Word of the Day: “One single finger cannot pick a louse.” – Liberian Proverb.
Today in history in 1848,
“Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as Liberia’s first president, in Monrovia. Nathaniel Brander is sworn-in as the vice president of the five month-old country.”
Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/31-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 03, 2024).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 03, 2024).Word of the Day: “Every monkey is a gazelle in its mother’s eyes.” – Tunisian Proverb.
Today in history in 1909,
Dr. Tewhida Ben Sheikh was born. She was the first Muslim woman to become a physician in North Africa, in Tunisia. She was a pioneer gynecologist who did progressive work in contraception and abortion access. After her long career and life, she died at age 101 in 2010. She became the first woman to appear on Tunisian currency, the 10-dinar note, in 2020.”
Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/31-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 2, 2024).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 2, 2024).Word of the Day: “If you fill your mouth with a razor, you will spit blood.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1940, Molara Ogundipe, a Nigerian poet, writer and pioneering African feminist was born in Lagos, Nigeria. From the early 1960s, she was one of the leading writers exploring African feminism, as a critic focusing on gender studies and literary theory. She would become an important authority on the topic of African women in general and the global feminism movement. Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/27-dec#google_vignette
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 27, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 27, 2023).
Word of the Day: “The day on which one starts out is not the time to start one’s preparations.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1970,
Chioma Ajunwa, the first Nigerian to win an Olympics gold medal, in Imo, Nigeria was born. She was the first black African woman to win an Olympics gold medal in a field event, at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 25, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 25, 2023).
Word of the Day: “He whose covering belongs to others is uncovered.” – Libyan Proverb.
Today in history in 1951, Libya achieves national independence.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 24, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 24, 2023).
Word of the Day: “Whoever is patient with a cowrie shell will one day have thousands of them.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1969, the Nigerian Civil War draws to a close with Nigerian federal forces’ final military push against the breakaway Republic of Biafra, with an offensive led by future Nigerian president Col. Olusegun Obasanjo.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 23, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 23, 2023).
Word of the Day: “If you fail to be a lizard in your own land, you will fail to be a crocodile in another land.” – Mozambique Proverb.
Today in history in 1937,
Mozambique’s national airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique begins operations.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 22, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 22, 2023).Word of the Day: “If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building, or do you change the nail?” – Rwandan Proverb
Today in history in 2017, Shisa, a popular and highly addictive tobacco pipe is banned in Rwanda, following the World Health Organisation’s finding that smoking a shisa for one hour equals smoking 100 cigarettes.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 15, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 15, 2023).Word of the Day: “The one who fetches the water is the one who is likely to break the pot.” – Ugandan Proverb
Today in history in 1961, the Transition magazine in Kampala, Uganda, was first published by Rajat Neogy. Launched with the manifesto to provide ‘an intelligent and creative backdrop to the East African scene,’ the magazine quickly became a cornerstone of African literary and cultural discourse. However, Neogy’s bold criticism in a 1968 article against President Milton Obote’s plans to amend the Ugandan constitution led to his imprisonment. By then a significant pan-African publication, Transition relocated to Ghana in 1971. Despite closing in 1976 due to financial constraints, the magazine was revived in 1991 by American historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., reimagined as an international publication focusing on race and culture, particularly within the African diaspora.
Here’s it today https://transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 13, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 13, 2023).
While the Nigerian state is being divided on religious lines, the Middle East gets dichotomized with the spilled blood of the dead and injured, the Mexican wall goes up in defiance, Britain is exiting the European Union at all cost, Lybia is tearing her own skin out of her body and so on, individuals around the world, as is in this case, Paulo Jose Monteiro da Silva with his family is living the life of a man on a journey back home, irrespective of how many crossroads he meets on the way.
Like so many other naturalized Brazillians, having been born and raised in Brazil after many generations of inbreeding and cross-cultural relationships, Paulo knew no other culture until, reading through the newspapers Continue reading Crossroads, homeward. The Journey of a Brazilian Babalawo by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
What the Mexican Wall does to a people on either side is what divisive words do. It is not more Mexican than it is of American since Mexicans did not initiate the idea for the wall and largely do not favour its construction. The newly inaugurated President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, did.
For convenience, let’s be content with the term flying in mainstream media, ‘Mexican Wall’ rather than the American Wall. It is a symbol that aims to herald the isolationist policies of the new government of USA. As if slamming the door in Mexico’s face was not enough, the latter has to pay for the construction of the wall, 100 percent. How, even though the Mexican government has said her sovereign self will pay for no such construction, while Trump insists they will? Continue reading Islamization of Nigeria: The example of the Mexican Border Wall by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
These past few weeks have seen me skim the local television stations looking for one political campaign or the other, and I must confess it has been an interesting venture for me; I hope am speaking for a greater number of you too. But in all, I want us to hold on to one of the concepts of realism which is “ the determination to face facts and deal with issues practically without being influenced by any sentiments or false ideas; it is the showing of things as they are”.
BTW: I couldn’t submit anything last week as all that came to mind was about that Hotter Big Shop (I hope you can decode), but my preference to yield to the admonition to do no harm to men in cassock made me keep myself away from writing this column altogether. Continue reading #PAUSIBILITY: Change Is The Only Constant Thing by Adebayo Coker
For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
– Jesus, The Christ.
