The Nation Newspaper

Category: Arts & Life

  • Chromatic Childhoods: A Visionary Rebirth of Joy and Dreams

    Chromatic Childhoods: A Visionary Rebirth of Joy and Dreams

    By Oyedele Alokan

    In the realm of fine art photography, where memory and imagination collide, Silva Ndifon better known as nobodyshotit emerges as a luminary of contemporary visual storytelling. His series, Chromatic Childhoods: Joy (JAIYE) and Dreams, is not merely an exploration of youth but an invocation of childhood as an uncontainable force vivid, electrifying, and endlessly imaginative. With a bold, almost surrealist command of colour, Ndifon constructs a world where everyday moments transform into dreamlike encounters, amplifying the unfiltered joy and boundless creativity of childhood.

    At the heart of Chromatic Childhoods is the radical redefinition of colour as both a narrative device and an emotional conduit. Where classical portraiture often seeks realism, Ndifon breaks convention, electrifying his compositions with a heightened chromatic intensity that recalls the experimental fervor of Fauvism the early 20thcentury movement led by Matisse and Derain, where colour was freed from its descriptive duties and used instead for pure expression.

    Here, each hue is deliberate, each saturation a conscious act of storytelling:
    Blue evokes the tranquil, meditative peace of childhood introspection. Green signifies renewal and the limitless potential of youth. Orange bursts with warmth, playfulness, and uncontained energy. Purple hints at a deeper, almost spiritual connection to one’s inner world. Yellow radiates unfiltered happiness. Red embodies passion, urgency, and the intensity of emotion that children experience so viscerally.

    The result is a visual symphony that does not merely depict childhood but immerses the viewer in its kaleidoscopic world, much like David LaChapelle’s hyperreal photography or the iconic Malick Sidibé’s nostalgic portrayals of West African youth culture.

    Silva Ndifon’s work is also a radical counter-narrative to traditional representations of African childhood. Too often, global visual culture frames African youth through lenses of hardship and struggle, reducing their stories to mere footnotes in the narrative of resilience. Ndifon obliterates this trope, instead celebrating childhood as a place of boundless possibility, where even the simplest acts jumping, laughing, fetching water become epic, cinematic experiences. Much like the ground-breaking work of Osborne Macharia, who reimagines African identity through Afrofuturistic photography, Ndifon crafts a world where the past, present, and future exist in a vibrant continuum. There is no nostalgia here—only a triumphant reclamation of joy.

    Chromatic Childhoods is more than a series, it is an experience, a portal that invites viewers to reconnect with their own youthful imagination. It is a call to remember the uninhibited laughter, the sun-drenched afternoons, the endless potential of dreams untainted by cynicism.

    For those who grew up in Africa, these images strike a deeper chord, capturing the essence of shared childhood experiences the dust rising beneath bare feet, the symphony of children’s voices at play, the makeshift toys that held entire universes of possibility. This series does not simply depict childhood it revives it.

    Silva Ndifon has not just photographed moments he has distilled them into pure, visual poetry. Chromatic Childhoods: Joy (JAIYE) and Dreams is a testament to the power of photography as a medium of emotional alchemy, where colour becomes memory, and memory becomes timeless. This is not just cutting-edge it is eradefining. In a time where artistic expression increasingly leans into nostalgia, Ndifon instead chooses to celebrate what is eternal: the unbreakable, uncontainable, technicolour joy of childhood. And in doing so, he reminds us all of something profound: Joy is not just remembered. It is relived.

  • Hitting the horse and its rider

    Hitting the horse and its rider

    Title: Horse and Horse Rider (verses and vistas from workplaces)

    Author: Chuka Nnabuife

    Year of publication: 2022

    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    It is not always that one gets to encounter or read this kind of consummate collection of poems in this clime. It is consummate because the poet, Chuka Nnabuife is a consummate journalist who takes an excursion into the hub of the society. Employment, jobs and the reason to live to work all revolve around the same pendulum. Man lives to work; he works to live. He earns his wages because a man deserves his wages. Even the scriptures in the clearest term, says: A labourer deserves his wages. So, Nnabuife   is agitating for fairness. He is concise; he is precise and comprehensive in his thoughts, in his candid excursion into the recesses of this collection, punching right, left, and centre.

    With the title as: Horse and Horse Rider, the poems go straight into the hearts of the matters – matters because each poem is deliberate; distinctive, expository, funny in some cases, yet profound and thought-provoking in most other instances. Here and there, you see or encounter lines that cut across various job experiences. Whether as a labourer or employer of labour and or all in one, the mix in these poems must hit you beyond compare. It is the story of a capitalist society where the winner continues to win. It is a place where the rich has it all. As the poor grits, grinds in his squalor, itching and wishing just to have a job, just anything to earn a living, the employer, stands in as an exploiter, the Lord of the manor, dishing out all sorts of ill-treatment to hoodwink him. It is a situation of subjugation and mental slavery.

