My thanks to Dr. AOA, the blog reader who sent this in from the UK this morning.  TOLA

Nigerian connection in a million-dollar dating fraud  - BBC News

A US mother Karen Rae, 63, and daughter Tracy Lea, 42, who used an Internet dating scam to steal $1.1m (£700,000) from unsuspecting victims, were yesterday jailed 12-year and 15-year imprisonment respectively. According to the court document, themother and daughter tricked their victims into thinking they were talking to US service personnel looking for love, after which they would then keep a percentage of the money they had fleeced from the victims, before sending the remaining funds via wire to their colloaborators, primarily in Nigeria.

The court document revealed that the duo (Karen and Tracy) sent stolen money addressed to 112 different names in Nigeria. The name that was used the most to send wires to was “Olamigoke Ayodeji.” Even so, the document further showed that they also wired money to individuals in Ecuador, Great Britain, India, United Arab Emirates and the United States. To get a gist of the fraudulent enterprise, including the scope of the Nigerian connection, click here: People of the state of Colorado, v. Tracy Lea Vasseur, and Karen Rae Vasseur.

 https://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/press_releases/2012/06/19/082813_vasseur_indictment_2.pdf

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013.  8:43;45

President Jonathan dozes off at weakened PDP Convention

By SaharaReporters, New York

President Goodluck Jonathan today dozed off several times at the mini-convention of the Peoples Democratic Party at Eagles Square in Abuja where several governors elected on the party’s ticket walked out on him to join a political group led by former Vice President Abubakar Atiku.

In all, eight governors, the latest being Governor Usman Sa’idu Nasamu Dakingari of Kebbi, walked out on Mr. Jonathan’s PDP, leaving the visibly bewildered president in the cold. Other PDP governors who decamped to the Atiku-led group included Chibuike Rotimi of Rivers State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto and Muritala Nyako of Adamawa state.

An aide to one of the governors who left told SaharaReporters that several other PDP governors had made a commitment to join their group soon. “Within the next two to three weeks, the PDP will discover that it is a party of Dr. Bamanga Tukur, President Jonathan and Governor [Godswill] Akpabio,” said the source.

An aide to President Jonathan told SaharaReporters this evening that the president knew there was disaffection within the party, but was not expecting the move made by Mr. Atiku and the group of governors who followed him. The aide said it was as if Governor Akpabio of Akwa Ibom was the sole PDP governor who was solidly behind the president. But the aide promised that both President Jonathan and the PDP were capable of weathering the storm and rallying to win the 2015 elections.

“The truth is that Alhaji Atiku is a certified loser,” said the presidential aide. He added: “So, even though he did what he did today and is enjoying his laughter, we are going to have the last laugh. In fact, you will see that Atiku is going to beg to be accepted back to the PDP as he did before. Anybody who is following him is following political failure.”

Meanwhile, our correspondent at the venue of the convention described Mr. Jonathan as looking stunned by today’s developments. The president sat alone talking to himself and shaking his head several times without anyone coming to his aid. Our correspondent noted that even those who sat close to Mr. Jonathan, like the party’s divisive national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, and Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State did not utter a word of consolation to the forlorn-looking President. Vice President Namadi Sambo simply looked away as the party that brought them to power was being torn to pieces.

For the first time since the formation of the party, most hired delegates left the Eagles Square even before voting started.

Many of the stands were near empty as a significant number of the delegates followed their governors out of the venue of the convention with Mr. Jonathan looking on helplessly.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2013.  5:05 a.m.

PETER OBE (28 DECEMBER 1932-1 SEPTEMBER 2013)

Just as the Daily Times where he was for several decades chief photographer, was the generic name for newspapers, he was also for a long time the generic name for photography in Nigeria. If you wasted time in taking a photograph, you were automatically written off as “not Peter Obe.” On the other hand, if you exhibited some measure of mastery, you earned the name, “Peter Obe.”
He was a legend. Indeed, in the Daily Times, he was not mentioned by name; rather, he was “Ace” indicating his high quality, excellence. His photographs were always stamped “Exclusives.” And, truly, they were: in a different class.

This afternoon, Peter Oyeyemi Obe, better known as Peter Obe, died at his residence situated at 31 Alhaji Masha/Moronu Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. His first son, Femi, made the official announcement. A visual impairment which he had a couple of years ago, cut short his freelance photography work for the Agence France Presse (AFP). His coverage of the Nigerian civil war for the Daily Times resulted in a one-of-its-kind book, “Civil War Pictures From Nigeria: A Decade of Crisis in Pictures.”

