FOR LOVERS OF NOVELS...BEST 2016

SOME GREAT IDEOLOGIES TO LIVE BY.









“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?

The time is always right to do what is right.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ”30

“

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”

“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”

“Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”34

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”29

“Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.”

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

“There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”34

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”29

“Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.”

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

“There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”

“A lie cannot live.”

“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows”

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes on Love

“He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

“Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”

“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

“It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”22

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

“By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists … Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”

“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’

“Seeing is not always believing.”

“The evidence of Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I have a dream” declaration was a passionate confirmation of how a dream meant for liberation, success and fulfilled life can become true.” ―Israelmore Ayivor, Shaping the Dream

“We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization – black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King Jr. did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love…. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.” ―Robert F. Kennedy

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength.” ―Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I

“We can’t answer King’s assassination with violence. That would be the worst tribute we could pay him.” ―Sammy Davis Jr.

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

THIS 21ST CENTURY

The Story Behind the

Book....HALF OF A YELLOW SUN....ADICHIE.

Both my grandfathers were interesting men, both born in the early 1900s in British-controlled Igbo land, both determined to educate their children, both with a keen sense of humor, both proud. I know this from stories I have been told. Eight years before I was born, they died in Biafra as refugees after fleeing hometowns that had fallen to federal troops. I grew up in the shadow of Biafra. I grew up hearing ‘before the war’ and ‘after the war’ stories; it was as if the war had somehow divided the memories of my family. I have always wanted to write about Biafra—not only to honor my grandfathers, but also to honor the collective memory of an entire nation. Writing Half of a Yellow Sun has been my re-imagining of something I did not experience but whose legacy I carry. It is also, I hope, my tribute to love: the unreasonable, resilient thing that holds people together and makes us human.

Q & A with the Author

Q: What led you to write a book about the Nigeria-Biafra war?

I wrote this novel because I wanted to write about love and war, because I grew up in the shadow of Biafra, because I lost both grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra war, because I wanted to engage with my history in order to make sense of my present, many of the issues that led to the war remain unresolved in Nigeria today, because my father has tears in his eyes when he speaks of losing his father, because my mother still cannot speak at length about losing her father in a refugee camp, because the brutal bequests of colonialism make me angry, because the thought of the egos and indifference of men leading to the unnecessary deaths of men and women and children enrages me, because I don’t ever want to forget. I have always known that I would write a novel about Biafra. At 16, I wrote an awfully melodramatic play called For Love of Biafra. Years later, I wrote short stories, That Harmattan Morning, Half of a Yellow Sun and Ghosts, all dealing with the war. I felt that I had to approach the subject with little steps, paint on a smaller canvas first, before starting the novel.

Q: Given that, at the time of the war, you hadn’t yet been born, what sort of research did you do to prepare for writing this book?

I read books. I looked at photos. I talked to people. In the four years that it took to finish the book, I would often ask older people I met, “Where were you in 1967?” and then take it from there. It was from stories of that sort that I found out tiny details that are important for fiction. My parents’ stories formed the backbone of my research. Still, I have a lot of research notes that I did not end up using because I did not want to be stifled by fact, did not want the political events to overwhelm the human story.

Q: Was it important to you that you get all the “facts” of the war correct for this work of fiction?

I invented a train station in Nsukka, invented a beach in Port Harcourt, changed the distance between towns, changed the chronology of conquered cities but I did not invent any of the major events. It was important that I get the facts that mattered right. All the major political events in the book are ‘factually’ correct. But what was most important to me, in the end, was emotional truth. I wanted this to be a book about human beings, not a book about faceless political events.

Q: Are memories of the Nigeria-Biafra war still alive in Nigeria, talked about on a regular basis, or do you feel that the conflict is being lost to history as time passes and that it becomes less important to Igbo culture?

The war is still talked about, still a potent political issue. But I find that it is mostly talked about in uninformed and unimaginative ways. People repeat the same things they have been told without having a full grasp of the complex nature of the war or they hold militant positions lacking in nuance. It also remains, to my surprise, very ethnically divisive: the (brave enough) Igbo talk about it and the non-Igbo think the Igbo should get over it. There is a new movement called MASSOB, the movement for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra, which in the past few years has captured the imagination of many Igbo people. MASSOB is controversial; it is reported to engage in violence and its leaders are routinely arrested and harassed by the government. Still, despite their inchoate objectives, MASSOB’s grassroots support continues to grow. I think this is because they give a voice to many issues that have been officially swept aside by the country but which continue to resonate for many Igbo people.

