Adichie Hosts Lupita Nyong'o in Lagos

(By Otosirieze Obi-Young) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Hosted Lupita Nyong’o in Lagos: How It Happened + Photos & Video

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie hosted Lupita Nyong’o in a private dinner in Lagos, attended by notable personalities in Nigerian entertainment. The event was part of Lupita’s second visit to Nigeria in preparation for the Americanah TV series adaptation, in which she will star as Ifemelu. The series, which has been ordered by HBO Max with Danai Gurira as showrunner and Chinonye Chukwu as director for the first two episodes, will also star Uzo Aduba as Aunty Uju, Zachary Momoh as Obinze, and Corey Hawkins as Blaine.

Chimamanda and Lupita wore near-matching outfits by the Lagos-based womenswear designer Imad Eduso: Lupita in purple, with silver shoes and braids by Zubi, and Chimamanda in shiny green, with blue sandals by TNL designs.

Among the guests were the Nollywood actors Richard Mofe-Damijo, Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva, Nse Ikpe Etim, Omoni Oboli, and Dakore Egbuson; the musicians Femi Kuti, D’banj, Flavour, Omawumi, Waje, and Seun Kuti; the writers and publishers Lola Shoneyin and Eghosa Imasuen; the media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo; the comedians Chigurl and Bovi; and the actress and singer Onyeka Onwenu, who was given a shoutout in Americanah and played Mama in the Half of a Yellow Sun film. They were all gifted with Narrative Landscape Press’ ankara-bound copies of Americanah.

N is for Nigeria, for Nollywood, and for Netflix

(By Edwin Okolo) - It took them long enough but Netflix Naija is finally here 

The next big battle for the future of media is the streaming wars. Its a war already 30 years in the making starting in the US in the early 90’s with then video giant Blockbuster and relatively new upstart, Netflix. 30 years later, almost every major media network playing in both traditional and digital spaces launching their own streaming services as a way to profit off their content and corner their own niche of the market.

Even Nigerian independent studios are launching streaming platforms. There is Ebony Life On, Linda Ikeji TV and Scene One Productions from Funke Akindele. With Nigeria’s thriving entertainment industry and the proliferation of Nigerian-centric film and television content, it was only a matter of time before Netflix set its sights on the country. Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart certainly had something to do with that. It was the first African independent film project bought by Netflix for an exclusive wide release for a rumoured 3 million dollars. Netflix must have recouped the investment because since they have steadily bought the streaming rights for a number of high profile Nigerian films and shows, much of which will make the foundational content for Netflix Naija.

Foolish Men: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695)

F.C. Ogbalu: Father of Igbo Orthography and Literature

“F. Chidozie Ogbalu (1927-1990), sometimes called the "father" of Igbo language and culture, was born in Adagbe, Abagana, and was a lifelong teacher and champion of his Igbo heritage. He taught Latin, Geography and Igbo at a number of schools, and took a great interest in the Igbo-related controversies of his time. These controversies revolved around efforts to standardize the writing and spelling of the Igbo language, and to improve its numeral system.

Thus in 1948, while teaching at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha, Ogbalu wrote a newspaper article in The Nigerian Spokesman attacking the colonial administration for its failure to encourage standardization, and forcefully arguing against a new "Adams-Ward" orthography being advocated by some linguists. This orthography, which he called "obnoxious," involved phonetic symbols that would inevitably have complicated the process of learning to read the language. Ogbalu's principal at Dennis Memorial then advised him that instead of writing to the newspapers, he would do better to write and publish his own material in the Igbo language. Ogbalu took up the challenge, and by the following year he had founded the Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC). He was then only 22 years old. (Eight years later, carrying the advice a step further, he established the Varsity Press in Onitsha.)

Omugwo: Traditional Igbo After-Birth Care

(From okwuid.com) – OMUGWO: Traditional Igbo After-birth Care

There is always delight and anticipation in the air when and Igbo family are expecting a new child.

The family unit is at center to Igbo culture. And whilst pregnancy can be an exciting, scary and nerve-wracking experience all rolled into one. It is a process that Igbos hold in very high regard.

Despite this, pregnancy can be a challenging time where your body and lifestyle will go through many unexpected changes.

These changes can leave new mothers feeling overwhelmed without a robust support network made up of family and friends.