Mr Lade Bonuola (aka Ladbone), an executive consultant at The Guardian (Nigeria) in a condolence message, wrote: “As chief cameraman of the Daily Times and I as the chief sub-editor, we worked very closely together. He never failed in supplying me terrific action photographs for the front page. Once I shouted ‘Exclusives’, I trusted he was on the way to the newsroom to supply page 1 photograph.”
Former Photo Editor at the defunct NEXT newspaper Mr Gbile Oshadipe, who currently teaches photojournalism at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, wrote:  “We’ve lost a pioneer in photojournalism at a time novices appropriate media space and pretend to be pros.”
Surely, there will be many more commendations on the legendary work of this iconic photographer and the man himself – who also happened to be my uncle, an illustrious  indigene of Ondo State from Igbara-Oke in Southwestern Nigeria.

May his soul rest in peace.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013. 5:19:25 a.m.

BLOGGER’S COMMENTS

I join readers of this blog and others to pay tribute to a brilliant icon whose body of works at The Daily Times will continue to live in the hearts of millions of older generations and those not yet born about a man who strutted his stuff at Nigeria’s premier newspaper.

There are vivid images of a few of his work and a particular one of him with his camera slung on a shoulder on the front page of the paper in the early 1960s.

Like many REAL creative people, he was not loud but let his work speak for him.

As we remember another Ondo State indigene during Fagunwa’s golden anniversary – a state this blogger is particularly proud of not only because it is her native place but because of the many distinguished contributors to Nigeria’s acclaim, academicians, ground-breaking pioneers of civil service administration, etcetera who hail from the state – it gladdens the heart that Peter Obe is joining the galaxy of stars that will forever shine in our state, Nigeria and the world beyond.

When I got introduced to the writer of this obituary, the first question I asked him because of his last name – though not an uncommon a Yoruba name – was “where are you from”?  Once he mentioned Ondo State, I asked if he was not from Igbara-Oke and teased him why he would be hiding his hometown!

May his soul find eternal rest with the Lord.

TOLA.

If only for the sheer interest generated, the attendant palpable anxiety and the ensued crusade for electoral sanity through a fortuitous combination of events, the Ondo State Labour Party’s reclamation of its 2007 electoral mandate, during a 22-month tortuous judicial journey that ended on February 22^nd 2009, was in a class of its own.

Also of indelible memory to many people and political historians, should be the same Labour Party administration’s 10-month long consistent exertions at sundry judicial, political, and public opinion arenas, to keep another people’s mandate from being hijacked by a contumacious resolve of opposition parties in total defiance of the people’s will earlier expressed in a comprehensive routing of all contending parties, in the state gubernatorial election of October, 2012.

In their utter rebelliousness against preponderating opinion, flagrant disregard of the logic of electoral arithmetic and, desecration of the spirit of fair competition under the pretext of exhausting constitutionally allowed judicial remedies, very few political parties in recent memory have shown such obstinacy to compelling reality as was displayed by Rotimi Akeredolu’s defunct ACN of indifferent memory, and Olusola Oke’s faction of Ondo PDP, in their unnecessary prolongation of a dead and settled case.

The Supreme Court judgement in Abuja, on the 29^th of August, 2013, on the recent appeal arising from the 1^st of July, 2013, Akure Court of Appeal decision upholding the earlier Ondo State Election Petition Tribunal judgement, has finally put paid to any further litigation about any matter arising out of the Ondo State gubernatorial election. Notwithstanding this however, not a few people caution that in the crass and unbridled merry-go-round of the oppositions’ judiciary shopping, lies a very valuable lesson for any state government: in the fixation to battle the obsessive seeking of a convenient judicial underbelly through which losing opposition parties can wriggle themselves into power, lies the latent danger for elected incumbent governments to be unwittingly distracted from governance and thus, to open themselves up to the charges of being in total disconnect with the people!

The Mimiko administration’s strategy, despite its unassailable rectitude during and after the election, was to deploy the philosophy of killing-an-ant-with-a sledge-hammer by engaging a battery of legal experts second to none in the country and also, by continuing with people-centred governance. This ensured that the Ondo people, despite a lull in the fast pace of governance characteristic of the administration, showed understanding for the necessary travails of warding off determined but unelected politicians wanting to hijack the reins of power.

Even though legal argumentations, forensic debates and reasoned submissions are the stuff of which a thick, rich and long-lasting judicial underlay of any constitutional democracy is made, the bastardization of the recourse to the gamut of judicial remedies for electoral justice particularly, when the platform for such is baseless, is indicative of the peculiar Nigerian penchant for emptying any remedial constitutional provision of its noble intent for selfish purposes. Sponsors of petitions which were unanimously put down by three judges at the Tribunal level, by all five judges at the Appellate Court, ought to have perceived, if sincerely motivated by a genuine sense of only redressing electoral wrongs, some faulty legal premises on which the petitions were anchored. By the way, both Olusola Oke and Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, are of the learned profession!

