The Symbolism of the Goddess

(By Starhawk) - "The symbolism of the Goddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of God the Father. The Goddess does not rule the world; she is the world. Manifest in each of us, She can be known internally by every individual, in all her magnificent diversity. ...

The importance of the Goddess symbol for women cannot be overstressed. The Image of the Goddess inspires women to see ourselves as divine, our bodies as sacred, the changing phases of our lives as holy, our aggression as healthy, our anger as purifying, and our power to nurture and create, but also to limit and destroy when necessary, as the very force that sustains all life. Through the goddess, we can discover our strength, enlighten our minds, own our bodies, and celebrate our emotions. We can move beyond narrow, constricting roles and become whole.

The Goddess is also important for men. The oppression of men in Father God-ruled patriarchy is perhaps less obvious but no less tragic than that of women. Men are encouraged to identify with a model no human being can successfully emulate: to be minirulers of narrow universes. They are internally split, into a 'spiritual' self that is supposed to conquer their baser animal and emotional natures. They are at war with themselves: in the West, to 'conquer' sin; in the East, to 'conquer' desire and ego. Few escape from these wars undamaged.

My Father's House by Reggie Ugwu

(By Reggie Ugwu)

After my brother dies and my father was partially paralyzed, my family traveled 7,000 miles in search of an old home, a new house, and the things we'd lost on the road in between.

I remember feeling grateful that we never said “Merry Christmas.” We didn’t say it on Christmas morning when we awoke in Virginia, during a layover at the world’s most desolate Hampton Inn & Suites, and took long showers and poured too much batter into the waffle machine. Or at Washington Dulles International Airport, 1,400 miles from our cul-de-sac in Houston, where, at 8 a.m., bright, deserted corridors seemed to me pleasantly indifferent to the calendar. Near midnight on Christmas Eve, we had wished for a shuttle in lieu of a sleigh, making our plea with a dead-eyed driver who we’d been told could take us to the Hampton Inn. His broad white vessel didn’t have a ramp for Dad’s electric wheelchair — the one that chirped like a repair droid (meep murp) whenever you turned it on — and was too far above the ground for us to maneuver him out of it and into a seat. The driver suggested that my sister Adaeze and I ride the shuttle with our bags while Mom and Dad follow in a taxi. But Mom threw me a look that even I understood meant “I don’t want to be alone,” and so Adaeze rode with the bags while the three of us stayed behind, waiting by the curb at passenger pickup as the cool black night ticked into morning.

Of Pope Francis and Catholic Compassion

(CNN—Jill Filipovic) – Is Catholicism about faith and compassion, or rigid doctrine and exclusion? According to a group of conservative Catholics who just accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy, it's the latter.

Sixty-two (somewhat marginal) Catholic scholars and clergy have signed a letter that disputes Francis' signaling of his willingness to allow divorced and remarried people to receive communion. This, they say, is immoral and heretical, a sign of Francis "misleading the flock." Far better, in this retrograde reading of doctrine, to ostracize and shame the remarried as "adulterers" and the divorced as sinful failures. 

Really?

I've seen how this "old way" played out in my own family, and it puts Pope Francis' more reform-minded church in useful perspective. My grandparents were devout Catholics, married young, and had five children; my grandfather also beat my grandmother. She eventually left -- a painful and terrifying decision for a woman with only a high school degree in 1950s America. She supported the five kids by working multiple low-wage jobs at once. He did his damnedest to skirt financial responsibility, and she struggled her entire life.

"When Women Gather..." - A Movie Review

(By Tony Kan) – “When Women Gather, There Is War!” – A Review of The Women 

 Every movie has an emotional core, its beating heart.

In The Women, Blessing Egbe’s latest movie which opened in cinemas yesterday, the core lies in a statement mouthed by Teni (Omoni Oboli) who tells her long-suffering husband: “Where two or three women are gathered, there is a silent war.”

Cold, hot or silent, wars lead to casualties and there are casualties aplenty in The Women.

The premise of The Women is not absolutely original and neither does it pretend to re-invent the wheel. What Blessing Egbe, who gave us Lekki Wives, has done is to present us with a story (sprinkled with her inventive touch) that is real-to-life, thought provoking and funny as hell.

Consider this killer exchange between Chubby and Omo.

Chubby: Does your husband know you are here?

Omo: No. If he finds out he will kill me

Chubby: So why are you here then? You want to die?

Nigerians, Nigerian Pastors, and Tithing

When I Travel in Nigerian Commercial Buses

(By Nkechi Bianze) – Whenever I'm in Nigeria and I'm traveling a long distance on public transport, one of my ultimate priorities is MY COMFORT. I sometimes go as far as paying for two seats, one for myself and the other seat for MY HANDBAG.

I once paid for THREE seats on "God is Good motors", traveling from Benin to Lagos. One seat for me, one for my box and the other for my handbag.

