Yellowman Dialogue

by Dan Hoyle

YELLOWMAN: Original, how is your body generally? You want to know why we are suffering, eh? Ma I tell you di true story.

You see, before we were giants! My great-great-grandfather was a big man! He so much love to do business with your people, di whites. He does so much business with your people, his son is no longer black again, he becomes Yellowman!

You see in dose days, it was different business. It was slave trade. So we, Itsekiri, we go catch di Ijaw people, and sell am to di white man. Den white man say nooo, bring di palm oils. So we go catch di palm oil and sell am to di white man. Den whiteman say noooooo, bring di crude oil.

So we go, but we cannot catch di crude oil. You see, di oil is in di ground. And government owns de ground! And Chevron buys de government! But it our oil.

You see God blessed dis land with so many fish, so we never be hungry, and so many oils so we never be poor.

When di Portuguese come, they love we. They put our chief in chair, and say he is King. When di British come, they love we. Di Queen of England, she danced with our great chief. But when Chevron comes, they don’t love we. They only love government. They forget about our chief. They think President of Nigeria is our chief.

So now, all di fish have run away. And when we put our nets, dey only catch di Chevron boats. Di boats full of our oil. So I only catch de ghanja.

I am a businessman, eh, a businessman to di core. And I am living next to di biggest business in di whole world. And I can only sell di ghanja. Hey, my bruddah, dat is why we are suffering.

Inhales big off joint, exhales slowly. Fade to black.