    The titles of the poems are diverse. Yet they dwell and centre on the diverse problematic issues of job hunt, job experiences, and encounters with all manner of habits in the work place. The work is divided into four parts, with each treating different aspects of the theme: Horse and Horse Rider. Part one comes as Monkey work, baboon chop. This is a common expression in local parlance in which a labourer works all year round, sweating, toiling to keep afloat, only ending with a few coins in his pocket. In the meantime, the owner of the company, that is the employer, smiles home fatter, more ebulliently.

    Life is not equal after all. But does life balance? Hear the poet: “We work. We peel our palms. In sun. In rains. In chilling fog. Of harsh Harmattan dew. Sweat, stress, sorrow to the marrow…” And then what follows? “So spells our hell. A day of toil. For teary-eye token. And master who hid beneath shades. Heads home with his pocket, fat. Yet he complains like would, all”. This is heart-rending, evocative.

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    There is call it job, a title so self-explanatory. There is also payslip magic, where you work just to pay house rent, school fees and perhaps feed twice a day. There is no room to grow or save for the future. This is just because you are but oga’s factory worker, casual or a permanent staffer is there any difference? And so on and so forth.

    But when Workers’ Day otherwise known as May Day comes, the worker goes out with all hope of recognition. However, the poet laments: “Its May Day date… never for us to cry. This date is ours to flay. ‘Flex’, vex and fest. Who no like am. Hug high tension”.  There are more soul-searching themes and lines, all pointing to the sorrows of the worker.

    In part two titled: No Food for Lazy Man, Nnabuife opens it with: Giver remains top”. Here the magic of the word ‘sir’ is defined. “Forever. Respond ‘sir’. To him, the master. Who once paid your hire…” Now, the sticker on his table reads: “The giver remains top. This is the irony of slave-master relationship which is as old as humanity. This poem now helps to refresh it and reconnect with the present. It all sounds absurd! It is worst when you encounter the pay-roll experts who know how best to use mitigated speech and action to distort payslips. The poet says such people are keen on deadly bickering. “In-fighting and outwitting one another. With no faculty for meeting. Mission, vision or capacity”. Of course, here ends the matter. Other titles are: Just for hatred, those ones we employ, without balls, without vision. And more.

    Part three is themed: Work Tour Spectacles. Here we see Zuma at dawn. Which zuma now? Yes, zuma that symbolizes mound of nature, a rock, a buffer, sort of, that dwarfs trees, towering high above. This is not just hyperbolic, it is proverbial. The poet is right on point. He says thus:… Calmly and seductively. Draw away the loincloth of clouds. To reveal your seldom seen beauty”. It is zuma mound of nature indeed; very alluring.

    The poem titled Jolly-good Jos, will always keep the glow of this wonderful city fresh and inviting to those who glory in an unpolluted environment . Jos-calm. Cascading. Resplendent. Like a serene court… This is just jolly Jos”. Then Driving in Lagos is a poem that stirs your heartbeat to a crescendo. Wait for it – it is Eko for show! And you must live with it. The poet tells you how and why, when you hear gbosa!. Olori buruku can scatter your head on a Monday morning. It is all about driving in Lagos, all tied to, and enwrapped in curses, screams, fumes, rants, carry go!

    These lines demonstrate practical realities of life for which a society is noted. It is when you enter Road through East that your eyes will open clearer. The poet tells you so. “They let it (road) cake and crack… Yet as many plunge. Drown and die…” And so on. It is satire mixed with truism.

    In part four, it is: Work space, and real stress. In poem 43 titled: Beyond the squeeze, Nnabuife suddenly preaches peace, whether it is peace of the graveyard, it is peace all the same. “Peace. Peace. Serene bliss. In this garden of breeze… Here, I feel the paths leading to horizon. Where says the sun: Let god, let God”. He amuses with words. He tints life situations to stir emotions, curry sympathy. He heaps blames where necessary and then points out issues, good and bad and somewhat ugly. He knows the role of a writer in pointing the way forward. The poems do so in many blazing ways. Even The Despot in this poem so-titled, knows that a wordsmith has entered this sacred arena. “Amid furore, row or banter. He bangs with a bombard…” This is the despot.

    All these are enough tonics for a people constantly under deluges of economic, social, political and religious anomie. These collections can go well into a contest with its many messages that point to all – leaders, the led, big, and small. It is a well-packaged work, with minor typographical and editing errors. It is hoped that the errors can be corrected forthwith.

