Of Religion, French Pecking Order, and Frogs

"Deep in the [post-war 1948] countryside of Correze in the Massif Central in the middle of France ... there was a church, packed with attendance by women and children, while the men discussed the important things of life in the bar-cafe across the square. The village priest, always called Monsieur l'Abbe, was friendly to me but slightly distant, convinced that as a Protestant I was tragically destined for hell. Up at the chateau on the hill dwelled Madame de Lamaziere, the very old matriarch of the surrounding land. She did not come to church; it came to her in the form of poor Monsieur l'Abbe, sweating up the hill in the summer sun to bring her Mass in her private chapel. The pecking order was very rigid, and even God had to recognize the distinctions.

          As my French improved, I made friends with a number of village boys to whom I was an object of extreme curiosity. The summer of 1948 was blazingly hot and our daily magnet was the lake a mile outside the village. There, with rods made from reeds, we could fish for large green frogs, whose back leg, dusted with flour and fried in butter, made an excellent supper." 

Frederich Forsyth, 2015, 14-16

The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue

"Religion Has Messed Up Many A Promising Life!"

(By Emeka Oparah) - Now, this is how people are being wasted! 
         I visited a cousin last weekend. We hadn’t seen each other for over a year. Expectedly, there was a lot of catching up to do including the rising spate of sudden and “inexplicable” deaths, especially of young people. In actual fact, there were more than 5 funerals due back home in the village, as we were talking-and that, my dear friends, bothered us a whole lot. Then, he told me a story.
         Last Christmas, he was home (while I was abroad, ironically). A diabetic, he probably over-reached himself, and started feeling “one-kind”. He asked to be rushed to a hospital and was taken to one of the better ones. As soon as the doctor saw him, he ordered he be given a drip! Drip, Father wondered. Yes, drip!
         “Doctor, why would you give me an infusion when you haven’t even asked me any questions; you haven’t taken my vitals or requested my medical history”, he questioned.
         The doctor took one cynical look at him and sarcastically asked him: “Are you a doctor? If you are, why then did you come to me. May be you’re not sick. When you are sick enough, you talk to me!” And with that said, he called the next victim, sorry patient.
         Crazy!!! And that’s how one of the folks, due for burial this weekend in the village, died. She too is a diabetic. A widow, her mother-in-law was to be buried the next day, and she suddenly started feeling sick. She called her friend, a “nurse”, who then gave her an infusion right in her bedroom and went away. After an hour or so, concerned family members went to check on her and found her dead!!! I’m not sure they didn’t say her late mother-in-law took her! You never know these things.

The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings

Bride Dola Olutoye poses with her bridesmaids in traditional Nigerian attire and matching geles, a scarf or fabric folded into an ornate shape atop a woman’s head.Olu Ogundeyin of IMG Artistry

(By Adenike Olanrewaju) - The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings. The color and flair of traditional ceremonies give brides and grooms a way to express a vibrant cultural heritage.

Dola Fatunbi Olutoye, 25, was ecstatic after becoming engaged last November to Dr. Yinka Olutoye, 26. She knew she wanted a traditional Nigerian wedding, but needed help executing the cultural elements of the ceremony, which took place on May 25 in Houston. 

Mrs. Olutoye, a pharmacy student from Houston, and Dr. Olutoye, a recent medical school graduate, are both Nigerian-Americans who are part of the Yoruba ethnic group, which is heavily concentrated in the Southwest region of Nigeria.

Of Nigerians and the Lunacy of Money Rituals

(By Temidayo Ahanmisi) - Meanwhile we still do NOT have the tiniest shred of evidence to suggest that money rituals work.

Not one.

Every suspected money ritualist has a thriving business which they pursue.
The question is Why? What's the point of striving at a trade when said ritualist could just as well order money to pour from anywhere, and crisp notes would litter the place?

I think I'm moving far ahead of myself on this. In the first place, the said ritualist or the native doctors even needing to subjugate their supposed powers to currency bills is the first fail.

Why can't the ritualist be powerful enough to just get all his needs delivered willingly to his doorstep? 
Bankers would bring cash. Car dealers would drop cars and skip away. Food sellers would drop food items..

Why need money? Why "mint" money?

Rationalism trumps this base superstition at any time, but the politics of religious people in need of validation of their myths and faith would not let reason have sway and take the day over ignorance, fear and Incredulity. It is imperative to the religious to have a phantom devil so intractably powerful that they would fight tooth and nail to maintain the contrivance of an omnipotent Evil, capable of the most insane feats.

