Poetic Obituaries: Mention 'Adeboye Babalola', for instance,

and the minds of many (former) students of African Literature will race to the poem, When a Strainer Takes in Water, a Yoruba incantation he translated into a beautiful poem. So fluid and meaningful is the piece published in A Selection of African Poetry edited by Theo Vincent and K. Senanu that it is easy for many students to commit it to memory. He said of his own works, "The oral poetry I used to hear recited by farmers . . . they are in the same cycle of oral poetry called Ijala in Yoruba and deal with certain aspects of country life of farmers and hunters,"

The main area where Babalola worked extensively is in Ijala, the hunter's poetry which he first documented in Orin Ode fun Aseye, a collection of numerous Ijala chants first published by Macmillan in 1973.

from The Punch: As the strainer takes in water

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