Nneka: Mother is Supreme

“Can you tell me, Okonkwo, [Uchendu asked] why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is Nneka, or ‘Mother is Supreme?’ We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland. And yet we say Nneka – ‘Mother is Supreme.’ Why is that?”

“I do not know the answer,” Okonkwo replied […].

“Then listen to me […]. It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.”

                                                                                                           Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Oshun: Goddess of Love and Sweet Waters

Oshun is the Yorùbá Orisha (Deity) of the sweet or fresh waters (as opposed to the salt waters of Yemaya). She is widely loved, as She is known for healing the sick and bringing fertility and prosperity, and She especially watches over the poor and brings them what they need. As Orisha of love, Oshun is represented as a beautiful, charming and coquettish young woman. In some tales She is said to be a mermaid, with a fish's tail.

The Yorùbá clans inhabit parts of western central Africa, in present-day Nigeria. Oshun is the Goddess of the river of the same name, and She is especially worshipped in river-towns. During Her yearly festival, She is said to choose one or more women dancers to descend into (much like participants in Vodou ceremonies may be "mounted" or "possessed" by a Lwa). These women then take new names in honor of Oshun and are thereafter consulted as healers.

Oshun was taught divination with cowrie shells by Obatala, the first of the created Orishas, and then She brought the teaching to humans. She was at one time the wife of Shango, the Orisha of storms, as was Oya, the Orisha of the winds and tempests. Oshun is also said to be the mother of the birds or fishes.

The Challenge of Change--A Burden of Choice, by Wole Soyinka

First, let us not simplify the challenge. There are no blacks and whites. It is not a contest between saints and demons, not one between salvation and damnation. If anything, it is closer to a fork in the road where uncertainty lurks - whichever choice is made. Someone in the media has called it a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, another between Apocalypse and Salvation. The reasons are not far-fetched. They are firmly lodged in the trauma of memory and the rawness of current realities. Well, at least one can dialogue with the devil, even dine with that creature with the proverbial long spoon. With the deep blue sea however, deceptively placid, even the best swimmers drown. The problem for some is deciding which is the devil, which the deep blue sea. For most, instructively, the difference is clear. There are no ambiguities, no qualifications, no pause for reflection - they are simply raring to go!  I envy them.

Let all partisans of progress however constantly exercise self-restraint in assessment and expectations. Facts remain facts and should never be tampered with.  Verification is nearly always available from records and – the testimonies of witnesses. Yet memory may prove faulty, so even those who were alive during any political regimen should exercise even greater caution and not get carried away by partisanship in any cause, however laudable or apparently popular.

Why Nollywood Can't Lose This Goodluck, by FAJ

President Goodluck Jonathan decorated as Actors Guild of Nigeria's Grand Patron

Let us admit it - we have never seen any President so besotted with entertainment like Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, especially the movie-making sector. And this is not a satire.

Yes, his detractors may point at his "weakness" for entertainment as a signpost of an unserious mind frittering the commonwealth on 'joli-joli' matters! Even the opposition may grumble loudly that the lively engagement with the Nollywood is essentially exploitative and window-dressing - to the detriment of more important and critical sectors of the national economy.

However, no one is in doubt that the life and essence of the Creative wayfarers was initially ignited by Bayelsa governor, the much maligned Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, immediate boss of GEJ around year 2000. With dizzying state support and elaborate razzmatazz, the duo of Alams and GEJ wallowed in the sudden euphoria of showbiz

Pirating Nollywood: AY Petitions Police IG Over '30 Days in Atlanta'

Dear Sir,

It is with the deepest sorrow that I pen these words. I have never understood the true meaning of the saying “only the one wearing the shoes feels the pain”, till recent times. Since the advent of Independent Producers, piracy has become the bane of the industry because as the saying goes ‘monkey de work, baboon de chop’.

The excitement that greeted the movie industry through the Box-Office success of 30 Days In Atlanta has quickly turned to sorrowful awe as I heard the news that the result of my sweat and sleepless nights has been sold by a traitorous miscreant, yet unknown, to a dubious marketer in Alaba.

New Media and Africa's Urban Dictionary

IF you want to get a real sense of a country’s cultural pulse, listen to the slang. It’s one of the best gauges of what a culture thinks about itself, and how it perceives the world.

Mobile technology and the Internet have taken Africa by storm in the past decade, and in the next two years, smartphones are expected to outsell feature phones on the continent.

Africa’s connections with the world are also mediated by its diaspora - in 2012, the amount of money sent as remittances by Africans abroad surpassed that of official development aid.