The petitions of the defunct ACN and that of the factional PDP in Ondo State were initially anchored on such very wild and ridiculously unsubstantiated allegations out of which, the so-called “injection of names” in the voter-register, seemed to be the mildest. For securing an upturn at the Court of Appeal of the judgment of the Tribunal which held that the issue of the injection of names was a pre-election matter, two of the opposition flag-bearers became suddenly animated and pumped-up; they zeroed-in on the pronouncement, capitalized on it and sought to make it a cause-celebre!

Sponsored writings started to appear in some of the newspapers and suddenly, “injection of names” in voter registers became a topical issue more so, when the news of the Anambra State case broke. Collusion with INEC, on such an unwholesome enterprise if successfully proven, could substantially vitiate the legitimacy of any election. For INEC and the incumbent government to be tarred with the brush of using a heavily compromised voter-register thus, became the fixation of the opposition in the Ondo gubernatorial election. That the Oke-faction of PDP won 2 and the defunct ACN of unlamented recall, won 3 out of 18 LGs in an election adjudged by both domestic and international observers as being one of, if not the most peaceful and orderly election(s) witnessed in Nigeria, mattered little to them.

They could not prove at the Supreme Court that the so called injection of names had any bearings with the outcome of the election. Even when the so much bandied figure of the “injected names” was taken out of the total votes for the Labour Party, it was pointed out to them that it still did not affect the victory of the winning party. Now, as it is with any party trying to be clever by half, the outcome was a dashed expectation because the issue of the injected names was nothing but, a judiciary and publicity stunt! The new INEC register for the 2012 election swelled up mainly because of people earlier registered for the 2011 federal elections whose names either got caught up in the computer system or got added unto the system because of changes in their voting abodes, like Rotimi Akeredolu, the ACN gubernatorial candidate himself. All political parties had earlier been given hard copies of this register at a meeting with INEC officials and the Police. So much then, for a compromised voter register!

It is tantamount to employing pure sophistry and sheer demagogy for Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, and Chief Olusola Oke, to hinge their stubborn electoral litigation on the possibility of ever achieving the nullification of a well conducted election by mere touting the discovery of a “tainted and heavily compromised voter-register.” The complete saga reeks of the very anti-thesis of the much-desired democratic temperament and the culture of the spirit of fair competition necessary for our political development.

In all of these, it is necessary to remind ourselves that when the book on the History of Election Sanitization is written in the country, copious references must be made to the travails of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the current governor of Ondo State, in his consistent usage of the instrumentality of law to advance the quality of election both by challenging imposters in, and pretenders, to power! Chroniclers of historical details must therefore record his 5-0 wins at the courts while judicial references will be made of the titanic legal battles he fought, in or out of power that gave him epic victories in his two successive attempts at governing the Sunshine State.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013.  12:56 p.m. [GMT]

Lecture by Chief Obafemi Awolowo on 3rd September 1961

Excerpts from a lecture delivered by Obafemi Awolowo, Leader of Opposition in the Nigerian Federal Parliament, to Nigerian Students in London, on 3rd September, 1961.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

FROM TOLU OGUNLESI’S BLOG:              toluogunlesi.wordpress.com

,

Awo’s photograph from Oba Samuel Adeleye Adenle I:  Portrait of a Yoruba Oba, by Depo & Tola Adenle, 2006

Gift to Depo & Tola Adenle by Nat Makinde, Osogbo’s pre-eminent photographer of the 1950s & 60s, and local reporter for the defunct The Post in and around Osogbo.  2006.

“Education is still in its inchoate stages. The masses hunger after education but are not being satisfied. In regard to primary education, the position in the South is good. All children of school-going age are now in school in the South. But it is very far from being so in the North. A little over 250,000 children are now receiving primary education in the North, as against 1.3 million in the East and 1.2 million in the West.Secondary education ought to be free, but only the well-to-do can afford to send their children to any post-primary schools.

The award of scholarships tenable in Institutions of Higher Learning, and for technical and vocational studies, now lags very much behind the present needs of the country, with the result that many a lustrous talent is wasting and rotting away either in a soul-depressing job or in an asylum.

The finances of the Federation are being very badly managed. We are now right on the brink of a balance of payments crisis. 

Yet, according to the latest pronouncement by the Federal Minister of Finance, our imports of consumer goods have increased appreciably; but as far as is known no visible effort is being made for a big export drive. I have told the Federal Government, on a number of occasions, that unless the present adverse trends which. have continued for four years are checked, Nigeria will, figuratively speaking, one day find herself in a debtor’s prison! Bribery and corruption, especially in high places, are alarmingly on the increase. A large percentage of monies which are voted for expenditure on public projects find their way into the pockets of certain individuals. There is unemployment everywhere. The standard of living in the country as a whole is very low, and in most parts of the country the peasantry and the working class wallow in abject poverty and misery.”