Q: The book focuses on the experiences of a small set of people who are experiencing the conflict from very different points of view. When we step into their individual worlds, we don’t exactly know their every thought—the narrator who follows them isn’t omniscient—but rather we seem to see and understand them through a film. Can you describe your narrative style and why you framed these characters the way you did?

I actually don’t think of them as being seen through a ‘film.’ I have always been suspicious of the omniscient narrative. It has never appealed to me, always seemed a little lazy and a little too easy. In an introduction to the brilliant Italian writer Giovanni Verga’s novel, it is said about his treatment of his characters that he ‘never lets them analyze their impulses but simply lets them be driven by them.’ I wanted to write characters who are driven by impulses that they may not always be consciously aware of, which I think is true for us human beings. Besides, I didn’t want to bore my reader—and myself—to death, exploring the characters’ every thought.

Q: The character of Richard is a British white expatriate who considers himself Biafran, drawing a certain amount of quiet—and some loud—criticism for his self-proclaimed identity. Another key narrator, Ugwu, is a thirteen-year-old houseboy who reacts rather than acts. Both are interesting choices for characters for the narrator to “shadow.” Why did you pick them?

Ugwu was inspired in part by Mellitus, who was my parents’ houseboy during the war; in part by Fide, who was our houseboy when I was growing up. And I have always been interested in the less obvious narrators. When my mom spoke about Mellitus, what a blessing he was, how much he helped her, how she did not know what she would have done without him, I remember being moved but also thinking that he could not possibly have been the saint my mother painted, that he must have been flawed and human. I think that Ugwu does come to act more and react less as we watch him come into his own. Richard was a more difficult choice. I very much wanted somebody to be the Biafran ‘outsider’ because I think that outsiders played a major role in the war but I wanted him, also, to be human and real (and needy!)

Q: Are there other characters based on real people?

‘Harrison’ is based on a real Harrison who lived with my family until very recently. What the character does with beets is, in fact, what the real Harrison told me he did during the war.

Q: There is a conflict in this story between what is traditional and tribal versus that which is modern and bureaucratic. What is the mix today? How worrisome is it that some of the tribal ways have been lost?

Cultures evolve and things change, of course. What is worrisome is not that we have all learned to think in English, but that our education devalues our culture, that we are not taught to write Igbo and that middle-class parents don’t much care that their children do not speak their native languages or have a sense of their history.

Q: We see snippets of a book written by a character in Half of a Yellow Sun—it is an account of the conflict depicted in Half of a Yellow Sun, written after the fact. Its authorship may come as a surprise to some at the end of the story. What effect did you want this book within a book to have on Half of a Yellow Sun?

I wanted a device to anchor the reader who may not necessarily know the basics of Nigerian history. And I wanted to make a strongly-felt political point about who should be writing the stories of Africa.

Q: You must have come across many books on Biafra. Are there any you would recommend in particular?

Surviving in Biafra by Alfred Obiora Uzokwe is a marvelous memoir of war seen through the eyes of a young boy. Chinua Achebe’s Girls at War contains three sublime Biafran stories. Adewale Ademoyega’s Why We Struck is a fiercely ideological look at the events that led to the war. A Tragedy Without Heroes by Hilary Njoku and The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War by Alexander Madiebo are fascinating personal accounts from top-ranking Biafran Army officers. The writing in Ntieyong Akpan’s The Struggle for Secession has a formal beauty and he presents—inadvertently, I suspect—a complex, flawed and sympathetic portrait of the Biafran leader. Wole Soyinka was imprisoned during the war and records this period in his magisterial memoir The Man Died. George Obiozor’s The United States and the Nigerian Civil War: An American dilemma in Africa is informative albeit brief and has an interesting forward by Walter Ofonagoro. Herbert Gold’s stark account of his visit to Biafra, Biafra Goodbye, moved me to tears. The Biafran War: Nigeria and the Aftermath by Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is a concise and clear-eyed look at the conflict. Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset at Dawn and Flora Nwapa’s Never Again are novels that convincingly portray middle-class Biafra. John De St Jorre’s The Nigerian Civil War presents an excellent view of Biafra from the outside. And Sunset in Biafra, the bitter and beautifully-written memoir by Elechi Amadi, looks at the war from the point of view of an anti-Biafran minority.

