#oyo civil war

[lightdancer1]

Here specifically is a list of the major personalities and events of the civil war that doomed the Oyo Empire:

[lboogie1906]

Captain Elechi Amadi (May 12, 1934 – June 29, 2016) was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices before contact with the Western world. He is best regarded for his 1966 debut novel, The Concubine, which has been called “an outstanding work of pure fiction”.

He attended Government College, Umuahia, Survey School, Oyo, and the University of Ibadan, where he obtained a degree in Physics and Mathematics.

He worked for a time as a land surveyor and was a teacher at several schools, including the Nigerian Military School, Zaria.

He served in the Nigerian army, remained there during the Nigerian Civil War, and retired at the rank of Captain. He held various positions with the Rivers State government: Permanent Secretary, Commissioner for Education, and Commissioner for Lands and Housing. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[newsnigeria]

History 101: What it takes to be a MENTALLY ENSLAVED Harlequin in Your ancestral Land.

The quote for today is a page from Toyin Falola's book, 'Yoruba Warlords of the 19th Century'. To a lot of Yoruba Muslims. Islam means servitude to Usman Dan Fodio's estate at Sokoto. They indulge in the same idiocy that led to the fall of the great Hausa civilization. Many Yoruba Muslims from Oyo are a dangerously brainwashed set of people that would pose future danger for the preservation of Yorubaland like their ancestors who pledged allegiance to Ilorin and revealed many of the warfare secrets of Oyo. leading to Emir Shitta’s decision to send Jimba. The general of his slave army to Oyo. With the role of confiscating all the Egungun dresses during the reign of Alaafin Amodo. This Egungun mysticism is the secret behind the expansion of Oyo from a boarder post kingdom into the greatest empire of the lower Niger. It was introduced during the reign of Alaafin Ofinran. This was the time the head of the Egugun mysteries called Alapini was added to the Oyomesi. The throne at Sokoto is the origin of many setbacks to Yoruba country.

When Salih, popularly known as Alfa Alimi put plans in place to get rid of Afonja and take the throne of his ancestors. He brought warriors who fought the Jihad at Sokoto. Some of them were led by one of his elderly sons. Abdulsalam, the warlord who would later rise politically at Ilorin to become the first Emir. It was from Ilorin that many invasions into Yoruba heartlands led to the mass capture of Yoruba people who were sold into slavery at the coast. One of the cities razed down at this time was Oshogun and one of the future legends captured from this city was Ajayi Crowther. With all the raiding and capture of Yoruba cities, a portion of the captives were sent to Sokoto as tributes to Sultan Belo. After the visit of Clapperton to Sokoto. with the desire of Europe to have a bilateral relationship with the caliphate. Sultan Belo developed a near obsession for Yorubaland. When his emissaries gave him news of the country. He was amazed. In one of his writings, he wrote that. ‘Yaorubaland is an extensive province containing rivers, forests, sands, and mountains….. Also many great and extraordinary things.' At the battle of Otefan, when Ilorin saw the massive army led by Oluewu and Eleduwe of Bariba to meet the Emir in battle, Shita sent a message to Sokoto for help.

Sultan Belo sent 17 generals from his military base at Rabbah ( the birthplace of Ahmadu Belo, Sadaurna of Sokoto) leading calvary horsemen of close to 100,000 warriors. Thanks to the Military prowess of the Baribas and Oyo warlords, Ilorin was defeated in battle. Ojo Amepo… one of the legendary Kakanfos at Oyo, salvaged the Oyo army and built a coalition army of soldiers from Oyo and Ikoyi. The future great Kakanfo Kurunmi fought under his banner. When he finally fell in battle against the caliphate due to treachery from within, his soldiers dispersed and many of the cities he protected in Yorubaland were evacuated. This was what led to the migration tensions in Yoruba country. the origin of the Ife/Modakeke crisis. Owu/Ibadan tensions. Egba/Ijaye fights and Ibadan/Egba wars. All these tensions resulted from mass migrations from the North, by Yoruba people fleeing from the caliphate. Nigeria today, thorough treachery places the throne of Sokoto as the supreme authority for Islam. This happened during the junta of Babangida. The Kanuri people who are mostly Muslims rejected this. But many Yoruba Muslims. Like the mentally enslaved idiots that they embrace overlords that nearly destroyed their heritage in the name of religion. The cognitive dissonance is why many mentally damaged religious slaves of Abraham do not understand why a man who rates Sokoto above Ife is not fit to rule the Oyo kingdom. Many Hausa people were Muslims when Usman Dan Fodio launched his Jihad. Like the stupid Yoruba people who believe religion over DNA determines brotherhood in nationhood, they fell for a scam and today, they are second-class citizens in their ancestral home. To associate with the very throne that caused so much pain and sorrow to your ancestors in the name of religion is to be a MENTALLY ENSLAVED FOOL. Read the full article

[clickvibes]

Oyo Muslims Protest In Solidarity Rally With Palestinians

Israel-Hamas war: Oyo Muslims protest, hold solidarity rally in support of Palestinians. Hundreds of Muslims in Oyo State on Saturday staged a peaceful protest in solidarity with Palestinians, who they described as the victims of the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine militant group, Hamas. DAILY POST reports that the protest started at the Iwo Road under bridge around 9:00 am and culminated at OTM Mosque in Iwo Road around 12:00 pm. The protesters, who gathered at Iwo Road, noted that many innocent lives have been lost as a result of the war. They explained that they organised the rally in solidarity with Palestinians, who they said have been adversely affected by the war. Our correspondent reports that the protesters were surrounded by security men, including men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Police, to prevent a breakdown of law and order. Those who were at the rally organised by Congruence of Islamic Organisations in the state include top Islamic scholars, clerics and leaders of various Muslim organisations. Some of those who spoke at the rally include Grand Mufti, Conference of Islamic Organisations, Lagos, Sheikh Dhirulahi Shafi, Dr Daud Amao Alaga, Barrister Abdulrahman Olaiya and a professor of Chemical Engineering, Modiu Durowoju. The protesters, during the rally, called for an urgent peace process to bring the war to an end. The professor of Chemical Engineering, Modiu Durowoju, who addressed journalists on behalf of the protesters, said that the international community led by the United Nations must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States. He also suggested that the UN should prevail upon Israel to cease its bombing campaigns of Gaza and other areas. He said, “The international community led by the United Nations should prevail upon Israel to cease its bombing campaigns of Gaza and other areas which has brought horror not just to the Palestinians but to the world. “The United Nations should lead efforts at creating humanitarian corridors and ensuring that aid and relief packages have access into Gaza and other places. “Any interim peace process must as a matter of necessity, incorporate the lifting of the siege of Gaza. “The international community led by the UN must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States which has become part of the Israeli occupation machinery. The world must work to bring Israel to the Two-States solution, compel it to halt settlement building and lift its siege of Gaza." https://dailypost.ng/2023/11/04/israel-hamas-war-oyo-muslims-protest-hold-solidarity-rally-in-support-of-palestinians-photos/ Read the full article

