Global Voices » Sokari Ekine

African Women This Month

Sokari Ekine — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:36:23 +0000

Literature, music and blog redesigns are three of the themes in the African women's blogosphere this month.

Molara Wood and Mama's Junkyard have both redesigned their blogs. Molara has chosen to stick with blogger.com but takes on a new name, Wordsbody. Mama's Junkyard ungrades to WordPress with a new colour scheme and layout….

No more light on dark. mamajunkyard’s has been tangoed! Orange is the new strawberry, wider width is the way to go and lowercase is how I like it. Add a few plugins like Gravatar and ELA and the geek in me comes out to play.

The site is cool and refreshing. Check out her new photoblog with strawberries and waffles for breakfast.

Naija to the Core has a great Tribute to Fela - Felaversation

This is a tribute to the music, life and times of the Late Fela Anikulapo Kuti (Oct. 15, 1938 - Aug. 2, 1997)

Ironically, a talk is being held today at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos titled Felaversation which is designed to celebrate the fact that “Nigerian intellectuals have, at last, responded to the challenges posed by their counterparts from the West and Europe on the issue of articulating the epochal contribution of one of Africa's leading cultural icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to world culture. “

It's taken them nearly 25 years to get there - could it be intellectual snobbery?

Keeping with the music theme, Nubian Soul pays homage to another of Nigeria's great muscians who she once had the pleasure of meeting.

His music has always appealled to me, possibly because of the use of the African talking drums and his dabbling in electronica.
The sound of those drums just make me want to get up and shake it. (which could be dangerous on soo many levels, cos I might scare the children lol).
It's a conversation, a movement, a rhythm, a language, spoken word, a heartbeat, a mouthpiece. It gives life to something inside you that just makes you want to move.

Growing up your parents were dancing to Sunny Ade and you were getting down with Fela - ahh the good old days of Lagos Life.

Molara Wood's new blog Wordsbody makes an excellent start with a piece on Kenyan writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o at the book reading of his new book, Wizard of Crow in London.

Ngugi seemed to want to make the event a celebration of life and survival, bringing his family along to the event. Lucky for the audience, they got five Thiong'os for the price of one. Ngugi explained that his younger children had only been spared the attack because, as luck would have it, they had chosen to go and spend the night with a relative.

Cameroonian blogger, Rosemay Ekosso finds herself at odds with the Catholic church and organised religion of her childhood. Priests fathering children and women (nuns) while essential to the running of the church are marginalised and not recognised as equal to men. She goes on to discuss the Church's position on “regulising sexual”

The first point against this is that as they are themselves celibate, priests have no idea at all of what it means to be sexually active. If they have some idea, they shouldn’t. No one told them to stop having sex or children. They decided to do so themselves. All was well until the fourth century, when the madness started. In 306, the Council of Elvira, in Spain, decreed that a priest who sleeps with his wife the night before Mass will lose his job. It went downhill from there.

Ethiopian blog, CoffeeChilliSun
writes a moving piece on her hopes, dreams and disappointments she feels for Ethiopia.

The poverty, hunger, corruption, oppression and lack of infrastructure seemed like the growing pains of young and budding nation, symptoms of a worry child that will come good. I had hope, always had hope, even when I discovered that more beggars and homeless were out on the streets, that the gap between the rich and the poor was widening, I always had hope. How can a country so beautiful and rich in history, culture and resources ever fail to make it at some point?

Mshairi on Pale is Beautiful, discusses skin tones and the values placed on lighter skinned black women over darker skinned ones.

What then is the problem with the rest of us? Why do we feel the need to make ourselves pale (or white as this can only be the true underlying need)? Not just with our skins but also with our hair? Reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X, I always laugh wryly at the section where Malcolm wanting to make his hair straight, applies lye, which begins to burn his scalp forcing him to dunk his head in the toilet bowl when he realises there is no water coming from the taps to wash off the lye (this was just as the Police burst in to arrest him).

Annie of Palava Soup writes about a documentary called The Long Journey of Clement Zulu which

“follows three men immediately after their release from Robben Island: Clement Zulu, Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim and James Mange.”

As Annie writes, not everyone that left Robben Island became President and this documents the lives of some of the other prisoners who suffered long incarcerations at the hand of successive apartheid governments in South Africa.

Prison destroyed my life,” said Clement Zulu. Do not get it twisted, these men were proud to have done what they did for their country. But when you step off that boat from Robben Island where do you go? Home? Where is that? Ebrahim Ebrahim was reunited with his family and immediately became an active member of the ANC again. He soon assumed a top position. Yet his relationship with his young daughter suffered. His relationships with his whole family suffered. “Sometimes I fight depression.” And why wouldn’t he when he spent his adult life behind bars?

African women’s voices this week

Sokari Ekine — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:14:12 +0000

Concoction on Humanities for African Leaders

the modern way of doing politics especially in Africa is so far away from doing “dialogue publicly” that we have had an ‘interesting' version of democracy…….Politics, which the ancient Greeks defined as public dialogue, is unfortunatelly measured by some sort of wierd election that an African state conducts. “At least there was an election” is what we are reduced to.

