well, i've been meaning to blog about two recent discoveries that I have been all over as of recent. I couldn't choose between the two, so i decided to post both here.

Celebrating Ndi-Igbo: Acclaiming People of Igbo Descent


I am so on this blog...literally a daily post on big things members of the Igbo Diaspora have accomplished both past and present. Kudos to Ababoy for this initiative.

K'Naan
This guy has been in my head for the longest ever since I picked up his 2009 CD, Troubadour. I thought this CD was incredible, with tracks like Wavin' Flag and Take a Minute, until I checked out his earlier CD, The Dusty Foot Philosopher - a more reflective, somber version of K'Naan.

Excited about Mogadishu and Ndi Igbo.....but as for what I am not excited about....

my zune which decided to die on me like a month after i got it....i guess it's back to Apple (i tried, Bill Gates, i tried....)

just found out through loomnie that the famed Igbo historian, Professor Adiele Afigbo, died this morning. when one iroko tree falls, it is big news....but now it seems that of late several of our great ones are dying. just yesterday i twittered (yes, i twitter now) on how i had celestine ukwu on repeat and just this afternoon while driving, i cried as i listened to the old school highlife my dad and I used to dance to on saturday mornings. Egwu ndi a enweghi atu....works that can never be duplicated.....Achebe, Nwapa, Okigbo, Igwe, Egbuna, Isichei....were names that regularly graced our shelves. Most are aging and some are no more. I'd hate to get off tangent, but I sometimes wonder the kind of cultural legacy I will one day find myself passing down to my own children.***

Afigbo is a native of Okigwe, not too far away from my maternal home. He remains one of Igboland's most noted historians having authored several books on the history of southeastern Nigeria. His "Ropes of Sand," (a gift I received some years back from a good family friend), was probably my first formal introduction to Igbo history and origins. I remember only reading an excerpt of his other earlier work "The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria," during one of my many moments of procrastination. I have yet to read some of his later works, but hope to do so when chanced.

Professor Afigbo will be missed.

*** just to qualify this, i do believe that nigeria currently finds itself in somewhat of a cultural renaissance with some of the newer works that are coming out. i guess my comment here is more a reflection of wondering whether I, personally, would be able to share that culture with my children as effectively as my parents did. I look at my shelves and all i see are textbooks - "Bate's Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking" is not much of a literary legacy to pass down...sigh...

i think I've heard it all, or at least I have heard many jokes, rants and other negative comments on Igbos and their love for money both from outside ethnic groups and within. i can take a good joke once in a while, but when these jokes begin to mark one ethnic group as being more this than the other or less this than that one - it tends to irk me a little bit.

usually such stereotypes have embedded within it some deeper story, some truth that is clouded by the hype. in regards to Igbo and money, I would definitely be the first to admit that the Igbos have done well for themselves in terms of trading, commerce, business etc. but why have many suggested that the Igbo man loves and lives for money.

i cannot in anyway claim to be a spokesperson for Igbos, neither can I claim to be an expert in its history and culture. but in my opinion, it seems like Nigerian has left Igbos with no other choice.

I believe the most of my readers are familiar with the atrocities committed during the Nigeria-Biafran war and how it reduced Igboland to nothing, physically, economically, but fortunately, not mentally. Those who fled from their various homes from the North and otherwise left for the East with nothing and returned to nothing. At the end of the war, Igbos were compensated with a mere 20pounds per family, regardless of how much they lost or started off with. And even such reparations were a joke when it came to actual implementation. In fact, there are many who still are not aware of the 20pounds the Nigerian government owes them. to compound their woes post-Biafra, educational and political opportunities were denied to many bright former Biafrans in the name of "reflecting federal character" forcing thousands to flee the country during the 70s and 80s in search of merit-based university admissions abroad.

one million dead during the war, emigration of thousands of its intelligentsia, no indigenous infrastructure to speak of, and a 20pound promissory note from the Nigerian government. what other options are the igbos left with other than to put a good work ethic to use and start building their economy from the ground up.

so i encourage all Nigerians, to stop embracing such petty stereotypes. and the next time one feels the urge to denigrate Igbos for struggling in order to make something of themselves, they should try to imagine where they came from as a people within the last 38 years.

....oh, and someone owes me 20pounds...

This was going to be a response to the heated debate regarding Biafra on NigerianCuriosity's blog. But I decided to make it a post instead. Saves time...

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Ask anyone, I am fiercely pro-Igbo, Igbotic, Igbo-centric whichever. However, I think to embark on another Biafra War excursion would be a mistake of EPIC proportions. I used to think differently - thinking that it would be nice to have a Biafra without the war and bloodshed (my grandparents on both sides lost children to the war and my dad in his teens was forced into the war).

Why have I changed my mind on Biafra? Because I realize that most Nigerian leaders are essentially the same and that corruption and horrible leadership transcends ethnic boundaries. If Biafra were to resurrect successfully, we would still have the same crop of leaders, this time Igbo, getting fat off of oil money. It would just bring our embarrassment to the global forefront. If the Igbos can produce the likes of Orji Uzor Kalu as governor, then count me out of Biafra in which such an agbaro could potentially become president. Nna mehn, when I was home this summer, his PPA campaigns annoyed me to no end because he has done ABSOLUTELY nothing for Igbos.

Mind you, I am for increased decentralization of the federal government and more autonomy of all states whether in the North, South, East or West.

Also, can we all learn to celebrate the diversity that is Nigeria? True, Europeans created this Nigerian union - but we're here right? Personally as an Igbo person, I am for investing in ourselves (Igbos) - that is modernizing our cities, developing our educational institutions and being a little bit selfish in regards to focusing on our issues. I am not only Igbocentric - I am also Umuahia-centric and even furthermore Ohuhu-centric. I think my village is the ish and better than yours. But I also value one Nigeria and the beauty of so many different voices and experiences. So my rallying cry is Ohuhu Kwenu! Igbo Kwenu! and more importantly Nigeria Kwenu!