[librettong]

Today, we bring you a brilliant author who documented the #EndSARS crisis that happened in 0ctober 2020 in her book, "October Blues" as we celebrate independence day. October Blues is a collection of poems that delves into the heart of the protests and examines other aspects of the Nigerian reality from the Civil War to modern sociopolitical events. October blues is a book everyone should read and dialogue with, old and new. Copies are available in reputable bookstores nationwide. We say thank you for striving and believing Nigeria is great country. #librettopublishers #librettobookstores, #literaturebook #poetrylovers #Oyo #Edo #Abuja (at Oyo, Oyo, Nigeria) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjLMRwqAT08/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kemetic-dreams]

Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

The Yoruba people (Yoruba: Ìran Yorùbá) are an ethnic group that inhabits western Africa, mainly the countries of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; first were Yorubas dispersed through Atlantic slave trade mainly to the western hemisphere and the second wave includes relatively recent migrants, the majority of which moved to the United Kingdom and the United States after major economic and political changes in the 1960s to 1980s As an ethnic description, the word "Yoruba" (or more correctly "Yaraba") was originally in reference to the Oyo Empire

The alternative name Akú, derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings (such as Ẹ kú àárọ? "good morning", Ẹ kú al��? "good evening") has survived in certain parts of their diaspora as a self-descriptive, especially in Sierra Leone

The Yoruba are among the most urbanized people in Africa. For centuries before the arrival of the British colonial administration most Yoruba already lived in well structured urban centres organized around powerful city-states (Ìlú) centred around the residence of the Oba.In ancient times, most of these cities were fortresses, with high walls and gates.Yoruba cities have always been among the most populous in Africa. Archaeological findings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 11th and 19th centuries CE), had a population of over 100,000 people. For a long time also, Ibadan, one of the major Yoruba cities and founded in the 1800s, was the largest city in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. Today, Lagos (Yoruba: Èkó), another major Yoruba city, with a population of over twenty million, remains the largest on the African continent

Ife continues to be seen as the "Spiritual Homeland" of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Empire as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.

The Oyo Empire under its oba, known as the Alaafin of Oyo, was active in the African slave trade during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations,who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the Atlantic slave trade.

Most of the city states were controlled by Obas (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of Oloyes, recognised leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs' councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states,the senatorial councils held more influence and the power of the ruler or Ọba, referred to as the Awujale of Ijebuland, was more limited

The Yoruba religion comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland. Yoruba religion is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the total complex of songs, histories, stories and other cultural concepts that make up the Yoruba society. One of the most common Yoruba traditional religious concepts has been the concept of Orisa. Orisa (also spelled Orisha or Orixa) are various godly forms that reflect one of the various manifestations or avatars of God in the Yoruba religious system. Some widely known Orisa are Ogun, (a god of metal, war and victory), Shango or Jakuta (a god of thunder, lightning, fire and justice who manifests as a king and who always wields a double-edged axe that conveys his divine authority and power), Esu Elegbara (a trickster who serves as the sole messenger of the pantheon, and who conveys the wish of men to the gods. 

He understands every language spoken by humankind, and is also the guardian of the crossroads, Oríta méta in Yoruba) and Orunmila (a god of the Oracle). Eshu has two avatar forms, which are manifestations of his dual nature – positive and negative energies; Eshu Laroye, a teacher instructor and leader, and Eshu Ebita, a jester, deceitful, suggestive and cunning.Orunmila, for his part, reveals the past, gives solutions to problems in the present, and influences the future through the Ifa divination system, which is practised by oracle priests called Babalawos.

Olorun is one of the principal manifestations of the Supreme God of the Yoruba pantheon, the owner of the heavens, and is associated with the Sun known as Oòrùn in the Yoruba language. The two other principal forms of the supreme God are Olodumare—the supreme creator—and Olofin, who is the conduit between Òrunn (Heaven) and Ayé (Earth). 

Oshumare is a god that manifests in the form of a rainbow, also known as Òsùmàrè in Yoruba, while Obatala is the god of clarity and creativity.as well as in some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah, Vodun and a host of others. 

These varieties, or spiritual lineages as they are called, are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, among others. As interest in African indigenous religions grows, Orisa communities and lineages can be found in parts of Europe and Asia as well. While estimates may vary, some scholars believe that there could be more than 100 million adherents of this spiritual tradition worldwide

The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are one of the largest ethnic groups are widely distributed, across the Sahel from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea, particularly in West Africa. The countries where they are present include Mauritania, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, the Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Niger, Chad, Togo, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Liberia, and as far east as the Red Sea in Sudan and Egypt.

Walter Rodney in his book The History of the Upper Guinea Coast, argues that Fulbe are originally from North Africa and they conquered the Foota Djallon region led by the Fulani Koli Tenguella.

The ethnogenesis of the Fulani people may have begun as a result of interactions between an ancient West African population and North African populations such as Berbers or Egyptians. Their West African roots may be in and around the valley of Senegal River. They likely reflect a genetic intermix of people with West African, North African, and Arabian origins, and have been a part of many ruling dynasties particularly in the Sahel and West Africa .Speculations about their origins started in the era of European conquest and colonization.

The language of the Fulani is "Pulaar", which is also the language of the Toucouleurs. All Senegalese and Mauritanians who speak the language natively are known as the Halpulaa or Haalpulaar'en , which means "speakers of Pulaar" ("hal" is the root of the Pulaar verb haalugol , meaning "to speak"). In some areas, e.g. in northern Cameroon, Fulfulde is a local lingua franca.

There are three writing systems used to write this language: an Arabic derived one called Ajami, a Latin derived system with 6 sets, and a native phonetic-faithful system called Adlam recently invented in 1989; the third one is the most increasingly popular not only learnt by hundred thousands of people among the diaspora worldwide but has also apps and computer programs created to assist in the script's adoption.

Moral code

Central to the Fulani people's lifestyle is a code of behavior known as pulaaku or laawol Fulɓe (literally meaning the "Fulani pathways" which are passed on by each generation as high moral values of the Fulbe, which enable them to maintain their identity across boundaries and changes of lifestyle. Essentially viewed as what makes a person Fulani, or "Fulaniness", pulaaku includes: Munyal: Patience, self-control, discipline, prudence Gacce / Semteende: Modesty, respect for others (including foes) Hakkille: Wisdom, forethought, personal responsibility, hospitality Sagata / Tiinaade: Courage, hard work

[architectnews]

Architecture highlights in Western Africa along the Atlantic Ocean Coast

In the third part of our Sub-Saharan Africa Architectural Guide series, the editors of the guide pick their highlights from Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

With contributions from nearly 350 authors, the Sub-Saharan Africa Architectural Guide aims to be a comprehensive guide to architecture in the southern part of the continent.

