The voice of Olayemi Bayonile Bolaji, the Yoruba gospel musician known as Toluwanisings, still fills rooms through speakers and earbuds even now that she is gone. She was 34 years old. Columnist Festus Adedayo describes spending a morning listening to her music on repeat, eyes wet, reaching for words that could hold the weight of her absence.
Adedayo calls her a natural gift, an Àwòko carved by nature for the listening pleasure of humanity. That word, Àwòko, a Yoruba term for a rare and beautiful bird, says something about how her community understood her talent. Not ordinary. Not replaceable.
Her passing has stirred more than grief. It has also stirred a conversation about how social media handles death, specifically the rush to judge, to prosecute, and to perform outrage before the facts are even settled. That tension, between mourning and mob commentary, is what Adedayo wants readers to sit with.
Originally published by Premium Times.