WHAT IS A BLOG?

The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati.
In its latest State of the Blogosphere report, it said the number of blogs it was tracking . . .http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4737671.stm

GOREE ISLAND: WE STRUGGLE TO KNOW...

© Molara Wood

I know a little. But many know very little of what i know. There's not only a lot to learn about Nigeria, there are lots to learn about Africa. It's amazing inspite of the AudioVisual Revolution, too many young Africans - I, in my twenties, for instance - know li'l about themselves. Reminds me of Funmi Iyanda's Elephant post - it made me realise i know little about the Civil War, than that it was between 1967 and '70 - Many don't even know. I recall her ask, on New Dawn, about the The Rwandan Genocide from her Wednesday Class - And, more or less, none of them knew.

Here's Goree:Built by the Dutch in 1776.
Read more on http://www.congo-pages.org/senegal/Goree.htm.See more on Molara Wood's blog: the picture's origin.

A SEASON OF SOYINKA

born 1934. Son of Ogun. Writer of many books, especially IDANRE - name of my town.

We used his book, in JSS 2 - THE LION AND THE JEWEL - starring Sidi, the village belle and Lakunle, the bookworm, who'd been to the big cities of Ibadan and Lagos and wouldn't or couldn't pay her bride price and the Baale of Ilujinle, the Lion and em em is it Sadiku - Baroka's wife with the vituperative mouth.

The book probably never got interesting until we got to that part of the play that Lakunle had to reel out bombastic words - "this is barbaric, outdated, ..." Everyone of us loved that aspect. I remember i crammed those words o - i liked to use them too - Poor Lakunle.

Much later, on my own i read Jero's Plays and etc. The Jero's Plays is also one heck of an interesting piece of work and then Howu, Elesin Oba! Elesin Oba!What tryst does the cock go to keep that he must forget his tail at home?

Then i read ABIKU - charmed circles at my feet...armulets do not tie me to...(can't recall).

I haven't read MADMEN AND SPECIALIST. I recall waliking into a bookshop some years back and demanding that book. The woman on duty asked - guess - "Se Medical Book ni?"("Is it a Medical Book?")

A Season of Wole Soyinka is currently taking place at Terra Kulture on Tiamiyu Savage in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. This celebration of Soynka at 73 is produced by laspapi in collaboration with the British Council/Nigeria and Terra Kulture and started on July 1, 2007 and is expected to continue every Sunday till the end of July. All plays will be at Terra Kulture, and there will be two shows every Sunday at 3pm and 6pm. Already staged are - Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka?- written by Wole Oguntokun (July 1) and - The Lion and the Jewel- directed by Tunji Sotimirin (July 8) - Death and the King's Horseman (July 15)- directed by Segun Adefila - Camwood on the Leaves (July 22)- directed by Lekan Balogun.

The Season ends on July 29 with The Jero Plays (Trials of Brother Jero and Jero's Metamorphosis) directed by Wole Oguntokun and after that is another - THEATRE @ TERRA - Wole Oguntokun's.

EVER HEARD OF ONUZULIKE?

I read his interview in the Guardian (Nigeria). He had these terrific works of art - pottery- that talked the Civil War talk. Poignant. And he wasn't looking at issues through the lens of the Poet-Prof. J.P. Clark.

Ozioma Onuzulike is an artist and writer from Nigeria. He graduated in 1996 with a B.A. (First Class Honors) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he also obtained an M.F.A. in Ceramics.

Onuzulike's a potter who's got strong affinities for poetry - his works speak the dialects of poetry. Here's what he say's:"I find a strong correlation between poetry and the plastic arts. As a cerarnist (potter), I see the clay working processes as a storehouse of concrete imageries for addressing everyday events and social encounters in the larger society. Working in clay and other earth media, I increasingly find a strong relationship between poetry and pottery"

His last exhibition was , i guess, Casualities.
To read his poems - http://afropoets.tripod.com/onuzulike/

He's not been the news since that last exhibition, haven't heard about him, but he's still somewhere in Nsukka, i guess.

I've a poem for him starts like this:

Onuzulike sounds like Ogbunike
They both dwell in Nsukka
In the Navel of Eastern Nigeria...