  • ‘Why my home will become a gallery’

    ‘Why my home will become a gallery’

    Monday Goubadia is a Benin born sculptor, carver and artist. He is based in Lagos. He is also one of the artists at the Artists Village, Iganmu, Lagos, affected by the demolition of the Artists Village years back. Now on the verge of moving into his own house, he hopes to turn part of the property into a gallery. He speaks to Edozie Udeze.

    Ever since the demolition of the Artists Village, Iganmu, Lagos, some years ago, some of the affected artists have not recovered their rhythm. Life has been difficult. Most of them are still in search of places for office spaces. Some other ones, who lost plenty of artefacts and art works of different kinds, are still bemoaning their fate. In short, it has not been easy and it is a situation that needs the attention of those who feel concerned for the welfare of the artists to intervene.

    Recently, there was a reason to pay a visit to the village. Apart from some artists who are occupying some of the offices in the main structures, the Artists Village was barren. But one artist who is still within the premises in spite of the huge destruction and losses of his works is Monday Goubadia. Goubadia was one of the many artists that lost sculptures and other art works worth millions of naira. In a chat with The Nation, he said that the loss cannot be quantified. And that forever he would never forget the trauma of that day and the ever lasting effects it has established in his professional life; in his dream as an artist.

    He said “I lost works. But I have since moved on. Very soon I will complete my house in Ikorodu. It is over there that I will have my studios. Yes, a lot of people promised to help us obtain compensation from government when the destruction took place. Even the Minister of Culture then, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who came here, promised to look into our case. As I am talking to you now, nothing has come out of it”.

    He then began to show the reporter some of his current works at the makeshift studio. “This one is Oba of Benin. You can see the sculpture.  It shows the total epitome of the king, a royalty the people hold so dear. It is a tradition that is as old as the kingdom itself. I took enough time to sculpt it so that buyers and admirers and patrons would see and value the real essence of what our tradition means to us”. A traditional wood carver, sculptor and artist, Goubadia was born into art in Benin, his native cradle. Over the years, he has learnt to perfect that gift, that natural propensity to knock sense into woods to form amazing and inspiring pieces of art works.

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    He took time to take the reporter round his studio. The work on Oba was done a year ago, now waiting for buyers. “Yes, it was done almost a year ago. It can be sold for five hundred thousand naira”, he said. He confessed also that some of the works usually take longer time to complete. “The period of completion depends on a number of factors. If the work is big and more valuable, of course, it will take longer time to complete”.

    The Benin culture reflects so much in his works. “The culture of the people is strong. We do not joke with our culture. This is why we place emphasis on the sculptures we do to depict what we stand for”. In the case of an art work about a drum, he skillfully sculpted a drummer which he described as a multipurpose drummer. “This type of drummer can play for any purpose, for all occasions. He can play for the Oba, for a festival, for a masquerade, all. This is an abstract work, an abstract drummer. It is also a wood work and it took me a month to complete”, he said.

    The prices range from one hundred and fifty thousand to millions. A work is priced according to its cultural and social relevance. And in his studio, Goubadia has quite a handful of such works ready to be sold. “Every work here is for sale”, he declared. “This place was like a shopping mall for the art before it was destroyed. But when I go to my house, I will re-establish the mall. I will make it bigger and more beautiful”, he enthused with a smile on his face. With some works titled animal kingdom, to a design of a centre table, Goubadia is ready to turn his home into a huge gallery. “My house will certainly become a gallery of art”, he said happily.

  • Kole Omotoso: A researcher’s tribute

    Kole Omotoso: A researcher’s tribute

    Denja Abdulahi pays tribute to Professor Kole Omotoso, academic, novelist, administrator, the first secretary general of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He took over from the late Professor Chinua Achebe as the President of ANA. He passed away a few weeks ago.

    As the news flew in at the demise of Prof. Kole Omotoso, foremost writer, scholar and continental media personality, on the 19th July, 2023, my immediate reaction was that of sadness and the predilection to soak in the general atmosphere of tributes and various reflections on his life and time by those who knew him better than I did or who had encountered him in one way or the other.  A lot has been written since his demise, which positioned him as someone of prodigious contributions to African and world letters, thoughts and the continuous search for humanism in the social sphere or the public space.

    I wanted to let go this tribute to avoid the public positioning that is often read into tributes written by people at the demise of a public figure or a renowned individual. I thought again about it and felt it will do no harm to share some things that may be of interest to anyone who cares to read me.