For Val's Day: 5 Love Epics in Africa's History

Cleopatra's legacy has been vigorously contested, the subject of myth, embellishment, and propaganda 

“Forget what they say about money making the world go round - nations have risen and fallen on the account of a beautiful woman."

GOING by the contemporary narrative, love is something powerful, but fleeting and rather silly—with all it’s apparent expectations of dead plants, wax candles and whiny violins. But Valentine’s Day grouches, don’t despair. Love can be serious stuff too, it has been known to shape the course of whole nations:

Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt

One of the most mysterious and powerful women in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti was queen alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten from 1353 to 1336 BC.

Understanding Animism Today

Animism is the view that human beings on the earth live — whether they know it or not — in community with persons who are not human beings. These other-than-human persons may include animals, plants, trees, rocks, clouds, thunder, and stars. The phrase other-than-human persons was coined by anthropologist Irving Hallowell to describe the world of the Ojibwe, in which humans, animals, fish, birds, and plants — and some rocks, trees, and storms — are all relational, intentional, conscious, and communicative beings. Ethnographer Thomas Blackburn reached similar conclusions for the Chumash Indians, whose cosmos, he said, is composed of an “interacting community of sentient creatures.”

Other-than-human persons may be helpful, harmful, callous, malicious, indifferent, or tricky, just like human persons. It is often helpful or necessary to enter into personal relationships with them; such relationships with other-than-human persons may be comforting, demanding, or dangerous, just as with human persons. As a result of such relationships, other-than-human persons may provide information, insight, power, vision, healing, protection, songs, and ceremonies. The receipt of such gifts entails reciprocal obligations, just as with human persons.

Naija Celebs and Political Prostitution, by Etcetera

Some say Afro Candy is a prostitute. Some say she’s not or at least, not yet. A few others say she’s a porn star, which is not in the same league as prostitution. Porn stars are taxed, prostitutes are not. So Afrolicious baybay, you have to up your game to get into the league of prostitutes, if it is what you really desire. My suggestion would be; instruct your agent or booker to get you appearances in any of the political campaign videos, so you can put to use that floppy behind your mama gave you.

And if you are lucky enough, you can get cameos and wiggle that thing around the aspirants themselves. You have to get your bum (sorry your hands) bloodied to earn the highly coveted “Political prostitute” tag. Now my Candilicious Afrolistic baybay, these are a few names of the latest political prostitutes in the country: Olamide, Banky W, Don Jazzy, Flavour, Duncan Mighty, D banj, Mercy Johnson, Ibinabo, Ini Edo, Mama Gee, Naeto C, Joseph Yobo, Daddy Showkey, Kanu Nwankwo, and Sammie Okposo.

King Jona's Snub, by Pius Adesanmi

Ipile ti Jesu

Fi lele leyi

Ti Baba Aladura n to, 

Keda mase ro pe 

O ye kuro nibe 

O duro le Kristi apata

Kerubu e yo

Serafu e yo! 

A o fi ipile lele lori otito

A o fi ipile lele lori otito

After I finished singing this song, the angel with the seventh seal appeared to me and saith: remove your white garment, put on a red garment, discard your white candles, replace them with red candles and repeat the song.

And I did.

After I finished singing the song a second time, the angel with the seventh seal appeared to me and saith: remove your red garment, put on a yellow garment, discard your red candles, replace them with yellow candles and repeat the song.

And I did.

Rigor in Myth and Science--Same Difference

"Whatever our ignorance of the language and the culture of the people where it originated, a myth is still felt as a myth by any reader anywhere in the world. Its substance does not lie in its style, its original music, or its syntax, but in the story which it tells. Myth is language, functioning on an especially high level where meaning succeeds practically at 'taking off' from the linguistic ground on which it keeps on rolling.... [T]he kind of logic in mythical thought is as rigorous as that of modern science and... the difference lies, not in the quality of the intellectual process, but in the nature of the things to which it is applied."

Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Structural Study of Myth"

Of Animism and Belief in Reincarnation

"In Oriental [and African] cultures there is widespread belief in reincarnation, while in religions of the Western world, like Christianity and Islam, there are the doctrines of resurrection and immortality of the soul. All of these can be understood, in animist terms, as ways of extending the life of the soul beyond the time of death. Being separable from the flesh, the soul has an afterlife and destiny of its own. Animism also explains why sacred objects and trinkets--things called 'fetishes'--are important to [animists]. Such people are not 'idol-worshipper,' as narrow-minded Christian missionaries used to describe them. They do not worship sticks and stones; they adore the 'anima' within, the spirit which--not wholly unlike the god of Christians themselves--gives the wood of the stick or substance of the stone its life and power."

