Hey!

So if you missed the lagos jazz series, check out photos thru this link

http://picasaweb.google.com/AfricaRelatedPix/LagosJazzSeries2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCOq_4JbZrIS60wE#

I had a birthday yesterday :) I feel as great as I can be! Thanks for your support.
xx

Been a while!

Ok, yes, I suck at blogging, I know :)
I've been swamped with many many things to do and not enuf time or money to do them! Firstly, pls read about a charity project I'm involved with on www.ireadafrica.blogspot.com We're havin a spelling bee for primary school children in badagry/seme parts of lagos. ASK ME HOW YOU CAN HELP :)
Music is good, you will soon hear some good news from me, ni agbara Olohun (by God's power/grace) so bear with me.
But on sunday the 7th, I'll be jamminmg with my Musical family, AYETORO at the Lagos Jazz series alongside jazz greats from both far and near. I am excited like crazy!! :) Its holding at Muri Okunola open park in victoria island.
NOW THE NEXT DAY, the 8th is ma birthday :) :) I am going to be 26 and more pressed than ever to release that album. So how we go celebrate am? Na una hand e dey o... Cheers n one blessed sunny Love. xx

Chat with Nana Anoff (West African Abstract Artist and Painter)

It’s a beautiful day with clear skies, (not to sound cliché, but it truly is) and in the life of the Ghanaian born visual artist and painter, Nana Anoff, it’s an extremely busy day.
He’s working on new pieces and I’m very curious about the outcome because from where I sit I can see unfinished table stools and glass waiting to be measured and cut, wood, Nana’s signature metal objects with which he fashions some of his masterpieces as well as some slightly scary looking welding and drilling machinery. I know better than to drag a man from his work which he is very passionate about, and so I go grab some bread and tea to while away time.

After an hour or two, the man of the moment is ready to talk, but not before he quickly grabs a few bites of waakye, a famous Ghanaian delicacy off his brother, Panji’s plate. Yes, same Panji Anoff of Pidgen music fame and one of the best sound engineers and music maker this side of the planet. It is safe to say creativity runs deep in this household.
Nana is finally ready and I find it hard to stop smiling because I have an inkling of how mischievous this seemingly innocent looking talent can be.

We start off talking about his reason for becoming an artist to which Nana laughs and confesses he came into his present field as a result of a serious financial challenge in 1996. According to him, he and a few close friends and family organized an art event which flopped. The financiers of the event were not sympathetic and applied pressure on Nana and his friends to refund the money they invested in the project. His next and only option was to start painting and equally selling those paintings.
Eventually, he successfully raised the money through this means and realized he wanted to continue in that path.
I ask him about his childhood and smiles as he talks extensively about his grandmother, of blessed memory whom he attributes his major influence to. ‘I was raised by my grandmother’, he says, ‘she was a diligent woman who raised her children and grandchildren trading kerosene sponges’. ‘She acquired many properties due to her hardworking and diligent nature’, he adds with a measure of pride.

He added that asides his grandmother, other women who surrounded him, as a young boy also influenced his paintings which chiefly portray African women as intelligent, strong and independent. I commend him for this, to which he smiles and declares proudly, ‘I am a feminist’.
His grandmother encouraged him to follow in his father’s footsteps, and become a physician, but Nana was not so inclined even though he tried. He is quick to laugh about his poor grades at school which were unable to qualify him to be a medical doctor, and admits to knowing in his heart that he could not become a good one, because he was a rebel who always broke rules, norms and laid-down procedures.
A self taught artist, Nana got his big break when the Italian ambassador to Ghana, also an artist, got to know about his work through his wife who stumbled on Nana’s works while she came to buy flowers from his family horticultural garden.
The ambassador, who was highly impressed with the quality of Nana’s work offered to organize his first exhibition at the Novotel hotel Accra, which coincided with an African soccer competition at that time. This gave him more prominence, as most of Africa’s brightest soccer stars who lodged at the hotel for the duration of the soccer competition became fans of his work.
Presently, the collectors of Nana’s works also include President Obama of the U.S.A and his wife Michelle, Will Smith, and a host of other art collectors. His works have also being displayed on American TV shows such as Girlfriends, and The Parkers.
His career highlights include winning the LEASAFRIC Ghana Bartimeus prize, winning the prize for second place in the Quest-Africanne at the West African regionale conference, being called upon to design the Kofi Annan peace keeping centre, his commissioning to design the new Dutch embassy, amongst others.
At this point I tease him on being very rich because his paintings must cost the proverbial arm and leg, to which he laughs and says the prices of his works are fixed by his wife who doubles as his ‘managerial adviser’. His own part of the whole affair, according to him, is to bring out his emotions, feelings, and imaginations to life through his art. The rest is left to ‘them’, he says modestly, referring to his small army of workers and apprentices who constantly surround him.
I ask Nana if he has had embarrassing moments in the course of his job to which he regales me with an hilarious incident which I would spare you, the kind reader hahaha, but please do not mischievously spike this brilliant artist’s ice-cream with alcohol if you ever run into him, the results might be ‘interesting’ to watch.
On advising young and/or up and coming visual artists, he says ‘Always break the rules, with the exception of the law (we laugh at the joke), follow your heart and don’t be dictated to about your work’.
I ask him if he has any last words, and he asks me if I have found a boyfriend in Ghana. I chuckle and shake my head in the negative. He tells another joke and I shake my head in exasperation.
I feed my eyes yet again in his gallery for a while before I take my leave. The day is beautiful still, with clear skies.