DISTRACTIONS, ATTRACTIONS, THE INDEX OF CHANGE

This semester started with distractions. First, with a strike that swallowed what was meant to be a break. Succeeded by a period which was meant to be for lectures but then lectures aborted before dawn. Lectures were eventually birthed albeit by a caesarian section of Mass Prayer-Assisted FG-ASUU negotiations. It was a period when different hitherto unknown clubs sprung out of no where. A blizzard of Hall Weeks just hit us. Weeks ago was the Amina Hall Week. Now's the Kofo Hall Week. Still to come is the Biobaku Hall Week. Haven't heard of Jaja's, Mariere's. I'm not sure Moremi's had theirs. MTN wuz here, Glo wuz here with their Campus Storm. Irapada wuz here. Prince of the Savannah wuz here. A number of Sex, Dating and Marriage seminars wuz here too. Football Matches between departments - the Dean's Cup (i guess) - should be ongoing. Block to Block matches are being organized. Room to Room and even Bunk to Bunk matches are brewing.
Praise Nites . . . list is endless

The attractions were the TMC IV (starring Harris steve for Fela Durotoye), RISE MAG's motivational conference at Aquatic Hall (Fela Durotoye, Gamaliel Onosode were in attendance), Perisseuo '007.

The oncoming, equally important, ones are the 8th of August JCI-powered confererence on enterpreneurship featuring Funmi Iyanda and Gbenga Sesan who were both a year older sometimes last month nad another on the 18th (featuring Gbenga Sesan (again) and Niyi Adesanya of Fifth Gear).

The Library's been, amidst all these, appreciably populated. Results - first semester's - are popping out one after the other - a couple of those it didn't favour too well are beginning to library.

There was nothing unusual about the week. It was the usual sight of yahoozees: females and males in their teeming numbers. The usual sight of sugar dads and their aristo Daughters, kissing and having sex - on car bonnets, under the flower bed, in the dark alleys and shady reading rooms - yeah, it’s that bad in UNILAG.


Caught a cold – catarrh, which lead to headache and I had to buy Procold® which I haven’t used still. The high point of the week probably was the mail sent me from WORDRIOT saying they’d publish a couple of my works – poetry – in a future issue and that I write well and in an interesting fashion – My! That was a fillip – at least that forces a sense of worth into one, now I know my works are a li’l good enough – still hoping to get more positive responses from a couple of other publishers.

I recall reading the headliners – haven't read a newspaper through and through for so long a time now – school’s got a way of keeping you insulated from the real world – it fuzzes your head what with you in the midst of poly-painted gals and fancifully dressed yahoozees driving sleek rides – everybody walkin’ and talkin’ like they doesn’t shit. Yeah, the headliners had it that a number of former Nigerian governors arraigned for fraud had been granted bail. I recall one of them even had as little as a hundred and seven count (107) charge and one of them was even bold enough to weep in court – lamenting a change in his status – in the presence of his family – wife, children and all. Did someone not ask when will Africa be free from being caused with it’s leaders…and youth.

Yeah, youth.

In Liberia, it’s a poisoned group of young’uns that know only guns and knives and haven’t had education for more than a decade.

Almost same in Togo.

Sudan’s unpeaceful.

Nigeria relatively is, but isn’t. It’s got an army of unemployed and unschooled.

The schooled ain’t ready to work.

If you, today, walk into a cyber café that’s got 20 systems, you’ll find 18 yahoozees. If in the next 2 months you walk into that same cyber café with 20 systems still and you find just 10 of ‘em. Then, things have begun to change in Naija. That’ s my own index of change.

The Nigerian Renaissance must begin in every sole Nigerian mind, not just a crop of 'em.

AWAITING OKIJA ARTS

These Benin Plaque of a General is found on the TedHamill Gallery website. For sale. Some time ago a startling revelation was made in Anambra state. A dastardly work of evil, a shrine was unveiled somewhere in the state. The Okija Shrine was said to be delicate. That's because many big'uns patronize it. The shrine was a Shrine of Equity, i.e., Two fellas engaged in a deal could go there, swear to the gods and goddesses in Okija to keep the bonds of their agreement intact. If there was a breach by any of the parties, that culprit dies, or is retributed in some other form. The shrine was so 'strong' the National TV couldn't show its interiors but could just the entrance. And at the entrance were those skulls that reminded one of the Rwandan Genocide - big skulls, small skulls, white and sand papered, rough and brown, etc. Okija since then has eluded the news. Could be another very crucial issue already swept under the rug. The most painful side of the story may be the fact that terrific works of art might still be holed up somewhere in the shrine, allegedly possibly as big as a big village, if not even bigger. And who knows if those works might even surpass the beauty of Ancient Benin and Ife arts. Works that would blast us into the news again. And this time wouldn't be stolen in some 'Great British or American or Portuguese Expedition. '

