Friendship is Like Loyal Love
Friendship is Like Loyal Love
Stan-Bey
Ink and color pencil, 2021, 8.5x11”
Pataki is a Yoruba word for story or storytelling. “Freedom, injustice, political persecution and loyal love” is in the theme of this pataki:
“Friendship is Like Loyal Love”
There was a city in Yorubaland called Oya. In this city ruled a fair and honest king; his friend Stan-Bey was on his way to visit the king. Upon entering the city, Stan-Bey happened upon a horse running wild. Stan-Bey corralled it and was looking for its master. The trainer of the horse saw Stan-Bey with the horse and had him arrested and thrown in jail. Oya and Oshun (wife and ex-wife of Stan-Bey, respectively), inquired as to the whereabouts of Stan-Bey. When the King heard of this inquiry, he knew something terrible befell his friend. A servant sent word to the King by way of Oya and Oshun that Stan-Bey had been unlawfully imprisoned. The King went to the jail and saw for himself that his friend had not only been jailed for horse-theft, but had been treated very poorly. The King ordered Stan-Bey’s freedom and the horse-trainer placed in jail for having wrongfully jailed the King’s friend.
The takeaway: Friendships can move mountains in the worst of times. Oya and Oshun were not only wife and ex-wife to Stan-Bey, but had become friends through their common interest as friends of Stan-Bey’s.
Artist Bio: Mark Stanley-Bey has been incarcerated over 30 years. It is his first incarceration. He has donated artwork to various causes and charities. One in particular, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, has received Black Panther #1 and Black Panther #2. Stan-Bey says “I just wanted to let the kids know that like the Black Panther, they too are heroes.”