The Christmas Carnage by Boko Haram

This is what these criminals, these animals called Boko Haram did to worshippers at the St. Teresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Nigeria on Christmas Day. The sickness of this entity called Nigeria gets worse. Optimism dies, again. Like Emmet Till's mother, I believe these images must be seen. Otherwise, it is impossible to imagine the blood-thirstiness of these present-day savages, or to understand the what President Jonathan means when he said, in response to the Christmas Day bombings, that Nigerians must wait patiently until the Boko Haram scourge "fizzles" out. Dare not to look.

Ayodele Jegede (In Memoriam)

How, tell me, does one say farewell to the future
When the night refuses to wake, terrified
by the dirge of prosthetic gods?

With these hands calloused by grief
With this heart bloated by sorrow, how
Tell me, does one bury a child?

The Bishop and the "Witch for Christ"

It is old news that the proliferation of mega-churches and zillionaire televangelists in Nigeria and the third world is directly linked to the unrelenting pauperization of lower and middle classes. Thus it is no wonder that one of the visible outcomes of the IMF and World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programs of the 1980s was the rise of "prosperity churches" whose pastors project onto the mental screens of their impoverished members visions of miraculous riches...OK., I am going off on a tangent here. The thing is that I came across this video of a disturbing "deliverance" session in the church of Bishop Oyedepo, reputedly the wealthiest of Nigeria's super-rich pastors. Does the Nigerian law--any law--allow this man to abuse this hapless young woman in the way he does in this video? And to imagine that the congregation seems to have applauded his action. It says something about the power these men and women wield; they way they behave like despotic sovereigns, all in the name of Christ.
Just watch for yourself. 

The Lyrical Art of "Twin Poets"

I heard of the lyrical art of "Twin Poets" (Al and Nnamdi)--these two young Igbo-American poets whose work I knew nothing about until--just last week. And if this performance typifies their spoken word poetry, I would not mind listening to them all the time in saecula saeculorum! 

Remembering Biafra

The shame of Nigeria, and the world that supported its murderous campaign against Biafra (because of oil in the Niger Delta), is that decades after that war, not much has changed. Nigeria remains as divided, unworkable, precarious as it was in the months and years leading up to the genocide of the Igbo in Northern Nigeria in the summer of 1966. Ojukwu has done his work and moved on, but the spirit of Biafra lives.

The structurally insufficient entity called Nigeria lumbers on--denied of total collapse only by a criminally corrupt politically elite and global economic interests--leaving in its wake now-frequent stream of "sorrow, tears and blood."  It continues to be haunted by the restless spirits of dead Biafran children; children who, unlike me, could not survive the mass starvation campaign and bombings of Biafran hospitals and markets.

When, Nigeria, will be the day of atonement?  

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP--Univ. of Witwatersrand

POST DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP in the Centre for Creative Arts of Africa, University of the Witwatersrand.

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Centre for the Creative Arts of Africa (CCAA) at the University if the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The Centre is funded by the AW Mellon Foundation and will be situated in the Wits Art Museum. The Postdoctoral Fellow will work with the Chair in the Creative Arts of Africa (Director of the Centre) on research which will work outwards from the collections of historical and contemporary African arts in the Wits Art Museum. The collection contains not only visual arts, but also musical instruments and objects which are part of performance arts and dress repertoires. We are therefore looking for a fellow who has research experience in one or more of the following fields: African visual art, African music, African performance arts, African dress. The fellow will be required to do some teaching in the Wits School of Arts undergraduate programmes, and will be expected to participate in exhibitions and publications planned within the Wits Art Museum.

The Fellowship will be for a period of 20 months and will include a stipend, a shared office with own computer, library access and a small research grant per year. The fellowship will start in March/April 2012, and will end in December 2013.

Applications must be sent to Professor Anitra Nettleton anitra.nettleton@wits.ac.za and should include

title and abstract of the doctoral thesis,

copies of completed articles or published essays (if any)

the names and email addresses of two referees, one of whom should be the supervisor of the doctorate.

Submission deadline 31^st January 2012

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1933-2011)

Kaemesia, Enyi Biafra!

Dike eji eje mba

Nwa Sir Louis-na-Nnewi

Odumegwu Ojukwu

Jee ọfụma, Odogwu Biafra!

Nwa amụlụ n'ego

Jelụ Sandhurst tute ugo

N’afa ndị Naijiria

Nọdụ mma, Ọchịagha Biafra!

Jelu Aburi gwa Gowon

Na Igbo abụro osisi

Nụlụ na-aga egbu ya kwụlụ

Jee n'udo Ikemba Nnewi

Jee gwakwa ndị ichie

na alụ Naijiria talụ anyị n’agha

ekwerọ anyị afụ ụzọ

Ma ka m jụọkwanụ:

Onye ga-agụgụ anyị?

Ka anyị a ga-atọzị

N’akwa ndeli?