Black Looks

• Mam?

  Posted: October 30, 2011, 2:47 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  “racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia and the internalised dimensions which perpetuates the “order of things”"

  Either someone is feeding Dwayne Ameboman
  Information or he hadn’t gone out all day today?

  “Isn’t it my right to choose?” said Tanya Sea Warrior.
  Defiantly she continued, “it is, isn’t it my right to
  Choosing whether service providers called me “mam”
  Or not. Saying, “please, do not call me mam,” was
  For Tanya, a right to be her own person; no one’s pet.
  Whether Dwayne and co bought it was their business
  Tanya Sea Warrior had reason for her assertive, DON’T!
  She had heard, “mam” and “man” intertwined in jest.
  She wasn’t laughing. Watch Dwayne & co amuse was…
  Objection to being called mam was out, permanently
  Objection to being mammed was a transfeminist stance.
  A glow came over Tanya Sea Warrior smiling to herself.

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Conversation at the kitchen table

  Posted: October 29, 2011, 6:26 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Words are in the face, the eyes, the smile, the hand…….

  “Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies.”

  Via Guerilla Mama

• Statement of African social justice activists on the decision of the British government to “cut aid” to African countries that violate the rights of LGBTI people in Africa

  Posted: October 28, 2011, 3:25 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  British Prime Minister, David Cameron has warned his country would cut aid to countries in the global south that persecute LGBTI persons. Many of us believe this is an inappropriate response as stated in the statement below. ……

  We, the undersigned African social justice activists, working to advance societies that affirm peoples’ differences, choice and agency throughout Africa, express the following concerns about the use of aid conditionality as an incentive for increasing the protection of the rights of LGBTI people on the continent.

  It was widely reported, earlier this month, that the British Government has threatened to cut aid to governments of “countries that persecute homosexuals” unless they stop punishing people in same-sex relationships. These threats follow similar decisions that have been taken by a number of other donor countries against countries such as Uganda and Malawi. While the intention may well be to protect the rights of LGBTI people on the continent, the decision to cut aid disregards the role of the LGBTI and broader social justice movement on the continent and creates the real risk of a serious backlash against LGBTI people.

  A vibrant social justice movement within African civil society is working to ensure the visibility of – and enjoyment of rights by – LGBTI people. This movement is made up of people from all walks of life, both identifying and non-identifying as part of the LGBTI community. It has been working through a number of strategies to entrench LGBTI issues into broader civil society issues, to shift the same-sex sexuality discourse from the morality debate to a human rights debate, and to build relationships with governments for greater protection of LGBTI people. These objectives cannot be met when donor countries threaten to withhold aid.

  The imposition of donor sanctions may be one way of seeking to improve the human rights situation in a country but does not, in and of itself, result in the improved protection of the rights of LGBTI people. Donor sanctions are by their nature coercive and reinforce the disproportionate power dynamics between donor countries and recipients. They are often based on assumptions about African sexualities and the needs of African LGBTI people. They disregard the agency of African civil society movements and political leadership. They also tend, as has been evidenced in Malawi, to exacerbate the environment of intolerance in which political leadership scapegoat LGBTI people for donor sanctions in an attempt to retain and reinforce national state sovereignty.

  Further, the sanctions sustain the divide between the LGBTI and the broader civil society movement. In a context of general human rights violations, where heterosexual women are almost as vulnerable as LGBTI people, or where health and food security are not guaranteed for anyone, singling out LGBTI issues emphasizes the idea that LGBTI rights are special rights and hierarchically more important than other rights. It also supports the commonly held notion that homosexuality is ‘unAfrican’ and a western-sponsored ‘idea’ and that countries like the UK will only act when ‘their interests’ have been threatened.

  An effective response to the violations of the rights of LBGTI people has to be more nuanced than the mere imposition of donor sanctions. The history of colonialism and sexuality cannot be overlooked when seeking solutions to this issue. The colonial legacy of the British Empire in the form of laws that criminalize same-sex sex continues to serve as the legal foundation for the persecution of LGBTI people throughout the Commonwealth. In seeking solutions to the multi-faceted violations facing LGBTI people across Africa, old approaches and ways of engaging our continent have to be stopped. New ways of engaging that have the protection of human rights at their core have to recognize the importance of consulting the affected.

  Furthermore, aid cuts also affect LGBTI people. Aid received from donor countries is often used to fund education, health and broader development. LGBTI people are part of the social fabric, and thus part of the population that benefit from the funding. A cut in aid will have an impact on everyone, and more so on the populations that are already vulnerable and whose access to health and other services are already limited, such as LGBTI people.,

  To adequately address the human rights of LGBTI people in Africa, the undersigned social justice activists call on the British government to:

  · Review its decision to cut aid to countries that do not protect LGBTI rights

  · Expand its aid to community based and lead LGBTI programmes aimed at fostering dialogue and tolerance.

  · Support national and regional human rights mechanisms to ensure the inclusiveness of LGBTI issues in their protective and promotional mandates

  · Support the entrenchment of LGBTI issues into broader social justice issues through the financing of community lead and nationally owned projects

  Contact Persons

  Joel Gustave Nana, +27735045420, joel@amsher.net

  SIGNATORIES

  1. Organizations

  ActionAid (Liberia)

  African Men for Sexual Health and Rights – AMSHeR (Regional)

  AIDS Legal Network (South Africa)

  ARC EN CIEL + (Cote d’Ivoire)

  Arc en Ciel d’Afrique (Canada)

  Centre for Popular Education and human Rights – CEPEHRG (Ghana)

  Coalition Against Homophobia in Ghana (Ghana)

  Coalition of African Lesbians- CAL (Regional)

  Engender (South Africa)

  Evolve (Cameroon)

  Face AIDS Ghana (Ghana)

  Fahamu (Regional)

  Freedom and Roam Uganda (Uganda)

  Gay and Lesbian of Zimbabwe – GALZ (Zimbabwe)

  Horizons Community Association (Rwanda)

  House of Rainbow Fellowship – (Nigeria)

  ICHANGE CI (Cote d’Ivoire)

  Identity Magazine (Kenya)

  IGLHRC Africa (Regional)

  Ishtar MSM (Kenya)

  Justice for Gay Africans (Diaspora)

  LEGABIBO (Botswana)

  Let Good Be Told In us (LGBTI) Nyanza and Western coalition of Kenya (Kenya)

  Most at Risk Populations’ Society In Uganda (UGANDA)

  Mouvement pour les Libertes Individuelles – MOLI (Burundi)

  My Rights (Rwanda)

  Network against violence, abuse, discrimination and stigma-Africa (Regional)

  Nyanza and Western LGBTI Coalition of Kenya (Kenya)

  Other Sheep Afrika (Kenya)

