Religion and Politics: The Church and Education of Politically-Conscious Citizens

Acapella on the Nigerian Condition

#EndSARS Protest: Police Brutality and Reforms in Nigeria

#EndSARS: Johnny Just Drop

#EndSARS: They Don't Care About Us

#EndSARS: Nigeria Is Murdering Its Citizens

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) – Nigeria Is Murdering Its Citizens                               LAGOS, Nigeria [Oct. 21, 2020] — For years, the name SARS hung in the air here in Nigeria like a putrid fog. SARS, which stood for Special Anti-Robbery Squad, was supposed to be the elite Nigerian police unit dedicated to fighting crime, but it was really a moneymaking terror squad with no accountability. SARS was random, vicious, vilely extortionist. SARS officers would raid bars or stop buses on the road and arbitrarily arrest young men for such crimes as wearing their hair in dreadlocks, having tattoos, holding a nice phone or a laptop, driving a nice car. Then they would demand large amounts of money as “bail.” 

          SARS officers once arrested my cousin at a beer parlor because he arrived driving a Mercedes. They accused him of being an armed robber, ignored the work ID cards he showed them, took him to a station where they threatened to photograph him next to a gun and claim he was a robber, unless he paid them a large sum of money. My cousin is one of the fortunate few who could pay an amount large enough for SARS, and who was released. He is not one of the many tortured, or the many disappeared, like Chijioke Iloanya.

Nigeria: #EndSARS #EndPoliceBrutality

Nigeria at 60: Our Roots by Tayo Fatunla

Source: New African magazine

Ajofia Nnewi: Onye Na-Ezi Uzo

 

Ajofia Nnewi: Onye Na-Ezi Uzo

Things Fall Apart: The Stories Nwoye Loves

"Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son's development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. ...
          "So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land -- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told her younger children -- stories of tortoise and his wily way, and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. He remembered the story she often told of the quarrel between Earth and Sky long ago, and how Sky withheld rain for seven years, until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke on the stony Earth. At last Vulture was sent to plead with Sky, and to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men. Whenever Nwoye's mother sang this song he felt carried away to the distant scene in the sky where Vulture, Earth's emissary, sang for mercy. At last Sky was moved to pity, and he gave to Vulture rain wrapped in leaves of cocoyam. But as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before. And so heavily did it rain on Vulture that he did not return to deliver his message but flew to a distant land, from where he had espied a fire. And when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice. He warmed himself in the fire and ate the entrails.
          "That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he now knew that they were for foolish women and children, and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories. And when he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him or beat him."

Chinua Achebe, 1958 [2010], 39-40

Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy)

Of Nigerian-Americans and Wake-Keep

(By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo) - Walter’s Wake-keep

In the Boston metropolitan area is a Liberian who loved to attend Nigerian parties. (Let us call him Walter, because we have no permission to use his real name.) He loved Nigerian music, jollof rice, pepper soup, Shoki dance and watching Nigerians spray dollar bills like snow flakes at these parties. Trust Nigerians in America, they come up with every reason to throw a party - child dedication, wedding anniversary, birthday, graduation, send-off, wake-keep, etc. 

Every party is special but none is as special as a wake-keep. If you rent a hall to celebrate your 50th birthday or 25th wedding anniversary, or even your child's 5th birthday, or your child’s dedication in church, the general feeling is that you have the money to spare. People will still come, enjoy, and may even give you gifts, but it is mostly not seen as obligatory. But when it is a wake-keep, the party from conception to execution is aimed at raising money to assist the bereaved to go home and attend the funeral of the dead. The MC makes that clear every ten minutes of the event. And since people are expected to "drop something," organizers make sure that there are a lot of food and drinks to justify the things people will "drop".

          Another feature of these wake-keep, other than the fact that most of those for whom the events are held had never been to America, is that there is an unwritten understanding between the organizers and the attendees that whatever the attendee gives is documented, noted and permanently preserved for the time when it would be necessary to return the favor. In Igbo community, they even have a proverb that backs it up. It says: whatever a man gives to another man is a loan waiting to be repaid.

An Apple A Day Keeps Our Dollars Away

(By Ogaga Ifowodo) - An Apple A Day Keeps Our Dollars Away

Can’t recall now when the Apple became the official fruit of Nigeria, announcing its newly begotten status along every main road and at every street corner, stacked one on top of the other in green or red pyramids in trays or on the importation cartons, taking the pride of place in the produce section of every supermarket. The Apple has also staked its claim to our appetite in the more traditional open markets, as I learnt the other day driving past and seeing an apple stand somewhere, it seemed, between the meat and fish stalls at Utako Market in Abuja! A reminder, I suppose, to shoppers not to forget to get their natural vitamins and anti-oxidants which, presumably, only the Apple can supply, along with their proteins. 