Daniel L. Pals, Eight Theories of Religion

Jeta Amata Misses the Plot in 'Black November'

(SabiNews)--I really wanted to enjoy watching Jeta Amata’s movie Black November but like an errant step child, it kept rebuffing my love.

I had read scathing and devastating reviews from journals like the Hollywood Report, Variety, LA Weekly all of which eviscerated the movie and wanted to see it and review it, to show the world that Jeta Amata has done something worthwhile and impressive.

So, I went looking for it and found it.

Black November attempts to be many things all at once; it is both advocacy and propaganda, Nollywood and Hollywood but it fails woefully in becoming something of character and substance.

And the fault lies squarely with Mr. Amata who is a triple threat on this one; writer, producer and director. Scratch that, he is a quadruple threat actually as writer, producer and director and SONGWRITER. Yep!

This movie does not make Jeta Amata look good. This is the simple truth and a very kind way of putting it.

The movie has a fine story, one anyone familiar with the devastation and environmental degradation of the Niger Delta must be used to; a young girl, US educated thanks to a scholarship grant from an oil company returns home to a tragic incident which for want of a better word ‘radicalises’ her but her radicalisation is fraught with indecisions; she is a half-hearted revolutionary; wanting the oil company to pay yet not quite sure how to go about it.

Religious Intolerance: As It was in the Beginning...

"While the [sixteenth century European] explorers traveled, their homelands often came ablaze
with the fires of persecution and war. Communities were split apart by ferocious quarrels over theology, first between Catholics and Protestants and later among the scores and even hundreds of different religious groups that began to appear in once-unified Christendom. Amid the storms of ecclesiastical conflict and political struggle that gripped the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it is not surprising that concerned believers on all sides grew ever less certain that they alone held God's final truth in their hands. The deadly, destructive wars of religion, which persisted for more than a hundred years in some lands, led people to believe that the truth about religion cannot possibly be found in sects that were prepared to torture and execute opponents, confident their work was God's will."

Daniel L. Pals, Eight Theories of Religion

A Nollywood Prayer of Supplication

Dear God, please 

Give me the nature of JIM IYKE 

So as to never allow anyone intimidate me 

A heart like RAMSEY NOAH’s 

To love my woman 

But please a wife like OMOTOLA 

Not one like FUNKE AKINDELE 

Who will beat me up and throw me out 

A mother-in-law like NGOZI EZEONU 

And not like PATIENCE OZOKWOR, biko Chineke! 

A father-in-law like PETE EDOCHIE 

And not CHIWETALU AGU 

Who will curse me and call me names 

A tolerant heart like that of KENNETH OKONKWO 

Rootedness and the Mystery of Tradition

“I was born to keep it so. A hive

Is never known to wonder. An anthill

Does not desert its roots. We cannot see

The still great womb of the world—

No man beholds his mother’s womb—

Yet who denies it’s there? Coiled

To the navel of the world is that

Endless cord that links us all

To the great origin. If I lose my way

The trailing cord will bring me to the roots."

Elesin, in Wole Soyinka, Dead and the King’s Horseman

Lights Out in Nigeria

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - We call it light; “electricity” is too sterile a word, and “power” too stiff, for this Nigerian phenomenon that can buoy spirits and smother dreams. Whenever I have been away from home for a while, my first question upon returning is always: “How has light been?” The response, from my gateman, comes in mournful degrees of a head shake.

Bad. Very bad.

The quality is as poor as the supply: Light bulbs dim like tired, resentful candles. Robust fans slow to a sluggish limp. Air-conditioners bleat and groan and make sounds they were not made to make, their halfhearted cooling leaving the air clammy. In this assault of low voltage, the compressor of an air-conditioner suffers — the compressor is its heart, and it is an expensive heart to replace. Once, my guest room air-conditioner caught fire. The room still bears the scars, the narrow lines between floor tiles smoke-stained black.

Sometimes the light goes off and on and off and on, and bulbs suddenly brighten as if jerked awake, before dimming again. Things spark and snap. A curl of smoke rises from the water heater. I feel myself at the mercy of febrile malignant powers, and I rush to pull my laptop plug out of the wall. Later, electricians are summoned and they diagnose the problem with the ease of a long acquaintance. The current is too high or too low, never quite right. A wire has melted. Another compressor will need to be replaced.