  Outright Namibia

  Pan Africa ILGA (Regional)

  PEMA Kenya

  Queer African Youth Center Network QAYN – (Sub-regional – West Africa)

  Rainbow Candle Light (Burundi)

  Reseau Camerounais des Personnes Vivant avec le VIH – Recap+ (Cameroon)

  Riruta United Women Empowerment Programme (Kenya)

  Sexual Minorities Uganda (Uganda)

  Si Jeunesse Savait (Democratic Republic of Congo)

  South African National AIDS Council – LGBT sector

  Spectrum Uganda Initiatives – (Uganda)

  Stay Alive Self Help Group (Kenya)

  Stop Aids In Liberia

  The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIER) – Nigeria

  The International Center for Advocacy on the Rights to Health -ICARH (Nigeria)

  The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (South Africa)

  Together for Women’s Rights ASBL (Burundi)

  Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa)

  Triangle Project (South Africa)

  UHAI-the East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (Sub-regional -East Africa)

  Vision Spring Initiatives

  West African Treatment Action Group (Sub-regional – West Africa)

  Women Working with Women (Kenya)

  Youth Focus (Uganda)

  2. Individuals

  Angus Parkinson (British Citizen, Kenyan Resident)

  Anne Baraza (Kenya

  Anthony Adero (Kenya)

  Ayesha Imam (Nigeria)

  Barbra Muruga (Kenya)

  Bernedette Muthien (South Africa)

  Blessed B Rwomushana(Uganda)

  Blessol gathoni (Kenya)

  Brian Kanyemba (Zimbabwe)

  Carine Geoffrion (Ghana)

  Carlos Idibouo (Cote d’Ivoire)

  Charles Gueboguo (Cameroon)

  Chesterfield Samba (Zimbabwe)

  Christian Rumu – (Burundi)

  Cynthia Ndikumana (Burundi)

  Cyriaque Ako (Cote d’Ivoire)

  Daniel Peter Onyango (Kenya)

  Daniel Peter Onyango (Kenya)

  Danilo da Silva (Mozambique)

  Denis Nzioka (Kenya)

  Desire Kavutse (Rwanda)

  Douglas Masinde (Kenya)

  Esther Adhiambo(Kenya)

  Francoise Mukuku (DRC)

  Frank Mugisha (Uganda)

  Friedel Dausab (Namibia)

  Gathoni Blessol (Kenya)

  Geogina Adhiambi (Kenya)

  Hakima Abbas (UK/Egypt)

  Hameeda Deedat (South Africa)

  Happy Kinyili (Kenya)

  Ifeany Orazulike (Nigeria)

  Jacqueline N Mulucha (Uganda)

  Jane Bennett (Cape Town)

  Jayne Annot (South Africa)

  Jessica Horn (Uganda/UK)

  Joel Gustave Nana – (Cameroon)

  Johanna Kehler (South Africa)

  Joseph Sewedo Akoro (Nigeria)

  Julius Kaggwa (Uganda)

  Julius Kyaruzi (Tanzania)

  Kamariza Sandrine (Burundi)

  Kasha Jacqueline (Uganda)

  Keguro Macharia (Kenya)

  Kene Esom (Nigeria)

  Korto Williams – Liberia

  Lillian Kwagala (Uganda)

  Linda Baumann (Namibia)

  Lourence Misedah (Kenya)

  Mariam Armisen (Burkina Faso)

  Marieme Helie-Lucas (Algeria)

  Mia Nikasimo (African Diaspora)

  Mmapaseka Steve Letsike (South Africa)

  Mombo Ngua (Kenya)

  Mwangi Forsyth-Githahu (Kenya)

  Ndifuna Ukwazi (South Africa)

  Ndikumana Pierre Celestin (Rwanda)

  Ngozi Nwosu – Juba (Nigeria)

  Nguru Karugu (Kenya)

  Nicholas Mutisya Muema (Kenya)

  Nicole Khanali (Kenya)

  Olivier Irogo (Cameroon)

  Paden Edmund (Tanzania)

  Peter Wanyama (Kenya)

  Phumi Mtetwa (South Africa)

  Pouline kimani,Udada kenya

  Prof J Oloka-Onyango (Uganda)

  Prof Sylvia Tamale (Uganda)

  Rena Otieno (Kenya)

  Rowland Jide Macaulay (Nigeria)

  Samuel Ganafa (Uganda)

  Samuel Matsikure (Zimbabwe)

  Sandrine Kamariza (Burundi)

  Sibongile Ndashe (South Africa)

  Sokari Ekine (Nigeria)

  Solomon Wambua

  Sserwanga James (Uganda)

  Stanley Muiga Wangari (Kenya)

  Steave Nemande (Cameroon)

  Stephen McGill (Liberia)

  Thomas Mukasa (Uganda)

  Tony Gatore (Burundi)

  Wanja Muguongo (Kenya)

  Wendy Isaack (South Africa)

  Zawadi Nyong’o (Kenya)

  Zeitun Mohamed Haret

• How I Earned the Right to Speak about Anything

  Posted: October 24, 2011, 4:06 pm by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  It is hard, as I am sure most writers know, to efface the person, render it impotent in the face of the writing life. Who I am always haunts my writing; and this is why and how I argue that I have earned the right to speak about anything – and you might want to consider this word ‘right’ as encompassing as it is in the legal regime. To make this process easier (this essay is a process, every word builds into revelation), I have charted two layers: Identity and Ethnicity. You might have to be dishonest with me – you might have to forgive how I render myself so bare; all writers eventually do this, pushing themselves, in fiction, in poetry, to the place where there’s no telling what is reality and what is not, because everything is reality, everything written is real. Helene Cixous says this of Clarice Lispector, for instance.

  I should give a background. I was born to an itinerant preacher – when I was born my Daddy was an employee of the Scripture Union, an interdenominational organization with offices around the world. His job description was ‘Travelling Secretary’; clearly, he ‘traveled.’ So, I begin my questioning from this point – I was born fluid; I was not to stay too long in one place, my Present was always in motion.

  Of identity, I ask myself: Am I or aren’t I? How do I begin to define myself? What is the crack in the surface in which Me leaps into visibility? You should know that I do not feel Ibo enough, because I can’t speak the language well, because I respond in English when my Daddy speaks to me in Ibo. So, I am not keen to identify myself as This or That. In my case, there is no This, and no That. Perhaps it’s a This-That.

  Which is why, in December 2009, when we were moving again, I wrote: ‘Who am I, after this transition?’ I cannot think this irrelevant – I am a borderline person. I have transited too much to be just one person. It is simply a question of identifying myself. What I want is to be able to say, This is Me, when a million others stand beside me, with me, in a crowd. So far, I should tell you, it has been difficult.