Interviews with the Author

·      Listen to a BBC 4 Interview with the Author

·      Listen to an NPR Interview with the Author

FOR LOVERS OF KOREAN MOVIES

Goddes of marriage is a must see.... lovers of Korean movies,

Ja Myung Go.........

Queen of the game.....

Frivolous Wife........

A Moment to Remember......

Coin Locker Girl.....

Bleak Night.....
















After The Banquet.....

JOURNAL OF A CONCERNED AFRICAN: TOP TEN WORK OUT SONGS FOR OCTOBER 2016.

JOURNAL OF A CONCERNED AFRICAN: TOP TEN WORK OUT SONGS FOR OCTOBER 2016.: sia

TOP TEN WORK OUT SONGS FOR OCTOBER 2016.

• sia & Kendrick Lamar — “The Greatest” — 96 BPM
• Fitz & The Tantrums — “HandClap (Luxxury Remix)” — 118 BPM
• Kings of Leon — “Waste a Moment” — 152 BPM
• Carly Rae Jepsen — “Higher” — 114 BPM
• Blink-182 — “Bored to Death (Steve Aoki Remix)” — 161 BPM
• Sting — “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You” — 138 BPM
• Lady GaGa — “Perfect Illusion” — 124 BPM
• Jason Derulo — “Kiss the Sky” — 110 BPM
• Calvin Harris — “My Way” — 120 BPM
• Enrique Iglesias & Wisin — “Duele El Corazon” — 91 BPM

Check out this month’s top 10 workout songs on Run Hundred:www.RunHundred.com.

A Morning In August.

     It was Saturday and I was outside the house. As I looked around with the gentle breeze blowing I smiled. This knowing thought that if I was anyplace else in the world, let’s say America, I might have said, ‘the cool breeze reminded me of the end of summer’. I left where I was standing to sit on a bench in a stall of a woman who sells groceries. Yeah groceries. I mean tomatoes slightly ripe and tiny, spring pepper, onions vegetables items that we call from this end of my world, ‘to-MA-tos’, ‘Atarodo’ or ‘rodo’ and ‘alubasas’ it must have somehow originated from the Hausas I suppose.

The kids were out now. They stared at me with this deep intense desire to be noticed. They spoke more loudly and somehow expect I will get interested.

   Just by the other side of the road where an abandoned house had been, they were cooking. They had recently cleared the house and repainted brown and yellow with a bulb tied around a palm tree at the demise of PA as he is fondly called. They had this lovely girl who wore dreads something peculiar with the westerners and celestial church members. Very fair and beautiful, tall and slim and walked with some sort of elegance far above an eight years old girl. I quickly assumed she will be a model when she grows up. Is this sort of assumption innate among-st us Nigerians. I paused and wondered, for if she comes first three at school, she will either be called a doctor, lawyer or an Accountant. Woe betides her if she be not a professional!  They had big pots on fire, wore thread bare camisoles and allowed the full weight of their suckled breast lye comfortably down as they chatted away while they stirred and taste. For a moment I wondered, how do Americans prepare meals for big occasion? For us though, naming alone calls for road blocking ceremony with brightly colored canopies   and loud blast of music of divers’ African influences. It was august 2016 this is not a reminder of the constant rainy period we are in but  a time when even Nigerians have ‘trust issues’—“Na economic melt- down or retention” or is it simply our inability to fully grasp this gigantic fight against corruption or that we had shouted sai Baba which loosely translate to Father for nothing…?

   

    I turned around slightly, just behind me was a corn plantation with just the first rows containing actual corn while grasses covered the rest areas but plantation is plantation. Many years ago I had actually seen a real plantation of ‘jero,’ what we know as millet amongst the northers in jaba a remote town in kano. Didn’t know why we had to leave the city but we did. Things had got so hard that rats and toad became a norm. let me quickly add that it was bush rat and that toad they eat. Usually prepared with our soy beans soup and we had struggled for who would have the limbs. As we walked through the lonely millet farm aisle accompanied by the chirping of birds, we had a loud shout from behind, we jumped with fright and clung to Mara as some boys from our school had hid themselves unknowing to us. “walahi en a fara riot kun mutu. Dukanku”. They threatened with small knives while they called us Arnas all the way. Many days later I had ask Mara with such innocence”are we idol worshipers as they said?” weeks later we had constantly include it in our three o’clock prayer- divine Mercy. 

