In January 2015, the Warrior Poets collective invited me to speak at Litanies For Survival, part of Afropean+ at The Bozar Centre For Fine Arts in Brussels. The event turned out to be a vibrant, memorable night of African culture – music, fashion, talks, art, dance, flash mobs – taking over one of Europe’s leading art institutions. Other talks and…
Archives for February 2015
On Afropolitanism and westernisation
While reading Olufemi Taiwo’s book “Africa Must Be Modern”, I came across the following: It is almost required of an African intellectual that she or he be hostile to modernity and it suppositions. It is almost as if an African like me who deliberately embraces modernity as a way of life that promises at the…
‘Oya Part II’ – A poem’s journey
OYA Part II February 14, 1569, The Slave Coast. A boy bathes where water whorls with wind, rock and sand. His limbs lithely disrupt the flow of the N’ger-n-gereo with a graceful tap. He is the water, as a ballet dancer is the ballet. February 14, 1799, Oil Rivers. Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim, they have…
Citizens and women – two neglected words in Nigeria’s elections
Nigerians have experienced some of the most unstable five years in their country’s history under the rule of President Goodluck Jonathan. Not so much because the problems we face today – such as poor infrastructure, oil corruption and terrorism – have not previously existed but because there is a heightened sense of awareness among citizens, a…