  The antonym of ‘easy’, Anne Berger says, is not ‘difficult’. It is ‘impossible.’ If then it is not easy to define myself, is it perhaps impossible? Will I, as I remain on the border of who I am and who I can be and who I am meant to be, never identify myself in the crowd? I cannot tell if this is a shared feeling – but when I am in Ile-Ife I am not Yoruba, and when I am in Umuahia, I am not Ibo. I am simply, perhaps, Emmanuel, a person, but not the kind of person who feels ‘Emmanuel’ enough. Not inferiority, of course. It has never been a question of being less; perhaps it is that I am not ‘more’ enough, that I have ascribed too much to Being, and I am yet to meet up with that definition.

  Speaking of Ethnicity might make this clearer. You see, I am an English-only onye Ibo who can comprehend Ibo spoken at any speed but is reluctant to utter any word of it, for fear of sounding incorrect. In fact I can comprehend Ehugbo, the language of Afikpo, which Ibos from other parts cannot comprehend. My Daddy wanted us to speak English first, in Akure, because he feared that we might become mischievous urchins, too ‘local’ in an urban space. So, we lapsed into an Anglo-consciousness. I do not blame him; I should not blame him. You want to blame him? English is a ‘lingua franca’, isn’t it? He remembers being mocked when he was a little boy of his inability to speak English – he remembers desiring to speak English like his brother.

  But I realize that no matter how loaded, conflicted and difficult the word may seem to me, I am Ibo. By heritage. Perhaps there is some new meaning I can confer to it. I am, like, Carmen Wong, “A mishmash and hodgepodge of conundrums and contradictions.” I am ready to stay hyphenated, to add a dash to my personality, something like ‘English-only-onye-Ibo.’

  Let’s imagine that there are others like me. Let’s further imagine that these others are – because this is the occupation dearest to my heart – writers. What will happen to their writing? Will it embody the same mishmash of their borderline personalities? How will they speak true to their sense of ethnicity? What home could they define for themselves, what sense of place?

  Yes, I speak about myself, asking questions that bother my art. And there’s a sense of urgency, too. There is, for instance, a Facebook identity, a Twitter narrative, the acculturation that comes from being an internet user. Should we only consider the internet as utility, not as lifestyle? Isn’t the internet a border, a separate identity, part of the dashes I’ve acquired?

  I’ve decided to be a writer, which in itself is an acceptance of the Borderline, an acceptance of staying a hybrid, remaining fluid, accepting that one word cannot define your process, your heritage. How do I come to the point where I am not simply termed as an ‘African writer’? I do not fear this label because I am not from Africa, or not black, or because Africa has been derogatorily called blah blah blah. I fear it because it is, somewhat, a closed parenthesis. I want to work within an open parenthesis. I want my definition to start from ‘an English-only-learning to speak Ibo-onye Ibo-internet-using writer’ with a […] around the term, leaving space for more dashes. Because I am always more; and my writing will always be bothered with this More-ness.

  Hence, it is this fact that gives me the right to plunge into uncharted courses, to use unused language, to speak about anything, because there is nothing like This or That in my head. There is the possibility of everything and anything.

  But this is not, cannot be, the subject of a single post. I’ll publish a Kindle e-book with the same title in January 2012. I hope my ranting is heard.

   

• Japan to donate food from Fukushima region to global south countries

  Posted: October 24, 2011, 3:07 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  NHK [Japan National Broadcasting] reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is proposing to purchase industrial and canned fish products from disaster hit areas, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate as “a means to tackle harmful rumor against their products”. The Ministry applied for a budget $65 million for this purpose under overseas development aid[ODA]. These products have a high risk of being contaminated yet the Japanese government are intending to send them to countries in the global south! Not done with killing their own people they now want to spread their nuclear death under the disguise of aid – in other words kill and make even more people really sick!

  Six days after the Fukushima diaster the Japanese government increased the allowable limit of radiation for water and other drinks to 200Bq/cesium. In the US the limit is 0.111 Bq/litre and the WHO standard 10 Bq/L – I dont know what these figures mean but there is a huge gap between 200 and 10 and 0.11. In addition families who wish to evacuate from outside of the supposedly safe area have to finance themselves and since most cannot afford to do so they are forced to remain. Karori Izumi of “Shut Tomari” and “Save Fukushima Children – Hokkaido” comments on the present state of the Fukushima region and demands that children be allowed to evacuate the contaminated areas plus the shut down of all 10 nuclear power plants…

  Our country and we are are contaminated with fallouts , nuclear waste, contaminated water and food, and now our government is trying to contaminate people in developing countries under a name of “developing aid”. Please note that 3400 teraBq contaminated water was discharged from Fukushima Daiichi to the sea by the end of May, affecting all living creatures in the sea. Radiation does not respect national boundaries.

  Our government does not let Fukushima children evacuate, exposing them to high level of radiation, and furthermore they are now trying to contaminate people and children in developing countries with contaminated food and industrial goods under ODA, using Japanese tax payers money. This is totally unacceptable. There are several specific claims and petitions to be put forward and separate actions to be taken during the sit in. Stop sending contaminated food under ODA is one of them.

  For more on the contamination of food see here.

• Jean Binta Breeze – for the women who didn’t make it

  Posted: October 22, 2011, 12:14 am by Sokari

  
  
  

   

   

  Jamaican British dub poet Jean Binta Breeze –  from “The THIRD WORLD GIRL: SELECTED POEMS”, a book with DVD published by Bloodaxe Books

   

  Via Travelling Light

• A woman who walks through the yam field

  Posted: October 22, 2011, 6:01 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  I just discovered poems and short stories on Guernica – here is one from Chinua Achebe which he adapted from Chike and the River. Like many of Achebe’s stories it has the usual assortment of Igbo proverbs. This one ends with the saying….

  A man who can walk through the Nkisa with his bare feet should not be afraid to sail the Niger in a boat.

  So I came up with my own equivalent after imagining myself walking through the forest.