Nigeria is said to be a very religious country. According to a 2003 report, which is recorded in Wikipedia, 50.4 % of Nigeria’s population are Muslims, while 48.2 % are Christians, and 1.4 % adhere to other religions. Which is another way of saying that practically all Nigerians believe in one religion or the other. Almost everywhere in the Southern part of the country can be seen churches and other such Christian gatherings. While, in the North, blood is constantly shed in The Name of God. Thus giving the impression that Nigeria is a country of citizens who live a life of total commitment to The Almighty. Yet, like The Christ has said, “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Thus you see the hypocritical and lawless Nigerians trying to dictate morals to the West. “No,” it says to Western leaders. “We cannot accept your homosexuality. We cannot accept your perversion.” Then it concludes its moralizing with threats of a very heavy jail term for those unfortunate enough to be caught practising homosexuality in the country. A conclusion that was applauded by most of its citizens; who placed editorials in the Press, letters to editors of newspapers and magazines, essays and articles, and other such opinions, all in the mass media; all expressing their approval of the motion and their denunciation of Western perversion. Continue reading NIGERIA: THE NATION OF HYPOCRITES by Ikoro Iyineleda
Last week Friday, the 4th of July, 2014, Lagos, The Centre of Excellence, and one of the foremost cosmopolitan cities in the world, was thrown into pandemonium by some soldiers of the Nigerian Army. Few hours later, the official statement, as is typical of reports of an official carnage like this, came from the Defence Headquarters vide the lips of the Minister of State for Defence , that the ‘situation’ was taken advantage of by some urchins (take note of my inverted commas). I said to myself “that complied with the advancement of state complicity in lawlessness, as is typical of the situation that birthed ‘Unknown Soldiers’ in the 70s”.
I wish Thomas Hobbes had lived till date and beheld the present day Lagos, I am sure he would not have thought that anyone, regardless of the level of his/her crudeness, would yield to brutishness in dealing with issues of civil infraction. Let me put it rightly, not even a goat would love to deface this modern city that all Nigerians are proud of (how much more a rational being in relation to state properties?). But Hobbes would have been more disappointed (I am as disappointed) that the set of people he had thought would safeguard the Commonwealth as he had Continue reading #PAUSIBILITY: NIGERIAN ARMY THROUGH THOMAS HOBBES’ EYES by Adebayo Coker
I considered starting AXIOM, my own blog last week as there was so much anxiety in me to share #PAUSIBILTY: PRAYERS FOR THE THOMASES which was reworded to #PAUSIBILITY: SEE HOW LUTH IS LOOTING THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY on www.omojuwa.com by the administrator(s) of the website at their own discretion.
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Third Edition describes axiom as a statement or principle which is generally accepted to be true, but need not be so. The example that was given in further explanation of that word is a perfect fit to what we are faced with at the moment: it is a widely held axiom that governments should not negotiate with terrorists.
These past few days have seen many Nigerians comment on the statements made by two prominent USA Senators (based on their personal assessment) concerning the situation of Nigeria. Both Senators had at some time in their political careers took a shot at becoming the President of the United States. They are also hi-tech diplomats that must have interacted with different world leaders at different fora. They must have known the corruption fecundity and diplomatic infertility of our leaders. Continue reading #PAUSIBILITY: STERLING COMMENTS by Adebayo Coker
Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of modern times, passed away Thursday at his home in Johannesburg after a prolonged lung infection. He was 95.
South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, “the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” adding that he “passed on peacefully.”
“Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” Zuma said.
“Our thoughts are with the millions of people who embraced Mandela as their own and who saw his cause as their cause.… This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.” Continue reading Nelson Mandela dead at 95
In the event that the question is posed “Who constitutes the African first-timers?”, they are the Africans who, in spite of the status quo at their time, belled the cat whether by choice or by chance. By that, we mean Africans who did things that were hitherto considered impossible, too risky or just way above the reach of any African and trust me we have more than enough names that can get mentioned in a single piece as this.
Let’s do ourselves a favour by mentioning some.
BARACK OBAMA This is the first African (African American, as some call him) and 44th President of the United States of America. Born by a Kenyan father, what drove him to the top of the American government must have been internal much more than external. An inner resolve and drive to get to the top. In this vein, quite a number Continue reading Role Models: African first-timers…
He is just 31 years old and he already heads a vast business empire that he built from scratch. His name is Ashish Thakkar and he’s the founder of the pan-African multi-sector business conglomerate Mara Group.
Here on the board of lAkUnLeScReWs, we present you his words, exclusively especially as they touch on Africa and her brewing greatness.
“Money should never be a measurement for anything.”
“I like to see myself as an entrepreneur that’s being disruptive — I like to be the underdog in a lot of cases,” “It’s all about how you go about it; but one thing I definitely don’t want to be known as is as ‘Africa’s youngest billionaire.'”
“Thakkar is gearing up to become the first ever East African in space, proudly representing the region in the Virgin Galactic program, which offers paying customers the opportunity to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.” – CNN
Consequent upon the above, he said…
“I’m taking quite a few of flags into space, as a way to kind of send a strong message that ‘look, we as Africa have the vision and the ability as well.”
“It’s something that started off for fun and it’s actually turned out to be something quite nice where we can send a strong message to say, ‘we’re coming, we’re going to mark our space in that territory too.”
“The idea initially was to do it for the two months during my summer holiday.” Thakkar.” And when school started again I conveniently didn’t tell my parents that it did, and obviously they figured me out in a week.”
Continue reading The African who believes in Africa. To fly African flags in space…
(CNN) — The rise of Africa’s long forlorn economies – what we at Renaissance Capital have dubbed “The Fastest Billion” – represents the final phase of a global economic transformation that began over 200 years ago as agrarian societies saddled with absolute rulers began their journey through industrialization into the pluralistic middle-class societies increasingly driven by the information age we know today.
For many reasons, Africa largely missed out on this journey. But no longer: while the process will not be complete by 2050, a changing set of global and local realities suggest that Africa is set to be the final beneficiary of this revolution. Continue reading CNN – Get Ready for an Africa Boom
lAkUnLeScReWs 