taiwo.
YTL And I promise you, when the new music comes out, you're gonna love it.
Let's dance!
(Music plays again)
Presented in collaboration with Speciwomen, Jupiter Magazine, Airtime World, OTO, and 99 Canal.
About 99 Canal
99 Canal is an artist-run Studio and Public Program. As a 501(c)3 Non-Profit, our mission is to facilitate artists' access to affordable professional studios and expose the public to live, experimental practices in Lower Manhattan, New York City. We are providing space for artists to be in dialogue with artists, understanding the urgency of sharing open-ended work and ideas with a dedicated public. By supporting experimental practices such as moving images and performance art, we’re building a responsive platform for cultural engagement and community-rooted patronage.