The third volume of the seven-volume publication is named Western Africa along the Atlantic Ocean Coast and focuses on the architecture of Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

Read on for the book's editors, Philipp Meuser and Adil Dalbai's, picks from the region:

Photo is by Adil Dalbai

Guinea-Bissau TAP Airline Delegation, Bissau by José Pinto da Cunha

Located on National Heroes' Square, to the southwest of the Presidential Palace, this building can be related to other revisionists' experiences of the modern movement during the period of new brutalism.

It is defined by one single volume with the main facade covered in a vertical brise-soleil to enable control of the heat excess in the offices. The arched roof was also used to create ventilation, adjusting the building to its tropical climate.

A wide spiral staircase characterises the entrance level and establishes access to the other levels of the building.

Photo is by Philipp Meuser

Guinea Gamal Abdel Nasser University, Conakry, by E V Rybitsky and G N Tsytovich

As in many other African countries, a large-scale education offensive began in Guinea after independence in order to facilitate the training of a local elite. In 1962 the Institut Polytechnique de Conakry (IPC) was founded as the first institution for higher education in the country.

Under its first president Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinea wanted to break away from the former colonial power and aligned itself with the Soviet Union, and the country's first university complex was designed by a collective of Soviet architects.

The university was initially designed for 1,500 students – one of the largest university projects in western Africa at the time. Its main building, completed in 1964, housed the administration, rectorate, library, and conference hall, as well as a few classrooms and offices.

Most of the offices and classrooms for the faculties were spread over several elongated blocks. With their concrete mesh ⁄ brise-soleil – an element often found in late colonial and early post-independence modernist architecture – these buildings made natural ventilation possible and so were a good response to the local tropical climate. The dominant characteristic of the main building is the large mosaic on the north side of the main lecture hall, which shows a black Prometheus breaking free from his chains.

Photo is by Peter Dibdin

Sierra Leone Swawou School for Girls, Kenema, Eastern Province, by Orkidstudio

Orkidstudio's new girls' school in Kenema was designed to provide extensive new learning facilities for up to 120 young girls from the local area and was the only local school that didn't allow corporal punishment.

However, just four weeks from completion progress was brought to a halt and the site closed as the first confirmed cases of the Ebola virus hit the region. After a two-year delay, the school opened in 2016.

Photo by Philipp Meuser

Liberia Masonic Temple, Monrovia, by unknown architect

The overall style of the imposing, neo-classical masonic temple on Mamba Point was influenced by the secret society's lodges in the US.

The edifice has various classical elements: high Doric marbled columns, cornices at the top of the parapets, and pediments. Originally it was covered in marble, but due to damage it suffered during the civil war, most of this skin is gone.

A historic monument that hovers above Monrovia, the masonic temple was likely the site where decisions affecting the entire country were debated and finalised, as members of the True Whig Party, which dominated Liberian politics from the 1870s to the 1980s, were often Freemasons.

Photo by Ama N'guetta

Ivory Coast Hôtel Président, Yamoussoukro, by Olivier-Clément Cacoub

Initially a small village that gained its name in 1901, Yamoussoukro became the political capital of Ivory Coast in 1983, while the port of Abidjan remained the country's economic capital.

The reason behind the relocation of the coastal capital to a more central, inland location was not only to emphasise the prosperity and national identity of the country away from the former colonies, but also that the location was the birthplace of the then head of state, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

The master plan for the new city was drawn up by the Tunisian-born architect Olivier-Clément Cacoub in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was an attempt to combine a great city and a village in the form of a new town made up of a collection of modern villas.

Olivier-Clément Cacoub designed the Hôtel Président in 1980, three years before the city was appointed the Ivory Coast capital.

Photo by Fernando Guerra

Ghana One Airport Square, Accra, by Mario Cucinella Architects, Deweger Gruter Brown & Partners

As the first building in Ghana to have been awarded a four-star rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa, One Airport Square draws equally on the themes of globalisation, sustainability, and tradition.

The Italian and Ghanaian architects constructed a diagrid exterior in homage to the patterns on the palm-tree bark, and of the style of rural homes in northwest Ghana. The frame is structured to support Accra's seismic sensitivity, and the projected terraces shield the large office windows from strong solar-rays.

As a multi-purpose edifice, the recently completed building boasts offices, cafes, and restaurants, as well as a sculpture by the local artist Kofi Setordji in its piazza. One Airport Square has become the landmark of Accra’s new architecture landscape.

Photo by Willem Stom

Togo Bank for Investment and Development, Lomé, by Pierre Goudiaby Atepa

The Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) is a landmark building in Togo's capital city Lomé. It consists of two elements, connected by a bridge symbolising the link between the fifteen member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Thes thirteen-storey building rests on a basic structure composed of fifteen elements, which also stand for the member countries. It is dedicated to African women, as represented by a three-metre-wide sculpture depicting three figures, a mother, a sister, and a daughter.

The patterned conference room rotunda suggests an inverted gourd and a fountain makes a feature of the essential element of water. The project is one of Atepa's personal favourites and he later applied the same architec­tural and symbolic gesture in his design for Yundum International Airport in Banjul, the Gambia.

Photo by Giampiero Peia

Benin Marina Residence, Cotonou, by 5+1AA with Peia Associati

According to the architects, the aim of this residential complex was to not only to create a luxury compound in the increasingly expanding city of Cotonou but also to reinterpret African identity through reinventing the local contemporary style.

The team of Italian architects, consisting of Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo from the practice 5+1AA, succeeded in their aim, although the inspiration behind the roadside walls appears to originate from northern Africa.

The closed and solid-looking exterior walls are painted an intense shade of red, therefore generating a stark contrast to the glistening white buildings within the complex. These internal structures are pierced by unevenly distributed square windows with cedar frames, giving the residential buildings a decidedly unique, varied, and picturesque appearance.

Photo by Andrew Moore

Nigeria Dominican Chapel, Ibadan, by Demas Nwoko

Demas Nwoko's approach to architecture is through art and combines modern elements with a Nigerian vernacular architectural language. Though he was not formally trained as an architect, his works embody his in-depth understanding of the nation's architecture and its heritage. This can be seen in the chapel he created for the Dominican Institute.

The Dominican Chapel also includes sculptural elements such as carved timber columns and elaborate metalwork on the balustrades and gates. Situated at the site's highest point and accessible by way of a steep road off the main Ibadan–Oyo Highway, the house of worship is a prominent landmark.

The chapel was consecrated in 1973 and four years later in the journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, architecture critic Noel Moffat said: "Here, under a tropical sun, architecture and sculpture combine in a way which only Antoni Gaudí perhaps, among architects, has been able to do so convincingly."

The post Architecture highlights in Western Africa along the Atlantic Ocean Coast appeared first on Dezeen.