  “A woman who walks through the yam field at night should not fear the tall grass in the day “

  Those who answered to Abraham

  After the incident of the leopard skin Chike lost some of his eagerness for crossing the Niger. He did not see how he could obtain one shilling without stealing or begging. His only hope now was that some kind benefactor might give him a present of one shilling without his begging for it. But where was such a man, he wondered. Perhaps the best thing was to take his mind off the River Niger altogether; but it was not easy.
  On the last day of term, all the pupils were tidying up the school premises. The boys cut the grass in the playing fields and the girls washed the classrooms. Chike’s class was working near the mango tree with all the tempting ripe fruit which they were forbidden to pick. They sang an old prisoners’ work song and swung their blades to its beat. The last day of term was always a happy, carefree day; but it was also a day of anxiety because the results of the term’s examination would be announced. Still an examination was an examination and nobody liked to fail….The story continues

• Evelyn Apoko, LRA survivor bears witness

  Posted: October 20, 2011, 1:07 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Evelyn Apoko survived the Lords Resistance Army [LRA]. Here she responds to those who are stupidly misinformed and who have criticised President Obama’s decision to deploy 100 US troops to try to end the LRA’s war and capture Joseph Kony.    Whatever we may think about foreign military interventions and in this case what could turn out to be yet  another US execution on foreign soil, Evelyn’s testimony and  pleas for help in ending the 23 year old war in which thousands upon thousands of children have been abducted and tortured, villages ransacked and women raped and people killed, cannot and should not be ignored. The LRA’s war takes place in Uganda and crosses borders into Southern Sudan, the Central African Republic [where Kony is suspected as hiding] and the DRC. The most recent deployment of troops by Obama is not the first US involvement in the war. In 2008 the US have provided intelligence and logistical support in the DRC and though this officially ended in 2009 it is believed the support continued unofficially. Though from time to time there are short reports on the LRA the war takes place outside of the media limelight and it is hard to believe that any serious effort has ever been made on the part of Uganda, the DRC, the AU or the UN to protect civilians and put an end to the war. Increased militarisation may have some short term impact however as this statement by “Defence Professionals” shows it is doubtful that this latest US intervention will be any more successful than the last.

  The task will not be easy. One of the consequences of Operation Lightning Thunder was that the LRA scattered into smaller groups, making them much more difficult to track down. Kony himself is believed to be operating in the Central African Republic. The groups have discarded any communication equipment that would allow them to be traced and instead rely on runners to relay messages. In addition, the LRA is a hardened guerilla force used to operating in difficult terrain. It has survived against the odds for a quarter of a century. U.S. policymakers and military planners emphasize that there is no quick fix to ending the scourge of the LRA and that even the death or capture of Kony and his senior commanders may not be sufficient to finish off the group unless broader efforts are made to address the grievances that caused it to form in the first place.

  New strategies have to be found starting above all else with increased efforts to protect civilians and to engage more forcefully with local religious leaders, civil society organisations and traditional leaders including the voices of survivors like Evelyn Apoko.

  Evelyn Apoko is 22 years old, but she was only a child when the Lord’s Resistance Army came into her home late one night and dragged her out into the jungle. The LRA, a bizarre and violent cult that emerged out of Uganda’s 1986 civil war, enslaved Evelyn as they had the 66,000 children that came before and after her.

  Most children who are abducted by the LRA are forced to either fight, aid in fighting, or serve as concubines. Evelyn does not say what happened during her years of enslavement with the LRA, but, one day, a bomb went off near her during one of the battles that are a regular part of the group’s life. She attempted to protect an infant that was with the group, in the process exposing her face to the blast, which disfigured her. Denied medical care and fearing that she would be killed for her unattractive appearance, Evelyn escaped, miraculously making it through the jungle on foot and alone.

  Today she is a fellow with a Liberia-based non-profit called the Strongheart Fellowship Program, which rehabilitates young people from what it calls “extremely challenging circumstances.” Last year, she was honored on the floor of the Canadian parliament for her work.

  Dear Mr. Limbaugh: Evelyn’s Appeal from Strongheart on Vimeo.

• Isolation

  Posted: October 19, 2011, 2:46 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  As in isolation, imprisonment by proxy, intimidation,
  Harassment, daily chatter about how much tax is
  Siphooned off, sitting around, lazing around, aground
  As on run aground off the back of a Tsunami, living in;

  Isolated then, living in, working out my next move, work?
  Writing is work. Overtaken by cissexual animosities voiced
  Rolled out when I’m in the bath, while seated on a sweeky
  Settee sweeking every time I shift announcing me: “in!”

  As in isolation, that self-preserving stay in, engineered living
  In order to stay alive, my visibility or the knowledge of me
  Was enough to start a communal war of attrition, ongoing.
  Cowardice augurs them on, courageous voicings and a lack.

  Slack, limited reach is not, can never be a standard space
  Truth is relative, never, never absolute since humanoid
  In the virtuality of its projections cannot fix diversity in
  It’s own image, the absolute, if it exists, is beyond, beyond;

  Isolation as in staying in, living in, imprisoned for survival.
  Transsexual, genderqueer, lesbian just me, condemned,
  Condemned to listening to people’s fears of the unknown:
  “It works,” shouts an in-person (male), “didn’t you hear her?”

  What’s not to live in for, to cause isolation but this blow:
  Mothers pushing their children forward say it now: “man!”
  Said a confused child pointing at obvious men. “Not them!”
  Said the mother, aiming, aiming, aiming, “now!” “Ban!”

  Too late but it didn’t stop the jolting feeling as the door closed
  How do you talk to an Asiatic woman teaching hatred
  Behind the guise of teaching her, teaching kids so narrowly
  We wonder how neighbourhoods spawn bombers were born?

  Do I call the police? Do I stare into the shy wondering sky?
  This is a taint of migration left out of proper media speak.
  Left out even by tight lipped politicians eager to be in step.
  Left out even by police: “keep a diary, keep a diary,” laughing.

  As in isolation. Don’t ask. You played your part, pandering
  To the democratic whim in the name of “freedom of speech”
  “Old woman, you talk too much. List-ten to me first, list-ten”.
  Deepening my pain, intimidating, imprisoning, belittling, see?

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Did they entrust fillet to the dogs?

  Posted: October 18, 2011, 3:38 am by Rumbidzai Dube

  
  
  

  Dogs eat meat- that is a fact. When you serve them with fillet, they eat it all because it is a steak and tender and afterwards nothing remains; not a trace that in that plate once lay a piece of meat. But when you serve them meat with bones, they eat all the meat and leave the bones. After their meal you can salvage the bones remaining. I am sitting here in Cairo International Airport waiting to board my plane home and wondering if the situation I am leaving behind in Egypt resembles the case of a dog entrusted with priced meat.

  It is fact, militaries are powerful and they thrive on that power. States that are weak militarily are scoffed upon hence the mockery directed towards the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey in the 20th Century) as “The weak men of Europe”. In a democracy, the power of the military is measured in comparison to their military power against other nations’ military power. However when that power gains excess domestically and the military is involved in politics, the might of the military is exercised against a nation of unarmed, defenceless civilians. The result will be something quite similar to serving a dog with fillet- where you are left with nothing to salvage.