Igbo culture’s answer to these post-natal challenges is a practice called “Omugwo”.

As part of the Omugwo process the mother, mother in law or close female relative stay with the new mother in the first few weeks/months to assist and care for the new mother and baby.

During Omugwo the new mother is fed a special diet and given traditional massages to help her body return to the pre-pregnancy state.

The aim of Omugwo is to offer new mother a robust form of after-birth care, it is necessary so that the new mother can rest well to regain her strength. Family support also means conditions like post-natal depressions become less prevalent. 

Of Kannywood, Okada, Danfo: Nigerianisms and Language Evolution

(By Danica Salazar) - Release notes: Nigerian English

My English-speaking is rooted in a Nigerian experience and not in a British or American or Australian one. I have taken ownership of English.

          This is how acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes her relationship with English, the language which she uses in her writing, and which millions of her fellow Nigerians use in their daily communication. By taking ownership of English and using it as their own medium of expression, Nigerians have made, and are continuing to make, a unique and distinctive contribution to English as a global language. We highlight their contributions in this month’s update of the Oxford English Dictionary, as a number of Nigerian English words make it into the dictionary for the first time. 

The majority of these new additions are either borrowings from Nigerian languages, or unique Nigerian coinages that have only begun to be used in English in the second half of the twentieth century, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.

One particularly interesting set of such loanwords and coinages has to do with Nigerian street food. The word buka, borrowed from Hausa and Yoruba and first attested in 1972, refers to a roadside restaurant or street stall that sells local fare at low prices. Another term for such eating places first evidenced in 1980 is bukateria, which adds to buka the –teria ending from the word cafeteria.

Amaka Igwe: Doodle for Nollywood Icon

(From Google Doodle) - Amaka Igwe’s 57th Birthday

"I will give you all I have, so you can add it to what you have and be better than me."

–Amaka Igwe

Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Nigerian-raised, Brooklyn-based guest artist Data Oruwari, celebrates award-winning Nigerian writer, director, entrepreneur, and producer Amaka Igwe on her 57th birthday. Igwe helped transform the Nigerian film industry and built a media empire from the ground up.

Uzoamaka ‘Amaka’ Audrey Igwe was born on this day in 1963 in Port harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. At an early age, Amaka showed deep interest in the performing arts, as she organized her school's variety shows, taught performance dance, as well as wrote, acted, and directed plays.

During her postgraduate studies, Igwe started focusing on theater and what she considered to be her first gift: writing. She developed her first television series screenplay, Checkmate, widely considered the best Nigerian soap opera of the 1990s.

There is Nothing Like "Money Ritual"

(By Abimbola Adelakun) – There is nothing like ‘money rituals’

The gruesome murder of the Lagos State University student, Miss Favour Daley-Oladele, by a self-deluded young man in pursuit of an illusion of “money rituals” is saddening. According to reports, Favour’s boyfriend, Owolabi Adeeko, had allegedly connived with a pastor, Segun Philips, who promised to make a potion that would magically draw money for Adeeko and his mother. Now that they have been busted, the pastor claimed the ritual failed because “the spirit did not bring any money.”

I am uncertain if he genuinely believed that money would magically surface or he was merely making things up for the press, but here is the truth: There is nothing like money ritual. There has never been, and there never will be.

There is nobody that claims that “money ritual” is real that can also substantiate it. The evidence people tender about its efficacy is typically reportorial, or some fantasy they picked up from home movies. Meanwhile, Nollywood filmmakers too have never seen money rituals work either. What they rehash are urban myths and similar tales. Nobody, I repeat, nobody can make money come out of thin air or conjure it from another location.

Priests, Pastors, Prophets, & Politics of Prophecies

(By Immanuel JamesIbe-Anyanwu) – Mbaka’s god and the future of Imo

There are two consistent attributes of the Mbaka god. It is an arrogant god that forecloses commentary, hence the warning that those who will criticize the Catholic priest over this new year prophecy, will attract divine wrath. Gods are like that though—often demanding unquestioning credulity. But because critical intelligence is also a divine gift, I do not believe God gave it to us not to use it. Besides, unlike Mbaka, I am from Imo State, the constituency whose destiny is being purported for change; I should therefore be free to discuss my fate.