    I first met Kole Omotoso on the pages of his most famous experimental book, first of its kind in Nigerian literature, “Just Before Dawn”(1988). I read the book almost as at its time of release and on the verge of my graduation from the university as an undergraduate at the University of Jos. I was fascinated like all other readers for its admixture of facts and fiction in the re-telling of Nigerian history in a novelistic manner. Indeed, the word  “faction” ( used to describe a piece of literary writing mixing up facts with fiction)slipped into public imagination in Nigeria with the coming of Kole Omotoso’s “Just Before Dawn.”  As I read the book and saw historical characters in the Nigerian story brought to life with novelistic psychoanalytical presentation and other forms of characterization in the midst of the rendition of factual history, I began to wonder: “what is fact and what is fiction?” So, when I went for my postgraduate study at the department of English, University of Ilorin ,between 1991-1992, immediately after my NYSC  programme, I was prepared to interrogate the book to find an answer to the aforementioned question in my Master’s dissertation.  The one year spent re-reading the book , against the earlier works of Omotoso ; sifting through other literary texts in history that have mixed facts and fiction creatively(historical fiction, documentary narratives, Nigerian Civil War novels, autobiographies and biographies, American Slave Narratives, Oral literatures, Shakespeare’s histories etc); unearthing the manner of the blend of facts and fiction in the book itself; locating the author’s socio-political criticism of Nigerian history and identifying the inherent problems of the mixture of facts and fiction in literature, was a year well spent.

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    In the end, I submitted a well-researched work to the Department entitled “The Emergence of Faction (Documentary Narrative) in Nigerian Literature: A Study of Kole Omotoso’s Just Before Dawn.” My supervisor, then Dr. P.O. Dada ,had no quarrel with my submission and was in fact enamoured by the originality of my research. My about 150 pages work was ready in record time for the viva and it was there some little academic skirmish happened. My second reader as it was called then, a renowned pugnacious and hard-to-please lecturer in the department, raised an objection, in spite of  the plaudits I had earlier received from other examiners, internal and external. His quarrel was that the concept of “faction” I used in my research must have been invented by me and that I was too junior  a researcher or an intellectual to start formulating a literary theory of my own. I was miffed and wondered if he had actually read my work and put up a brave defence. When he was not having his way with the examining panel, he walked out of the defence, leaving other examiners who passed my work all the same as more than good enough to go without any amendment. After the defence, Prof. Olu Obafemi , the then head of department, who chaired the session, called me back to his office and said: “Denja, your work is incredibly well researched and original but that concept of yours “faction” may be a bit nebulous(as at then the word nebulous was big English, and Olu Obafemi spit such words when speaking in his own mellifluous ways). I will advise you to go and find another word or concept that means the same to replace that in your dissertation. Do that so that no one will raise anything against your good work.”  Thus, the only correction I made was just to remove “faction” wherever it appeared in the work and replaced it with “Documentary Narrative” and that was reflected in the title of the final piece I submitted to the department in December, 1992 to  bag my well earned  M.A. in Literature-in –English.

    I still had not met Kole Omotoso in person when I decided in 2001 to use a quote from “Just Before Dawn” to preface my first published poetic narrative, which is struggling to become my magnum opus, “Mairogo: A Buffoon’s Poetic Journey Around Northern Nigeria.” The quote goes thus: “But from the fringes of the desert other times predominated. Times past, present and future had already been revealed. Tomorrow has nothing to teach yesterday and today can only be lived well if it is lived in the shadow of all yesterdays.” Soon after that publication, against my will, I got enmeshed in the politics of the leadership of the Association of Nigerian Autors(ANA) and rose to become the General Secretary in 2005. Towards the 2007 International Convention of the Association which held in Owerri, I was instrumental, under the leadership of Dr Wale Okediran as President of ANA, in inviting Kole Omotoso to that convention as the Keynote Speaker. The theme of that Convention was “Literature and Conflict Resolution”. Prof. Kole Omotoso , already very popular in the public imagination as that writer of that controversial book “ Just Before Dawn,”  and as the “Yebo Gogo” man of Vodacom in South Africa and  also being the second President of the Association after Chinua Achebe, was the toast of that convention. Young writers ,male and female, swooned over him and as the General Secretary, the veritable Chief of Staff, I minded his accommodation, his itinerary and general well being at that convention. I had some little time to tell him about my research work on his famous book ,pointing out what I felt  about it as evidenced in my research and why I thought he got into trouble with the Nigerian authorities for the book as interrogated in the last chapter of my work entitled “ Problems of the Documentary Narrative.” He listened with his keen eyes and made agreeable comments in his baritone voice and we laughed over the fact that the festive atmosphere around of young writers and long-seen colleagues demanding for his attention would not allow us get into any literary argument.