[aaliyahsnigerianlitlitblog]

10 Nigerian Fiction Novels

FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi.”This impressive debut novel is dark, powerful and provocative. It is, in many ways, about the complexities of a divided self, construction of identities and multiple realities. It focuses on a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her.As she grew, Ada became a source of deep concern to her family with her exhibition of volatility. When she came of age and moved to America for college, the group of selves within her grew in power. It soon became clear that something had gone terribly wrong.“ (Channelstv.com)

MY MIND IS NO LONGER HERE by Nze Sylva Ifedigbo.”Osahon – a man who is haunted by a dark past. Donatus, a graduate obsessed with a single-minded resolve to be better than his father. Haruna, the doctor who could not save his and Chidi – an unemployed graduate who wants to become wealthy at any cost.The world of these four men become entangled with Yinka, the front man for a powerful trafficking syndicate in this intriguing novel. It’s the story of a nation in the midst of decay and of men willing to risk it all in a bid to chase dreams beyond their reach”. (Channelstv.com)

WHEN TROUBLE SLEEPS by Leye Adenle.”When Trouble Sleeps is a thriller that plunges into the dark world of greed, political intrigue, blackmail, murder and sex workers.The novel’s protagonist, Amaka, in this sequel to the award-winning Easy Motion Tourist, returns to continue her one-woman crusade to protect vulnerable women while seeking out ways to bring justice to abusers and corrupt politicians.The self-appointed saviour of Lagos’ sex workers, Amaka may have bitten off more than she can chew this time as she finds herself embroiled in a complex political scandal that rocked the state and everything dear to her.Caught in a game of survival, against a backdrop of corruption, sex, and violence, Amaka must find a way to outwit those gunning for her life.” (Channelstv.com)

THE EXTINCTION OF MENAI by Chuma Nwokolo.”Twins separated at birth discover their true identities many years later.Brothers Humphrey, a London writer, and Zanda, a journalist in Abuja, Nigeria, are descendants of a Nigerian tribe whose members were subjected to drug tests that killed thousands.In this stunning novel, Chuma Nwokolo moves across time and continents to deliver a story that explores power relations expressed through the competing narratives that record the life and death of a civilization”.(Channelstv.com)

LAGOS NOIR Edited by Chris Abani.”The award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir, comprises of new stories, each set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book.Lagos Noir joins the series with a set of exciting new stories by some of Nigeria’s most brilliant writers like Nnedi Okorafor, E.C. Osondu, Jude Dibia, Chika Unigwe, A. Igoni Barrett, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Uche Okonkwo, and Leye Adenle.This anthology stands out because of its unique and philosophical approach to crime in Lagos – one of the world’s fastest growing cities. It’s a must-read for lovers of crime stories”.(Channelstv.com)

CHILDREN OF THE BLOOD AND BONES by Tomi Adeyemi.”This young adult fantasy novel that is the first of a trilogy, is loaded with West African mythology, captivating magic and consummate plots that highlight themes like racism and oppression.This book stretches the boundaries of imagination with its fascinating action scenes and incredible creatures.It debuted at number one on The New York Times best-seller list for young adult books and is currently being developed as a movie by Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions”.(Channelstv.com)

DISOWNED by Nina Anyianuka.” This is a collection of five stories of sadistic abuse, violence and an almost institutional sexual cruelty towards young girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa where the society is built on the power of men and timidity of women.The stories are told by five fictional Nigerian women who recount their personal experiences in their own voices. Issues ranging from sexual abuse and child molestation to prostitution, widowhood and domestic violence are tackled head-on in this book.Though deeply emotional and dark, Nina’s fast-paced and light-hearted writing approach makes the book enjoyable to read and difficult to put down”.(Channelstv.com)

AFONJA – THE RISE by Tunde Leye.”This is an exciting novel that makes a brilliant attempt at capturing and narrating the legendary story of the battle for supremacy between Prince Aole Arogangan, the newly selected Alaafin of the empire and Afonja, the powerful provincial chief of war, Ilorin.Afonja had been promised the office of Aare Ona Kakanfo of all the Oyo forces by the Oyo chiefs in order to secure his support for Aole’s ascension. He would stop at nothing to take what he believed was his by right.Afonja – The Rise is the story of how the clashes of these two men and the intrigue of the others around them transformed what was a slow decline into a race of the empire towards its collapse.Leye’s brilliance as a writer manifests in this thrilling historical fiction“.(Channelstv.com)

EMBERS by Soji Cole.”This book won the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2018. It’s dramatic literature that focuses on frightful contemporary experiences in the dreaded Sambisa Forest and one of the Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) Camps in Northern Nigeria.Soji Cole, who is a member of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ibadan as a teacher of playwriting at the Department of Theatre Arts, held nothing back in creatively constructing a tale that couldn’t be more relevant in today’s Nigeria”. (Channelstv.com)

WE WON’T FADE INTO DARKNESS by TJ Benson.”An abusive father is forced out of safety to find his runaway son in a world where males are going extinct and female monarchs have resorted to drastic methods to ensure continuity of the Nigerian race.An Ogbanje travels to a near post-apocalyptic Nigeria from the past with a solution even she is not aware of. A white boy who lives in Lagos seizes a banned book from one of his father’s Nigerian household serfs and their friendship yields disastrous consequences in Passion Fruit.We Won’t Fade into Darkness is a collection of fascinating stories whose common thread is hope. TJ Benson who is a Nigerian writer and creative photographer makes a statement with this brilliant book”. (Channelstv.com)

[ayittey1]

The Role of Women In Traditional African Societies

One area where the traditional societies were well advanced than their Western counterparts was in the area of women’s rights. Women in non-Western traditional societies were long “liberated” before those in the West. In fact, the Western feminist movement drew a lot of inspiration from the role women played in traditional Iroquois society. According to Jacobsen (2009),

 An aspect of Native American life that alternately intrigued, perplexed, and sometimes alarmed European and European-American observers, most of whom were male, during the 17th and 18th centuries, was the influential role of women. In many cases they hold pivotal positions in Native political systems. Iroquois women, for example, nominate men to positions of leadership and can “dehorn,” or impeach, them for misconduct. Women often have veto power over men’s plans for war. In a matrilineal society — and nearly all the confederacies that bordered the colonies were matrilineal — women owned all household goods except the men’s clothes, weapons, and hunting implements. They also were the primary conduits of culture from generation to generation.

 The role of women in Iroquois society inspired some of the most influential advocates of modern feminism in the United States. The Iroquois example figures importantly in a seminal book in what Sally R. Wagner calls “the first wave of feminism,” Matilda Joslyn Gage’s Woman, Church, and State (1893). In that book, Gage acknowledges, according to Wagner’s research, that “the modern world [is] indebted [to the Iroquois] for its first conception of inherent rights, natural equality of condition, and the establishment of a civilized government upon this basis.”

Gage was one of the 19th century’s three most influential American feminists, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Gage herself was admitted to the Iroquois Council of Matrons and was adopted into the Wolf Clan, with the name Karonienhawi, “she who holds [up] the sky.” (Jacobsen, 2009).