FULL TEXT:

http://toluogunlesi.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/lecture-obafemi-awolowo-on-nigeria-3rd-september-1961/

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2013.  4:03:39 a.m. [GMT]

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/drama-presidential-villa-kwankwaso-rejects-jonathans-request

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2013.  4:34 a.m. [GMT]

Credit:  [Rested Nigeria's] 234NEXT

I’m one of those who feel a sense of great loss at the demise of 234NEXT, the newspaper founded and anchored by the husband/wife journalist pair, the Pulitzer Prize winner at The New York Post, Dele Olojede and Ama Ogan and, perhaps, a debilitating sense of personal loss of certain essayists whose contributions were awaited every week like the visit of loved ones!

For me, there were three pre-eminent writers:  Ama Ogan who cut her journalism teeth at The Daily Times; Ikhide Ikheloa whose email from America I still remember with longing and then, there was an absolute favorite, Yemisi Ogbe’s Food Matters.  It’s a bit of relief that I have re-discovered Ms. Ogbe and Mr. Ikheloa.

Yemisi made Okro soup – draw soup – [ugh!] sounds delightful even to most who wouldn’t go near it.  Her writings on or about food almost always read like the way a teenage girl would rhapsodize about a first love!

It was from one of her 234NEXT ‘s columns, for example, that I first knew others beyond my native town cooked “draw soup” with new cocoa sprouts.

There were quite other firsts that I learnt from the young lady about Nigerian food, if truth be told despite what must be decades that separate us but perhaps my greatest respect for the young lady is for the way she would take her readers on trips to the market, lovingly – almost – holding a fish, shopping for condiments or just chatting with women sellers.  Yemisi would make a trip to a market to shop for cooking items sound the way some women would view shopping for shoes or jewelries!

Ms. Ogbe, who now blogs at longthroatmemoirs.com, has turned out a review on Chimamanda Adichie’s latest book, Americanah which is getting a lot of attention in the West right now.

Yemisi says, not so fast!

Here are just a few excerpts that make the Review – if not the book – a must-read, because unlike many reviews especially in the West that are apparently meant for those who MUST read the books, Ms. Ogbe’s makes you decide whether to read or not to read Americanah.

To me, it is a very objective look at Adichie’s latest outing which – as things go in Nigeria with the perpetual claim of which ethnic group is better at writing, trading, administering, etcetera – will become a Yoruba woman – representing the ethnic group’s jealousy of an Ibo success.  I do not know Ms. Ogbe but while Yemisi is definitely Yoruba, her last name says she is married to a non-Yoruba, probably from the Mid-West area;  she lives in Calabar, a city that she loves immensely – at least judging from her Food Matters.

Tọla

Here are some excerpts:

She tries to conclude
the discussion efficiently by telling us that Uju has settled for
what is familiar, but the conclusion is too hasty. Since she
has brought up the matter: Why are the wheels of romantic
Nigerian tales different, made of unromantic textiles like
money, necessity and the need to bear children?

In writing Americanah, Adichie set herself very high
standards. The result is that there is, perhaps, too much at
stake. She is running from the single story. She is running
from the labels. But, she has a political agenda. She is
answering queries that her editors have brought up, and she
doesn’t like being edited …Her writing is too self-conscious and
there is too much game playing, too much name dropping
and providential mapping of how the late Chinua Achebe is
connected to Adichie by a straight, strong and “firm Igbo line.

One of Uju’s boyfriends in America is Bartholomew. He is a
brutal caricature in Adichie’s hands. He is one-dimensional, a
Nigerian accountant who writes “sour toned” and “strident”
posts on nigerianvillage.com. As a way of introducing him,
Adichie talks about a type of Nigerian writer who
lives in bleak houses in America, their lives deadened by work,
nursing their careful savings… so that they could visit home in
December for a week… bearing suitcases of shoes and clothes
and cheap watches, and see, in the eyes of their relatives,
brightly burnished images of themselves …at least online they could

ignore the awareness of how inconsequential they had become.

Adichie’s vicious censure of this migrant ‘type’ is typical
of her cut, dried and packaged treatment of many themes,
especially Nigerian. She makes a conclusive statement about
migrating Nigerians that sticks out like an ugly disfigurement
but also has no counterbalancing view …  There
is only one kind of Bartholomew and he wears “striped
humourless shirts… buttoned up, stiff, caged in the airlessness
of immigrant aspirations”.

AMERICANAH by Chimamanda Adichie
Reviewer:  Yemisi Ogbe in Chronic Chimurenga.  Publishers:  Knopf, May 2013.

To read the entire review, please click below:

YEMISI OGBEs REVIEW OF AMERICANAH

9:43:40 p.m. [GMT] WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2013.