NOW THE ASUU'S STRIKE'S OVER

I've been at school at the University of Lagos for 4wks+. We were called back with the assurance that lectures would commence with immediate effect from the 28th of June. Lectures were not given. Effect is that the big bucks guys brought to school ebbed away gradually: wasted on clubs, women, alcoholic drinks, cigar, i.e., for the big boys. For the smalla'uns, t'was wasted on food, the large stock of food some brought declined drastically'cos they had to feed thrice daily- under normal lecture circumstances that wouldn't happen- the lecture periods had a way of cutting hunger out of the system. And a deadly survival instinct taught boys and, of course, those multi-painted UNILAG girls how to prey on ceremonies held at the MultiPurpose Hall and Sports Complex respectively. The Time Table is strictly laid out:
THURSDAY: Birthday
FRIDAY: Burial Ceremony
SATURDAY: Wedding
SUNDAY: Thanks Giving
If anybody dons a traditional dress between Thursday and Sunday you can almost be sure they're heading for the MPH or Sports Complex to eat and drink. Such was the effect of the ASUU strike. Unfortunately this survival habit is acutely addictive and is persisting even after the strike's been called off just like the higher prices of goods are even after the 100% increase in VAT has been cut by half.

The broken-hearted weeping clouds have also sown idleness in the sons and daughters of men in this school. The cold showers make them sleep like logs. And some don't arise from bed until 10.00AM even 12.00PM. Next on the Agenda is a tiring game of monkeypost-football on a sand pitch from then till six.

Lorenzo's place is also almost never vacant. What do they do there? play PS till 2.00AM. What again o...Okay one guy also tried smuggling two gals in. I have it on the authority of good evidence that the bulk of the many students who decided not to go home during the ASUU Strike/Break stayed back because of these unGodly business...

Idleness was given a free-rein and it did reign.

Now the strike's o'er, me Dad gladly called me from AK that it was over. Today's Wednesday and LECTURES HAVE STARTED, we had one today: BTN. I'm glad. And i really had to buy a 5-Packed note in readiness for that.

THESE PICTURES

Excerpts from Tolu Ogunlesi's blog:omoalagbede.blogspot.com and Funmi Iyanda's fiyanda.blogspot.com. The first one's titled globalization, set in desert. It's a black woman, characteristically dressed in masai red, supporting with her right hand what i'll call a mushroom burger, and look at that giant can of Coke - the icon of globalization, i guess. The second, coincidntally, is also an offshoot of globalization and Funmi added this teaser: IS THIS THE MEASURE OF THE NIGERIAN MAN? Really, i hope it isn't.And the billboard reminds me of ads, modern-day, at least. Ads that do not encourage values. The Vono foam radio jingle, for instance, subtly makes allusions to its product being good for sex - whatever the press ups were supposed to mean?.

THE BLOGGABILITY RULE

I stumbled on alantakun.blogspot.com and this sole comment on one of his post has made me curious-The Bloggability Rule: The higher your fiction quotient, the less your bloggability, the less the blog. And vice versa.
How true's this rule?

CONTAINERS?

I wasn't at the Aquatic Hall, somewhere, i guess, in Ipaja, for a motivational 'congress' organized by RISE Magazine. Was a little cash-strapped. As guest speakers were Funmi Iyanda, Dr Reuben Abati, Funke Egbemode, Fela Durotoye. And as Chief Guest Speaker was Chief Gamaliel Onosode. the sexpurist-centrist Praise-Fowowe was also in attendance. Now i wasn't there but got a copy of the RISE Mag from Hassan, a hostel mate, who was at the meeting. I recall catching a glimpse of this line in Praise's Article, of course,it bordered on sex: ...Ladies are considered containers, in these modern times, where semen from a loaded male was meant to be downloaded (Mind you the quote ain't verbatim). I didn't disagree. Wasn't baulked. Not until Wednesday when a boy tried smuggling two gals into the hostel. Ostensibly for sex. He tried twice. Once in the afternoon, he got them into his room and locked up until security men had to force him out. Then in the night. I mean. . .Praise's line bursted forht in my mind. . .but his line was an understatement. . .they could be worse than containers. . .