 It is not just in the Iroquois nation that women held important political positions. As we have shown above, most traditional societies have Clan or Queen Mothers with the power to appoint and depose a chief.  Her role is to scold, reprimand and rebuke an erring chief since a bad chief brings shame to the royal family.  If the chief continues in his errant ways, the Queen Mother has the power to recall and depose the chief.

 In other traditional; systems, women even played a more visible political role:

 ·        Women ruled the Mongol Empire (Weatherford, 2005).

 ·        Quen Nzinga of the Mbundu people of Angola put up a ferocious resistance against Portuguese colonial rule (http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/queen-nzinga-1583-1663).

 ·        The kings of Dahomey were assisted by a cabinet which consisted of the migan (prime minister); the meu (finance minister) created by Tegbesu; yovo-gan (viceroy of Whydah); the to-no-num (the chief eunuch and minister in charge of protocol); the tokpo (minister of agriculture); the agan (general of the army); and the adjaho (minister of the king's palace and the chief of police). The most interesting and unique feature of the cabinet was that each of these posts had a female counterpart who complemented him but reported independently to the king (Ayittey, 2006: 243).

 ·        During his reign, Gezo increased the number of the full-time soldiers from about 5,000 in 1840 to 12,000 by 1845. This army consisted not only of men but also of women, the famous Amazons `devoted to the person of the king and valorous in war.' This unique female section was created and organized by Gezo and consisted of 2,500 female soldiers divided into three brigades. Commanders of this army were also top cabinet ministers in charge of the central government thus enhancing the position of the army in decision making (Boahen, 1986; p.86).

 ·        In the Yoruba Kingdom (Nigeria) in early times it was not necessarily a male who was chosen as ruler, and the traditions of Oyo, Sabe, Ondo, and Ilesa record the reigns of female oba (kings) (Smith, 1969: 13).

 ·        In Asante, the British captured and exiled the king to Sierra Leone in January 1897. But to the Asante, it was the golden stool, not the king, was the symbol and soul of their nation. When the British made a vain attempt to capture the golden stool in April 1900, they met a stiff and humiliating defeat at the hands of an Asante woman, Yaa Asantewa, the Queen Mother of Edweso. Though this rebellion was finally crushed, the British never gained possession of the golden stool. Of course, British historians rarely mention this defeat, much less at the hands of a woman!

 Needless to say, there were bad women rulers too. One was Dode Akabi, whose accession to power constituted the first major female figure in Gá, and indeed Gold Coast. But in her long reign, 1610-1635, she cast aside the practice of rule by consensus and issued a series of brutal decrees which displeased her people. She was f killed after she had ordered her subjects to sink a well at a place called Akabikenke (Ayittey, 2006: 232)

 Women In The Traditional Economic System

 With the exception of Islamic countries in the Middle East, women also played a much more visible and important role in the traditional economy – especially in agriculture and market trading. Most traditional societies practice sexual division of labor. In early times, activities considered dangerous and physically strenuous such as waging wars, hunting, fishing, manufacturing (cloth weaving, pottery, leatherworks, iron smelting, sculpturing, etc) and building were male occupations. Food cultivation and processing were traditionally reserved for women. Since the family's entire needs could not be produced on the farm, a surplus was necessary to exchange for those items. It was only natural that trade in foodstuffs and vending came to be handled by women and for market governance to lie in their hands. Indeed in many localities, market rules were generally laid down and enforced by "Market Queens", usually selected from the women traders.

 Women still play this role today since agriculture continues to account for a higher share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of developing countries. For example, three out of four Africans are engaged in agriculture, with women making the most significant contribution. They perform “some 90 percent of the work of food processing, 80 percent of food storage tasks, 90 percent of hoeing and weeding, and 60 percent of harvesting and marketing, besides load carrying and transport services” (FAO, 1985, Chapter 7).[i] Rural markets and trade are also largely handled by women. Local farm produce ‑ either cash crops or food crops ‑ are marketed at the local market, almost invariably by women.

 In West Africa, for example, market activity has been dominated by women for centuries:

 ·        In 1879, Governor Rowe of Sierra Leone expressed his admiration of these women:  “The genius of the Sierra Leone people is commercial; from babyhood the Aku girl is a trader, and as she grows up she carries her small wares wherever she can go with safety. The further she goes from the European trading depots the better is her market” (White, 1987; p.27).

 ·        The market in every Ga town is run entirely by women. No trading, except that initiated by foreigners is ever carried on by men...Many of the women are very shrewd and ingenious in their trading. One day when good catches of fish were coming in I saw a woman, who had no fishing men‑folk, exchange a bowlful of fried akpiti cakes for a panful of fresh fish, and then hastily sell the fish to a `stranger' who was trying to make up a load to take away. The sale of the fish brought her three shillings and four pence. The sale of the cakes would have brought her one and sixpence. The materials out of which she made the cakes probably cost less than sixpence (Field, 1940: 64).

 ·        The market place among the Akan of Ghana is largely a woman's world. Except for the small percentage of traders who are men, the processes of trade are said to be mysteries to men. Men often seem uncomfortable in the market; they prefer to send a woman or a child to make purchases for them, and avoid entering it if possible. For women, the market place is not only a place of business but of leisure as well. Sales are sometimes slow and women chat and josh with each other” (McCall, 1962).

 ·        In South Dahomey, commercial gains are a woman's own property and she spends her money free of all control...Trade gives to women a partial economic independence and if their business is profitable they might even be able to lend some money ‑ a few thousand francs ‑ to their husbands against their future crops (Tardits and Tardits, 1962).

 The object in trading was to make a profit. The Yoruba women "trade for profit, bargaining with both the producer and the consumer in order to obtain as large a margin of profit as possible" (Bascom, 1984; p.26). And profits made from trading were kept by the women in almost all of the West African countries.

 Though the amount of profit was often small by today’s standards, many women traders were able to accumulate enough for a variety of purposes: to reinvest and expand their trading activities, to cover domestic and personal expenses since spouses have to keep the house in good condition, to replace old cooking utensils, to buy their own clothes and to educate their children. The case of Abi Jones was earlier cited where profits from her trading were used to educate her sons. Indeed, many of the post‑colonial leaders of Africa were similarly educated ‑ with funds accumulated from trading profits.

 Another important use of trade profits was the financing of political activity. As Herskovits and Harwitz  (1964) put it: "Support for the nationalist movements that were the instruments of political independence came in considerable measure from the donations of the market women" (p.7).

 To start trading, women often looked to their husbands for support or borrowed from the extended family pot. For example,

As soon as he is married the Ga husband is expected to set his wife up in trade (`ewo le dzra' ‑ he puts her in the market). It is part of every woman's normal occupation to engage in some sort of trade and every reasonable husband is expected to start her off...When she is unlucky in her trading and loses her capital her husband is expected to set her up again, but if she loses her capital three times she is a bad manager and he has no further obligation in the matter (Field, 1940:55).

 Market trading generally made African women economically independent. Chatting at the market place also provided an important social release for pent‑up emotions.  Of course, today, much of this market activity has spilled over into the informal sector, where women still play an important role in food-related activities, such as, food vending by the roadside.

