Anambra, Politics, and Tragedy of Three Brothers

Andy (L) and Chris Uba

(By Comfort Obi) - Anambra: The Tragedy Of Uba Brothers

          In Anambra state, the ego of a political dynasty has just been punctured. Its members have self-destructed. And got dismantled during a political battle comparable to that of the Biblical Goliath and David.

          You must have heard of the three Uba brothers -Ugochukwu, Andy and Chris – from Anambra state. Ugochukwu is the eldest, and Chris, the last. Of the same parents, the brothers are politicians, and, each accomplished in his own right. They have name       recognition. They are very rich. Two of them, Andy and Chris, are billionaires. They have limitless contacts, and powerful friends.

          The first son of the family, Ugochukwu, has a doctorate degree. He did not buy it. He read, and acquired it. So, he is not one of those many illiterates, or half illiterates, who shamelessly prefix their names with Dr.

          When in 1999, Nigeria embraced democracy again, Ugochukwu won a senatorial seat. So, in the Nigerian way, he is free to answer Senator (Dr) Ugochukwu Uba. And, if any traditional ruler conferred him with any of the many chieftaincy titles on offer in Igboland, he is also free to answer Senator (Dr) Chief Ugochukwu Uba. Nigerians, we love titles.

          As a Senator, he was not a bench-warmer. A number of Senators are. Their colleagues dc their jobs. Many times, they are asleep in the Chambers. When awake, they are dumb. And only chorus “Ayes” or “A/ays” depending on where the tide moves their colleagues. But not Uba senior.

          Unfortunately, his was a-one-term tenure. As if the Uba brothers had appropriated that seat as their father’s farmland, Andy vied for the same seat, under same party. He replaced his brother. Many stories still abound as to why Andy did not allow his brother a second tenure. But following is the most popular.

Nollywood Takes Over Hollywood, Celebrates Feat

L-R: Ose Oyamendan (2nd L), Kemi Adetiba, and Banky W

(By Oluwagbemiga Asuelimen) - The Weekend Nollywood took over Hollywood

          When you live in Los Angeles, you often feel you have seen everything. You have most likely gone through an earthquake or two. You have seen men become women and women become men. You have seen stars rise and fall. You have eaten food you can not even pronounce. You have been on a roller coaster through life and, sometimes, you do not know what is real and what is make belief.

Last week, the city saw what it had not seen before, not in this light. Nigeria was in town.

“We’re gonna rock this town the way it’s not been rocked in a long time,” beamed Nigerian-American filmmaker Ose Oyamendan as he strolled in his Ankara shirt under the mild afternoon sun into a meeting with the big wigs at The Egyptian Theatre on Tuesday afternoon.

A few hours later, the online version of the prestigious Los Angeles Times spilled the beans on the unsuspecting city when it announced, “Watch Out Hollywood, Nollywood is coming to town”. This is the closest you get to a cultural coup. Nigeria, long bashed in the media for scandals, corruption and fraud, was getting a public rebranding, thanks to the Nollywood In Hollywood event.

          The headline lit up social media. Kemi Adetiba, the queen of Nigeria’s box office whose film, KING OF BOYS, was selected for screening posted a blurb of the newspaper headline on her Instagram page with a simple line, “Hey mommy… Hey daddy… Guess who just got featured in the @latimes”. Good news must travel fast. Within an hour, the news had been viewed or shared over a million times on social media. It would expand to over ten million in the next few days.

Of Marriage and Freedom to Choose a Surname

(By Motunrayo Agusto) - A few days ago, I had an amazing conversation with a 60-year-old man about why I’m married but not changing my surname. It was just the beginning of a broader and longer conversation about women in our society. I haven’t met many people, across any generation, who seek to understand views that are different from theirs and particularly, who open their minds to understanding a woman’s right to choose. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to this lovely man who I’d refer to as Mr. F going forward.

Mr. F started by asking me “Why?”

I explained, “changing my name is not a natural inclination of mine. It’s not something I have ever really considered doing or aspired to do. It’s just not my truth.”

What I didn’t tell him is that, at age 16, I didn’t even want to get married. I wanted to be President and my good friend Mr. A, who is from the Niger Delta region, was going to be my running mate because that would reflect Federal Character. Clearly, I didn’t fully understand how it works LOL! Plus, let’s not get into the ironic course of my young adulthood. Anyway, that was the future I envisioned. That was my truth.

