Be Authentic

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

Ben Okri

Maybe children and graffiti artists who draw on walls try to channel our ancestors from tens of thousands of years ago. “Archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest known animal cave painting in Indonesia - a wild pig - believed to be drawn 45,500 years ago .” According to the article, this is the oldest known figure drawn by humans. For the oldest known art, that goes to the “hashtag-like doodle created 73,000 years ago .” Jump forward a to more recent times around 79 C.E. and humans honed these artistic skills to make fun of others (think bathroom stall writings), per some of these choice Roman wall scribbles from Pompeii before the volcano consumed it. We’re so clever.

About the author

Ben Okri (born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian-British poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, and has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. In 1991, Okri won the Booker Prize with his novel The Famished Road.