Thursday, October 1, 2015

I have too many Scars…A 55 year old mom writes!


How would you react if I said I had 55 scars all over my body? Scars in places you can see and you can’t see. Lol. Ok! I don’t have 55 scars but I do have many scars. Trust me. You know how it feels when you don’t ever seem to grow up in the eyes of your parents and they ‘cage’ you. The moment they set you free, you flyyyyyyyyy. Like you’ve never seen fresh air. You will glide and tumble and roll in pain but you won’t mind the pain. The pain is better than the cage. You will learn from that pain. #Sigh. I did.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Why Chinua Achebe’s death is a big deal



I weep. My tears are that of joy mixed with sadness. Chinua Achebe was a man who stood at the forefront in African literature. He was that man that you could point to, even when you felt ashamed of your nationality and be glad to be Nigerian. He was that unassuming man, with many lines on his wrinkled face who made you appreciate your local dialect. He set a standard for African literature that many find hard to reach.
Chinua until his death was regarded as a man of the people. A man who stayed true to his ideals, values and integrity. A man who wept when you wept and laughed when he saw you roll on the floor. A man full, so much of wisdom, that wherever it spilled, on whichever pages it did, became a bestseller. May have been on the wheelchair for a while, however Chinua Achebe’s legs were firm, made of steel, unshaken, unwilling to shift, to compromise. Here is a man who rejected national awards, from a country that consistently disappointed him till he passed.
Respected for his contributions in literature, Chinua has carried many great giants on his shoulder. Award-winning authors such as Chimamanda Adichie, Ben Okri, Jude Dibia, Prof Odi Akachi, Eghosa, Uwem Akpan, Cyprian Ekwensi, Binyavanga Wainaina and many other African writers have all been directly or indirectly influenced by his works.
Generating a lot of controversy when he authored “There was a country”, Achebe shared his memoir on “The Civil War” with the world, and expressed his honest opinion through his work. Some saw it as a bid to break the country apart. Others saw it as a lesson, a school.
News of Chinua’s death has, this morning, filtered across all the popular blogs and sites worldwide, CNN, BBC, Guardian UK, WSJ, Bloomberg everywhere because of his great works.
Every Nigerian child that drank from the country’s primary or secondary educational sector have passed through indirect tutelage of his books. The Things Fall Apart, his popular novel was made into a Nigerian Television  Series which brought into limelight, veteran actor Pete Edochie.
Condolence message pouring in from all over the world cannot but emphasize on the impact that this Man Booker Prize winner has contributed into the literature in Africa and in the entire world.
He will be greatly missed by all but his works will live through time.

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Chinua Achebe died at age 82 on the 21st of March, 2011. He is the author of the worldwide best-selling ‘Things Fall Apart’. He died in a private hospital in Boston, Massachusetts after being ill for a long time.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A week in Africa by Eric Schmidt

When the executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt visited Africa, this is what he had to conclude about the Technology sphere of the continent. It is both interesting and insightful that he could get so much of the challenges and prospects of each country in a week-long visit. Read here:



After a week of business meetings in the cities of sub-saharan africa, we can surely say three things are new for the continent:

a) the despotic leadership in Africa from the 1970s and 1980 is in decline, replaced by younger and more democratic leaders
b) a huge youth demographic boom is underway, with a majority of the population of 25, or even under 20
c) mobile phones are everywhere, and the Internet in Africa will be primarily a mobile one

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

To err is human


To err is human.
placing the square pegs
in round holes,
is a peculiarly humane gesture.

To err is mortal,
errors have a life,
as short as that, which is ...
made of clay

To err is civilized,
while perfect-itude speaks military gibberish
streaks of inadequacies,
make beautiful khakis.

To forgive is divine,
this double-syllabled seven-pointer
is the divide between that which pretends
to dwell in high places
and That which inhabits The Highest Place.

by Segun Adekoye ~ 28/11/2012

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Kasuwa, Jumia, Konga, Kalahari and the business of making money online in Nigeria



I have always wanted to write something about this group of people for a while. They have something in common. They are e-commerce sites and they are modeled after the success of Amazon.com. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer and one of the most successful internet empires on the face of the planet. However, duplicating Amazon’s success has been a bit of a challenge in sub-saharan Africa. Naspers closed its operations in Nigeria in 2011 after stating that its ability to make near-term profits wasn’t probable. It shut down Kalahari.com.ng in both Nigeria and Kenya at the same year. It commenced operations in Nigeria and was only alive for twenty months. It sounded like a less-strategic move as one would wonder “I thought they said Africans were consumers, why then did Kalahari fail?”. I think Naspers failed on the Kalahari e-commerce projects as it didn’t really understand the terrain it was playing in as well as logistics problems it encountered. I’ll explain a bit further. Online business in Africa, especially Nigeria is a bit of a challenge.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Bomb

The newspaper vendor’s hoot came to a halt. His lean frame bent forward, peered and scurried away. The ice-cream cyclist swerved to the other side of the road, bumped into a waste bin. The old beggar  standing nearby hobbled towards the lamp-post. Honks. Clenched fists peeped out of a braking Camry at the flustered cyclist followed by a resounding “God punish you”. A swarm of startled faces turned towards the speeding car and then back at the bicycle-man. He shrugged, adjusted his bike and pointed away. Some pausing to see the source of his distraction, maybe lunacy. 


Nothing else was more evident than the imposing structure of a 25-storey building; Amex Plaza. Some ran gazes along the walls of the building, and its rusted metal-work to its top till their hands visored their eyes.  A few looked back at the ice-cream seller, shook their heads and shifted their feet as more people pushed their way out of the teeming crowd. He pointed again towards the building but at something else. An overweight silver trash can. Worn-out blankets sitting against the grey pavement. Condom packs. Plastic bags. Crisp dry leaves and broken twigs. A bent, folded Ghana-Must-Go bag. Rustling polythene bags. Rats, cats or snakes perhaps. It didn’t make sense to those dressed in suits, whose laptop bags chafed against their buttocks whenever they moved. They left, at first in twos, then in threes. 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Reflections: 10 things I learnt from the Seunwrites #endthestory Contest


I recently entered into a short story competition which ended a couple of minutes ago (I am posting this 200 minutes after). The competition had a twist to it. Okay, let me tell you about it. It is a short story contest. The intention of the organizer was to #endthestory he had initially started. The story is titled "The Sex life of a Lagos mad woman". Sincerely, I really can't be bothered if you don't know where Lagos is. Google it. So, as I was saying, the winning entrant ought to get a Blackberry Playbook (not that I can't afford it eh-squeeze-me) and might be considered for a publishing contract (the juicy part) and some other mede-mede (additional benefits). 
Anyhow, the rule stated that we should type in Times Roman Font, blah-blah-blah (the technicalities will bore you) and write a convincing end to the story that would not be more than 500 words. So, I wrote something that I felt would do justice to #endthestory. You can read it here "entry 17".