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Book Choice Chido Nwakanma Culture & Arts Entertainment Featured Notes

Courage & Character: A colourful and rich narrative of Osun State history

By Chido Nwakanma History in exciting colours is one of the main attractions of Courage & Character: The Definitive History of Osun State.  The 460-page tome comes in an arresting coffee table format, enabling it to incorporate valuable and rich primary and secondary sources in books, articles, and letters that provide a comprehensive overview. The Read More…

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Featured Gabon Notes Owei Lakemfa World

Gabonese Coup: The fault is not in the electorate

THE scenario has various strands of familiarity. I mean the military coup of Wednesday, August 30, 2023 that removed Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba. An elected African dictator in a well-fortified Presidential Palace finds his palace has become his prison. It is like the fish realising that the water it is swimming in is boiling. Read More…

Culture & Arts Entertainment Featured Maxim Uzoatu Notes

How JP Clark Led Achebe and Soyinka To IBB

Writing is fighting. That is the dictum of the fiery African-American writer Ishmael Reed who wrote a book entitled Writing is Fighting.  Whether taken literally or otherwise writers fire bullets with words, and in some instances actually take up guns to go shooting. A landmark example was Nigeria’s most influential poet, Christopher Okigbo, who died Read More…

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Featured Nigeria Notes Society Wole Olaoye

If democracy comes to grief, blame politicians!

There are some bitter truths that those in the temporary house of power may not like to hear. One such truth is the fact that democracy is not a surefire assurance that a country will prosper. Autocracy, its supposed opposite, is also not guaranteed to lead to misery. If Democracy were an infallible system of Read More…

Diplomatic Relations Featured Nigeria Notes Obituary Owei Lakemfa

Kay Laro: The diplomat as humanist

I WAS to attend the International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conference for two weeks in 2011 and was late in making accommodation arrangements in Geneva. I turned to Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, then Nigerian Deputy Ambassador in Vienna, Austria, to see if he had somebody who could check out the hotels and make a booking. Olukanni had Read More…

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Book Choice Culture & Arts Entertainment Featured Olatoun Gabi-Williams

Zakes Mda: A Life Forged on Borders and Belonging

Interview by Olatoun Gabi-Williams The life of Zakes Mda, the celebrated South African artist, composer, writer, and activist, is a testament to the power of resilience, belonging, and the indomitable spirit of a man born into a world overshadowed by apartheid. In this riveting personality feature article, we delve into the extraordinary journey of this Read More…