When the apple, a temperate region fruit, began to rule our tropical palates? My guess is the late eighties. Shortly after the Gospel of No-Alternative-to-SAP according to military dictator General Ibrahim Babangida and his finance minister, Olu Falae, had led to capitulation to the IMF/World Bank. The result was that trade liberalisation and the removal of tariffs, not to mention devaluation of the naira (we are still talking about that today) and cessation of social or human capital spending—in other words, all commonsense measures to protect the domestic economy and the people—came to govern, like an implacable god, every national economic policy. The goal was clear enough to the imperialist designers of those “conditionalities” and to anyone not willfully blinded to the truth: to make dependent economies, the postcolonial ones especially, facing acute shortage of foreign exchange to service their debts, become even more dependent by being forced to import just about everything when their national currencies become so weakened they render local industries comatose and unable to compete with the manufacturing giants of Europe, North America and Asia.

Prologue to Azuh Arinze's Journalism Encounters

Encounters: Lessons from my Journalism Career

Prologue by Chijioke Azuawusiefe

      Human interactions generate memories and lessons. Positive lessons enrich and equip the individuals involved with a base for favorable future relationships. Not-so-positive ones provide them with insights on how to remodel similar experiences going forward. In Encounters: Lessons from my Journalism Career, Azuh Arinze captivatingly recounts some of the significant associations that made his career and shares the most inspiring takeaways of competence, dedication, hard work, tenacity, generosity, and gratitude which he has painstakingly teased out from those life-changing relationships in his close-to-three-decades outstanding profession as a consummate journalist. 

        For seventeen years, Azuh, whom I call “Igwe Journalism” because of the mastery and preeminent command he demonstrates in the exercise of his métier, worked at Fame and Encomium Weekly, two of the most influential soft sell magazines of their time and the Facebook and Instagram of their day. Who read Encomium in its heyday and did not eagerly look forward to Azuh’s “Potpourri” column to catch up with “the latest gist” on which celebrity showed up at which upscale hangout or club, did what, with whom, and then zoomed off in the latest model of their vehicle brand, with registration number XYZ? Yes, Azuh was (and still is) that thorough. He would go on to edit Encomium for eight years, after editing (from 1999 to 2000) its sister publication, Reel Stars—one of the first magazines dedicated to covering Nollywood and its stars, filmmakers, and marketers.

Of Nigerian Politics, Meddlesome Godfathers, and Suspended Anambra Traditional Rulers

Anambra State Governor Obiano (R) hands certificate of
recognition to traditional ruler

(By Comfort Obi) - Anambra: Time To Tell These Traditional Rulers The Truth

          Let me start by saying that I am from a solid Royal Home. Not the kind of Royal Homes that are two for a kobo, now, scattered all over Igbo land. The one I come from is very much over a Century old. And even though I don’t prefix my name with Princess, I understand what it is to  be  one. 

My respect for the traditional institution is, therefore, sky high. And I feel really bad when I see any of them being humiliated. Which is the angle from which a number of people want me to look at the shame playing out in Anambra State.

I am likely to disappoint them here.

I believe very much in the Igbo adage which says: “When adults reduce themselves to rice, children feast on them.” In sum, that is the story of what happened in Anambra State. Some traditional rulers reduced themselves to rice, and were feasted upon from Anambra, to Abuja, and back to Anambra.

For a couple of reasons, not relevant here, I am not a fan of Willie Obiano, the Anambra State Governor. But last week, I grudgingly gave him a thumbs-up.

Obiano, in an unprecedented action, suspended 13 Traditional Rulers. He did well. The suspension, he ordered, would last for an initial one year, after which it could be lifted, or extended. I don’t agree.

The Marriage Whisperer: A Review

The Marriage Whisperer

A Review by Chijioke Azuawusiefe, SJ

          Marriage has been designated a number of things ranging from sacrament to business, with in-betweens like covenant, union, vocation, institution, partnership, social construct, and even horse race. It all depends on who does the classification and those involved in the relationship. But in all the cases, one factor remains certain: marriage is a work in progress. Those involved work at it and that work takes different forms for different couples. 