  I came to Egypt a couple of months after the Revolution. I found in Egypt a nation hopeful, eager and ready for change and for transformation. I leave behind a nation in a state of comatose, a depressed youth, heartbroken and growing more and more agitated as the Egyptian army displays itself for what it really is…just another brutal, African army that follows its interests and not those of the people it pledged to protect. The nation is reeling from the shock of their experiences and every individual has had to confront the reality that activism and the fight for a democratic Egypt can be attained at the cost of their own lives. The people believed that given its history, the Egyptian army would set a precedent of leading a successful transition but how can the transition succeed when the guarantours of its success are sabotaging it. Or are they?

  On the day of the Maspero massacres (the death of 26 political activists and injury of 300 other at the hands of the military forces in front of Maspero-the state television building in Cairo as they were protesting the burning of a Coptic Church in Merinab Village, Aswan-Upper Egypt) Egypt woke up and it was just another Sunday, another day in the lives of a great nation that is charting its own history towards freedom, dignity and equality.

  When the demonstration also started it was just another protest; as has been the culture since the January 25 Revolution. The procession began in Shubra and continued all the way to Maspero. Little did the protestors know that just a mere few hours away 26 of them would be dead, 300 injured and many of them would lose a friend, a sister, a brother, a daughter and a son at the hands of the army that the people entrusted with their ticket to democracy.
  
  Simmering tensions between Christians and Moslems in Egypt have always existed, with Christians feeling like second class citizens in their own country because they cannot practice their religion, build and renovate religious buildings and carry out their religious practices as freely as Moslems do. In 2011 alone, 3 other major incidents of attacks on Christians by Muslims and vice versa have been recorded. First was the bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on the eve of the New Year. 100 people were injured and 23 died. 51 others were injured and 6 died when Orthodox Christians and Muslim Salafists fought in March in Cairo. In May, 242 were injured and 15 died in a bomb blast that destroyed a church in the Imbaba surbub of Cairo. The Maspero massacres make the 4th religiously aligned attack.

  The broadcasting of the massacre on state television was biased and instead of relaying the Christians’ fears that the army is there to protect everyone regardless of their religion, the army presented itself as the poor-weak and Muslim army being attacked by uncontrollable and unruly Christians. Of course this was a lucrative call on those who already harboured ill feelings towards Christians to use this opportunity to attack them. What game the army was playing out when it created this antagonism between Christians and Moslems one cannot understand. Since when has a national army been religiously aligned and since when has the mighty Egyptian army which has threatened war against Ethiopia over the Nile and war against Israel (and indirectly the US because it always backs Israel) been overpowered by an insignificant fraction of a mere 8 million Christians?

  Yes, with this incident the Supreme Council of Armed Forces showed its inability to manage the pressing problem of intolerance that Egypt faces if it is to transform into a democratic society. Such intolerance exists at religious, racial and gender levels characterised by tensions between Muslims and Christian Copts, racism by Arabs against Africans and even Nubians within their own country and sexual harassment and maltreatment of women, respectively. Intolerance towards dissenting political views is still rife as prisoners of conscience still languish in prison. One of them Maikel Nabil Sanad, has been on a hunger strike for 45 days following his three year sentence to imprisonment for criticising the army.

  The SCAF is guilty of many other violations some of which are still ongoing. It started with the virginity testing of protestors, then came the military trial followed the violent dispersion of demonstrators from Tahrir Square resulting in the injury of many. Then there were the several declarations of a state of emergency and imposition of curfews. It seems the tricks have gotten worse and dirtier with time.

  I look at this scenario and ask myself, is Egypt going back to the days of Mubarak? Has the situation become worse than it was under Mubarak’s rule?

  I however conclude that there is hope Egypt. In the aftermath of the Maspero massacres the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (ruling authority) called for speedy investigations into the clashes. It tasked the government to speedily form a fact finding committee to investigate the case and institute legal action against those responsible for directly inducing or meting out the massacre. It promulgated an anti-discrimination law that forbade discrimination on the basis of religion. These actions might not have been as far-reaching as most Egyptians would have wanted in addressing the problem of peace and security in Egypt, but I can imagine they are more than what the nation would have received from a Mubarak government that was not accountable to the people and did not care what the people thought of it. The implementation of these laws remains to be seen.

  The incident at Maspero met with intense debate and discussions both private and public concerning the ability of the SCAF to lead a democratic transition. Under the Mubarak regime there was no room for such public debate and criticism. There has been great improvement in the exercise of freedom of expression. Some people have seen the religious strife as a setback to the democratic transition where the focus has shifted from pushing for elections and other democratic reforms and turned to questions of security and peace amongst Egypt’s citizens. However the realisation that these events must not sidetrack the drive for democratic transition is by itself a commendable development.
  Yes the future is uncertain, and yes progress in consolidating the momentum set by the January 25 Revolution remains unsatisfactory but I have hope for Egypt.

  The dogs may have eaten some of the meat, but there are always the bones to salvage and redirect the path towards democracy.

• Beyond Covers Online Writing Workshop

  Posted: October 15, 2011, 3:57 am by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  I am glad to be part of an online writing workshop starting next week.

  Here are useful links:

  www.facebook.com/paperglory

  www.paperglory.blogspot.com

  [www.naijastories.com]

• Johnson Sirleaf and Gbowee represent the resilience of Liberian women, of African women, of women the world

  Posted: October 12, 2011, 1:58 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  I doubt many are surprised that Leymah Gbowee has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The same cannot be said of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Accusations range from corruption to mismanagement – nothing new for political leaders. What stands out for me is Johnson Sirleaf remains the only African leader to agree to hosting the US High Command in Africa – AFRICOM. This is not really surprising given Liberia’s historic connection with the US [Leymah speaks of this unpleasant relationship in her Google interview] Nonetheless the two women are connected – Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia were influential in Johnson Sirleaf becoming the first woman president in Africa.

  Johnson Sirleaf and Gbowee represent the resilience of Liberian women, of African women, of women the world over who thirst for an end to militarism, gender-based violence, death, destruction, war, and missile strikes in the name of “liberation”.

  How can this be when Johnson Sirleaf offers to host AFRICOM and the support the militarisation of the continent?

  Liberian Robtel Pailey, who up until recently worked at the ” Executive Mansion” under President Johnson Sirleaf, examines their similarities.

  Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and peace activist Leymah Gbowee, also from Liberia, became the second and third African women to be awarded the Nobel peace prize on 7 October.

  Gbowee and Johnson Sirleaf have forever transformed the image of Liberia, from a pariah nation of warlords and gun-slinging, drug-induced prepubescent boys, to a country clawing its way back to civility and normality.

  Their journeys to this prestigious award, announced just four days ahead of Liberia’s high-stakes presidential and legislative elections – elections that will determine the country’s development trajectory and democratic consolidation – signify Liberia’s journey to consciousness.

  As someone who most recently worked in the Liberian Executive Mansion under Johnson Sirleaf’s tutelage for four years, I know that she and Gbowee, whom I interviewed earlier in the year, represent the ethos of our nation.