    I later on became the 11th President of ANA in 2015 and around that time he was back into the country from his domain in South Africa for an extended period of time. He got across to me that he was back into the country and wondered why there seemed to be no thriving chapter of ANA around the Ondo/ Ekiti axis where he was located. I told him how the once thriving ANA Ondo chapter went comatose after hosting two well organized international conventions of ANA in 2010 and 2013  under the auspices of the then literary-loving Governor Olusegun Rahman Mimiko of Ondo State. He sought to know why such a thing happened in his usual keen probe into fault lines  of things that had to do with lack of integrity. I told him what I had as evidence for the sudden failure of the chapter after a spurt of brilliance. I then pleaded with him to wake up the chapter. He tried to do by attracting some literary activities to his base at Elizade University in Ilara Mokin  but some local ANA apparatchik fought his honest moves. Then he had to move back again to South Africa but before then I was glad I got him fully  on reel to talk about the beginnings of ANA in a 45 minutes first of its kind documentary on ANA (The Dancing Mask) produced when I was president of the Association; filmed and directed by the maverick film maker, Tee Jay Dan of Box Office Studios. That documentary  with Kole Omotoso featured prominently in it is  still available on ANA website www.ananigeria.org   and on Youtube

    In the course of my tenure as President of ANA, Kole Omotoso was able to appear at one of the Authors’ Groove organized by ANA  at the annual  NIBF book fair in Lagos in 2016 and his book  “Just Before Dawn” , without prompting,  was again the focus of attention when he had to read the very last paragraph to foreground the fact that nothing had really changed  for the better in Nigeria since  its release in 1988 . In 2018, he contacted me that he wanted to attend the convention which was to hold in Lagos that year. He was to arrive from South Africa.  We had exchanged communication well towards the date of the opening of the convention but an unintended gap occurred and I was surprised not to see him at the convention. Some few weeks after the convention, he reached me on phone and when I expressed my consternation  at his absence at the convention, he told me he had come inadvertently a day before we started and that when he did not see any of us around, he spent the night at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja and proceeded to Akure the next morning! That was vintage Kole Omotoso.

    Then came the massive “literary insurgency” launched against the Association at the 38th International Convention of the Association which held in Enugu in November 2019. It was an election year and I was to handover as President to a new executives. The “literary insurgents” came prepared to execute a script of getting power by all means or disrupting the convention. When they perceived that they would not get the power they desperately sought against the run of play , they disrupted the electoral process. ANA was left in a situation that was never envisaged. Of course every concerned person was appalled. Kole Omotoso , like every other elder disturbed by the turn of events, called me from South Africa to ask: “Denja , what happened!?” I was in the eye of a wickedly unrelenting storm, accused, mocked and abused  by enraged and hooting “ literary insurgents “ ; celebrating their Pyrrhic victory of bringing the Association to its knees with their disruption. I explained to Kole Omotoso, as I did to many ANA elders, from my vantage position as ex-president , why what happened, happened. He asked his usual probing questions and I gave answers with evidences that he could go ahead to verify or  corroborate. One of the “literary insurgents” from the Ondo/Ekiti axis who had assumed  a kind of primordial affinity to him went to work to pile him with a Joseph Goebel- like falsified and malicious stories about what past leadership of ANA had done to ANA land; the take-over of which was the main motivation for their insurgency. Kole Omotoso demanded for hard facts beyond mere statements and I provided what was available to me and other in possession of such reached out to him. From the investigations he made, he came to his own conclusions.  He later reached out to me and told me of stories that went round in ANA circles, within their small group then of first and second generation of Nigerian writers, of  how some notable writers accused him of cultivating Mamman Vatsa to give the  land to ANA (the same land generating furore decades later) saying he was also bargaining with Vatsa on the side line for his own strip of land in Abuja. It was then that I got the affirmation that in ANA as in every other public sphere, people will always impute ulterior and base motive to any pusher of a cause for public good. It is worse in Nigeria or in Africa, as you cannot be in a leadership position and would not be accused of corruption because the society has been so conditioned to think leadership is the  pathway to accessing public resources for self-aggrandizement.

    Since that last engagements with him over his solicitation for the health of the  Association within the years 2020- 2021 , it has been a sedate relationship of text and whatsApp messages as I was aware of his health challenges that came with advancing years.

    Certainly, his demise at a ripe old age (by Nigerian standard) of 80 only highlights his massive contributions to Nigerian literature, the world letters and general humanity. Many in the literary and scholarly spheres knew him as a committed writer, an adventurous scholar and a man of quiet but resolute personal and artistic integrity. I will end this tribute with a quote by Odia Ofeimum which I used in my aforementioned research work and which I think best typify all his works in their experimental and uncanny drifts:

                   …Kole Omotoso’s art does not fall within any pre-cast or proverbial strain,

                     It is as distant from pre-existing fictional norms as a guerrilla is from a standing army. 

  • Unrestrained Chidozie Maduka

    Unrestrained Chidozie Maduka

    By Emmanuel Esomnofu

    Captured in situ, four boy children lost in uncoordinated play in a muddy river, their bodies caught in varying states of motion. One boy leaps into the air from the left side in a frog-like pose, his legs bent at an acute angle and arms flung forward and frozen mid-jump with droplets of water trailing behind him in two delicate arcs from both legs.

    Below him, another boy crouches, bent into the river—half in, half out, preparing either to rise or to dive. In the foreground, an unclothed child with a round belly and a slightly furrowed brow stands upright, with his gaze cast downward. To the right, a boy with polka-dotted underwear walks toward the riverbank, his back turned to the camera, shoulders gleaming with wetness.

    A bustling, lively scene, dense green foliage overhangs the river, with thick vines and ferns tumbling toward the water, creating a textured wall of vegetation bounding the photograph to the top, contrasting the muddy river’s milky brown tone.

    The colour palette is natural, earth tones, dominated by rich, muddy water and deep greens of surrounding plant life. The children’s dark skin glistens under the soft daylight, providing visual contrast that enhances the sense of energy and movement.

    The few items of clothing, mostly patterned and dotted, do little to detract from the earthy harmony of the image. The clarity of their limbs and postures against the murky water, especially the airborne child’s deep, bright yellow soles, adds a visual punctuation that elevates the composition and moment of expression.

    The image offers a tapestry of interpretations, speaking volumes of childhood freedom and the intimacy of play within nature, unmediated by the burdens of modern living. There is a visceral joy to their interaction with the environment, though they engage separately, there is a rhythm of unity in their engagement as their bodies respond instinctively to the water’s texture and temperature. The river takes an active part in this composition.

    The exuberance of childhood, the resilience of community, and the enduring relationship between people and place all in one image, offering a quiet but powerful narrative of self-sufficiency and joy found outside commodified spaces.

    The river becomes a metaphor for life in flux—uncontrolled, muddy, beautiful—and the children, fluid and fearless. The image reminds the viewer that even in places where material wealth is sparse, the richness of lived experience can be abundant and profound. It is a celebration of vitality, of moments suspended in motion, and of the quiet power in returning to the elemental.

  • I see myself as a cultural ambassador — Sulaimon Monayajo

    I see myself as a cultural ambassador — Sulaimon Monayajo

    At the recently concluded 13th edition of the African Achievers Awards, held at the Houses of Parliament, the Palace of Westminster, London, on 14 July 2023 and hosted by The Right Honourable The Lord Woolley of Woodford. We had the opportunity to interview one of the Awardees of the night, Sulaimon Ayoola Monayajo, founder and creative director of Sly Monay Fashion, who was awarded for creativity in fashion. He spoke about his practice, his social work in Lagos, and the next steps for the label.

    1. What did receiving the African Achievers Award at the Palace of Westminster mean to you?

    Being recognised at the African Achievers Awards in such a symbolic venue was profoundly validating. It felt like an acknowledgement not only of my own work but of the wider creative communities in Lagos and across West Africa. To receive the award at the Houses of Parliament, with Lord Woolley hosting, underscored the international resonance of African fashion today.

    2. Your work has been widely noted for the deconstructed Agbada and Adinkra symbol infusion. How did that signature emerge?

      The deconstructed Agbada came from a desire to translate a ceremonial form into something contemporary and wearable, while preserving its cultural language. I deconstruct the silhouette, play with layering and surface, and incorporate Adinkra symbols as a way to embed storytelling into the garment. It’s about honoring heritage while making it relevant for new contexts.

      3. You’ve shown on international platforms. How has that exposure shaped Sly Monay Fashion?

        Showing at events such as Africa Fashion Week London and festivals in Lagos has expanded our audience and tested the work in different markets. It’s given us editorial visibility and retail opportunities across Africa and beyond, but it’s also sharpened our ambition to work with global houses and technical partners in more established fashion ecosystems.

        4. You run an annual training programme in Lagos. Can you tell us about that work?

          Twice a year we offer a free six-month training course for 30 women. Each graduate receives professional training, an industrial sewing machine and start-up accessories. The intention is to move beyond charity and create sustainable micro-enterprises—many graduates specialise in beading, embroidery and embellishment and contribute to local industry networks.

          5. What are the main challenges you still face operating from Lagos?

            Infrastructure is a persistent issue: inconsistent power supply, ageing machinery and limited access to advanced production tools slow scaling and constrain creative experimentation. Those constraints force ingenuity, but they also make it harder to compete on the global stage.

            6. How do you see your role in the broader story of African fashion today?

              I see myself as a cultural ambassador and practitioner: someone who designs with cultural intelligence, builds a viable business, and invests in people. Awards and recognition help amplify that work, but the core is community impact and evolving what African fashion can be on an international stage.

              7. What comes next for Sly Monay?

                We will continue to develop collections rooted in heritage, expand training and empowerment programmes in Lagos, and pursue collaborations that deepen technical capacity—both here and abroad. The award was a milestone; now it’s about translating visibility into sustainable growth and meaningful partnerships.

              1. NLNG, CORA showcase first 11

                NLNG, CORA showcase first 11

                Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) last weekend in Lagos held a book party in honour of the longlist of 11 playwrights for The Nigeria Prize for Literature (2023 edition).

                The party featured readings from the longlisted plays and a panel session with playwrights who participated in person or via Zoom.

                This is the first public gathering of the writers on the longlist released by the panel of judges led by Ameh Dennis Akoh, a Drama and Critical Theory professor at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State.

                Other panel members were Prof. Osita Catherine Ezenwanebe and Dr. Rasheedah Liman.

                Playwrights on the longlist, who attended the event, were Victor S. Dugga (Gidan Juju), Obari Gomba (Grit), Cheta Igbokwe (Home Coming), Christopher Anyokwu (The Boat People) and Abuchi Modilim (The Brigadiers of a Mad Tribe)

                Others were Olubunmi Familoni (When Big Masquerades Dance Naked), Olatunbosun Taofeek (Where Is Patient Zero) and Henry Akubuiro (Yamtarawala – The Warrior King).

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                Abideen Abolaji Ojomu (Ojuelegba Crossroads), Ade Adeniji (Dance of The Sacred Feet) and Bode Sowande (The Spellbinder) joined the panel session via Zoom.

                General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development at NLNG, Mr. Andy Odeh, said the yearly book party brings NLNG, the sponsor of the prize, and the literary community together to promote excellence and creativity, and to project outstanding books to Nigerians and the world.

                Odeh said: “Nineteen years of successful administration have produced 17 winning works, and over $1 million has been won. This prize stands out as the biggest and most prestigious literary prize in Africa, and one of the world’s biggest and most reputable. We are happy that today presents an opportunity to interact with these 11 playwrights. We are just two steps away from announcing the winner of the $100,000 prize in October.

                “We instituted The Nigeria Prize for Literature because we were concerned that standards of reading, writing, editing, proof-reading and publishing were drastically falling in Nigeria, a country that largely founded and dominated the African Writers Series; a country that is also known to have produced reputable writers and winning works.

                “We are glad that Nigeria can showcase great literary works published in Nigeria. Our library and bookshelves have been enriched with many great works by Nigerian writers. The Nigeria Prize for Literature alone has received over 2,400 entries in the four genres, many of which are top-quality entries.”

                A member of the CORA Board,  Ropo Ewenla, stated that the idea of a book party sprung from a review of the prize in 2010, when some argued that stakeholders should do more for the publishing industry.

                He said CORA came up with the book reading to create an opportunity for the authors to discuss their books with the audience, adding that nothing beats a book reading.

                He stated further that the prize of $100,000 makes the competition one of the most keenly contested literary prizes in the world. Still, he added that writers primarily want to distinguish themselves with their writing and be recognised.

                The 11 entries were selected out of 143 for this year’s prize round, which focuses on drama. The final verdict on the winning entry is expected to be announced in October.

                The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly, among four genres, prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature.  

              2. Museum trains the trainers

                Museum trains the trainers

                By Funmiluyi Olaitan

                A train the trainers programme organised by the Education Department, National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCCM), Onikan, Lagos has held in Agbado community in Ogun State.

                The training, which featured teachers from Agbado and its environs, was held at Theo Petal Schools in Adiyan Gasline. School owners and teachers also attended the programme.

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                Facilitators were led by Mrs. Funmiluyi Olaitan C., an Assistant Director at the Museum. The skills taught included soap making, balm making, Izal, slippers and jotter back cover.

                The participants were excited about the programme because they gained a lot from the practical and were ready to practise what they were taught. They promised to invite the facilitators to teach them other crafts next time. 

              3. Every story has the other side

                Every story has the other side

                Title:      Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name 

                Author:                 Ukamaka Olisakwe 

                Reviewer:            Olukorede Yishau

                Publisher:            Masobe Books 

                One of the concepts Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is renowned for is ‘The danger of the single story’. Ukamaka Olisakwe’s young adult novel, ‘Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name’, deals, in a way, with this.

                  Times are, many times indeed, that a story is told from one perspective and it assumes a life difficult to dispel. In such instances, the world glosses over the fact that “evil is an incomplete story”, which “tells the story from one point of view”. 

                The story at the heart of Olisakwe’s book is one that was told and told and told and told to the point that the possibility of there being another side to it was not given a chance. All that stopped when a girl, unaware of her powers, met the woman they had been told was responsible for their woes. 

                The novel follows Adanne, a 13-year-old girl, who knows suffering the way a mother knows her child. Her mother and others in their community are partakers of this damned existence. 

                They are all paying the price for the Original Sin committed by an ancestor known as Mother. 

                All through Adanne’s childhood, she heard the story of mother, whose ambition was to be the best possible and she sought no undue advantage to reach the zenith. But, her father felt she was asking for too much. He was all smiles as he sent her off to a man’s house as a wife when she was not ready.

