Sokari Ekine · March, 2006

Latest posts by Sokari Ekine from March, 2006

Nigeria: Progressive?

  22 March 2006

Grandiose Parlor comments on the Nigerian census and wonders despite 4 censuses and the widespread violence reported around the census whether Nigeria has what it takes to exist as a progressive nation.…”How does the insurgency in the Niger-Delta impact the census in this area? Is there any provision (by the...

Kenya: Dare to be Different

  22 March 2006

What an African Woman Thinks writes about “daring to be different” and discusses what is normal and what is deviant…..Because sometimes, too often in fact, it seems to me that that question degenerates into who is like us and who is not. And, it can, in this cruder form, make...

Kenya: Water conflicts

  22 March 2006

Kikuyumoja’s realm also posts on World Water Day. He forcuses on the global water statistics and conflicts that arise over access to water. …”Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. To date, the UNESCO’s International Shared Aquifer Resource Management project (ISARM) has inventoried over 150 shared...

Ethiopia: World water Day

  22 March 2006

Concoction reminds us it is World Water Day. She focuses on the act of “fetching water” which is largely ignored….fetching water is not something men do unless they are alone.” At which point the man has daily incentives to pay a lobola to purchase his daughter as his lover, wife,...

Diaspora: Football wins

  22 March 2006

Ayaan Hirsi Ali blogs reports on a football match between gay men and muslims that took place in Amsterdam to mark the International Day Against Racism. The Muslim team won 4-0

Nigeria: Vagina Monologues

  22 March 2006

Ore's Notes writes about her visit to see the Vagina Monlogues in Lagos last Thursday… Ore is not so sure about the call to reclaim words like “the C-Word” as a means of removing power from the speaker of the word.

Kenya: Home again

  22 March 2006

Kenyan poet, Mshairi expresses her homesickness through a poem “Home (Again)” It is that time of the year for Africans in the Diaspora to begin to pine about warmer climates.

DRC: Street kids

  21 March 2006

Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveller reports on street kids in Kinshasa and points to an article which writes that the children are…”being beaten, abused, starved, thrown out of their homes which brings all the hardships and dangers of living on the street, at least in part because fear of...

South Africa: Music

  21 March 2006

Rethabile writing on Mzansi Afrika discusses music and what it means for Africa and Africans. “Music, then, is serious matter in Africa. By extension, it is also serious matter to African-Americans, whose fore-parents brought it over as slaves, and maintained enough of it for future generations to “have it in...

Nigeria: Census

  21 March 2006

Nigeria's is presently in the midst of carrying out a census. Oro reports that by the end we should know “exactly how many Nigerians live in Nigeria — 120 million? 150 million? Less? More? And as soon as that census exercise is over, another census (that will seek to consider...

Nigeria: Splashing out

  21 March 2006

Naijablog has a couple of nights out and about in Nigeria at an Owambe party .…”(‘come and show’) party. A big society woman was ‘washing’ her new upscale housing estate in Maitama. The yearly rent is reputedly 90,000US per year (N13.5million). “

Kenya: African women

  21 March 2006

Afrikan Eye writes on the role of African women in civilisation….”I always cringe when people talk about African women's ‘traditional role in Africa’ when in actuality they are referring to a fairly recent period in time (namely the 1800s) when African women's roles had already been distorted. So…just to set...

Ethiopia: Fear grips the capital

  21 March 2006

Nazret.com writes that Ethiopians are grippped with fear – fear to speak and meet with each other…”A climate bordering on fear has taken hold of the Ethiopian capital as journalists, lawyers and politicians carefully measure their public remarks and contacts in the face of widespread arrests and prosecutions”

Kenya: Homosexuality is UnAfrican

  21 March 2006

Gukira writes a brilliant short piece entitled “Homosexuality is Un-African”………”Homosexuality, it is claimed, was introduced to Africa by the West. Others argue that homophobia, not homosexuality, was introduced to Africa. This dog-chase-tail debate privileges cultural origin as the primary source of legal authority: “as it was so it should be.”...

Nigeria: Oduduwa – Yoruba

  20 March 2006

In Odu to da Iwa, Jangbalajugbu-Homeland Stories introduces readers to Oduduwa..”Oduduwa is regarded as the progrenitor of the Yoruba race. In one of the stories of creation, Oduduwa is said to have descended from the heavens via a chain let down to Ile Ife, Odùduwà brought with him a chicken,...

Nigeria: Commonwealth Games

  20 March 2006

African Shirts posts on the progress of Nigeria's atheletes particiapating in the Commonwealth Games.…”I nominate Segun Moses Toriola for president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He's at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, representing Nigeria in table tennis, where he's defending the singles title he won in 2002″

Diaspora: race and immigration

  20 March 2006

Curious continues his series of posts on racism and immigration in Europe and America. The latest is a short piece on what “governments do to integrate immigrant communities” in the Netherlands, US and Britian….