Take it away, dear readers.
Posted Without Comment
October 7, 2010 By 9 Comments
Music Break
October 6, 2010 By 1 Comment
In case you missed it, here is one the stars of the 2010 World Cup, Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan, making his debut as Baby Jet, in the video for Castro’s “African Girls.”
Despite all the bling, bubbly and booty, it has me wanting to do the Asamoah Gyan dance too.
Cricket is big in Nigeria
October 6, 2010 By 4 Comments
Much of whatever energy I have left after work and family goes to football, but I had to post this argument by Naija blogger, Jeremy Weate, including his description of the beautiful game–Sean
Jeremy Weate
Guest Blogger
Chinua Achebe was wrong.
The trouble with Nigeria is not a lack of good leaders, it is that far too many people (men and women, boys and girls, sadly) obsess about a funny game which involves an inflated leather ball being kicked about between two gateposts with nets at the back. A sport that heralds the end of summer and the death of light that is winter in the northern hemisphere. The sport is sometimes referred to as ‘soccer’ (by Americans, who like to pretend that what they call football is a global sport, which it is not) but more commonly known as football.
Paid in Fish
October 5, 2010 By 3 Comments
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has discovered high-tech vessels with “EU [European Union] numbers, indicating that they were licensed to import to Europe having theoretically passed strict hygiene standards” were not only operating without licenses in exclusion zones off the coast of West Africa–near Sierra Leone and Guinea–but that they used “forced labour” – in conditions akin to slavery – on these ships. The EJF charges the companies with creating inhuman conditions, “including incarceration, violence, withholding of pay, confiscation of documents, confinement on board for months or even years, and lack of clean water.” Crews are “marooned” at sea for months, work 18 hour shifts, and are paid in fish.
Music Mondays
October 4, 2010 By 8 Comments
Black Babies Redux
October 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
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What’s old is new again. This time from French fashion magazine, Numéro, which manages to merge two of our favorite (fashion) trends into one spread: black babies and blackface!
I would be offended except this is completely boring and wholly unoriginal. Yawn.
Via Jezebel (h/t Jacob Mundy).
Yes We Can
October 1, 2010 By 3 Comments
Today, Nigeria celebrates 50 years of independence. To mark the occasion,* we bring you Nigerian-British rapper JJC’s collaboration with Ghanaian-British rapper Sway, and their remix of a song that Sean recently characterized as “hip hop meets twentieth century black Atlantic identity politics.
It’s been a big year for such politics in Africa, what with the 2010 World Cup and 17 of the continent’s countries marking 50 years of independence. [Read more...]
Truth Will Out
October 1, 2010 By 2 Comments
While we were on vacation this past summer, something big happened. Many of you no doubt have heard by now of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ mapping report, which, among other things, details the human rights abuses committed by Rwandan troops against Hutu refugees in then-Zaire in 1996-1997. The report, after a delay, is finally set to be made public today.