• Sane Sex Mentality [4] – a response to the Nigerian SGMB 2011

  Posted: October 11, 2011, 5:02 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  This is the last in the series of poems in response to the Nigeria Same Gender Marriage Bill 2011

  Putting food on the table was his role now it’s anyone’s
  Sane sex mentality; lure me close with seductive smile
  Sane sex mentality; watch me as I smile back, friendly

  A feral pack explodes again loud of voice and laughter
  Sane sex mentality; the streets and alleyways battle thru
  Sane sex mentality; “you are not a woman” walking by

  The prey rabbits scared silly wondering how far safety?
  Sane sex mentality; sharpened beastliness runs riot, hiss!
  Sane sex mentality; chatterers loose proportionality too

  The critter the from on high leaps it will an arm break
  Sane sex mentality; social construction gone mad
  Sane sex mentality; a leg will break too diversity lost

  Wonderments persist. Can we stand posted, Lion of Africa?
  Sane sex mentality; insane daily stalkers, lynchers, abusers
  Sane sex mentality; in beer parlours on every street corner

  Broken by imported moral tissue fervently against us
  Sane sex mentality; hyper congregation junkies, crazy
  Sane sex mentality; empowered idlers, alarmists touts

  Against our spiritual well being imprisoning us in its own
  Sane sex mentality; thieving rascals draft injustices
  Sane sex mentality; you’d no intention of being friends

  We no more know the landedness of nature, of bodies,
  Of fluids not to speak of the phenomenology of orificial .
  All cleansed away in alien concortions from unknown lands.

  Adalapa =breakanarm but the pieces are nowhere in site
  Stowed away in cavities long buried by fathoms upon fathoms
  Of disrememberment, fathoms of miscognisance until no more.

  So planting Adam and Eve and Eden, and the gate, and the fall
  And then theperpetuity of original sin to keep us from asking:
  “What happened to our sexual & gender identity pre-Yourstory?”

  Now when they no longer pursue us our own brothers & sisters
  Have taken up your pseudo magical languge of erasure to us.
  “Let them take themselves out to our sane sex mentality or die!”

  But how can we submit to fathoms of pathologisation for you?
  How can we lay down and die so you may sleep easy at night?
  How can we say greatest of Africa when we are so denied?

  For this, I became a bullfrog myself, in order to learn I had to.
  Ajantala -mad bullfrog, body of bodies least mentioned
  I sprang the globe looking at gender identity. A populace

  Of antiquated skeletons of long burned “witched and wizards.”
  Sane sex mentality; even the morning run lost its way
  Sane sex mentality; but not us alone oppression impacts us all

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• 4 convicted for the murder of Zoliswa Nkonyana in Khayelitsha

  Posted: October 10, 2011, 1:00 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Finally after five years of postponements 4 men were convicted of the murder of Zoliswa Nkonyana. 3 others were acquitted of the original 9 arrested.

  This is the first case in South Africa to recognise sexual orientation and lesbians as a motive for murder and violent crimes. Zoliswa, 19, was murdered on the 4th February 2006 after being chased by a group of men because of being a lesbian. She was beaten, stabbed and strangled. It has taken five years of constant delays which meant two of the witnesses were only able to testify years after the murder. Nonetheless the consistent dedicated campaigning of many activists across the country ensured the case was not forgotten and that it was recognised as a hate crime.

  The Magistrate delivered her verdict yesterday in Zoliswa’s case. At the beginning of the case, over 5 years ago, there were 9 men accused of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Two of the accused, #3 and #6, were acquitted on all charges in September, and the remaining 7 accused were acquitted of the charges of attempted murder. The Magistrate reviewed the entire case, including the three ‘trials within trials’ regarding the confession of Accused #4, the DNA evidence taken from blood found on Accused #5′s tekkies, and the police statements made by other accused. The confession and the DNA, which demonstrated that the blood on the shoes belonged to Zoliswa, were found admissible into evidence. However, the police statements made by the other accused were not. The Magistrate stated that on this point that the statements were not admitted because of the “sloppy manner” in which those statements were taken by police….. Continued at Free Gender

• Leymah Gbowee – militant pacifist!

  Posted: October 10, 2011, 5:59 am by Sokari

  
  
  

  One of three 2011 Noble Peace Prize winners, Leymah Gbowee interviewed by Megan Smith. What makes this interview particularly interesting is through Leymah own personal history we begin to understand her journey from childhood to the strong powerful woman she is today – through domestic violence, being ostracized by her father and raising four children and the struggle for peace against the warlords of Liberia. She also puts the Liberian war into historical context, something which is often missing from news reports.

  “Where do we start talking about the atrocities? We need to go back to 1822 and start that conversation because thats where everything started”

  I have to say that I am proud to have met Leymah in Accra in 2010 at a workshop on militarisation in which the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell was screened. She is one hell of a special woman, none of the forked tongues of politicians and opportunitists. Leymah is real – a strong and powerful African woman. If you havent seen the film it will be showing on PBS on 18th October.

  Who is Leymah Gbowee ?

  Leymah Gbowee is a “militant pacifist”, a “peace activist”, and a real mover and shaker. She is a woman who recognized that women had to organize, across all barriers and across all divisions, that women had to transform themselves and one another if they wanted to change the world. They had to learn to participate in peace negotiations, for example, by refusing the symbolic chairs and other morsels offered them, by confronting the materiel of war and violence with the human force of peace, compassion, and love. When the Big Men of Liberia met in Accra to negotiate “peace”, Gbowee and her sisters in white t-shirts raised a ruckus outside, and just about held the delegates hostage.
  From the outset, Leymah Gbowee identified humanity as the site of her struggles and organizing. That means organizing structures, such as the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, followed by the Women In Peacebuilding Network, or WIPNET. From there, she has gone on to organize the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, based in Ghana. Gbowee’s vision of women is African, from Cape to Cairo, and from coast to coast.
  Peace and justice, child by child, person by person, space by space, and beyond. That’s what Leymah Gbowee has been organizing. That’s what is so difficult, if not impossible, to represent. That’s what The New York Times missed. But you don’t have to. On Tuesday, October 18, in the United States, PBS will broadcast the documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about the work of Leymah Gbowee. Don’t miss it. It’s inspiring, as is its subject.