Rosemary Ekossi asks if paedophilia is a white man's disease

In Africa, we don’t keep statistics about these things. We don’t even want to acknowledge them. But paedophilia is with us, and has been for centuries. In a recent write-up in a forum of which I am a member, one Cameroonian woman said:

In my days, little girls used to walk around with just their panties, and nothing else and it was quite common to have a man grab your nipples, in kind of an “how are you doing” gesture. It wasn't a comfortable experience for us girls even though it was treated so casually but by instinct we knew it was wrong. On the other hand you had [identifying information deleted] who were pathological rapists. They would lure little girls selling bananas, g[round]nuts, etc. into thinking they wanted to buy these things, and them rape them.

Marian's blog goes in search of the invisible collateral damage of the attack on Lebanon.

You have to search hard and then read between the lines to find anything about the tens of thousands of African women - mostly Ethiopian - currently trapped in Lebanon in the midst of the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel's overwhelming and prolonged military assault.

Ayoola in Lagos on the latest fashion fabric in Nigeria - Ankara

It seems to have taken us all by surprise, after all by my recollection, this is the fabric that only ten years ago, no self-respecting city fashionista in her 20s and maybe her 30s, would have been caught dead wearing (at least, not when she was trying to be fashionable) unless she was at home or visiting her grandmother in the village ooor if she had settled into the role of wife and mother and so therefore decided to adopt a more traditional look to reflect her “respectable” status

Afrofeminizta writes on the perils of searching for a new job

Take for instance when you find out which other people are in the running for a job you are also interested in. . .the thought no. 1 in my case, ‘oh no, she's good…really good…what chance do i stand?' thought no. 2, ‘ai? isn't this way out of her league?'(uncharitable but true) and finally, the ‘forget that one, there's no way i'm getting in if so and so is applying' thought.

Girl in the Meadow on whats wrong with Kenyan financial analysists?

I went to sell some shares yesterday and this is what i was shocked to learn

I was told
“call after three days to see if your shares have been sold”
In these days of CDS
And then
“You will be given your cheque 7 days after your shares are sold”.
wtf!!!!
It takes bloody 7 days to draw a cheque??

Plants & Hippos

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:32:03 +0000

Some hippos are beautiful

And plants are weird! They grow out of hippos bellies!

By kikuyumoja on maisha

Rapping in USA - First impressions

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:26:04 +0000

K'Naan: Rapping about war

He describes his first impression of America as “strange”, recalling the time his family first landed in New York. “I remember asking my father, 'so this is America, huh?' How is it possible that there's this great big building that's vacant and there's homeless people sleeping in front of it?” K'Naan didn't know a scrap of English, but was nevertheless impressed by the prolific hip-hop scene. Long regarded as the true expression of the modern African-American, hip-hop was something the rapper could understand, given his own life experiences.

Ghana: Defeated but will Return

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:22:40 +0000

The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen of Ghana… gives a “post mortem” on Ghana's Defeat - they lost!

Uganda: Josephy Kony is officially nuts

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:19:05 +0000

Jay's Idle Notes comments on Joseph Kony “Its official he's nuts” - nuts as in murderous, raping , psychopath -

Sudan: Condoms hit

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:16:17 +0000

Sudanese Thinker - the condom debate finallys hits Sudan……”I think the UN should air drop hundreds of thousands of condoms on Sudan.”

Somalia: Rap about war

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:14:19 +0000

Harowo.com on Somali rapper: “K'Naan: Rapping about war” ” K'Naan's own story is more remarkable than most, involving a harrowing odyssey that would see him exiled from his war-torn country before living in New York's Harlem district and eventually settling Toronto. Having grown up in an artistic family within the dangerous Somalian capital of Mogadishu, K'Naan Warsame (his first name means “traveller”) could liken his ghetto credentials to those of 50 Cent. He fired his first gun at eight and witnessed his three best friends shot when he was 11. His older brother was incarcerated after blowing up a federal building. He managed to escape a firing squad thanks to his aunt, a famous singer in East Africa.”

South Africa: Sanitation woes

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:11:29 +0000

African Houseit on South Africa's sanitaton woes.…”South Africa's underfunded, badly managed sewage works in many towns are “ticking timebombs” that could lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases, while drinking water in many rural towns fails to meet government health standards”

London: Remember Anthony

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:03:34 +0000

Pilgrimage to Self informs us that “Marie Fatayi – Williams has written a book in memory of her son Anthony who was killed in the July bombings in London last year”

Nigeria: Visit to Cameroon

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:59:10 +0000

Lawal Adekunle of Unlag Students reports on his recent visit to the Cameroons..…”It is situated at the bottom of the Cameroon Mountain, the second largest mountain in Africa. Houses situated in Buea do not use air conditioners; because the clouds which cover the mountain top, sometimes come down and cover the whole town of Beau”

Nigeria: Commissions, Commissions Commissions

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:56:33 +0000

Nigerian blog, NSpace comments on Nigeria's obsession with Commissions Commissions Commissions and the “the reaction of the Hon. Minister for Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to allegations made by the Chairman of The Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Engr”

Kenya: Jobs on offer

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:53:41 +0000

Bankekele publishes this weeks jobs in Kenya - mostly finance related but some telecoms, marketing and mining execs -

Ethiopia: A little football history

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:51:08 +0000

Ethiopian Politics has a break from politics to write about - guess what? Soccer..,”remember Mr.Yidnekachew Tessema (Father of African sports). If it were not for this pioneering individual Africa would still be sending only two teams to the world cup.”

Botswana: Nata Village Blog

Sokari Ekine — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:42:59 +0000

The Nata Village Blog writes a response to their readers on what the blog means to the people of Nata, Botswana They will be publishing personal reports from the Village over the next few weeks