Life with Las B...

Let's back up a bit to a conversation so trite - Beauty. How can you as a woman still struggle with beauty? Where does the insecurity stem from? Is it that parents failed to compliment you with beauty or that they constantly called you ugly all of your life? Or because you can't seem to enjoy the supposed privilege they said beautiful ones get? Or is it the male gaze - the sheer fact that you aren't an ideal standard of beauty (ditto Nengi) and so aren't getting enough fawning over? You know those stories where the abuser keeps panel-beating the lady but the girl remains and the only reason for that is her insisting that he's the only one (or first one) who ever told her that she's beautiful, that she's always thought she's an ugly swan. The girl in question will probably rival Erica in beauty but shockingly, they aren't aware. Leaves me gobsmacked all the time. I might come off as ignorant and insensitive, not understanding why some ladies start  tr...

There are many causes to lay down one's life for - family, friends, children, a cause, an idea, dream, even a dog. At the very bottom of that list is Nigeria. No scrap that, Nigeria doesn't make that list at all. For countries, A Brit is supposed to be that patriotic. A Canadian German, Russian, Chinese, Korean - it's expected that the citizens of these countries be to have that amount of loyalty to their nation. An American even, can be patriotic. A Ghanaian, South African should be a patriot. But here? Here?  A Nigerian, youth especially do not have the privilege to be so patriotic as to lay down his/her life for anything, anything at all. You can not afford to be a patriot, period.  Call it cowardice or whatever, but it is not worth it. There is no recognition for whatever action you think to lay down your life for. Not in this age and time. There's no posterity to remember your actions, none! Neither will there be any monument erected in your namre. Nor will there b...

I have decided to make an effort into discovering impressive Nollywood Movies and giving a rundown/review of the movie. This time, it is "Diamond in the Sky." Diamonds in the sky is the kind of movie I love to watch, movie that addresses societal issues, in this case - Cancer. It's a movie that explores the stigma associated with the illness and dynamics of how people in different social classes react to Cancer. When you watch movies like this, you are not expecting mushiness or any of that, you are sharing the journey of the characters. You are experiencing experiencing the pain and the fears they have of the circumstances that they found themselves in. Like one of the cast said, "You read about cancer, hear about it but you never imagine it happening to you." The norm in Nigeria is that we always try out self-medication first. Nigerians are so guilty of this - cuts across social classes. However, when it escalates, the rich visit sophisticated heal...

It was on this year's Ash Wednesday that I was summoned to my mentor's office. I was busy snapping pictures with the white gown I intentionally wore on the day almost everyone wore black to school.  As I arrived to her office, she asked me a couple of questions which later ended with my being told to choose a topic to work on for a paper. At that time, I didn't even know the first thing about academic paper or anything. Everything she was saying was gibberish in my ears but I was nodding like agama lizard.  "Okay, I will do it," I said. The next day, I came back with an attempted abstract on a topic on Igbo Language, of which the guidelines for writing, I had gotten from Google.  She later sent me another document, this time on CBAAC, an organisation which is an offshoot of the FESTAC77 and said to draft another abstract, that I would be presenting a paper. The conference was going to be at the end of the month at UniBen, and the accommodation and transportation w...

We had a couple of African-American books back in secondary as recommendations for the literature subject. They were Native Son and A Raising in the Sun. When Bigger suffocated the white girl, Mary, my only thoughts were "What is wrong with this one? What kind of fear would make you do such thing when you could have easily escaped the blind woman. I didn't have a clue what American society was. I just read the book for entertainment and for analysis in the exams but never really understood the setting behind the story. Also, I was mildly annoyed with the court proceedings. And because I had little idea on how that society worked, I hoped that Bigger be freed, alas that was not so. Infact, now I think about it, it would have been more than a  miracle for a black man who actually killed a white woman be spared especially in those days. Guy readily accepted the punishment. I remember being really uncomfortable with the whole scenarios. Really uncomfortable. While I enjoyed the bo...

I am learning to be specific on the criticism of movies and because I study instead of merely enjoying movies these days, I am able to decipher from the angle of which a film is lacking. Say Reach for instance. It's a Nigerian movie starring Timini Egbuson - of an older woman finding love, a low budget movie. The storyline is nice but the dialogue just isn't. It was mediocre at best, boring conversations and discussions, average something. Also, the lights crew didn't do justice to the movie. The scenes were dark but it's pardonable - twas a film featuring a few characters and the actors did try with their roles. Another movie is Gabriel's Inferno. I had read the trilogy before hand. I would have said the movie has got to be the most boring book adaption I've ever seen but Native Son's own triumphs it. So it comes a close second on the list. The adaptation was literally the book word-for-word and chronologically too. Movies and books are not the same in the ...

I saw one post like that, asking why you won't marry a pastor. Me sef, I won't even marry a chorister, an usher or anyone active in church departments. Infact, if you are going for any service apart from Sunday Sunday medicine, I no dey marry. Preferably, I wouldn't like to marry a church goer oo. Anaghị dị m ezo ọnụ ekwu ya. But if you really want to worship your maker, then Sunday is fine. Here are a couple of reasons I don't wanna. 1. I don't go to church (I do it now unwillingly cos I no get my own house but in school, I no dey step foot for church) 2. I cuss faster than a sailor - so I am uncouth and vulgar, not something Church mommy should be. 3. I don't believe many things in the Bible. Imagine me teaching young ladies Proverbs 31 or Ist Timothy 2 vs 12. I'll even cuss in that meeting before I am done. 4. I don't believe in Hell, so I won't even scare anyone with repenting or they are damned to hell. How do I feel about death and afterlife? Y...