 [i] Perhaps this gender characteristic explains why Africa’s agriculture revolution never materialized. In many countries, it was crafted with the help of Western agricultural experts who tended to prescribe “mechanization” with the importation of male-driven agricultural machinery.

References Ayittey, George B.N. (2006) Indigenous African Institutions. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational Publishers.

Bascom, William (1984). The Yoruba Of Southwestern Nigeria. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, Inc.

Boahen, A.A. (1986). Topics in West African History. New York: Longman.

 Bohannan, Paul and George Dalton eds. (1962). Markets In Africa. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Field, M. J. (1940). Social Organization of the Ga People. Accra: Government of the Gold Coast Printing

Herskovits, M.J. and Harwitz, M. eds. (1964). Economic Transition In Africa. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

 Jacobsen, E. (2009) The Iroquois Constitutionhttps://ca01001129.schoolwires.net/cms/lib7/ca01001129/centricity/domain/221/the_iroquois_constitution.pdf

Johansen, Bruce E. (1990). “Native American Societies and the Evolution of Democracy in

America, 1600-1800,” Ethnohistory, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Summer, 1990): pp. 279-290.

______________ “Native American Ideas of Governance and U.S. Constitution

http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2009/June/20090617110824wrybakcuh0.5986096.html

McCall, Daniel F. (1962). "The Koforidua Market," in Bohannan and Dalton, eds. (1962).

 Smith, Robert S. (1969).  Kingdoms of The Yoruba. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd

 Tardits Claudine and Claude (1962). "Traditional Market Economy in South Dahomey" in  Bohannan and Dalton (1962).

 Weatherford, Jack (1989). Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas transformed the  World. New York: Ballantine, 1989.

_______"The Women Who Ruled the Mongol Empire", Globalist Document - Global History, June 20, 2005

 White, E. Frances (1987). Sierra Leone's Settler Women Traders. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

[blackkudos]

David Oyelowo

David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo ( oh-YEL-ə-woh; born 1 April 1976) is an English actor and producer. His highest-profile role to date was as Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2014 biographical drama film Selma. He also took the lead role in A United Kingdom (2016) as well as playing the role of a chess coach in Queen of Katwe (2016). He has played supporting roles in the films Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Lincoln (2012), Jack Reacher (2012), and garnered praise for portraying Louis Gaines in The Butler (2013). On television, he played MI5 officer Danny Hunter on the British drama series Spooks (2002–2004).

Early life

Oyelowo was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, to Nigerian parents. His father is from Oyo State, Western Nigeria while his mother is from Edo State, Southern Nigeria. He was brought up as a Baptist. He grew up in Tooting Bec, south London, until he was six, when his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria, where his father Stephen worked for the national airline and mother for a railway company. David attended a "'military-style' boarding school." They returned to London when Oyelowo was fourteen, settling in Islington.

While enrolled in theatre studies at City and Islington College, his teacher suggested that he become an actor. Oyelowo enrolled for a year in an acting foundation course, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He finished his three-year training in 1998. He also spent time with the National Youth Theatre.

Career

Stage

He began his stage career in 1999 when he was offered a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing roles in Ben Jonson's Volpone, as the title character in Oroonoko (which he also performed in the BBC radio adaptation) and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1999) alongside Guy Henry, Frances de la Tour and Alan Bates. However, he is best known for his next stage performance as King Henry VI in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2001 productions of Shakespeare's trilogy of plays about the king as a part of its season This England: The Histories. In a major landmark for colour-blind casting, Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major production of Shakespeare, and although this casting choice was initially criticised by some in the media, Oyelowo's performance was critically acclaimed and later won the 2001 Ian Charleson Award for best performance by an actor under 30 in a classical play.

In 2005, he appeared in a production of Prometheus Bound, which was revived in New York City in 2007. In 2006, he made his directorial debut on a production of The White Devil, produced by Inservice, his theatre company in Brighton which is co-run with fellow Brighton-based actors Priyanga Burford, Israel Aduramo, Penelope Cobbuld, and his wife, Jessica. He played the title role in Othello in 2016 at the New York Theatre Workshop with Daniel Craig as Iago, directed by Sam Gold.

Television

Oyelowo is best known for playing MI5 officer Danny Hunter on the British drama series Spooks (known in North America as MI-5) from 2002 to 2004. He had before that appeared in Tomorrow La Scala (2002), Maisie Raine (1998) and Brothers and Sisters (1998). Soon after the end of his time on Spooks Oyelowo made a cameo appearance in the Christmas special of As Time Goes By (2005). In 2006, he appeared in the television film Born Equal alongside Nikki Amuka-Bird as a couple fleeing persecution in Nigeria – they also both appeared in Shoot the Messenger (2006), and in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008) as a husband and wife. Other cameos have included Mayo (guest-starring on 30 April 2006) and the television film Sweet Nothing in My Ear (2008, as defence attorney Leonard Grisham), while he has played recurring or main characters on Five Days (2007) and The Passion (2008, as Joseph of Arimathea).

In December 2009, he played the leading role of Gilbert in the BBC TV adaptation of Andrea Levy's novel Small Island. In March 2010, he played the role of Keme Tobodo in the BBC's drama series Blood and Oil.

He starred in the HBO original film Nightingale (2014).

Voice acting

He appeared as Olaudah Equiano in Grace Unshackled – The Olaudah Equiano Story, a radio play adapting Equiano's autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. This was first broadcast on BBC 7 on 8 April 2007, with his wife Jessica Oyelowo as Mrs. Equiano.

In 2007, Oyelowo was the reader for John le Carré's The Mission Song. AudioFile magazine stated: "Think of David Oyelowo as a single musician playing all the instruments in a symphony. That is essentially what he manages in this inspired performance of John le Carré's suspense novel.... Can it really have been only one man in the narrator's recording booth? This virtuoso performance makes that seem impossible." In 2015, he was selected to portray James Bond in Trigger Mortis, written by Anthony Horowitz.

As of 2014, he provides the voice of Imperial Security Bureau agent Alexsandr Kallus on the animated series Star Wars Rebels.

As of 2017, Oyelowo voices the spirit of Scar, the main antagonist in season 2 of The Lion Guard.

Oyelowo is set to voice the Tiger in a television adaptation of The Tiger Who Came to Tea which will air on Channel 4 for Christmas 2019.

Film

In 2012, Oyelowo appeared in Middle of Nowhere. Writer-director Ava DuVernay had been a fan of his work and had considered asking him to take the role, however before she could, Oyelowo received the script coincidentally from a friend of a friend of DuVernay's who happened to be sitting next to him on the plane and was considering investing in the project. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival to critical raves. That same year Oyelowo appeared in Lee Daniels' The Paperboy, which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Oyelowo reunited with Daniels the following year in The Butler.

