May was “Remembering Our History” month at Life House and as a result, Ayaka Magazine collaborated with it in remembering renowned post-colonial Nigerian poet – Christopher Okigbo.
The event was hosted by acclaimed Nigerian poet and author, Odia Ofeimum who was accompanied by other writers, poets and literary enthusiasts. They discussed Christopher Okigbo’s life, ideology, and [...]
Today French voters will likely vote out the present occupant of the Palais de l’Élysée, Nicholas Sarkozy in the second round of the French presidential elections. Going by last minute opinion polls on Saturday, the new occupant will be Francois Hollande, presidential candidate of the French Socialist Party.
Nicolas Sarkozy (Photo Credit – www.allhotnewz.info)
Nicholas Sarkozy [...]
In the late hours of Wednesday, March 21, 2012 a group of Malian soldiers led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo seized power from the incumbent regime of President Amadou Toumani Toure. The coupists cited the incompetence of the former regime to effectively tackle the burgeoning Tuareg rebellion in the northern part of the country as the imperative [...]
Students of strategy and history will agree that in all forms of government rulers are motivated by and subsequently judged based on the legacy they live behind them. Whilst in power they strive to shape their legacy through their deeds and the statements they make.
Photo Credit – www.codewit.com
Their level of success naturally depends on [...]
There is an age-old controversy as to whether poets are born or made. A born poet would therefore be one that comes into the world with the instincts to see life a certain way, through the prism of imagery, and to express it in elevated language, a mode of utterance infused or laden with tropes.
Ikeogu Oke [...]
The US National Intelligence Council report predicted that Nigeria would break up in 2015. They gave cogent reasons for their predictions.
A lot of Nigerians cried hue about the predictions and labeled the US as enemies of progress and destabilization. Their reasons for the break-up are predicated on different arguments like a possible war in 2013 [...]
Chike Obeagu, co-winner of the 2011 Nigeria Breweries Limited and African Artists’ Foundation National Arts Competition in Lagos, is a multi-talented artist who finds creative expression through painting, photography, installation art, and poetry.
He was born on May 22, 1975. Chike exhibited great interest in art during the early stages of his life, and had his [...]
In a class of young adults rounding up their high school education in Lagos, the teacher had asked a routine question of what career the graduating students would want to pursue after school.
Most of the students were proclaiming the usual, engineer, doctor, banker etc…, until it was Uche’s turn, a rather average student in the [...]
Finally, Fela! the musical came to Washington, DC – again. I had missed it the first time it came, a year earlier, and I thought, there goes my chance of ever seeing this critically and popularly acclaimed musical.
My regret wasn’t just over missing an evening of musical entertainment; it had a deeper historical dimension. It seems that [...]
It was disturbing reading the newspaper article of Victor Onwanrachi, a 29 year-old man who confessed to abducting and sexually assaulting his neighbour’s three year-old girl.
Shocking as this may seem, reports in a national daily of a septuagenarian who had carried on for months with his ten year-old granddaughter and had the audacity to claim [...]
Uche Uzorka was born in Agwe town, Southern Nigeria on March 17, 1974. He trained as a visual artist between 1997 and 2001 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he majored in painting.
According to him, in positive space, art takes the position of a cultural tool, art has the right to cohere a community and [...]
When you see the phrase “keep off the grass,” your first instinct is to obey the sign and stay on the edges of the lawn.
We observe things (in this case, the seemingly manicured grass) and choose to not get involved because that’s how it has always been done. The last time I saw [...]
You’ve arrived on a scholarship
Left all the lions and elephants behind
Parents that you’re sick to death of the
Sight of, a bear of a sister and
Who has all the sinister potential of
Making it anyway and a brother who doesn’t
Believe that smoking is for grown ups
You’ve detached yourself from your
Childhood, grown as cool as an iceberg
Darling, you’ve made it as far [...]
The nation’s strive towards socio-economic development may remain elusive if the deserved attention is not paid to the revitalization of the railway system.
Transportation, a major driving force of economic activities is a function of unhindered flow and movement of persons, goods and commodities. At the starting point in the manufacturing and production process, industrial inputs, [...]
This statement embodies the purpose of Nigerian Jazz and Afrobeat band, Ayetoro, founded by former white collar worker, Funsho Ogundipe. In this interview by Athene Ovey for Ayaka, the hands of time were wound back to the emergence of this post Fela Afrobeat band, its core values and future.
Ayetoro is often mistaken [...]
Since Nigeria discovered oil in commercial quantities in 1956, the country has been faced with the problem of how to manage the fortune.
Whether in the hands of the Ministry of Lagos Affairs as it was in the beginning, then later under the Ministry of Mines and Power and now the Petroleum Ministry and the Nigerian [...]
Artists come in different shapes and colours. Now I seek a representative story to start this ode to those who think with their hearts, but I am finding it difficult to select a tale that does good service to all artists. So, permit me to start with a random selection.
Photo Credit – www.ecowomen.net
“There is [...]
Feminism is a concept that is mainly associated with the western world especially the United States.
Nevertheless there are some women here in Africa and Nigeria, in particular, who would like to believe that a version of the women’s liberation movement has equally taken root in different parts of the continent, Nigeria included.
The emergence of female [...]
Starting with the signing of a protest register at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the protests against the removal of fuel subsidy announced on January 1, grew into a significant mass action across Nigeria and other parts of the world.
The wide condemnation of the sudden removal of fuel subsidy went beyond the borders of the country, [...]
Most of the biggest threats to health are preventable. The major threats to human health globally include heart disease and stroke, infectious diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and septicemias, cancers, diabetes, and kidney disease.
Notable health organizations like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society as well as notable [...]