Re Religion: Instinct Leads, Reason Follows

The "inferiority of the rationalistic level in founding belief is just as manifest when rationalism argues for religion as when it argues against it. That vast literature of proofs of God's existence drawn from order of nature, which a century ago seemed so overwhelmingly convincing, today does little more than gather dust in libraries, for the simple reason that our generation has ceased to believe in the kind of God it argued for. Whatever sort of being God may be, we KNOW today that he is nevermore that mere external inventor of 'contrivances' intended to make manifest his 'glory' in which our great-grandfathers took such satisfaction, though just how we know this we cannot possibly make clear by words either to others or to ourselves. ...

The truth is that in the metaphysical and religious sphere, articulate reasons are cogent for us only when our inarticulate feelings of reality have already been impressed in favor of the same conclusion. Then, indeed, our intuitions and our reason work together, and great world-ruling systems, like that of the Buddhist or of the Catholic philosophy may grow up. Our impulsive belief is here always what sets up the original body of truth, and our articulately verbalized philosophy is but its showy translation into formulas. The unreasoned and immediate assurance is the deep thing in us, the reasoned argument is but a surface exhibition. Instinct leads, intelligence does but follow. ...

Please observe, however, that I do not yet say that it is BETTER that the subconscious and non-rational should thus hold primacy in the religious realm. I confine myself to simply pointing out that they do so hold it as a matter of fact."

William James, 2012 [1901-1902], 54-55

"The Reality of the Unseen," The Varieties of Religious Experience

Jonathan Haynes: Pioneering Nollywood Studies

2019 LSA DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR AWARD: JONATHAN HAYNES (PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND FILM STUDIES, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY, USA)

Nomination Submitted by Paul Ugor, Associate Professor, Illinois State University, USA

It is indeed my pleasure and honor to nominate Professor Jonathan Haynes of Long Island University, New York as the LSA Distinguished Scholar for 2019. I have known Prof Haynes for eighteen years and I know of no other Africanist scholar who is deserving of this prestigious award than him. Not only has Prof Haynes been a consummate scholar of African literatures and cultures for the past twenty years, in those two decades, he has been an incredibly gracious and generous mentor, ally, advocate, and guardian to many Africanist scholars in the humanities.

Prof. Haynes’ research work in African literature and cinema marks him out as a scholar of towering international reputation whose persistence of scholarly inquiry into African modes of self-expression has secured legitimation for a field of study now known globally as Nollywood studies. To get a sense of Haynes’s scholarly achievements, it is important to remember that only a few years ago, Nollywood was a film industry scoffed at by mainstream cinema directors and elite scholars in the humanities. With his longtime friend and research associate, Prof. Onoookome Okome, Prof Haynes worked tirelessly to make sense of the artistic worth of Nigerian video films and to defend the legitimacy of the industry as a remarkable mode of African self-expression worthy of critical attention. Today, Nollywood it is at the centre of scholarly inquiries in prestigious scholarly fields such as Media Studies, Popular Culture, Film Studies, Anthropology, English and Cultural Studies, History, Linguistics, and other disciplines in the humanities.

Dave Allen on First Encounters with Religion

Dave Allen 

Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo: Igbo Market Days

"EKE: (taking stage vigorously and waving the ogirishi branch) I am Eke! First part of the whole. My day is sacred. I hold the Eastern pillar of the earth. Agwu, the unpredictable, multi-faceted, creative and destructive force, patron of diviners and medicine men, is my consort. The ogirishi is my sacred staff. (waves it).
          ORIE: (taking stage and waving the ikenga) I am Orie! I hold the pillar of the earth on the West. Ogwugwu, that fearsome spirit, benefactor of the just and industrious, protective yet ruthless in anger, patronises my markets. I wield the ikenga.
          AFOR: (taking stage and waving the ofo branch) I am Afor! I hold up the earth at the Northen corner. The fearsome Amadioha is my impatient instrument for justice. The ofo is my staff.
          NKWO: (taking stage and waving the aboshi) I am Nkwo! Ala, the pacific nature spirit of fertility, guardian of morality and prosperity patronises my markets. I hold up the Southern edge of the world. I wield the sacred aboshi branch.
          ALL: We are the four pillars of the earth!
          AFOR: We gave our names to your market days.
          EKE: We are the four market days.
          ORIE: We are Izu! Complete.
          NKWO: We represent your forebears!
          ALL: We are your forebears!"