In 2014, Oyelowo formed his own independent production company, Yoruba Saxon Productions which has co-produced movies that featured him including, Nightingale, Captive, Five Nights in Maine, and most recently, A United Kingdom.

He worked with his Middle of Nowhere director Ava DuVernay again for Selma (2014), playing civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. The film, based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches, had originally been set to be directed by Lee Daniels, but the project was dropped by Daniels so he could focus on The Butler.

He is slated to star with Lupita Nyong'o in a film adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel Americanah. The story follows a pair of young Nigerian immigrants who face a lifetime of struggle while their relationship endures.

In February 2019, it was announced that Oyelowo had joined the Peter Rabbit cast with James Corden, Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleeson reprising their roles as the title character, Bea and Thomas McGregor for its sequel due to be released in April 2020.

Awards and honours

For his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Oyelowo received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. He received his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, while also receiving a nomination for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor.

Also in 2014, for his performance in Nightingale, he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special and a Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.

Oyelowo was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Personal life

He is married to actress Jessica Oyelowo, with whom he has four children. They live in Los Angeles, California.

A devout Christian, Oyelowo has stated that he believes God called him to play Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Reflecting on his portrayal of King in the film Selma, Oyelowo has asserted that "I always knew that in order to play Dr. King, I had to have God flow through me because when you see Dr. King giving those speeches, you see that he is moving in his anointing."

Oyelowo and his wife became naturalized US citizens on July 20, 2016.

Oyelowo is an omoba (or prince) of the kingdom of Awe, Nigeria, a part of the Nigerian chieftaincy system. He commented, "it was useful for getting dates but probably not much else".

[esorison-blog1]

MY COUNTRY

Having spend more than 28 years of my life in a country flowing with crude, vegetable and palm oil and my feet having a record of more than 60 cities visited, i should be able to tell you how proud i am to be a Nigerian. 

 “The Giants of Africa” as referred to most times has a large population and economy with more than 186 million inhabitants making it claim the records of the 7th most populous country in the world.

Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous kingdoms and states over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdom. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2011 presidential election considered the first to be reasonably free and fair.

States in Nigeria

Abia

Adamawa

Akwa Ibom

Anambra

Bauchi

Bayelsa

Benue

Borno

Cross River

Delta

Ebonyi

Enugu

Edo

Ekiti

Gombe

Imo

Jigawa

Kaduna

Kano

Katsina

Kebbi

Kogi

Kwara

Lagos

Nasarawa

Niger

Ogun

Ondo

Osun

Oyo

Plateau

Rivers

Sokoto

Taraba

Yobe

Zamfara

Abuja - Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

To know more about my country or plan to visit then you can find more info on Timbu

[lightdancer1]

This article has a neat summary of the overall history of the Oyo Empire:

To further examine the history of the Oyo Empire, it should be noted that it too inherited some of the same weaknesses as the Zulu and other militarized autocratic states, namely the habit in pre-industrial autocracies that if generals were not properly rigidly kept in line by terror they were likely to do the pronunciamento regardless of whether or not it destabilized the state. As with the Ummayyads taking down enfeebled Byzantine and Sassanian infrastructure, so did the Sokoto Caliphate emerge like the icheneumon wasp from a caterpillar weakened by putsch and civil war, not a strong state taken down by the heroic valor of Mujahideen.

That, of course, is how the Fulani prefer to remember it as people tend to exaggerate the strengths of their enemies to strengthen their own claims to glory. In this the Oyo Empire was not unique tot the same realities that afflicted other states like it, the distinction is that it was not European power that destroyed it but a Jihad launched by one of the many bloody-handed reformer imperialists a dime a dozen in Islamic history.

[lboogie1906]

Elechi Amadi (May 12, 1934 – June 29, 2016) was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices before contact with the Western world. He is best regarded for his 1966 debut novel, The Concubine, which has been called "an outstanding work of pure fiction". He attended Government College, Umuahia, Survey School, Oyo, and the University of Ibadan, where he obtained a degree in Physics and Mathematics. He worked for a time as a land surveyor and later was a teacher at several schools, including the Nigerian Military School, Zaria. He served in the Nigerian army, remained there during the Nigerian Civil War, and retired at the rank of Captain. He then held various positions with the Rivers State government: Permanent Secretary, Commissioner for Education, and Commissioner for Lands and Housing. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CddJ3swL_OPivBIS2I1MXz2kge5VfCVYW2iAIU0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[alabs1]

Civil War Veterans Protest 44 Years Unpaid Pensions In Ibadan

Civil War Veterans Protest 44 Years Unpaid Pensions In Ibadan

Some retired military men who fought during the Nigerian civil war protested their 44 years of unpaid pensions on Wednesday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital. The group under the umbrella of the First Intake Able Voluntary Retired Or Discharged Ten Or More Years in Military Service, and led by their national coordinator, Babawande Philips, took to the streets of Ibadan with placards bearing various…

[dailygist-uk]

This post is on the Biography of the current Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola and his net worth. Biography The late Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III was born on April 15, 1938. He was the longest-serving Alaafin of Oyo. He was also the son of Oba Adeyemi II, the immediate former Alaafin of Oyo who was sent into exile in 1954 for showing sympathy toward the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC). It was after the civil war, Lamidi Adeyemi succeeded his father Alaafin Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II as the king of Oyo in the year 1971. He was working as an insurance clerk before he emerged as the new Alaafin. In ancient times before the pre-colonial era, the Alaafin was seen as an absolute ruler whose powers spread throughout the Yoruba empire. The Alaafin of Oyo and the Ooni of Ife are seen as the most powerful monarchs in Yoruba land. History has it that the Oyo empire is the traditional empire of Yoruba land, although not the seat of Oduduwa, the founder of the Yoruba tribe. Other Titles of the Alaafin of Oyo Apart from being a wealthy rich Yoruba king which makes the Alaafin of Oyo net worth run into billions of Naira, there are other names or titles by which the Alaafin is called. These names includes Kabiyesi which means “the King Who No One Can Question”, Iku Baba Yeye meaning “The One Who Can Command Death” or “Pronounce Same Upon His Father or Mother” Or “He Who Is Parent To Death”, Alashe which means “He Who Wields Authority”, Ekeji Orisha which means “second-in-command to the gods”. National Honours The late Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III was also a holder of the Nigerian national honor of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). It was also him who installed the late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) as the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland on April 14, 1988. Positions Held Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III was appointed the chancellor of Uthman dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto. He held this position from 1980 to 1992. In 1990, he was appointed Amir-ul-Hajj by the then former military president, Ibrahim Babangida. The Alaafin’s religion is Islam. Alaafin of Oyo Net Worth The current net worth of the Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III has not been released by Forbes. He is ranked among the list of first-class Obas in Nigeria and is also one of the richest kings in Nigeria. Since he is a wealthy businessman with many landed properties both in Nigeria and Abroad, it won’t be a surprise if the current Alaafin of Oyo net worth is estimated to run into millions of US dollars. Death The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, is officially dead. Alaafin Adeyemi, who was the third from the Alowolodu Ruling House, died at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti at age 83. He ruled for 52 years. Ooni of Ife & Alaafin: Who is Superior? The question as to who is the most powerful monarch between the Ooni of Ife and Alaafin has sparked a lot of controversies. Both are respected in Yoruba land and culture. According to the Alake of Egbaland, he rated the Ooni of Ife as the superior King among all Obas in Yoruba land.