The Marriage Whisperer tells a fascinating story of six middle-aged women who, leveraging the support and the company of their friendship, navigate the challenges of their marriages and relationships. Tess Ajibosin, in this debut novella, paints a picture of strong characters who, nonetheless, are human enough to acknowledge their vulnerabilities when it comes to their associations with men, even though they do not allow their shortcomings to diminish them. Ajibosin leverages the experiences of these women to bring the broad strokes of her brush to bear on the gender and patriarchal conversations canvas in contemporary Nigeria. She then traces the contours of these discourses through the individual lives of the narrator, Camille, and her friends, as each confronts and comes to terms with the relationship blues that her life presents. 

Nollywood: Omoni Oboli and Gender Equality

(By Ijeoma Chinonyerem) - Before now, I rarely watch movies by Omoni. But since I came home, the family and I have watched plenty of her movies on Netflix and I just have to stan. 
In all the movies produced by Omoni's production company, there is a conspicuous or subtle promotion of egalitarian ideals. 

No matter how trite the storyline is or how weak the jokes are, you cannot miss the infusion of these feminist ideals here and there.

In Wives on Strike, they reinforced consent even in marriage. Did you notice that NONE of the husbands in the movie forced the wives to have sex. Did you notice? Did you? Nothing like "your body belongs to me cos you're my wife".

The wives retained FULL bodily autonomy, starting from the senator's wife to the mechanic's wife to even the prostitute. Reinforcing what we've been preaching that NO IS NO even in marriage. It was a teachable moment that even when married, consent can still be denied and forcing it is rape. No husband raped their wife.

In Okafor's Law, Toyin's character said something which resonated with me. She said "you women think that by slaving away for men, he will pick you. Get some self esteem. Grow up".

Gbowam!!!

African Literature is a Country

Image credit Suad Kamardeen

(By Lily Saint and Bhakti Shringarpure) - African literature is a country

          What if you survey African literature professors to find out which works and writers are most regularly taught? Only a few canonical ones continue to dominate curricula. 

          This is the first post of the series “African Literature is a Country” which asks how we decolonize literary studies today.
          We would like to thank Henry Vehslage for his assistance in organizing and gathering all the information and Dr. Erin Butler for help in interpreting the data. An additional heartfelt thanks to the late Professor Tejumola Olaniyan for his support and advice on this project.

          African literary studies today is a site of deep paradox. On one hand, the last two decades have seen astonishing growth for African literature in the global North and South, evidenced by lucrative publishing deals; new prizes and grants; literature festivals; the establishment of many new presses and imprints; and an increase in blogs and platforms that disseminate and discuss these developments. On the other hand, African literature continues to exist on the margins of the academic mainstream and is also underrepresented within larger reading publics.

NOMAREC: Nollywood Gets Virtual Media & Research Center

PRESS RELEASE: Azuh Amatus Unveils Nollywood Media And Research Centre 

          Nollywood Media And Research Centre, (www.nomarec.com), a new information resource hub that is out to provide media-driven and in-depth research on Nollywood—the globally renowned Nigerian motion picture industry, its practitioners and various publics has been unveiled. 

          According to a statement issued in Lagos by its Founder and CEO, Azuh Amatus, NOMAREC serves as a rendezvous for journalists, filmmakers, professionals, scholars, researchers, film writers, students, entertainment enthusiasts, agencies and stakeholders within and outside Nigeria to access media-related and industry data on Nollywood, virtually.

          Shedding more light on NOMAREC and the services offered at the first-of-its- kind media and research driven centre, Azuh, a leading and revered Nollywood journalist with over two decades experience, disclosed that it is a one-stop virtual shop for reliable media contents and information on Nollywood.

Bello: Nigeria's Most Ecumenical Name

(By Farooq A. Kperogi) – Hello Bello: How “Bello” Became Nigeria’s Most Ecumenical Name

This article has been in the works for months. Each week I decide to work on it, something more pressing that invites my commentary comes up. But I have bucked all temptations to abandon it this week. 

Few people realize that “Bello” is Nigeria’s most universal “ethnic” name. Fewer still give a thought to how that came to be. By “ethnic” name, I mean a name that isn’t derived from universal religions like Christianity or Islam, which most Nigerians profess and practice, and that isn’t a Western ethnic name introduced to us through colonialism. 

Bello is a Nigerian Fulani name that has, over the years, lost its ethnic rootedness. It is the only name that is borne either as a first name or a last name in all Nigerian geo-cultural groups, except in the former Eastern Region, that is, Igboland and southern minorities, minus Edo State (who doesn’t know the Bello-Osagie family?). 