   

    My father a polygamist by unknown circumstances chants this like some sort of ritual while we pray it ends for often times it coincides with when food is on the fire. So while we bow our heads for the lord, we pinch and giggled as a way to keep our minds from thinking about the food on fire. he turns and give such hard stare that you had be threatened out of your wit. We cooked with fire wood. It was at a time when abacha's stove became popular and it was when we moved to jaba.

   

   Abacha had just died and most people were happy. I don’t know if I was or wasn’t but they said he died in the hands of a prostitute and I was 10 years old. I watched and listened as my father read the papers and nodded and said somethings I cant remember. He was a dictator he said with that deep expression as though I should know just who a dictator was. I smiled didn’t know if that was what was expected. “how could he be any better if Ghadafi is his friend. So much have gone wrong with this our country….”

   I had had it enough. I stood up. Enough of all this. It is better he even died maybe somehow my father's BP will stop rising. Why did you choose now of all times to die enn… Imagine, I had taken 2^nd position and there Abacha was spoiling my moment. I was angered. I walked slowly and turn and walked slowly some more. Somehow I was expecting he had call me and give me the five naira he promised. Abacha became my enemy and a dictator in some ways i didn't get.

  I snapped back to reality. The sanitation was over.The streets are busy with vehicles and market women rushing off while barking orders to their kids. I stood up and walked slowly to  our compound. And for many years later, that morning, the bench, the stall and the plantation will be a memory.  

LOVE SEX MARRIAGE!

He looked at me with obvious distaste and anger. I wanted to inquire but I got my answers, "all these yeye girls. you go around messing with aristos and drive anyhow like say una own the road. pack well before i change am for you." I quietly did as I was told but venom filled my heart. How dare he even say that? how could he? I packed properly and came out of my car. I stood  with my shoulders propped up, hands akimbo and I called, "please may I know why you felt you could say all of those misguided statements and go score free?. do you have any idea who I am...? he just stared at me while I talked and shook his head.

SATURDAY'S INSPECTION @ FEDI GBOKs

Every minutes count from Fridays at Federal Gboks. very early, you either up on your own or await Gambs clarion call. "Unity House Girls come out before the count of five: one, two, three,...." Gambs voice resounded in my dream. I heard people jump off their bunks with shouts of dormies encouraging others to come out.  I sat up for seconds, jump down from my up bunk, looked below, my bunky was already out.  I quickly got my foot wear and ran out quickly, joined room two and stand sleep as has become the custom of the jews. Gambs finally comes. she does the screaming and goes back. "how many are yet to have their bath?" we rose our hands and she counted and gave us 5 minutes to do so. "what day is tomorrow? don't answer that. Tomorrow must be perfect. we must come among the first two. it is either first or second other than that, after lunch on Monday, do not go inside your rooms.

Hair and The African Woman

      

prior before the release of Adichie's Novel, AMERICANAH, i lived comfortably with my permed hair and weavons. Not that it has changed but am beginning to celebrate the beauty of African natural textured hair because just like to most of my thainking, Adichie just puts a word in the missing gaps in my my unexpressed ideals . Hair, the glory of a woman.

     

   The hair of the African woman is usually

MY WALK-IN CLOSET 

I just had my shower and am so in haste because i was running late for work. i am in my closet still thinking what will be appropriate for Monday. I smiled as i saw my pink lacy bra that Leo gave me on valentine's day. Its funny right, that i love looking at myself in fr the  morrow when in my undies, but sorry i do. ''no baby it's not crazy. you look beautiful'' Leo said. I did not even realize I had spoken out loud. Awww!!. ''Leo, what are you doing here?'' I smiled and hugged him. His bear hug keeps me wanting more. well we kissed. "not sure of what to wear right?" he asked and slowly danced funnily to my chiffon sections and handed me a pink tunic top, with a black tight fitting jeans and a peach color stilettos with the purse to match. "Ama marry you cos you so amazing". mu-aah, i pecked him as Amadi opened the door to the car  and he winked while i wined up.