• Lagos Photo Fest

  Posted: October 6, 2011, 8:41 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  The Lagos Photo Festival starts this Sunday with the theme “What Next Africa…..The Hidden Stories”. An impressive list of photographers and I am glad to see George Osodi is amongst! The exhibition will take place in various outdoor venues such as Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island; Falomo Underpass, Ikoyi and MKO Abiola Park,

• Sane Sex Mentality [3]

  Posted: October 5, 2011, 3:50 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  A bill built on spurious lies cosied up to the old world order
  Funny that, bearing in mind the fact that, this is a hold up
  Laughter always fails me just about now: 2011, stitched up

  This is what persecution felt like for a cornered atypical gal
  This could small town anywhere but it isn’t; shame of shame
  It is Nigeria. We still hail thee even to our cost at times

  The “who am I to talk?” of self-denigration is not entertained.
  With snap voice taking potshots in the dark is it any wonder?
  The hate merchants have gained free reign; all streetlights off

  Don’t venture insane voices when you are out and about
  Don’t propagate your ill concealed secret in “decent” parts
  Don’t expose our children to un-african, insane taste, don’t

  Even your body language is loud and clear for all who care
  In my wake you laugh ridiculing laughter daring my reply
  When I don’t answer you bash my head in with shopping

  The police are hard at work celebrating the dumb bill
  The arrest me on your say so and beat the shit out of me
  Their explanation: “we couldn’t explain it. What is it?”

  They claimed, “your lot is at fault for remaking yourselves!”
  They put me on trial on the streets. Harmattan notoriety
  They laughed at my swollen lips, “you did that to yourself!”

  Negotiating ways to love in dark times is rife with burden
  Whether I speak or not my body speaks via its very visibility
  51 years on repressively with all the same double standards

  Is it a surprise? Hardly. Graduate running around on empty
  Seeking out the saviour in every nook and cranny against
  The heavy hand of proliferating juju and unprovoked curses

  These are but only a few of the debris of sane sex mentality
  Nigeria we love thee, our disowning native land exiled
  As we are by state sponsored hatred enshrined. Until free

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Sane Sex Mentality [2]

  Posted: October 4, 2011, 4:21 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

   

  If hell didn’t exist how could  heaven? Think awhile?

  Show us what goes on between your legs, you freak?

  What is it to you what abides between my legs?

  Now I get it. I understand the fear that sacks you  so.

  “Come to church with me,” you said offering redemption

  As if it were yours to give? As if it were a lifetime freedom?

  Then  as I took momentary contemplature, realisation

  Sprang  on me like a feral feline on the prowl, claws out,

  Ready, steady while I gyrated along unknowingly.

  “] know what I want and that’s that!” you said in sane

  Sex finality like something out of the middle ages, growling.

  Your claws sank in deep. Everything went dark & knot.

  In a thrice you put legislation through; no consultation.

  Not short of misrepresentation you went to work.

  My sisters, my brothers and the rest of us still pay the price.

  That makes believers uncertain. Their fears spiral out,

  Uncontrolable, faster that the blink of an eye, even faster.

  Outrage on the scale of Malawians panto-ing 2 gay accused,

  Outrage on the scale of Nigerians ridiculing all people lgbtiq,

  Outrage on the scale of mime – ing Ghanaians pointing us out,

  Outrage, outrage on the scale of warmongers globally not

  To mention even in his wake, Adolph Hitler; as frenzied

  Did it in one swift. movement,  see? That’s how to deal

  With vermin. Whom are you calling a vermim? Whom?

  Let me try & illustrate how this is  so. Watch the sulk’s

  Face go into a paroxym of negative emotions, they say:

  “I’m not an alien I’m just attracted same sex not sane sex.

  I’m so aware of the perpetual proliferation of sexed sanity

  I’m a human being not set apart like a super being or a deity,

  I won’t sulk with you. All I’ll do is educate through visibility.

  Sulking behind the guise of “righteousness” shows you up.

  Stop pathologising me my sexuality and/or gender identity.

  Sexual attraction irrespective of taste is the personal itch.

  Gender identity relative to individuals is the personal switch.

  For you, all I will say is this: “get hold of yourself!

  The world is resourceful enough for you & me.”

   

   

   

   

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

   

   

• Report finds Shell complicit in human rights abuses & payments to militants

  Posted: October 3, 2011, 9:54 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  A new report has found that Shell fuelled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants. The report, called Counting the Cost, is published by Platform and a coalition of NGOs and featured in todays UK Guardian.

  The report, uncovers how Shell’s routine payments to armed militants exacerbated conflicts, in one case leading to the destruction of Rumuekpe town. There are four oil companies operating in Rumuekpe including Shell. In July this year I visited Rumuekpe and spoke with a large group of women activists from the town. The women explained how the towns people were terrorised by competing militants which led to the estimated deaths of 60 people. Eventually the whole population had to run from the town leaving behind their homes, properties and farms. What is left is a ghost town and on the day we visited, the women and ourselves were fearful that we were being watched and it was too dangerous for us to stay for any length of time or walk through the town center.

  Shell also continues to rely on Nigerian government forces who have perpetrated systematic human rights abuses against local residents, including unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. This has been further exacerbated in recent years by war lordism across the region which has particularly led to violence against women, rape and forced prostitution. The women of Rumuekpe and Okrika Town pointed out that those towns where there were no oil companies were free of militarised and environmental violence and people were able to live in peace.

  What writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa dubbed the “slick alliance” between oil multinationals and the Nigerian military is alive and harmful as ever. Shell’s operations remain inextricably linked to human rights violations committed by government forces. The Nigerian government, driven to keep oil revenues flowing and working in close partnership with oil multinationals, has heavily militarised the Delta. Shell alone has hired over 1,300 government forces as armed guards. For communities, the impacts have been devastating and are in addition to ongoing environmental damage from oil spills and gas flaring.
  
  Commenting on the report, Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth International said:

  “Shell’s obligations are clear: it must clean up after decades of devastating oil spills, end the illegal practice of gas flaring and compensate the victims of human rights abuses in Nigeria. It is unacceptable that Shell continues to deny responsibility, while pushing communities deeper into poverty and fuelling destructive conflicts.”

  “Shell’s divisive practices have led to daily human rights violations in the Niger Delta,” added Geert Ritsema from Friends of the Earth Netherlands. “Many of the victims have no access to justice and cannot afford to take the oil giant to court. Lawsuits in Nigeria can take decades to resolve and the remedies are often inadequate. Yet Shell must be held accountable for its environmental destruction and complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, and home governments like the UK and Netherlands must ensure that remedies are available and accessible to the victims.”

• Sane Sex Mentality [1]

  Posted: October 3, 2011, 2:03 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  They started through age old channels of curiosity:

  Obo x oko is said to be equal to ido of pseudo maths.

  How are babies made, mummy? Daddy? Please, tell?

  Who is Adam? Who is Eve and who the absent Lilith?

  Please, please strike the bit from “and” to “Lilith” thru.

  “Put daddy’s bit into mummy’s bit & this equals babies,

  And the rest is an injection of socialised imposition.”

   

  Then they pitted their privilege against the call:

  Culture became the realm of men going out to do.