Nigeria’s ruling party, the PDP, continues its ignominious ruling history but this time, the candidate being “helped” to a Ward seat he did not win, cries out!  Read details:

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/kwara-state-election-rigging-debacle-pdp-candidate-renounces-own-victory-says-he-knew-he-l

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2013.  10:53:02 p.m. [GMT]

The Founding President of the Institute of Directors (IOD) Nigeria Chapter, Chief Anofi Salawu Guobadia, has passed away. Aged 90, he died on Saturday, 31 August, 2013 in Florida, USA.

In a statement, Ogbe Guobadia, his eldest son, said his father died of age-related “medical challenges”.

Guobadia, the Aisagbonrioba of Benin, was the first President and District Governor of Rotary International in Nigeria.  He founded the Rotary Club in Ibadan in 1961 after returning to Nigeria from his electrical engineering studies at the Regent Polytechnic, London, UK, where he was the development engineer for Redifussion (Nigeria) Limited, in charge of the then Western Region.

In 1963, Chief Guobadia founded Maiden Electronics Works Limited, the first indigenous Nigerian electronics company, which would have been named “National Electronics Company” but for the registrar of companies who declined, noting that it would be seen as a government enterprise. After four years of satisfactory business, this captain of industry built a modern factory assembling radio and television sets. 

On the boards of numerous companies in various sectors including banking, insurance, agriculture, retail, trading, healthcare and manufacturing, Guobadia was from 1971-1975, the deputy president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries.  

Conservation and philanthropy were very important to Guobadia. He set up the Anofi & Grace Guobadia Foundation, which to date, has awarded no fewer than 150 scholarships to indigent girls in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions as well as the Pacelli School of the Blind which was one of the charities supported by Dr Grace Guobadia, his late wife in her lifetime.

He was a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF International) and a member of the founding trustees of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF). A keen golfer, Guobadia played up until last year. According to him, “Golf is a game that disciplines you and builds you up, mentally and physically.”

He was a devoted parishioner of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos and a member of the Cathedral Torch Bearers. His philosophy was: service.

His survivors include Ogbe & Felitia, Orhue & Bayo Imosemi, Osato Guobadia, his grandson Adonye Guobadia and a host of other relations.

May his soul rest in peace.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013. 2:28:45 p.m. [GMT]

Dada is the [Nigerian] Yoruba word for “dreadlocks”.

Little Tiana Parker who has had to switch schools as her former school does not allow the wearing of dreadlocks!

[Picture from /Fox News]

Link to story at bottom of essay

Allow me to first say this:  it IS White America that suffers “angst” about African-American hair, a situation that the dominant culture has forced the minority and oppressed population to accept without the minority realizing – rather – being able to do anything about it; that it is a choice that is definitely out of their hands for the most part; a sort of fait accompli:  do SOMETHING to that hair, lighten up your skin – or you won’t get the anchor job, etcetera.  In America, however, African-American females are the one finger-pointed for having “hair angst”; talk of turning the table on your opponent!  Black America is obsessed about hair BECAUSE White America – like the rest of the non-black world, is obsessed with hair.

I think all cultures have the tendency to feel superior to others but Africa has just been very unlucky in terms of leadership and governance, a situation that has turned her peoples, especially South of the Sahara, into despised peoples around the world.  One could not ever write enough about the effect of the failure of Nigeria to deploy its size AND resources to provide a shoulder others can lean on because as its leadership goes cap in hand begging for grants and loans everywhere of even less than a million US dollars, and including a disgraceful trip to request the Indonesian government to invest in a joint venture refinery; single individuals in government misappropriate millions of dollars on daily basis.

Cultural superiority?  When I was in my late teens, I heard a much older woman once wonder aloud (in Yoruba) her opinion of her son who had returned to Nigeria with a white woman as spouse to two other women:  “How could X bear to look into Y’s eyes at night with those eyes glowing like a lion’s and a nose like …?”  She also asked, among  other queries I wouldn’t want to repeat here:  “why Y’s behind is so wide and flat”!  The two women present shook their heads dejectedly while I laughed, a laughter quickly shut up with eyes that said millions of words!

Of course in the West this would be considered racist but the woman and her listeners would not think so because she liked her daughter-in-law but the reason I bring it up is that the same white woman’s “behind” – pardon me – which most Nigerian males and females – possibly most Africans hate is pushed as ideal and beautiful in the White world while the African female’s “behind” is made scorn of.  Within the past year, Michelle Obama’s “behind” has been the butt of racist rants not to mention her hair that is “not really hers” as if the zillions of lion-type mane American and world females wear these days are theirs; most women would do most things to enhance their looks, including this essayist!  I say, good for all of them but the point I’m trying to raise is that if Africa was the dominant world economic and political power, its ideas of beauty may also have been pushed as ideals.

The goal of Africans, African-Americans and others in our Diaspora should be to work on our children’s confidence from an early age so that they know and define themselves as they see themselves and not allow others to define them.

