PROSE: Salman Rushdie brings heavy guns against George Orwell and Hollywood in Outside the Whale. Chris Abani’s book is pulled off Florida’s summer reading list because of racy content. Read excerpts from Mark Twain’s autobiography, as well as Abdul Adan’s review of African Roar. Then Binyavanga Wainnaina writes a sequel to his famous viral piece, “How To Write About …
There is a thing about being so close to something that one does not see it anymore. Anthropologists normally refer to it as going native. You have gone native when you no longer see the obvious things anymore, when the things that an outsider notices stares you in the face but you are no longer …
August 10, 2010 – 8:04 am
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By Olumide Abimbola
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Posted in Culture and Society, Economy, Politics
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Tagged Amnesty International, Anthropology, Crime and Justice, Nigeria, police, Police brutality, Police Misconduct, Tracy Chapman
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It didn’t take me long to locate him at Rayfield where he teaches in a private school. Once upon a time, he was in Riyom, a local government that has now made a name for itself in the spots of unrest around the state. On my way there, there were at least ten military checkpoints …
The news that President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria had created a Facebook page eventually got to me through Google Buzz where comments had been made to the effect that the power infrastructure issue should be easy to solve. Apparently, the President had zeroed in on a comment and arranged for his aides to contact some “visionary” …
July 9, 2010 – 4:16 pm
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By Akin Akintayo
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Posted in Culture and Society, Politics, Technology
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Tagged Africa, comments, Facebook, Goodluck Jonathan, Google Buzz, Nigeria, Online Communities, President of Nigeria, Social network
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This article was originally written for www.tradeinvestnigeria.com. In May, an Indian trade mission, led by Mr. Ravi Bangar, the deputy permanent representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), paid a visit to Mr. Jubril Martins-Kuye, Nigeria’s Minister for Commerce and Industry. One of the major issues they discussed was the possibility of India …
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 …
This documentary was more about promoting Walter than about the brain gain of Nigerians returning home to help build the country.
June 6, 2010 – 2:26 pm
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By Akin Akintayo
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Posted in Culture and Society, General
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Tagged Africa, BBC, England, Government, King Jaja of Opobo, kings, Music video, New Kings Of Nigeria, Nigeria, public school, Reality television, Walter
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For us Nigerian women there is a huge pressure to tie the knot. Post twenty-five annum, an unmarried status often calls for expressions of concern from family, friends and sometimes even ‘kind’ strangers. This concern can be terribly annoying and in the case that one is single and desperately searching for a partner, distressing. With …
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, …
In Part III of Welcome to Lagos we see the grand vision of Lagos used to displace people without giving them alternatives — that is the injustice highlighted for all to see.
May 1, 2010 – 10:55 am
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By Akin Akintayo
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Posted in Culture and Society, General
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Tagged Africa, Area Boys, crime, Documentary film, Lagos, Lagos State, Law, Nigeria, Welcome to Lagos
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Nigeria: Goodluck Jonathan on Facebook
The news that President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria had created a Facebook page eventually got to me through Google Buzz where comments had been made to the effect that the power infrastructure issue should be easy to solve. Apparently, the President had zeroed in on a comment and arranged for his aides to contact some “visionary” …