Toni Duruaku, 2003, 44-45

A Matter of Identity

This Lagos: Carnivorous and Voracious

(By Toni Kan) - "Lagos is a beast with bared fangs and a voracious appetite for human flesh. Walk through its neighbourhoods, from the gated communities of Ikoyi and Victoria Island to Lekki and beyond, to the riotous warrens of streets and alleyways on the mainland, and you can tell that this is a carnivorous city. Life is not just brutish - it is short.
          In Lagos, one is sometimes struck by the scary fact that some crazed evil genius may have invented a million quick, sad ways for people to die: fall off a molue, fall prey to ritual killers, be pushed out of a moving danfo by one-chance robbers, fall into an open gutter in the rain, be electrocuted in your shop, be killed by your domestic staff, jump off the Third Mainland Bridge, get shot by armed robbers, get hit by a stray bullet from a policeman extorting motorists, get rammed by a vehicle that veers off the road into the pedestrian's walkway, die in a fire, get crushed in a collapsing building. You could count the ways and there would still be many others.
          Yet, like crazed moths disdaining the rage of the flame, we keep gravitating towards Lagos, compelled by some centrifugal force that defies reason and willpower. We come, take our chances, hoping that we will be luckier than the next man, willing ourselves to believe that while our fortune lies here, the myriad evils that traverse the streets of Lagos will never meet us with bared fangs.
          Abel and Santos were in Mushin when Lagos bared its fangs. There are no quiet streets in Mushin. It crackles with electric intensity and ripples with animosity. It is as if everyone, from shifty-eyed men to paranoid women, feels you are out to get them.

Lagos: A City Still Becoming

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - Still Becoming: At Home In Lagos With Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The novelist has lived in Lagos on and off for a decade. Here, in an essay for Esquire's new Travel & Adventure issue, she reflects on life in Nigeria's biggest city

          Lagos will not court you. It is a city that is what it is. I have lived part-time in Lagos for 10 years and I complain about it each time I return from my home in the US — its allergy to order, its stultifying traffic, its power cuts. I like, though, that nothing about Lagos was crafted for the tourist, nothing done to appeal to the visitor. Tourism has its uses, but it can mangle a city, especially a developing city, and flatten it into a permanent shape of service: the city’s default becomes a simpering bow, and its people turn the greyest parts of themselves into colourful props. In this sense, Lagos has a certain authenticity because it is indifferent to ingratiating itself; it will treat your love with an embrace, and your hate with a shrug. What you see in Lagos is what Lagos truly is. 

          And what do you see? A city in a state of shifting impermanence. A place still becoming. In newer Lagos, houses sprout up on land reclaimed from the sea, and in older Lagos, buildings are knocked down so that ambitious new ones might live. A street last seen six months ago is different today, sometimes imperceptibly so — a tiny store has appeared at a corner — and sometimes baldly so, with a structure gone, or shuttered, or expanded. Shops come and go. Today, a boutique’s slender mannequin in a tightly pinned dress; tomorrow, a home accessories shop with gilt-edged furniture on display.

Nollywood, Alaba Markerters, and New Nollywood

(By Andrew Rice) - “Most of [Nollywood] movies … are awful, marred by slapdash production, melodramatic acting and ludicrous plots. [Kunle] Afolayan, who is 37, is one of a group of upstart directors trying to transcend those rote formulas and low expectations. His breakthrough film, the 2009 thriller “The Figurine,” was an aesthetic leap: ... it announced the arrival of a swaggering talent keen to upset an immature industry. Unlike most Nollywood fare, “The Figurine” was released in actual theaters, not on cheap discs, playing to packed houses next to Hollywood features. “Many observers,” Jonathan Haynes, a scholar of Nollywood, recently wrote, “have been waiting a long time for this kind of filmmaking, which can take its place in the international arena proudly and on equal terms.” …

The economic realities of African filmmaking conspire against an improvement in quality. The consumer base is huge — there are more than a billion Africans, [200] million of them in Nigeria alone. But access to those buyers is controlled by the clannish merchants who congregate on the outskirts of Lagos at the Alaba International Market, the distribution hub of the African movie business. …

Nollywood’s bawdy humor — or fright or fantasy — appeals to a public seeking escape from depressing living conditions. The industry itself was born out of economic desperation during the early 1990s, a period of military dictatorship, low prices for Nigeria’s oil and Western-mandated “structural adjustment” of its economy. Actors and cameramen were out of work because of budget cuts at the national television station. Movie theaters were closed because no one wanted to venture into the dangerous streets at night.