[gwendolynlerman]

Discovering the world

Nigeria 🇳🇬

Basic facts

Official name: Federal Republic of Nigeria

Capital city: Abuja

Population: 230.8 million (2023)

Demonym: Nigerian

Type of government: federal presidential republic

Head of state and government: Bola Tinubu (President)

Gross domestic product (purchasing power parity): $1.44 trillion (2023)

Gini coefficient of wealth inequality: 35.1% (medium) (2020)

Human Development Index: 0.548 (low) (2022)

Currency: naira (NGN)

Fun fact: The town of Igbo Ora is known as the “twins capital of the world”.

Etymology

The country’s name comes from the Niger River. The origin of its name is uncertain, but Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy wrote a description of the river valley Gir and the Ni-Gir (“lower Gir”), possibly the Niger River.

Geography

Nigeria is located in West Africa and borders Niger to the north, Chad to the northeast, Cameroon to the east, and Benin to the west.

There are five main climates: hot desert and hot steppe in the north, dry-winter tropical savanna in the center, and tropical monsoon and tropical rainforest in the south. Temperatures range from 12 °C (53.6 °F) in winter to 40 °C (104 °F) in summer. The average annual temperature is 26.2 °C (79.1 °F).

The country is divided into 36 states and a federal capital territory. The largest cities in Nigeria are Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Benin City, and Port Harcourt.

History

1500-1 BCE: Nok culture

700-1380 CE: Kanem Empire

9th century-1912: Kingdom of Nri

999-1349: Kingdom of Kano

11th-18th century: Sultanate of Gobir

1180-1897: Kingdom of Benin

1200-1420: Ife Empire

1200-1909: Oron Nation

1350-1805: Sultanate of Kano

1380s-1893: Bornu Empire

15th century-1897: Bida Emirate

1400-present: Ijebu Kingdom

1430s-1591: Songhai Empire

1500-1840: Kwararafa

16th century-1900: Igala Kingdom

1570-1896: Oyo Empire

1630-1902: Aro-Ibibio wars

1640-1902: Aro Confederacy

18th-19th centuries: Igbo-Igala wars

1804-1903: Sokoto Caliphate

1807-1903: Kano Emirate

1820-present: Ilorin Emirate

1840-1900: Wukari Federation

1862-1906: Lagos Colony and Protectorate

1884-1893: Oil Rivers Protectorate

1893-1900: Niger Coast Protectorate

1900-1914: Northern Nigeria Protectorate; Southern Nigeria Protectorate

1901-1902: Anglo-Aro War

1914-1954: Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria

1954-1963: Federation of Nigeria

1963-1966: First Nigerian Republic

1966: coup d’état; counter-coup; anti-Igbo pogrom

1966-1979: Republic of Nigeria

1967-1970: Nigerian Civil War; Republic of Biafra

1975: military coup

1979-1983: Second Nigerian Republic

1983: coup

1983-1993: Republic of Nigeria

1993: coup

1993-1999: Third Nigerian Republic

1999-present: Fourth Nigerian Republic

2003-present: conflict in the Niger Delta

2009-present: Boko Haram insurgency

Economy

Nigeria mainly imports from China, the Netherlands, and the United States and exports to India, Spain, and China. Its top exports are crude oil, cocoa beans, and oil seeds.

It has iron, natural gas, and salt reserves. Services represent 54.3% of the GDP, followed by industry (23.6%) and agriculture (21.9%).

Nigeria is a member of the African Union, the Commonwealth, the Economic Community of West African States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Demographics

The Hausa are the largest ethnic group (30%), followed by the Yoruba (15.5%), Igbo (15.2%), Fulani (6%), Tiv (2.4%), and Kanuri (2.4%). The main religion is Islam, practiced by 53.5% of the population, the majority of which is Sunni.

It has a negative net migration rate and a fertility rate of 4.6 children per woman. 54.3% of the population lives in urban areas. Life expectancy is 52.6 years and the median age is 18.6 years. The literacy rate is 62%.

Languages

The official language of the country is English. The most spoken native languages are Fulani, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Nupe, Tiv, and Yoruba.

Culture

The Nigerian film industry, known as Nollywood, is the second-largest movie producer in the world. There are around 1,150 ethnic groups, each with its own culture.

Hausa men traditionally wear a flowing robe (babanringa) and a cloth cap. Women wear a blouse, a piece of cloth wrapped around the body, and a headscarf (hijab).

Igbo men traditionally wear a loose-fitting shirt (isiagụ), pants, and a cloth cap (fila). Women wear a blouse or top (uwe) and a wrapper around the waist (ọgọdọ) or a long dress and a head wrap.

Yoruba men traditionally wear a long-sleeved shirt, a robe (agbada), pants (sokoto), and a cloth cap (fila). Women wear a loose-fitting blouse (buba), a wrapper around the waist (iro), a shawl over the shoulder (ipele), and a head wrap (gele).

Architecture

Traditional houses in Nigeria are made of mud bricks and have thatched roofs.

Cuisine

The Nigerian diet is based on meat, rice, and vegetables. Typical dishes include akara (fried bean cakes), margi special (a soup of bean sprouts, fish, spinach, and tomatoes), nkwobi (cow legs in palm oil sauce), ofada rice (a rice dish with sauce served with beef and fried banana), and suya (smoked meat with spices in a skewer).

Holidays and festivals

Like other Christian and Muslim countries, Nigeria celebrates Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Eid al-Adha, Mawlid, and Eid al-Fitr. It also commemorates New Year’s Day and Labor Day.

Specific Nigerian holidays include Democracy Day on June 12 and Independence Day on October 1.

Independence Day

Other celebrations include the Durbar Festival, a Hausa equestrian festival; the Eyo Festival, which features Yoruba dancers in costume and masks that represent the spirits of the dead, and the New Yam Festival, in which the Igbo celebrate the end of the cultivation season with dances and parades.

Eyo Festival

Landmarks

There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and Sukur Cultural Landscape.

Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

Other landmarks include the Gashaka Gumti National Park, the National Christian Center, the National Mosque of Abuja, the Ogbunike Caves, and the Olumo Rock.

Ogbunike Caves

Famous people

Amaka Igwe - movie director

Blessing Okagbare - athlete

Burna Boy - singer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - feminist and writer

Jay-Jay Okocha - soccer player

Ime Udoka - basketball player

Osita Iheme - actor

Tiwa Savage - singer

Wole Soyinka - playwright

Yvonne Orji - actress and comedian

Blessing Okagbare

You can find out more about life in Nigeria in this post and this video.