DADA or Dreadlocks

In Yoruba History, kids born with hair that Yoruba believe must not be combed or cut off till a certain ritual is performed have always been adored so much that people not born with the same hair type wished they were!  I think artificial dreading grew out of that longing, and of course, Bob Marley made dreading borne out of religious/political conviction, famous.

These days, there are young professional ladies – including one of my kids, excuse me – who wear artificial dreads!  Unlike chemical treatment which damages hair – I did that for years until the 1980s – dreads actually grow hair without the pulling and stretching of weaving.braiding, and for professional women, the ease of care which is just washing, air-drying or going under a hair-dryer, makes it practicable.  It saves the hair line and is also beautiful.

Now, the damage being done to a girl as young as Little Tiana Parker, the girl in the story – see link below – follows a pattern of imposition of cultural values of White America on others without regard to the sensitivity of those Others.

I’ve often been baffled about the term “African-American hair angst”, something I’ve never felt, nor seen MOST females in my native Nigeria feel, in my nearly 70 years on this earth and IN SPITE OF having lived in the States on and off for decades.  Nigerian women feel perhaps more anxiety over their clothes and being in vogue than over their hair even though they also go to great lengths and spend a lot of money on doing whatever they feel comfortable with to their hair:  chemical relaxing, weaving, braiding or wearing afro.

I was stunned when an African-American friend who was a co-worker at the Wheaton [then]Plaza Casual Corner in 1975 where I had a part-time job remarked that “you have GOOD HAIR”!  As of then, I had not introduced chemical straighteners to my hair and was surprised by her statement but she was born and raised in America where the subtle and not-so-subtle racist ploys get most very early.

The 70s Hair AND students’ Dig filled with mis-match pool-side furniture, et al – pick-ups from garage sales that passed for furniture which the Osogbo arts more than elevate!  [Photo Credit:  Depo Adenle, USA,1973]

Now, the “style” of afro hairdo in the first picture is clearly a hair DON’T but I experienced no angst back then in ’71 with Nigerian students at the University of Florida, and none in the intervening years till today.  [Photo Credit:  Muyiwa Sorinmade whose spouse is the other lady in the pix.]

In the the second picture is me – no hair angst – wearing afro and showing where part of my sports heart belongs as I display an old Washington [basketball] Bullets – now Washington WHAT (?) pennant in the Nevada Desert long after the Bullets stopped winning. The name change, by the way, has not brought happy days to fans.  [Photo Credit:  Depo Adenle, Vegas 1990.]

Neither of these guys whom we met professionally and also at their homes with their families, showed any “angst” at my afro, nor me, the wearer experience any supposed anxiety about being natural.  American cultural values imposed on non-Whites, especially African-Americans perhaps got to me too late in life.  Like all people we met and had dealings with, at school, work, etcetera, including more than quite a few racists, none displayed “angst” nor did I feel obsessed about my hair enough to be angst-ed!  [1977, Washington, D.C.]

While, like any woman proud of the gender, I do my damned-est(!) to vary my looks – hair, clothes, etcetera – I own wigs, including braided ones which I wear as the mood and spirit dictate, here is a look this past month.

And, finally, from the “chemical relaxing” years, comes this:

Three Sisters, hair permed to their utmost limits, look no more confident – nor better looking – than they always did way back!

Photo Credit:  Depo Adenle, March 13, 1982

This “angst” word is re-echoing now – as it does from time to time in America, and as it definitely will through the ages – because of the story of Little Tina Parker in the United States, and because its intent/spirit surfaces also in Chimamanda Adichie’s latest book, AMERICANAH.

It shocks more than surprises me because Ms. Adichie did not move to the States till her adult years, a situation that would be expected to have grounded and steeled her in her own cultural values, especially as those powerful earlier books under her by-line show a confident African woman.  But editors in the West are powerful and very persuasive people which may tend to support Yemisi Ogbe’s line about the possibility of her editor making demands that bring about Ms. Adichie’s negative portrayal of most things Nigerian, in particular about  the Nigerian male the way she did:  for marketability of her book.

I had been planning on reviewing it until I saw Ms. Ogbe’s work; mine could not have matched her effort.

I have never met a Nigerian – or African – woman “overwhelmed by hair issues” as Ms. Ogbe elegantly puts Ms. Adichie’s obsession of  Ifemelu about her hair. It is the only salable/marketable image of the black woman that would be acceptable by White America where most of the American-published book will be sold, and while being 100 percent on the side of our African-American sisters, one cannot but condemn this banner of pureness of hair being unfurled, raised and now being foisted by an African writer.

