Chapter One
1988
The doors open
Forty-two rooms at 1 Nihinlola Street. A small house with a large name.
A word the Yoruba do not give lightly.
The title Aare Ona Kakanfo belonged to the warlord entrusted with supreme command of the armies of Yorùbáland. It was granted rarely, never inherited, and carried until death. To bear the name was to be held to a stricter standard of conduct than the kings themselves. We wear it softly, but we wear it.
When the doors opened in 1988 we kept the word because a word of that weight shouldn't be misused and shouldn't be forgotten. It became the quiet standard of the house — a pledge, printed on no wall, that what we do, we will do the right way.
"…We do things the right way."