Second feature of the Mbaka god is that it loves the APC. Mohammadu Buhari, it once declared, would transform Nigeria. In fairness, Buhari has truly transformed Nigeria, but in reverse. “There will be more hardship in 2020”, Mbaka’s god assures again, which is consistent with the Buhari prophecy of 2015: Buhari has so far transformed Nigeria into grievous hardship, but will do even more this year. 

Hope Uzordimma, 4th runner-up in the state’s last guber poll, will become Imo Governor this year, says the Mbaka god. Hope is “an agent of salvation” who would “restore the dignity of that noble land”. This is at least the third APC prophecy largesse blasting through this curious oracle. Which raises two fundamental concerns.

Nollywood's Vision 2020

iRokotv could become a billion dollar company by 2020
--Jason Njoku, CEO iRokotv

Of English Language, Nigerian English, and Nigerianisms

(By Farooq Kperogi) – Divided by a Common Language: Comparing Nigerian, American and British English

It is important to stress that Nigerian English is not bad or substandard English. It is a legitimate national variety that has evolved, over several decades, out of our unique experiences as a post-colonial, polyglot nation.

However hard we might try, we can't help writing and speaking English in ways that reflect our socio-linguistic singularities. Even our own Wole Soyinka who thinks he speaks and writes better English than the Queen of England habitually betrays "Nigerianisms" in his writings. Or at least that's what the native speakers of the language think. For instance, when he was admitted into the Royal Society of Arts, the citation on his award read something like: "Mr. Soyinka is a prolific writer in the vernacular English of his own country."

I learned that Soyinka's pride was badly hurt when he read the citation. But it needn't be. It was Chinua Achebe who once said, in defense of his creative semantic and lexical contortions of the English language to express uniquely Nigerian thoughts that have no equivalents in English, that any language that has the cheek to leave its primordial shores and encroach on the territory of other people should learn to come to terms with the inevitable reality that it would be domesticated. …

Of "Gay Jesus" and Offended Christians

(By Abimbola Adelakun) – On ‘gay Jesus’ and offended Christians 

So far this week, more than two million Christians worldwide have signed a petition demanding streaming services provider, Netflix, to pull a comedy special that portrays Jesus Christ as gay. The film, “The First Temptation of Christ,” was created by a Brazilian comedy group called Porta dos Fundos and it is as goofy as it can be. At the Nigerian end, the Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman, also started a campaign urging Christians to “cancel” Netflix.

Whether they can build up enough momentum for Netflix to yield to their demands remains to be seen. Capitalist behemoths like Netflix are not moved by morality or liberal arguments of mutual tolerance. They only respond to what threatens the balance of their company’s balance sheets. The recent case of Hallmark films and their flip flop over two lesbians kissing in an ad demonstrates this to a hilt. In this case, Netflix might just point at the gazillion Christian shows on their stables as proof of their all-round neutrality. And they will be sincere if they say they are not for or against any side. Those that imagine we are witnessing an ideological battle between conservative and liberal values, and that Christianity is being offered up in this contest simply do not have the full picture. There is only one god we are all called to serve these days, and its name is capitalism. Or, dollars for short.

Kpali: Eloquent Commentary on Millennial Angst

(By Toni Kan) - Kpali Is An Eloquent Commentary On Millennial Angst

Forget the story.

Forget the acting.

Forget the hype.

Go see Kpali the movie for the aerial shots that make Lagos look nothing like the chaotic urban conurbation we all love to hate.

Ladi Johnson and his DoP get full marks for producing a crisp, visually stunning film.

But movies are much more than cinematography and visual clarity. Movies have to be visceral and relatable and realistic in a way that approaches verisimilitude.

Kpali ticks all those boxes as a movie revolving around a 20 something year old Amaka Kalayo whose sedate London life is set on a roller coaster when her bosses inform her that she has 30 days to close a big deal or lose not just her job but her Kpali; her visa, work permit and right to live and work in the UK.

Thrust into this career maelstrom, Amaka departs for Nigeria with her oyibo male colleague in tow. They arrive Lagos and for some curious reason head together to Amaka’s family home and thus ensues the comedy of errors that is almost always at the heart of a true rom-com.

The Kings: From Africa to the World

L-R: Kamaru Usman (UFC Welterweight Champion), Anthony Joshua (unified WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO Heavyweight Champion), Israel Adesanya (UFC Middleweight Champion)

The Queens: From Africa to the World