Ajofia Nnewi: Ana Were Were

"Sitting on a Man": Aba Women's War and Igbo Women's Strategy

Aba Women, early 20th century

"A group of Igbo women in 1929 rose up as a unitary women would and with one voice and a single-mindedness of purpose waged war against the oppressive measures put in place by the conquering British colonial government. Through the three arms of the administration ... the British administration's District Officer (D. O.), the Church (the clergy) and the School (teachers) and the Court (judges), incessantly taxed the poor. This resulted in the de facto removal of the husbands from their homes to work in the cash-crop farms to support the British economy. Back in Europe, it was the era of industrial revolution and, in effect, Igbo men slaved on their lands as laborers working for their masters and paid taxes from whatever little they earned, leaving them weak, spent and with not enough to take care of their families. Under the circumstances, they were often unable to perform their conjugal obligations with their spouses in their matrimonial homes. On the fateful day in 1929, the Igbo women of Aba marched on government hill and stoned the District Officer. He was forced to call reinforcements, and when they came they too were again stoned by the women. The enraged women would not back down or leave government hill until their demands were met. The people called it the Igbo Women's 'War' but the British called it the Igbo Women's 'Riot.'
          What was unclear at the time was that what took place between the women and the ruling colonial power was a strategy, albeit on a small scale, which many an Igbo woman would usually employ to bend a recalcitrant husband for dereliction of duties and obligations to wife and family. They call it 'sitting on a man.' Therefore, the Aba women at war with the British had employed the Igbo women's radical strategy of 'sitting on a man' when aggrieved. Such a recalcitrant woman would 'sit' on her abusive husband's homestead, refusing to cooperate with food preparation, sex and emotional company until her husband promised to change his ways. Sometimes, it was a group of wives that 'sat' on their offending men."

Ada Uzoamaka Azodo, 2019, 18-19

"Di-Feminism: Valorizing the Indigenous Igbo Concept of 'Agunwanyi,'" in African Feminisms in the Global Arena: Novel Perspectives on Gender, Class, Ethnicity, and Race, ed. Ada Uzoamaka Azodo

Nollywood Actors Fans Will Forever Love

(By Adunni Amodeni) - Ten Talented Nollywood Actors We Will Never Stop Loving

Some Nollywood stars who quit acting in the 90s made our childhood days memorable and lit, while some are still around entertaining their loyal fans. Their roles in classic movies helped set the pace for the industry we’ve come to love dearly today.

These great actors have been involved in one scandal or another and some have managed to remain scandal free. Amidst their endless dramas, their fans still can’t bear not seeing them on their TV screens. They also look out for their movies either on DVD or in the cinemas.

Legit.ng has come up with a list of Nollywood actors we will never stop loving:

LADIES:

 1. Genevieve Nnaji:

The world can never get enough of talented Nollywood actress, Genevieve Nnaji. The 39-year-old diva is also a movie producer, director, screenwriter and former model. She reportedly welcomed her first child at the age of 16 and did not let that affect her studies or movie career. Having joined the industry in her teenage years, the delectable actress has featured in countless movies both local and international.

Reporting Nollywood from Australia

(By Carol Rääbus) - Nollywood is huge — and there's never been a better time to check it out

           How many Nigerian films or TV shows have you watched?

Chances are, if most of what you watch is what's available in cinemas and on Australian broadcast TV, you haven't seen any — despite the fact Nigeria is the second largest producer of film in the world after Hollywood.

But that could be about to change as Nollywood — as the Nigerian film industry is colloquially known — films hit our small screens as streaming services tune in to the appetite for more diverse stories.

While films have been made in Nigeria for as long as people have been making films, the term Nollywood started to be used in the early 2000s as Nigeria began to really ramp-up its film production.

In the early 2000s, Nollywood made a name for itself with quickly made films with often low-production values, which were distributed on burned DVDs to be more affordable and accessible than the country's few movie theatres.

These days Nollywood is still pumping out an impressive volume of films with more than 1,000 titles released each year, and is also producing films with high production values and strong storylines that have captured Netflix's attention.