I cannot come and die (Emi o le wa ku)

When you express something you would never be caught doing, when you want to show your listener that it is impossible for you to do something, when you run away from something you consider risky, when you are a coward, when you are being smart, you say in Nigerian parlance “I cannot come and die.” In Nigeria, this is a FUNNY way of saying that you would not kill yourself for the burden of others.

Sentence structure

The sentence is grammatical. Here is the structure: subject+ modal aux verb + verb +conjunction +verb. You may substitute the words for another set of words and you would still make a grammatical sentence.

E.g Joseph cannot speak and listen.

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Native English understanding

While other sentences you make using this format make a sense to the native speaker of English, he may have a hard time trying to get the meaning of “I cannot come and die,” though when literally interpreted is still close in meaning to the antecedent of this expression. An English person would understand it to mean “It is impossible for me to come to a place and die there.” Mind you, close in meaning does not mean the same in meaning.

Proverbial antecedent and meaning

“I cannot come and die” is a direct translation of the Yoruba expression “Emi o le wa ku.” You can remove the “E” and simply say “Mi o le wa ku.” This expression is gotten from the Yoruba proverb “Emi o le wa ku kii joye ile Baba re.” English equivalent: “A timid person/coward cannot occupy a position of authority in his father’s house.”  A direct translation would be: “I cannot come and die cannot hold a chieftaincy title in his father’s house” OR “I cannot come and die cannot become a chief in his father’s house.”

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Nigerian singers’ use of the expression

Nigerian singers have used this expression a number of ways with syntactical manipulations here and there.  Gbenga Adenuga subtitles his 2015 song “Oluwa is in Control” (I can’t come and die). Ruggedman, a Nigerian rapper plays with the expression in his song titled “I can’t Come and Go and Kill Maself.” Nigerians bring a lot of creativity to the expression. They realize that it has the capacity to invoke some smile or laughter.

The expression also means “take it easy.” So when something is getting tougher, I just take it cool because “I cannot come and die.”

Written by Omidire Idowu.