  Nature, the realm of women in the homestead

  And then the progresses, feminism, the future &

  Much, much more to come: equality of All woman.

  We mean more than the capitalist cosy tag, “help”.

  We are also evolution, progression and proactivity.

   

  They celebrated cis-dome in the face of growing privilege:

  We will use the bible to our ends no primitive counsel be,

  Safe homes, safe jobs, safe gnomes, safe hubs; safe, safe.

  Let them deal with the fallout of our glittering gains.

  Power is ours. We call the shots. We appall their scowls.

  Let no one refer to us as being profoundly paranoid.

  Someone’s got to watch out for our future, our traditions.

   

   

  They started their iconoclastic mantras against the rest of us:

  Same sex? No, sane sex, sane sex for all can be legislated

  At the polling stations remind yourselves, “Sane Sex!”

  You hear of it everywhere these days even Nollywood

  Go see: “Dirty Secret” or “Men In Love,” any lesbian flicks?

  There, “healthy” moral packagings to make our lot “right”.

   

   

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011.

   

• Of Tabloid Literature and a New Word Order

  Posted: October 3, 2011, 7:37 am by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  Sokari Ekine aptly writes about ‘tabloid bloggers’ in response the ABSU rape case; her post is the finest piece I read on the issue. I had intended to respond to the fray, but I figured I wouldn’t do a better job than Sokari. Yet, I had, after a discussion with a friend, considered it relevant to write about a similar concern, bothering on the emerging writer/blogger who has access to the internet.

  I’ll call it intellectual foolery (or tabloid literature), which is hard to define. Anyway, what I speak about is the failure of young writers/bloggers to define themselves, to ascertain what it is that hurts them, what exactly they are speaking about, what their individual slant and originally created perspective is. There is what is called, for example, ‘thinking outside the box.’ This term is used by many speakers, preachers, and young people as a synonym for non-conventionality and iconoclasm. People speak to me about how different they are, or want to be; why it is important not to do things the way ‘it has always been done.’ But I find that most of the time, those of speak to me about being different are somewhat copycats, having no original desire for iconoclasm; put more aptly, most of the persons I have met who preach this are not deep-rooted in their convictions. They can convince others about the necessity for ‘thinking out of the box’ but they can scarcely prove how this will mean a difference to their world, what underlying principle or idea governs their proposed novelty, and even – more disastrously – how to transmit their novelty to a coming generation. I assume that our world is according too much to creativity and little to sustainability.

  Let me write in clearer terms. I am speaking of the dangers of independent access to visibility. I prefer ‘visibility’ to ‘publishing’ since the former defies the logic of ascertaining the worth and readability of the material to be put out. So, many writers (who become bloggers – or better still, many ‘computer users’, since ‘writer’ should be defined in a way that ensures discipline) can become visible simply by having a computer and an internet connection. This is good and not good. In many ways, the ease that exists now assist in granting an emerging writer a wonderful opportunity to prove his/her worth. The danger, however, is that the opportunity to ‘prove’, for some writers, swallows the expedient opportunity to be diligent and responsible. It swallows, even more dangerously, the opportunity to define oneself – if an emerging writer is carried away by the simplicity of the ‘visibility’ process.

  And what do I mean when I speak of defining one’s self? As is evident from the ABSU rape blogs and tweets, it is somewhat easy for an emerging writer to get caught up in a crowd of tweeters and bloggers, speaking with their voices, resonating their ideas, and having no opinion of their idea. I cannot argue that ideas should not be plural or shared. What I am afraid of is becoming a writer whose language and thinking is swallowed in another person’s analogy and thinking.

  It happens in this way: Sugabelly and Linda Ikeji blogs about the rape of a student (?) of Abia State University. Another writer, who has a blog, writes a post on the issue, quoting Sugabelly and Ikeji, repeating their speculations and opinion. It is not dangerous to quote them; what is dangerous is the absence of a different perspective and objective.
  
  The question becomes: how soon should a thought be published? As soon as it is mine! It is unacceptable, I say to myself, to be a writer that creatively repeats the media (or a blogger). I want to speak differently about existent challenges; or, if I cannot speak differently, speak in a different voice and language. Agreed, I am given to influence. Yet, I must define my slant before finding confirmation in another person’s.

  The immediate challenge is what an acceptable concern is. What should an emerging writer be concerned with, in order to define originality? I am convinced that each writer knows what is an appropriate concern. For instance, I am increasingly concerned with the question of what language has become in Afikpo, my hometown. So this concern serves as a foundation for the influences that will enhance my understanding. I will not speak after the pattern of Chris Abani, for instance, because he is from Afikpo too and is interested in what language is in Afikpo as I am.

  This brings me to the battle between what I conceive as ‘a space for use’ and ‘a space as a funnel.’ The former takes the shape of a Blogger or WordPress space which an emerging writer discovers can ensure that what is written is seen. So every single thought that seems writeable is written, scarcely thought over, and posted to become one amongst hundreds of millions of webpages. But the second, ‘a space as a funnel’, is used in this context to describe a space that provides a showroom of wholesome individuality and clearly thought-out ideas.

  I believe that writers are responsible to the heart of what/who they are concerned about. They are not responsible to any blogger, or to any twitterer. They are responsible to themselves, first; when they convince themselves of a matter, making it ours, they can proceed to make their concern visible for others to be convinced and concerned about.

  Does this sound like some high-sounding theory? It might. Yet, I am convinced that it is important for emerging writers, given the digital age that is upon us, to avoid using the internet without an objective. The blogosphere is a tool, or a mechanism, which has ensured a new word order. It should not defeat the mandate of literature, the possibility of books, notes, posts, tweets, etc. etc., that navigate the deepest thresholds of the human spirit.

   

• Elder’s Corner: A Social history of Nigeria through music

  Posted: October 1, 2011, 6:00 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Elder’s Corner: Another awesome project by musical innovator, Siji which traces the history of music in Nigeria through interviews with our country’s musical giants – Please support the project – no amount is too small.

  
   

  SYNOPSIS

  Elder’s Corner is musical journey through pivotal moments in the colorful history of Nigeria as told through the lives and careers of the nations foremost music legends. It is a story about the eroding effects of colonialism, bitter ethnic clashes, politics, oil, power, money and their combined effects on a nation that recently celebrated its 50th year of self rule.

  THE FILM

  Shot against the colorful and gritty backdrop of some of Nigeria’s urban cities particularly Lagos and through the clever use of extensive in depth interviews, archival footage and still photographs, Elder’s Corner will take viewers on a musical journey through the country’s turbulent and colorful history. It will chronicle and showcase the lives and work of some of the leading exponents of the various musical movements that spawned Afrobeat, Juju, Apala, Highlife and Fuji music.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes