That “tribal” word
I cringe whenever I see that word in a news article. And I see it so often in journalese. Stories about developing countries often feature phrases like tribal healer, tribal […]
Category Archives: Culture
Black Lady Goddess…coming soon
There’s an upcoming series that’s caught my eye, thanks to Afriquette.com. It’s called Black Lady Goddess by Nigerian-American-Guyanese content creator/director/filmmaker Chelsea Odufu. This young woman has a powerful voice. “I […]
My Name Is Chika
My name is Chíkà. I love my name. If you want to get an idea of what it means, you can look it up here on Wikipedia. It’s made of […]
The Beautiful Load: A Visual Poem
This poem is an ode to the African woman’s head scarf and all that she carries… I grew up watching my mother tie huge pieces of fabric on her head. […]
Why The Most Important Person in Africa is the Storyteller
Storyteller. At its basic level, the word conveys the role of someone who preserves the memories, beliefs, aspirations, experiences of a people, a society, a civilization. Storytelling is the convergence of many disciplines, as many disciplines involve storytelling such as history, sociology, anthropology, photography and of course, literature.
I appreciate the storytelling that is done on a micro-level that requires one-one-one interaction with people on-the-ground.
Researchers say that it’s the ability of humans to tell stories that has greatly contributed to our survival as a dominant species.
Audiences Across Africa Hail Black Panther for Humanizing Black Characters
So, the world is still on the Black Panther film hype. Jesse Holland @jessejholland author of “The Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther?” has described the success of this movie as […]
Stopping Babies From Being Ritually Killed in Nigeria
In 2016, I learned about a community in the outskirts of the Nigerian capital city of Abuja that was practicing a generations-old cultural ritual that involves killing babies. […]
Ever Heard Of Benin City?
This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.
The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era.
Brazil’s New Problem With Blackness
As the proudly mixed-race country grapples with its legacy of slavery, affirmative-action race tribunals are measuring skull shape and nose width to determine who counts as disadvantaged. PELOTAS, […]
Black Women Tackle Dangerous Stereotypes
The pop culture landscape is littered with lazy images of black women ― the nurturer, the hussy, the angry bitch. Hovering around the all-encompassing myth of the “strong black […]
Afrocentric Confessions 