I was traveling one day from Asaba to Abuja, I paid for two seats. I had a small box (handbag size) and my handbag. I kept my small box and handbag on one, and sat on the other. Then less than 30minutes into the journey, this woman with three children, all over the age of three, asked me if I could carry my box and handbag so that one of her children would seat there, because they wanted to sleep through the journey.

Ozubulu Church Massacre & Celebration of Wealth

(By Roz Ben-Okagbue) - Ozubulu...death of the innocent 

Yesterday gunmen stormed into a Catholic church in Ozubulu and gunned down members of the congregation who were attending Sunday mass. As the drama unfolded and social media was agog with gory pictures, the rumour mills started grinding and the blame was immediately directed at all sorts of terrorist groups. As the day progressed, however, the truth filtered through and it was revealed that the source of this massacre was an enemy within otherwise known as Greed.

It is said that innocent people lost their lives in the incident but let us ask ourselves, is anyone really innocent in this? Can any of us claim to be innocent? Are we really surprised that this incident occurred? Have we not been courting this enemy for several years now in Igboland? Is it something that started today?

According to reports corroborated by the governor of Anambra state, the incident was the outcome of a drugs war between two drug barons from Ozubulu who were fighting over a debt arising from a drugs deal. Having gone to the house of one of the barons known as “Bishop” and not finding him home, the gunmen proceeded to the church to seek him out and kill him. They marched into the church, saw his father and opened fire killing everyone who was in the way. What gave them the impetus to march into the church premises with their guns and open fire on ‘holy grounds’, committing an act that is a total abomination? They clearly did not recognize the holiness of the premises after all they were aware that the church was built from the proceeds of crime and drug sales. As far as they were concerned, they were home!

Of End Times and Conspiracy Theories

(By Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu) - First time I encountered jaw-dropping conspiracy theory was during the much-touted news of ECOWAS working to soon introduce a regional currency, the Eco. 

"It's what the Bible warned concerning the End-times. That the devil will rule the world with a single currency. Look at Euro in the Eurozone. It's all coming together," said a banker-friend who had an MBA. I was still seeking university admission. He had been drawn to what he called my "superb intellect", seeing the kind of books he often saw me reading. I was then obsessed with Karl Marx, Hegel, and Plato.

"Don't let your little intellect deceive you into arguing about spiritual matters." That was his retort to my argument that the proposed Eco had nothing to do with some unitary satanic government. My intellect had dwindled.

One thing though: the Satan guy isn't perhaps as clever as we thought, seeing as he let West-African leaders kill that Eco dream. He is now busy attending village witchcraft meetings rather than strengthening a shambolic Eurozone crucial to his future government.

Attempted Rape is as Vile as Rape--No Excuses

(Eketi Edima Ette) - RAPE IS INEXCUSABLE! ATTEMPTED RAPE IS AS VILE AS RAPE!!! 

Last night and through to the early hours of today, I read the rape stories on Olu Bunmi's wall. 
I thought I was strong, that I wouldn't cry or be shaken, because I've heard many of these stories before. My inbox is littered with them. But I did cry. I wasn't surprised when those sad stories intruded in my dreams. 

They brought to mind my second near-rape experience, and the terror that possessed me for weeks after. It's one I can never forget. 

*
His name was Jude* and I was 23 years old. 
He was a jovial colleague and we got along quite fabulously. He'd always referred to me as his paddy. So, I was surprised when the day he asked me to come pay him a visit, the alarm bells in my head clanged furiously. Over the years, I have learned to trust my intuition implicitly. That's why I was genuinely troubled by such a strong, negative reaction.

Try as I might, I couldn't brush aside the feeling of unease. I told him, "No, I can't come to your place."

Of Rape Stories and Social Media

(By Joy Isi Bewaji) - RAPE STORIES: Three things… 

What happens when victims of rape share stories on social media?

1)

These stories excite rapists. No rapist ever “repented” by reason of a victim’s confession. A victim’s story, with details of the event, stirs the rot inside a rapist. It’s a thrill. It’s a moment to relive what he has done (to another woman, not necessarily the writer).

It achieves very little on that account.

Rapists do not change. It is why the only place they belong is in prison. If you watch C&I, you’ll realize many rapists return to jail after their first sentence. They spend 14 years in jail, are released… and in less than 7 months, they are back in jail for another, say, 21 years. They are repeat offenders, even with rehabilitation. Especially those disgusting things called Paedophiles

In Nigeria, there is no structure for professional counseling and rehabilitation, except for religious homes and their keepers who brag about curing HIV and removing the demon of Rape from offenders. Our situation is quite dire.

