There is currently an attempt by paid government hacks, fanatical supporters and ethnic/religious affiliates of the Buhari administration to minimise, obfuscate, and even deny the Lekki massacre by a unit of the Nigerian military on October 20, 2020 even though the massacre was captured live on social media and by both local and international journalists. […]
Badetona was genuinely possessed of a retiring temperament. Left to him, he would even have discarded his princely title but, that was now part of his existence, and it also had its advantages. Jaiyesola however saw it differently. The position lacked public recognition. A prince without a throne – it […]
After decades of jousting with the powers that be and living to tell the tale, Wole Soyinka has returned to his roots: story-telling. And though it’s been nearly 40 years after his last work of prose fiction, Wole Soyinka proves with this novel that he has lost none of his story-telling chops! A narrative tour […]
Starlite Memories – Misadventures in moviemaking, by Dov Fedler (Tafelberg) What is the Zulu word for “furtive”? This is one of the first challenges Dov Fedler confronts when he begins to direct a shoestring budget movie for black audiences called Timer Joe Part 3. Fedler speaks no Zulu, but on the first day of filming in […]
Writing is fighting. That is the dictum of the fiery African-American writer Ishmael Reed who wrote a book entitled Writing is Fighting. Whether taken literally or otherwise writers fire bullets with words, and in some instances actually take up guns to go shooting. A landmark example was Nigeria’s most influential poet, Christopher Okigbo, who died young […]
SOME NIGHTS AFTERWARDS, a furtive hand knocked on the door of Professor Belejayan. The Professor woke up his wife. “Go and open the door, dear.” “What is it?” she inquired drowsily “Someone at the door.” “I am asleep.” […]
Ever since the era of Nigeria’s independence leaders, namely, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello, there have hardly been political leaders who have been able to capture the country’s sense of largeness; largeness in term of diversity, imagination, resourcefulness and sheer numbers. Being the most populous black nation in […]
On 14 December 2019, which is ten months ago, I had one of those chance encounters that seem too propitious not to memorialise. So I made the following post, together with photos, on WhatsApp and Facebook, entitled Setting out for Lagos with Prof. J. P. Clark-Bekederemo: “I entered the VIP lounge at the Osubi-Warri Airstrip to […]
The living legend, Emeritus Professor John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, universally known as JP Clark, passed away in the early hours of Tuesday, October 13, aged 85. Tributes have poured in from across the globe in celebration of the iconic poet, dramatist and folklorist. JP Clark belonged to the troika of […]
There’s less than a month before the US election on November 3 and there is so much going on it’s hard to keep up. The rollercoaster of Trump, his awfulness and his corona causes one to forget how much he has damaged not only America but the world. Thank goodness there are hundreds of books […]