Dominic Dawes, won gold medals in both the individual and team all-around competition but great as that achievement is, the other spunky young lady, Gabby was even better. (Second pictures, Left) While Ms. Dawes might have gotten away with her short, short hair in 1996 but poor Gabby Douglas did not stand a chance as the pillorying started even before she returned as the best in USA’s contestants at the 2012 London Olympics.  She was a marked woman: describing a 16 year-old as “a fashion disaster” is not exactly a way to give her confidence or even the way to thank her for what she achieved for her country.

Apart from multiple Firsts for African-Americans, here are a couple of other American firsts:  ”the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics as well as being the only American All-Around Champion to win multiple gold medals, thus far.” [Wikipedia] 

Poor 16 year-old Gabby, mocked up as if to be  shot at a shooting range before quartering!

From a sarcastic online site after the “beauty flaws” of the teenager became the hottest topic EVERYWHERE after the Olympics triumph of Gabby.

POST-OLYMPICS GABBY was born almost immediately after the Olympics.  

I’m sure her agent(s) must have whispered loud and clear to her and her mom:  for advertising marketability, we HAVE TO do something about THAT HAIR!  None can or should blame her or her mother because it took her mom years of sacrifice – financial and separation – to get her to the level of achieving those incredible feats at the last Olympics.There’s nothing wrong in choosing to change one’s look but the 16 year-old was definitely put through the vicious cultural mill of America to fit the image of a perfect young woman.

Gabby throwing out the first pitch at a Baseball game, a sign of having arrived and being ACCEPTED as a great in good old USA.  She more than deserves her place in the [financial] sun.  [Photo Credit: Wikipedia]

Dominique Dawes, 1996. vashtie.com

Gabrielle Douglas, 2012. biography.com

And with Little Tiana Parker having to part with her friends at her old school over her not-acceptable hair style, another round of debate on “African-American women and hair angst” must be going on now in America.

Hey, by the way, the literary giant Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, happens to be African-American AND the Lady wears dreads and always looks great! Oklahoma educators and others in White America with “angst” about black hair, I believe our sisters are NOT born with hair angst but have it forced on many.

Little Tiana’s Oklahoma School – read the story through the link at the end of this essay – banned afros, among other hair styles and things. The afro here and the dreadlock-ed below, fit the incomparable Ms. Morrison beautifully.

And a beautiful woman for Little Miss Tina Parker to look up to: all dreadlock-ed AND LOTS & LOTS OF BRAIN

Read Tiana’s story, the girl reduced to tears for being forced to switch schools over her dreadlocks:

TULSA [USA] GIRL  SCHOOLS OVER DREADLOCKS, by Sarah B. Weir

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/tulsa-girl-switches-schools-over-dreadlocks-181400766.html

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2013.  2:36 p.m. [GMT]

Photo Credit:  USTA Official Website

Two lovely STRONG and determined young ladies, and two different words but similar sentiment of respect for each other at the end of a match with statistics that may not exactly tell the whole story.  What a match that kept fans up in zones further East of EST up till Monday’s early hours and beyond.

In the end, the hungrier [older] young lady won, and it was definitely apparent that Serena wanted it more, even much more than her body and thinking process were able to cooperate with, and a little more than Vika whose Era/Reign was announced at Arthur Ashe Stadium with her gutsy performance against an opponent whom she had acknowledged before their match as the greatest ever.

What a delightful match to watch like millions around the world!  Definitely one down for the ages.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013.  5:04:06 a.m. [GMT]

http://rhondagessner.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/a-killer-in-your-fridge-sweet-poison-a-must-read/

You may also be interested in:

Health Series: You and Diet Drinks:  Do Diet Drinks Mess Up Metabolisms

http://emotanafricana.com/2013/07/15/health-series-you-and-diet-drinks/

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013.  9:36 a.m. [GMT]

Omomeji – Twins – from your Name, Taiyelolu another name for Taiwo, the first to be born of twins though considered by the Yoruba to be younger than Kehinde!
Thanks for this important question.

While most Yoruba towns and settlements – not the cities in modern times – have market days, I’m sure Iseyin must have but you can travel there ANY day and purchase but since you won’t find people selling aṣọ oke just everywhere, I suggest you travel to the town – veer left at Mọniya after Ọjọọ on Ibadan Oyo Road. At Iseyin, drive straight until you find a blacksmith shed where a few men work and ask for Alhaji Alarape Alaṣọ Oke. His home and storage place are just up the road from the blacksmiths. I haven’t been to Iseyin in quite a while and in case he is not available, the blacksmiths would direct you to others. The towns-people are generally very helpful to tourists.

PLEASE NOTE:
1. Check your Oje (Ibadan & Ede) market days and do NOT travel to Iseyin on those days as many of the sellers are always out of town to the markets.

2. You are not likely to find the flamboyant colors or the bride and groom – t’ọkọ t’aya ready-to-go designs at Iseyin but in the open markets at Oje of the two cities and in boutiques in cities.