If we go by Nigeria’s contemporary geo-political categories, it’s only in the southeast and in the south-south (with the exception of Edo) that you may not find a native Bello. (There are three Bellos among Nigeria’s current governors, and at least one of them has no drop of Fulani blood in him). Essentially, of Nigeria’s 36 states, only 10 states don’t have a native Bello. No other “ethnic” name even comes close to this onomastic cosmopolitanism. (Onomastics is the study of names).

Of Yoruba Names With Arabic Origins

(By Farooq A. Kperogi) – Top 10 Yoruba Names You Never Guessed Were Arabic Names

I have always been fascinated by Yoruba people’s creative morphological domestication of Arabic names. There are scores of Yoruba names that are derived from Arabic but which are barely recognizable to Arabs or other African Muslims because they have taken on the structural features of the Yoruba language. 

This is not unique to Yoruba, of course. As scholars of onomastics or onomatology know only too well, when proper names leave their primordial shores to other climes they, in time, are often liable to local adaptation. (Onomastics or onomatology is the scientific study of the origins, forms, conventions, history and uses of proper names. Anthroponomastics specifically studies personal names, so this article is an anthroponamastic analysis of Yoruba Muslim names). That’s why, for instance, there are many Arabic-derived personal names in Hausa, the most Arabized ethnic group in Nigeria, that would be unrecognizable to Arabs. Names like Mamman (Muhammad), Lawan (Auwal), Shehu (Sheikh), etc. would hardly make much sense to an Arab.

I am drawn to the onomatology of Arabic-derived Yoruba names because their morphological adaptation to Yoruba’s structural attributes seems to follow an admirably predictable, rule-governed pattern. I have four preliminary observations on this pattern.

Of Nigeria and Hausa Christian Names

(By Farooq A. Kperogi) – Hausa-Speaking Northern Christian Names: An Onomastic Analysis

… I have a scholarly fascination with the origin, form, development, and domestication of personal names—an area of inquiry linguists call onomastics. … 

I pointed out that several Arabic names “have taken on the structural features of the Yoruba language.” I said this wasn’t unique to Yoruba Muslims. “As scholars of onomastics or onomatology know only too well,” I wrote, “when proper names leave their primordial shores to other climes they, in time, are often liable to local adaptation…. That’s why, for instance, there are many Arabic-derived personal names in Hausa, the most Arabized ethnic group in Nigeria, that would be unrecognizable to Arabs. Names like Mamman (Muhammad), Lawan (Auwal), Shehu (Sheikh), etc. would hardly make much sense to an Arab.”

The personal names of Hausa-speaking Northern Nigerian Christians also have an onomastic uniqueness that is worth exploring. I use “Hausa-speaking Northern Nigerian Christians” here rather loosely to refer to a miscellany of ethnic groups primarily in Nigeria’s northwest and northeast who are nonetheless united by Christianity and the Hausa language. This geo-cultural group, for the most part, excludes northern states like Benue, Kogi, Kwara, and maybe Niger, where most Christians historically bear conventional Western Christian names, but might include Plateau and Nasarawa states.

"Nollywood in Focus" Premieres in San Francisco

(TheGuardian.ng) - ‘Nollywood In Focus’ To Premiere At San Francisco Black Film Festival

Nollywood in Focus, an exciting documentary film offering a rare glimpse into the burgeoning Nigerian film industry, … premiere[s] at the 22nd San Francisco Black Film Festival on June 19, 2020. 

#Black Lives Matter

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - "Dear American Non-Black, if an American Black person is telling you about an experience about being black, please do not eagerly bring up examples from your own life. Don't say 'It's just like when I was ...' You have suffered. Everyone in the world has suffered. But you have not suffered precisely because you are an American Black. Don't be quick to find alternative explanations for what happened. Don't say 'Oh, it's not really race, it's class. Oh, it's not race, it's gender. Oh, it's not race, it's the cookie monster.' You see, American Blacks actually don't WANT it to be race. They would rather not have racist shit happen. So maybe when they say something is about race, it's maybe because it actually is? Don't say 'I'm color-blind,' because if you are color-blind, then you need to see a doctor and it means that when a black ma is shown on TV as a crime suspect in your neighborhood, all you see is a blurry purplish-grayish-creamish figure. Don't say 'We're tired of talking about race' or 'The only race is the human race.' American Blacks, too, are tired of talking about race. They wish they didn't have to. But shit keeps happening. Don't preface your response with 'One of my best friends is black' because it makes no difference and nobody cares and you can have a black best friend and still do racist shit and it's probably not true anyway, the 'best' part, not the 'friend' part. Don't say your grandfather was Mexican so you can't be racist (please click here for more on There Is No United League of the Oppressed). Don't bring up your Irish great-greatparents' suffering. Of course they got a lot of shit from established America. So did the Italians. So did the Eastern Europeans. But there was a hierarchy. A hundred years ago, the white ethnics hated being hated, but it was sort of tolerable because at least black people were below them on the ladder.