An Epidemic of Rape

(By Olusegun Adeniyi) - There is hardly any member of my generation who did not watch the controversial rape revenge movie of the eighties titled, ‘I Spit on Your Grave’. The first time I watched the movie, which in 2010 made TIME magazine’s list of ten ‘most ridiculously violent’ movies of all times, I shed tears. But I also enjoyed the victim’s revenge mission, even with all the brutality, because I believed that the men who so cruelly raped the female character deserved their gruesome end. Unfortunately, after exacting her revenge by violently eliminating the four men she believed raped her, the movie ended on a tragic note with the woman learning from the police that the real culprits had been caught!

I could not but remember that movie last weekend after watching a WhatsApp video clip of a man whose hands and legs were tied and suspended on a wood with a big stone strapped to his back dangling on a rope in a most gruesome act of torture one can ever imagine. I hope the man is guilty of rape as charged by a mob before the jungle justice was meted to him. That is because we live in a society where innocent people can easily be framed, as we saw with the four innocent University of Port Harcourt undergraduates whose murderers were sentenced to death on Monday.

Of Herbal Healing, Spirituality and Public Health

(By Rueben Abati) - The other week, July 20 to be precise, I was the reviewer of an important book on herbal healing. Herbal healing is often dismissed as a form of sorcery and in these days of obsession with Pentecostalism, many Africans still consider traditional medicine a taboo. To disprove this, a Catholic monk, Fr. Anselm Adodo began an experiment in 1996 when he set up in Ewu, Edo state, an institution titled Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories “to serve as a centre for genuine African holistic healing that blends the physical and spiritual aspects of the human person, and to serve also, as a research centre for scientific identification, conservation, utilization and development of African medicinal plants.”

Pax Herbal since then has produced over 32 products, listed and certified by NAFDAC. These include Pax Beauty Cream, Bitter Tea (an antibiotic), Diatea (for the treatment of diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension), blood tonic, BK caps, cough syrup, herbal soap, potensine capsules, logotine caps, kilodine, pain cream, skin ointment, and Pax herbal colour therapies. Many of these products can be found and purchased at Catholic churches across the country.

Fr Anselm has been able to establish that traditional medicine is a viable business and that alternative medicine, properly modernized can indeed be a useful contribution from Africa to the world and a major source of constructive engagement.

Why I No Longer Use the Term "Game"

(By Chika Unigwe) - Why I no Longer Use the Term, ‘Game.’

Years ago, I was enjoying my bushmeat in an Australian restaurant in Belgium and said as much when my dinner companion gently reminded me that what I was eating was “game” and not bushmeat, and I had been invited out to “enjoy game.” Apparently, bushmeat is what you get in a small, ramshackle affair by the roadside in Nsukka, paired with palm wine and most often eaten by hand, not meat carefully paired with a Pinot Noir or a Shiraz in a restaurant where the silverware is so shiny and so smudge free you can use it to fix your makeup. 

This morning, I did a quick google search and found this:

“The term “bushmeat” refers to meat that comes from wild animals captured in developing regions of the world such as Africa. Bushmeat comes from a variety of wild animals, including bats, nonhuman primates (e.g., monkeys), cane rats (grasscutters), and duiker (antelope).”

“Game are wild animals and birds. Large native game animals living in America include antelope, buffalo, bear, deer, elk, moose, reindeer, and wild boar. “

Fact 1: bushmeat and game come from wild animals.

Fact 2: Antelope is bushmeat when in Africa but game once it crosses the ocean. 

Question: Who does the naming? 

Of Rape and (Nigerian) Facebook Activism

(By Hymar Idibie David) - The Vex On The Go. 

We are talking about the rape issue, holding conversations, trying to consciously create a free-to-speak-up environment for victims. We are consciously trying to trend the issue into national consciousness because everyone knows social media is power. Of course it has always been a national issue, just that it is treated with hush hush and wrist-slap gloves. We didn't start talking about it today. We have always been talking about it. 

You are a decent human being. I know that. I can sense that in you. But because someone is a decent person doesn't mean they are not capable of now and then acts and utterances of just plain idiocy. 

Idiocy like calling our conversations and engagements on the rape issue noise. Social media noise. Facebook trending topic of the day(s).

I am sorry, but please clam the hell up.

Nigeria and the Sin of Poverty

(By Joy Isi Bewaji) - The only sin you commit in Nigeria is poverty.  

If this 70 year old woman was having consensual sex with a younger adult male in her three-bedroom apartment in ParkView estate, Ikoyi...

The hand of culture, religion or any idiotic rule made for homo-habilis will not be able to pass through tight security at the gates... how much more knock on her door and drag her out of her right to be pleasured.

Living amongst poverty and its attendant cousins allow for intrusion. When you are poor, your life is not yours. It belongs to the people who pray for you to find food. These people control your life and everything that happens to the holes in your body - what you eat (when you eventually find food made possible by their prayers), and what is inserted in your vagina.

The sin of poverty is the only crime in Nigeria. 

This is why Crime, placed side-by-side an unintelligent, unenlightened, ill-equipped Police force, seems to be an unending unquenchable and achievable alternative for many. What they are really fighting for is dignity.