Peeping Dom ‘Wiping the unbelieving suds from his eyes, Dominique peeped once more through the judas hole in the bathroom door. He saw the panty-hosed assassin sent by Nicolas lean forward to pull out a gold-plated .22 derringer pistol from her patent-leather boot. She was standing near the door, her back turned to it. He knew he could easily handle [...]

Benson Eluma A rejoinder to Yomi Ogunsanya’s Jos and Maiduguri Attacks: If not ethno-religious, then what? Well Yomi, I believe that there is more going on in different parts of the north than a neat struggle between Muslims and Christians, or between ‘indigenes’ and ‘settlers’. In some parts of the north, ethnicity overrides religion. (E.g. Yoruba Muslims are not safe [...]

by Benson Eluma I have cast around for how best to characterize Nigerian literature 50 years after Independence, and I have decided to settle for the Abiku motif. Abiku or Emere is the colleague of Ogbanje, and these are personages that have played central roles in Nigerian lore and literature. They have also enjoyed a respectable filmic presence, at least [...]

A review of Olufemi Terry’s short story ‘Stickfighting Days’ which won the 2010 Caine Prize This stark story of primitive violence has to it the quality of elemental fable. It is told in prose that is hewn often with a precise chisel. Yet I couldn’t help feeling shortchanged by the writer as I read the story for the third(?) straight [...]

I don’t know which to pick between May 29 and June 12 as the worst date to look forward to in our political calendar. I don’t know which is, to me, emptier of meaning as far as democracy is the issue. Perhaps, I hold a generally jaundiced view of Nigeria’s political history and career. But I truly pity the optimists [...]

Now that we are done with crocodile tears (genuine grief is never done with so fast), it is time for some brutality. We are like the ancients who said: De mortuis nil nisi bonum⎯Only say good things of the dead. I see no bonum in that advice. I only see bunkum. What manner of man, knowing full well he was [...]

Among other things, I can understand why so many Nigerians should think that ‘District 9′ shows how deeply some South Africans detest us. The lumpen elements in the film are called ‘Nigerians’ – and the loathing is heaped much heavily on them. Throughout the story, there is not one moment in which they are invested with anything humane in their [...]