Benin Kingdom, the Oba, and Religious Diversity

NEBO TV

Afamefuna: The Headstrong Historian

Illustration by Yvetta Fedorova

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) – The Headstrong Historian

Many years after her husband had died, Nwamgba still closed her eyes from time to time to relive his nightly visits to her hut, and the mornings after, when she would walk to the stream humming a song, thinking of the smoky scent of him and the firmness of his weight, and feeling as if she were surrounded by light. Other memories of Obierika also remained clear—his stubby fingers curled around his flute when he played in the evenings, his delight when she set down his bowls of food, his sweaty back when he brought baskets filled with fresh clay for her pottery. From the moment she had first seen him, at a wrestling match, both of them staring and staring, both of them too young, her waist not yet wearing the menstruation cloth, she had believed with a quiet stubbornness that her chi and his chi had destined their marriage, and so when he and his relatives came to her father a few years later with pots of palm wine she told her mother that this was the man she would marry. Her mother was aghast. Did Nwamgba not know that Obierika was an only child, that his late father had been an only child whose wives had lost pregnancies and buried babies? Perhaps somebody in their family had committed the taboo of selling a girl into slavery and the earth god Ani was visiting misfortune on them. Nwamgba ignored her mother. She went into her father’s obi and told him she would run away from any other man’s house if she was not allowed to marry Obierika. Her father found her exhausting, this sharp-tongued, headstrong daughter who had once wrestled her brother to the ground.

Mma: At the Heart of Igbo Cosmology and Culture

"To understand more fully the complex set of ideas behind Agu's charge of witchcraft, it is necessary to say something about the connection between and Igbo person's life, his or her productiveness, and the communal 'good.' Mma is arguably the most important, single Igbo cosmological term. It contains a complex bundle of meanings: not only 'good' but wealth, health, and beauty are also implied. The key to following the discussion below is that the reader must keep all of these meanings in mind, since the values expressed by the use of mma are central to Igbo thought, particularly Igbo thought about human worth.
          For the Igbo, personal mma is both a reflection on the mma of the community and a positive statement about, or a continuation through time and space of, that good. "Goodness" is thus an active property in the life of an individual as well as in the life of a group. In practical terms, this means that a productive person is a person who manifests 'goodness' through his/her actions, by working hard and creatively, by having children and by teaching those children proper values, by accumulating wealth and by redistributing that wealth to the community through participation in title taking, town and local credit associations, and the establishment of patron-client relations with the less fortunate.
          One of the most important signs of 'goodness' for the Igbo is children. Children are, on one hand, the visible continuation of the lineage into the future, but they also represent material and spiritual wealth in the present. This is why murder and robbery are so closely linked in Igbo thought. The death of any person implies the loss of his/her productive and reproductive potential for the community at large.

Biafra: We Remember and We Pray #Ozoemena

(By Emmanuel Iduma) – ‘Gone Like a Meteor’: Epitaph for the Lost Youth of the Biafran War

In 1967, Nigeria had been an independent country for just seven years. The declaration of secession that year by an Igbo majority in the southeastern region of Nigeria, and the war that followed when the federal government decided to keep the country as one, was already the culmination of a bloody sequence of events. By May 1967, two coup d’états had taken place, and the Igbos of northern Nigeria had been killed in the tens of thousands. 

The Biafran War, otherwise known as the Nigerian Civil War, lasted from July 6, 1967, until January 15, 1970. The men who led each side—Yakubu Gowon on the federal side and Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of Biafra—were in their mid-thirties. Boys, some barely teenagers, volunteered to fight for the breakaway Republic of Biafra. Many of the civilian casualties were children: in September 1968, the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that almost ten thousand people died daily from starvation caused by Nigeria’s blockade of Biafra. An entire generation was wrenched from the future.

Of Prophet Odumeje, Pastors, and Sundry MOs

(By Obinna Aligwekwe) – Beyond Odumeje Comics and Theatrics.

First off, let me say I will never be more a fan of Odumeje than I would Adeboye, Oyedepo or Oyakhilome. 

Perhaps I might even be tempted to place him amongst men like Chris Okafor, TB Joshua and Apostle Suleiman who in my personal opinion rank lower in credibility than the first three above.
————————-

I do not subscribe to the opinion that casts out Odumeje and places him on a pedestal of falsehood from the others.

Odumeje is not more false than Oyedepo who once publicly slapped a lady in church during deliverance session.

Why was Oyedepo banned from entering the United Kingdom?

Odumeje is not more false than TB Joshua, who has delivered numerous false prophecies, and once claimed the Holy Spirit misled him.

Odumeje is not more false than Adeboye, who declared that corona virus had nothing to do with members of his church. 

Many still doubt that story of driving a car without fuel, but you who believe, wants to question another’s belief in Odumeje?

Odumeje is no more false than Chris Okafor who was involved in a recent scandal where a woman with a fractured arm was passed from church to church in healing scams.

"I Represent Earth": Religion in Social Media Age

(By Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu) - Angela Nwosu: Interview with an Ogbanje

In 2016, there was that trending video of a girl with scant hair and no makeup talking sex in vulgar Igbo. While some cheered her bravado, others were deeply offended, yet she released some more. Four years later, the lady, Angela Nwosu, has found some acceptance, pulling perhaps the largest following by any Nigerian using a private account on Facebook: 203,000. How did a random girl with a smartphone become a famous brand inspiring traditional worship in a digital generation?

Was the sex talk a way to get people to listen? I ask her, opening an interview this past Sunday.

“No. I just love talking about sex. I can’t have an adult conversation without talking sex. I had no friends and I needed to talk. When I started, there were so many trolls reporting me, so Facebook banned me.” 

Four times she created new accounts but all were banned, the last time permanently, she tells Nigeria Abroad. Angela moved to YouTube, where she met the same fate.

“I had to hire an IT guy to formally write letters and beg Facebook that I’d be of good behavior.”

Her spiritual nature has always been there since she was a child, Angela says, only she had to “use her available platform to provide solutions to people’s problems.” Today on social media, she sells spiritual items—amulets for luck, scrubs for spiritual cleansing, etc. She also provides free spiritual counseling on how people can use nature to better themselves.

Odumeje Vs Pericoma: Surviving the Gods

(By Mitterand Okorie) - As the Pericomas unleash terror, has night come for Odumeje?

Chukwuemeka Ohanemere a.k.a Odumeje is an internet sensation. Yellow to the soles of his feet and lanky like an okro plant, the self-acclaimed Liquid Metal has given Nigerians so much to talk about in the last few days. Recently also he trended on Twitter and today, dominates discussions on Facebook since the Pericomas came to town. Individuals or corporations pay influencers to trend on Twitter; Pastor Odumeje a.k.a Ikuku a na-afu anya (the visible wind), has remained an organically trending topic on social media Nigeriana. In short, some now called themselves Indaboskians, culled from the pastor’s favourite war chant – “I am Indaboski Bahose”. Apparently, Marlians (fans of the singer Naira Marley) have not only met their match; they have been overtaken by a more exuberant bunch. 

Odumeje is a popular prosperity pastor who, unlike most of his colleagues, found an unconventional route to fame. He is remembered for his antics more than for his preaching. He throws his spiritual patients around like a wrestler in a WWE bout. I once saw a video of him taking a crippled man’s crutches and proceeding to hit the man’s legs with the iron frame in an attempt to heal him. Spirits, they say, work in mysterious ways. 

While pastors of conventional Pentecostal churches call for tithes, Odumeje enjoys people spraying money in his church, sometimes over his head while he jumps around with the flexibility of an excited ninja.

Of Okija Shrine, Unforgiving Deity, & Tech-Savvy Ezemmuo

(By Mark-Anthony Osuchukwu) - Inside Okija shrine with the Goddess who never forgives

In the middle of a forest lies the dreaded Okija shrine, home to Ogwugwu-Mmiri, one of the most powerful deities in Igboland. Leading to the shrine is a dirt road plied by men on a date with spirits, surrounded by vegetation and fear. The shrine is a half-hour journey on okada from Ihembosi, a busy community in Anambra State. Save for the sputtering of the bike and the chirping of birds, the entire world is silent. A two-man journalism crew from Nigeria Abroad, we are on a mission to poke into the shrine’s historical mystery, and separate fact from fiction. 

The okada whines to a halt by a lonely structure where a man in red cap is sitting on a low stool. We pay the rider and approach the good man with pleasantries.

“Clear your throats before you come any further,” he commands. 

 A young man in his 40’s, his charge, a ritual for all who visit the shrine, is larger-than-life, instilling fear and obedience. We clear our throats, unlocking his hospitality.

“I am Ezemmuo Meekaodimma”—Chief priest bent on doing good. “What did you bring for the Alusi?

It is not our first visit. The day before we had come to book an appointment for this interview, and were told of what items to bring along: kolanuts, edo, native male chalk, native female chalk, and dry gin. We present the items.

“Whatever you give to the Gods can never be taken back,” Ezemmuo states, as if reading our rights.

Of Prophets, Showmen & Open-Enterprise Religion

(By Ikeddy Isiguzo) - Odumeje: Onitsha’s Trending Trader

Prophet Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere is testimony that size cannot obstruct one’s determination to excel in a chosen career. The petit fellow, who has seized minds in Onitsha, can easily be lost in a crowd of three. He is that small.

He has put his size to mesmerising acrobatics that hold audiences captive in serial releases of theatrics, some of which you won’t expect in a Christian place of worship. He is him.

He can break into a dance in the middle of his rare conversations about the Almighty: the music could be any trending secular ‘dance all’ number with lyrics that should not be heard in church. He makes his own rules in a business that is doubtlessly lucrative.

Some of his best advertisements are video clips of followers. In testifying to his abilities, they spray him with money, in amounts that confirm he is into serious business, or his visits to businesses, where crowds quickly gather when they hear he is around.

An alliance with Nollywood actors guarantees a sprinkling of popular faces to his church. Whether worshippers go for Nollywood, wrestling, his dance steps or miracles, their expectations are exceeded.

However, he remains his best advertisement with performances that include sporadic leaps into the air as if he intends to fly. The unwritten rule is space, more space, around him for his sprouts of displays.

Of Nollywood and Nigeria's Diaspora Talents

Adesua Etomi

(By Tchidi Jacobs; Additional Reports By Onyinye Ndupu) - Has Nigerian show-biz been high-jacked by the diaspora?

During the 4^th season of Big Brother Naija, which featured Ikechukwu Onyema, Avala, Mike Edwards, and at least 3 other diaspora Nigerians, an online debate ensued over perceived marginalization of local talent. It was not a new debate: the second and third seasons had up to 6 housemates whose following was arguably helped by their diaspora backgrounds. Nollywood has Adesua Etomi, Wereuche Opia, Osas Ighodoro, Adunni Ade, and more. In Nigerian music, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Teni, Davido, Falz, Don Jazzy, Banky W, Naira Marley, and many others have found same privilege. 

The trend is growing, especially in Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry built with sheer local skill and hard work. From DVDs sold in Alaba and Upper Iweka, to the posh cinemas adorning urban city malls, the industry that started in the early 90’s has been on a steady growth trajectory for almost three decades. With better production expertise and funding has come a limelight drawing diaspora talent. Sometimes it is as though local actors are deemed less screen-worthy.

In our pop music industry, street cred, not foreign swag and accent, is key; but like politicians thrill the Nigerian public when they are found eating roadside corn or akara, the diaspora singer that rolls with pidgin is king. It is as though fans feel lucky the performer shares an aspect of their lives—something taken for granted in the local singer. In Nollywood, it gets more interesting.

Leveraging foreign accents and education, overseas returnees in the industry are bringing a refreshing touch to the screen. They are not necessarily better than their Nigerian-born counterparts, but the foreign allure is an asset. It is no surprise that today, many of the A-List players in Nollywood are either born or educated abroad.

Of COVID-19, Religion, and Conspiracy Theories

(By Farooq A. Kperogi) - Coronavirus and Exploding Conspiracy Theories of Religious Crackpots

Of COVID-19, Religion, and Conspiracy Theories

The novel coronavirus is not only devastating humankind, it is also disrupting the settled certainties and spiritual verities of religious fanatics for whom atavistic and superstitious frames of reference are the only ways to make sense of the world around them. 

I’ll start from fringe members of my own religious community. When the new coronavirus first emerged in China, a lunatic fringe of the Nigerian Muslim community celebrated it and said it was Allah’s punishment against China for mistreating its Muslim minority population.

They said the clearest indication that it was divine pestilence to avenge the persecution of Chinese Muslims could be seen in the fact that all Chinese people were compelled to cover their whole bodies in ways that were reminiscent of the sartorial choices Allah enjoined Muslims, especially Muslim women, to make, which China denies its Muslim minority.

I recall telling a religious crackpot who made this silly argument early this year that it wasn’t the first time that people had covered their bodies in response to a pandemic. The 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed nearly half a million Nigerians and more than 50 million people worldwide, caused people to wear face masks.

COVID-19: Health Crisis and Crisis of Faith

Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church is silhouetted against the rising sun in Kansas City, MO., 

Wednesday, April 8, 2020. With Easter Sunday in several days, many churches are looking for 

ways to celebrate the occasion in light of stay-at-home orders and restrictions on gathering in an

 effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

(By Anthea Butler) - Is faith as we know it enough to get us through a pandemic?

(RNS) — This week, Christians will not gather in the streets of Seville, Spain, for the annual Semana Santa processions. There will be no washing of feet on Holy Thursday. Seven last words services on Good Friday will be livestreamed. For Jews, Passover has taken place at tables devoid of physical outside guests. Friday prayers at mosques will not happen. 

It turns out that a virus we cannot see is a more formidable threat to religious faith than secularism, government or unbelief. Catholics and Confucians, Buddhists and Baptists have all seen their piety give way to the coronavirus, which demands a solitary sufficiency that forbids the tactile, communal rituals that one would normally see this time of year.

Covid-19 is a health crisis, but it is also a crisis of faith.

This new normal will have profound implications for religious groups. Some will make it through this time, and their faith will be stronger for it. This is a test for believers — in the face of death, and robbed of their rituals and practices, what remains of their faith? It is a dark night of the soul, the ripping away of the familiar, the comforting, the soothing.

Many around the world have already been tested. In the Detroit area, seven bishops and leaders of the Church of God in Christ have died from the virus. Outbreaks have risen in the Orthodox Jewish community. In South Korea, the coronavirus outbreak began in a church in Daegu; in France, Covid-19 spread through a meeting of evangelicals in Mulhouse.

COVID-19, 5G Conspiracy Theories, & Empire Wars

(By Obinna Aligwekwe) - In all the midst of conflicting theories, conspiracy and otherwise, here are a few things I have been able to gather. 

These facts are verifiable:

1. America won the 4G war, and generated over $100 billion in GDP.

2. There was an intense race for 5G, a race which China has all but emerged victorious.

3. 5G is 20 times more powerful than 4G.

4. 5G has the capacity to generate 3 million jobs, and add $500 billion to GDP.

5. Most importantly, the nation that controls 5G, will control the world via information. Basically, 5G is the new nuclear button.

6. Donald Trump, on realising the US had lost, cancelled a contract with HUAWEI, Chinese tech giant, thereby stunting the progress of the technology in the West.
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Something makes me feel the disinformation regarding 5G is about GLOBAL POWER.

I may be wrong.
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My theory is:

The US may be buying time with which to develop their 5G and keep it at par with the Chinese.

The sad thing for them is... China is already working on 6G!!

Of Money Ritual and Wisdom of A Seasoned Dibia

(By Wayo Guy) - The Igbo Family and the Ruinous Concept of Ogwu Ego 

My grandpa was a local medicine man. He was the earliest untrained psychologist who expanded my understanding of human nature beyond classroom education. A man of few words, grandpa punctuated his rare utterances with aku bu iro (wealth attracts enmity), a reference to his wealthy clientele who were rumored to be ndi ogwu ego.

He was the first person from whom I heard that Nwata kpaa nku karia ibe ya, a si na o kpatara ya n'ajo ohia (when a child brings home more firewood than his peers, he will be accused of fetching them from the evil forest). Looking back, I can clearly see the connection of this proverb to the ogwu ego phenomenon in Igboland.

If you are an Igbo adult, you know what the concept of ogwu ego is; it defies a precise definition simply because it is supposedly located in the realm of metaphysics or the supernatural.

If you appear to have more money than your peers and they are not clued into the secret source of your money, you are in danger of being branded onye ogwu ego. If you and your brothers are in the same type of business but you appear to excel over and beyond them, you are likely onye ogwu ego. If your townsmen and women are backward due to their laziness but you succeed by dint of hard work and industry, it is likely that very soon you will have become onye ogwu ego to some of them.