           There are probably women everywhere who have looked forward to getting married since they were 16, and fantasised about being called Mrs. XYZ. They might value the cohesion of their families sharing one surname or maybe just don’t think of this as a necessary topic of discussion because the norm is the norm. Whatever their reasons, this is their right and it is their truth. Women do and should always have the right to choose. That’s why I define feminism as a woman’s right to choose.

My Aunty: The Bosslady Goddess

(By Jennifer Awirigwe) - “My aunty, a goddess.

In her late twenties, she became a big shot at her workplace, a multinational.
Her salary, very delicious.

She was living the life. A baby girl. Almost 30, she was unmarried.

You know the culture…losers who should be occupied brainstorming on what to soak their garri with, peasants who should be massaging the butt of their kids ‘dem don flog tire’ for school due to school fees.

These idiots were busy holding gossip show on top her matter.

But my aunty, she no see you.
She was slaying her singleness.

Of Veils, Veiling Practices, and Muslim Women

"The veil, which since the nineteenth century has symbolized for the West the inferiority of Muslim cultures, remains a powerful symbol both for the West and for Muslim societies. While for Westerners its meaning has been static and unchanging, in Muslim cultures the veil's function and social significance have varied tremendously, particularly during times of rapid social change. Veiling is a lived experience full of contradictions and multiple meanings. While it has clearly been a mechanism in the service of patriarchy, a means of regulating and controlling women's lives, women have used the same social institution to free themselves from the bond of patriarchy. Muslim women, like all other women, are social actors, employing, reforming, and changing existing social institutions, often creatively, to their own ends. The static colonial image of the oppressed veiled Muslim women thus often contrasts sharply with the lived experience of veiling. To deny this is also to deny Muslim women their agency."

Homa Hoodfar, 2001, 421

"The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim Women" in 

Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, ed. Elizabeth A. Castelli

"Nma," "Chidinma": Igbo Names Spelt Incorrectly

(By Azuka Onwuka) - Why Nma, Chidinma, Uzodinma are not Igbo Names
It is common to see people who write their names as Nma, Chidinma, Agbonma, Uzodinma, Nmesoma, etc. In fact, if you spell your name as “Chidimma,” someone would promptly edit it to read “Chidinma.” But these are not Igbo spellings and cannot be called Igbo names.
          Why?
          It is not possible for “n” and “m” to follow each other in Igbo language, no matter the dialect. It can never happen. The use of “nm” together shatters the structure of the Igbo language, making a mockery of its phonology and phonetics.
          The ridiculous argument such people make is that “nma” means beauty, while “mma” means knife. But like Chief Zebrudaya would say: “Fa fa fa foul!”
          Whatever its meaning, “mma” must be spelt as “mma.” The only way to differentiate one from the other is by tone-marking. The same thing applies to “akwa” which can be tone-marked to mean four different things: ákwá (cry), àkwà (bed), àkwá (egg), and ákwà (cloth).
          Here are the variants of mma:
beauty = mmã
knife/machete = mmà
mother = mmá (adapted from “mama” just as “mpa” is adapted from “papa”).

"Iyalaya Anybody": Street Lingos and Pop Culture

(By Pius Adesanmi) - In its pristine cultural background in the Yoruba world, “iyalaya” is an obscenity hurled at your opponent in a brawl to display contempt for his or her maternal lineage. It is usually accompanied by the insulting palm and five-finger flash we call “waka” in the face of your opponent. The consequence, as you all know, is often a bloody nose and an unscheduled trip to the hospital. However, as cultures evolve across generations, new meanings emerge and old words or expressions and are sent on new errands by the human imagination. ...
          The mere mention of “iyalaya anybody” brings to mind the Nigerian musician, Olamide, and his famous spat with music industry icon, Don Jazzy. No Nigerian needs to be reminded the details of this spat which shook the African entertainment industry to its roots and set Twitter and Facebook on fire for weeks. With the whole world watching, Olamide had shot out at the audience, “iyalaya anybody”, while dissing Don Jazzy.

Of Women: Giving a Lot and Receiving so Little

   

"'Muta ... Muta. Wake up! he called.' ...
     'Please get up and find me something to eat.'
     'Can't you get yourself something to eat? Is that why you wake me up at this time of the night--to find you something to eat?' ...
     'If only you had taken the trouble to look ... you would have found some food in the pot on the cooker. But you wouldn't, would you? You have a willing slave who would do that and had always done...'
     'Am I your wife or your slave in this house?' ...
     Life is so unfair to women, she thought bitterly. They give so much and receive so little. And whatever they give is taken for granted and more is demanded of them. Women are forever confronted with their duties as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers. These roles are in themselves noble, valuable and thoroughly natural. But they have come to be interpreted as forms of slavery in most places, and women have over the years accepted this interpretation. And so, women have to slave from girlhood to old age--giving, serving, rearing, nurturing and slaving--with hardly any help from the opposite sex. What about men? They are forever taking, grabbing, mauling, swallowing. ...
     The relationship between a man and a women, she rationalized, must be one of symbiosis--woman giving and receiving, man receiving and giving. The giving must be reciprocal as well as the taking. Awa ought to learn to give."

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, 1996, 20-24

"The Departure," in Rituals and Departures

Africa, Religion, and Female Priesthood

"The ritual and political involvement of women in general and of female priesthood and leadership in particular was an important aspect of precolonial Igbo society that was not recognized during colonial times. Because the male elders of a lineage act as its visible agents, they were recognized as the lineage's representatives. Because vital female rituals are highly secretive and exclusive, male elders commonly appear to outsiders as the dominant agents in charge of resource management, preservation of the custom, maintenance of social order, religious practices, and mediation between human and spirit worlds. Against this background, social structuralists, functionalists, and marxists have all emphasized the gender-based social division of labor and ignored women's ritual and political involvement. The non-recognition of female priesthood and other expressions of female leadership relegated women to the background. In addition, women's power is further eroded by the imposition of Christian and Islamic values and the lack of attention to African religious beliefs and practices. Moreover, Western-style structural inequalities and elitism in contemporary African society and economies continue to erode previously established positions of power held by women."

Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, 1998, 101

"Female Power: Water Priestesses of the Oru-Igbo"

in Sisterhood: Feminisms and Power from Africa to the Diaspora, ed. Obioma Nnaemeka

Cassava as Mother and Redeemer

"Cassava is a staple food in Igboland. The cassava tuber is accessible to both the rich and the poor in many parts of Nigeria and Africa. Cassava is planted by women, unlike yam, the 'King of all Crops,' that is planted by men. Every year in Igboland, the New Yam Festival is observed. New yam is not eaten until this festival is performed. But, is there  festival for Cassava? No. In 'Cassava Song,' the many uses of cassava are enumerated to show that she deserves to be celebrated and sung like the yam. In mock heroic style, 'Cassava Song' open with an invocation:

          We thank thee Almighty God
          For giving us Cassava
          We hail thee, Cassava
          The great Cassava

Cassava is personified as a Great Mother, a forgiving mother, more sinned against than sinning. Cassava is given the Divine Redeemer motif; like Christ who goes through suffering, Cassava remains obedient to fire even unto death. Cassava is enthroned above yam and cocoyam--above all other foodstuff. Cassava is woman. Yam is man."

Flora Nwapa, 1992, 94

"Women and Creative Writing in Africa"

in Sisterhood: Feminisms and Power from Africa to the Diaspora, ed. Obioma Nnaemeka, 1998

Of Bridewealth, Brideprice, and Dowry

"One finds that there are African women who want to keep the bridewealth, who want to keep what is called 'lobola' in Southern Africa. The bridewealth formerly called the 'brideprice,' was not a price, until the colonials tried to set prices in order to be able to do their books, making marriage gifts a kind of taxation, rationalizing the system that 'a man must pay ten pounds or so many hundred francs.' The colonialists introduced commercialization. Usually, the bridewealth was a kind of material benefits compensation to the family of the wife from the family of the groom. This is very different from the dowry, as in India, which goes from the bride's family to the groom's family to compensate the groom for taking on the responsibility of a woman. The dowry is a very different concept, in fact, opposite, concept. Bridewealth was a symbolic expression of the respect and valuation of a woman. There are African married women, African middle class and westernized women, who will argue that they want to have their bridewealth no matter how corrupted and commercialized it is; if they do not, their husbands will not respect them and treat them with the appropriate recognition that their family had officially and ceremoniously handed them over. Yet, we in the feminist movement are saying that this attitude is an indication of lack of self-respect and independence because the modern corruption promotes the commodification of women."

Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994, 211

"Stiwanism: Feminism in an African Context" 

in Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations

Rounded, "Wholed" Humanness

Nefertiti

"How long shall we speak to them
Of the goldness of mother, of differences without bane
How long shall we say another world lives
Not spinned on the axis of maleness
But rounded and wholed, charting through
Its many runnels its justice distributive."

Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, 1982
"On Reading an Archeological Article on Nefertiti's Reign and Ancient Egyptian Society," in Sew the Old Days and other Poems, 1982