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.