3. If you travel to Iseyin, you can purchase the aṣọ ẹbi sets which are always available in large quantities ready-to-go. You will be saving a lot of money but you must factor in your time and the journey.

4. To buy any of the three classics, Sanyan, Etu & Alaari, you will require two trips because they are generally not woven ready-to-go IN MOST CASES. You may need a single trip if you place your order – they will provide top-rate embroidery – j’akan – for the men’s wear and would give useful advice; pick-up can be done at any of the Oje cities on market days at a date to be pre-arranged.

5. What I like most about going to the source – Ilorin is also another but I do not travel there – is that you can choose the threads in the color combinations that you want. I have aso oke that are woven that way that I have never come across anybody else wearing them!

If you need further advice, please email me at my info@emotanafricana.comortolaadenle@emotanafricana.com

Best wishes.
TOLA.

PS. 1.  I will also post this as you’ve requested v. useful information that others may find helpful. TOLA.

2. Ondo is also another great center for Yoruba aso oke.  I recently learnt that the Market at Ugele in Ondo Town is EVERYDAY.  You can get variety of the reds for which the Ondo are very famous for as well as other types.

Ondo is about an hour from Akure, the state’s capital, or from Ibadan, ask at Ile-Ife city entrance where you should make a right; it’s also about an hour.  TOLA.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013.  9:27 a.m. [GMT]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/history/2013/09/danny_lewin_the_first_victim_on_9_11_and_an_architect_of_the_internet.html

Slate.com    September 11, 2013

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013.  10:53:58 p.m.

The Nigerian government is yet to react to the claim.

British luxury products company, Gold and CO, has revealed that it has an order from the Nigerian government to deliver 53 customised gold iphones for the celebration of the next independence celebration.

The founder of Gold and Co, Amjad Ali,, told the UK’s Independent newspaperthat the Nigerian government has made an order of “53 gold iPhones to mark the country’s 53rd year of independence from Britain next month.”

Mr. Ali told the Independent that the order from the Nigerian government “will [be] engraved them with [Nigeria’s] coat of arms, a shield and two horses,”

Mr. Ali’s Gold and Co clients include royal families, governments, and wealthy individuals from across the world.

A gold-plated device costs between £3000 and £50,000 (N750,000 to 12.5 million). The order from the government with its customised coat of arm is believed to be among the constant premium orders the company gets.

The London-based company recently received an order from the Saudi royal family for “a gold iPhone studded with hundreds of diamonds, including a giant piece that served as the device’s ‘home’ button.”

Gold and Co is yet to respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiry about the Nigerian agency or official that made the order and the exact cost of the order from the government.

When contacted, Joseph Mutah, the spokesman for the Information Minister, Labaran Maku, asked for an SMS enquiry, which was sent.
Mr. Mutah promised to get back to PREMIUM TIMES on the federal government’s position.

Related Story:    http://saharareporters.com/news-page/gold-iphones-jonathan-administration-back-familiar-denial-mode

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013.  11:27 p.m. [GMT]

Since my relocation to the USA, I have just one thing that attracts my curiosity more than anything. Yes, not the organized culture, nor the structural engineering. I mean, not even some of their different life-styles (gayism, trans-gendering, sexually-implicit mode of dressing etc). 

Dr. Olusegun Agagu, a former University of Ibadan lecturer who went into politics and joined Nigeria’s ruling PDP from which he contested the governorship Ondo State seat, died yesterday.

When the contentious elections of Obasanjo era in 2003 were announced, Dr. Agagu’s “victory” could not be announced at Akure, the state capital as is the usual practice because most believed he was rigged in.  The Action Congress Party Candidate and the party would lick their wounds after unsuccessfully challenging the verdict.  Agagu would then rule Ondo State as governor and run for a second term in 2007, another election that saw the same PDP machinery at work but Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labor Party would challenge the verdict till he got his mandate back through the courts.  Akure, the state capital, saw wide and wild jubilation on the verdict.

Dr. Agagu attended Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan where he studied Geology, and later taught at the same institution .  He hailed from Ikale in Ondo State’s  Riverine (Waterside) area.  He is survived by a wife and children.

May his soul rest in peace.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2013.  7:10:26 a.m. [GMT]

http://news.yahoo.com/nigerian-villagers-reject-shell-oil-spill-compensation-offer-083134654.html

A few of the Comments that show how mad most people are about the taking-for-granted that big oil does with poor countries like Nigeria.

Fred

Read the rest of the sermon delivered on the first anniversary of the Dana Air Crash on June 9, 2013 by social activist, Bishop Matthew Kuka.

Leadership Newspaper –   http://leadership.ng/news/090613/dana-air-crash-anniversary-sermon-bishop-kukah

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013.  4:35:50 a.m.