                She was tricked into believing that in her husband’s house she could be whatever she wanted to be. It took just a little time for her to realise she had been scammed to become a wife. The fraud was just beginning. Her resolve to be who she wanted to be was the tonic her husband, Big Father, needed to set her on the path of motherhood when she was not ready.

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                He decided her into having not one, not two, not three but four boys for him. And she demanded the ultimate prize for this humongous stride, she was told it was not time. And when it dawned on her that the husband never intended to fulfill his promise, she wrought damages. 

                For causing chaos, she was banished into the “Forest of Iniquity”. But, she never stopped seeking revenge and she loomed large over the people in Ani mmadu.

                Adanne turns out the one who “can walk through worlds” without shedding her body.

                The novel is also about her dog, a worthy partner in a quest to change their community’s destiny. 

                The story is set in two worlds, the one we know and the one we will never truly understand, where geysers are needed for access, where marbled palaces exist under water, where anything is possible. The part of the setting that we know is clearly Igbo. 

                The fantasy  rooted in Igbo mythology highlights the suffering of women and how they escape these sufferings. Olisakwe is most insightful when she is exposing the shenanigans against women. She drills holes big enough to expose patriarchy and its bias against women. 

                In Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name, Olisakwe’s interest is not to paint women as saints.Though the author’s feminist roots glitter all through, she displays their flaws but you are also made to see that when you push them to the wall, they can turn at you and the results are usually brutal. The book also shows the need to avoid the perils of a single story.

                Olisakwe knows how to build tension. She takes us on a ride that leaves us gasping for breath. There is magic in the transition between one chapter and the next as most chapters end on a cliff-hanger and will force you to turn to the next page.

                The novel is easy to read. The language is simple but not simplistic with poetic prose here and there  that gives the storytelling a sizzling effect. 

                Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name is a feat worthy of a thousand salutations because it is a rich and unforgettable artistic triumph.

              4. Culture advocates call for reorientation

                Culture advocates call for reorientation

                By Kehinde Abayomi and Roqeebat Lawal

                Culture advocates in Delta State have urged the government to improve cultural reawakening/reorientation and tourism promotion.

                They stressed that culture heritage preservation and tourism promotion holds lots of potential for the economy.

                  They made the call at the maiden edition of the cultural celebration organised by Forest Indigenous Arts and Craft Market, (FIACM), Delta State Film Village, Asaba, the Delta State capital.

                The event, which hosted scores of culture enthusiasts, featured cultural rebirth and a convergence of cultural enthusiasts, scholars, students and art lovers where they spent the day seeking various ways to rekindle the African tradition and revive the cultural heritage. 

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                Guests were treated to the traditional flute and musical performances from an all-male dance group known as the Okanga Cultural dance group and documentary presentations. 

                With the theme, ‘Heritage Changes’, FIACM’s culture feast also featured a roundtable essentially, on the preservation of African tradition to commemorate this year’s event with the rest of the world. 

                According to FIACM founder/Project Coordinator, Washington Uba, culture heritage preservation and promotion is not just about maintaining traditions and customs from the past, but rather about recognising the role these traditions play in shaping our future.

                Uba, who is also an environmentalist and climate change awareness advocate, said their effort in building bridges and fostering a sense of shared identity and purpose to promote the arts and culture is the way to go.

                “By embracing and promoting African culture and heritage, we can help to create a strong sense of identity and pride among African people, and inspire future generations to build upon the achievements of the past.

                “In addition to celebrating and preserving our cultural heritage, we can also share it with the world. By promoting African art, music, literature, and other cultural expressions, we can help to increase awareness and appreciation of the richness and diversity of our traditions”, he stated.

                The keynote address, entitled: ‘How do Local and Traditional Knowledge Systems Contribute to Developing Viable Climate Adaptation Measures’, was delivered by Dr. Ndudi Francis of the Denis Osadebe University, Asaba; while Falcorp Mangrove Park boss, Warri, Mr. Henry Erikowa, did justice to the ‘SDGs Goal Number Six’.

                The event, which had as special guest the founder of the Organisation for the Advancement of Anioma Culture (OFAAC), Mr. Kesta Ifeadi, also featured a students’ cultural group.

                Their spectacular cultural dance added spice to the event; while a 12-year-old traditional flutist, Okwa Akpele, who came in company of the Oganga Dance Group was the icing on the cake. The young flutist held the audience spell-bound with his creative ingenuity.

                The celebrations came to the climax with a Town and Gown session featuring students of Theatre Arts Department, Dennis Osadebe University, Asaba alongside their lecturers and Head of Department in a conversation. In addition, there was a review of the new entitled: “My Ancestors’ Shrine” written by author and journalist Ikenna Emewu, who is also Executive Director of AfriChina Media Centre.