Check out the pictures from his gallery, and find more of his works on www.nanoffgallery.com
Cheers and thanks for reading!

The truth, and nothing but.

Ok, so I'm one of the (hopefully few) single people who cannot actually remember when they actually quit their last relationship. In my own case, I think it was due to the break up to make up syndrome. However, my salvation came when I woke up one day and voila! I was 25. That's when it dawned on me I had to make up my mind, to keep holding on to nothing, or brace up and branch out in faith to a future that may heal the past and make things better.

I spent the most part of 2008 and 2009 being a love cynic, laughing at those I felt were foolish enough to get into it. I still felt, to a large extent, that the only unconditional love you can find in the world is that which exists between a mother and her child. I greatly distrust that one that is between a man and a man because it is fleeting, even more fleeting than the small sun that attempts to appear on a very wet and rainy day.

You see, when I fell in love at 18, i could have sworn it would last forever. And in the course of the almost 7 year relationship, I managed to break all the norms typical to my immediate African setting. I knew the love was mutual, because he agreed to most of my eccentricities and spontaneity, which, believe me, is no easy feat. So when the cracks began to appear, my first instinct was to smile to myself, because we had a good run while it lasted.

I grew up, with just one parent in residence-my mother. My dad passed away when I was three and I watched this amazing woman, literally work her bones off to provide for my brothers and I. She did not remarry, even though more than a few men brave enough to take in a woman with three children came along for marriage. I watched her slave for us, never asking us to go and be a liability to relatives for sustenance, this, plus my stubborn strong will which my family say I got from my father (yea, what do they know? huh) came to give me my independent mind. So, I'm one of those women who don't sit around, waiting for their cellphones to ring, or a knight in shinning armour swooping in to save them.

Lately, however, I have had a lot of time on my hands, and I have been thinking. We all need love to survive, yes, love, not food. Everyone deserves to have at least one person you can call when you hear a very hilarious joke, or when you fall down in the bathroom and sprain your neck, or you pass a very difficult exam, or get that new job…or when a loved one passes away. We all need friends, at least one who will stick their neck out for us when shit happens, and if we are lucky to find love, in its truest and undiluted form, I think it makes us really blessed and we should guard that love jealously because its crazy out there.

In my case, I had family and friends who advised me, both out of love and fear, to stick through and endure my past relationship. Their favourite quote was 'The devil you know is better than the angel you don't'. I lived by this quote for a while, dying slowly inside and hurting and I realised the beauty of life was venturing into the unknown, the many surprises life had to offer, not to mention that life is so short that it would be crazy and suicidal to live in pain, or put your life on the shelf in the name of being in a relationship.

The thing about our mind, particularly all things emotional is that it is tied to very other aspect of our lives. Once our emotional balance is upset, you can bet that our output in other spheres of our lives will drop automatically. The Bible got it right when it said 'Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it proceeds the issues of life'.

And so, I have resolved to put my cynicism aside, and well, you know, branch out in faith and…try again. YAYY!!! hahahahaha. I still have my reservations and usual questions, but its nothing a little faith and patience can't fix. I have to admit though, solitude is a beautiful thing, as it has given me an opportunity to xray my life in the aim of making changes. I am still in repair.

They say when love happens, its best to let it come naturally. No hassles, no stress, no pressures. So I'm taking it a day at a time.

WE ARE AFRICA

Lately I've been experiencing new systems, cultures, people and ideologies (some ludicrous, but somewhat practical, others surprisingly futuristic). Over the past month, I have heard more distorted opinions about Nigeria than I ever have at a go and while some are so ridiculous its hilarious, some annoy me, more than I want to admit.
Some however, get me thinking, and I realize, with no small degree of hurt, that the concept of a united Africa is one that may not be achieved in the near future.
Someone was talking about racism the other day, how the Europeans and many Caucasian people look down on Africans and other way round, but only a few talk about the deepening hostilities between Africans nations, the bad perceptions the people have regarding each other, the mutual distrust, the bad blood that has refused to be sucked out and has now graduated into a cancer, quietly but malignantly eating deeper and deeper.

Not to sound overly philosophical and/or condescending, but you have no right to sit on your behind and smugly declare ALL Somalians as terrorists or Nigerians as fraudsters or all South African men as rapists if its mostly based on what you have heard, and not what you experienced first hand. Even if you have had some bad experience in the hands of fellow Africans, it still doesn't quite qualify you as an expert on the psychology of a certain people.
I have met Africans lately who say 'Oh Nigeria, I want to visit and stay but I am afraid of getting kidnapped, etc, so I am too scared to go'. Yes, I hear you, but several years ago, my cousin was sitting quietly , enjoying a class at her school in Canada when a masked gunman burst in and started shooting randomly, instantly killing over a dozen of her classmates and her teacher. I still see these same Africans clamoring for visas to go to Canada. This is just citing one example out of the many many craziness that abounds in the west which sadly, do not deter our people from branching out.
Perhaps we need to have some faith in us.
Our home videos, truth be said are a large contributing factor to how we are perceived. In one radio interview I had in Accra, there was a short break for a presenter to read the News, surprisingly, part of it centered on how the Nigerian movies were influencing Ghanaians to engage in ritual practices, abortions and crimes. I was too shocked for words. Now, I am yet to see a person who threw herself into a burning fire because a Nigerian in a movie said to do it, so I think that's just the blame shifting syndrome, but then, it wont hurt for these home video film makers to be more objective!
Since last month I have seen more Nigerian movies than I have cared for and I must confess that the quality, message, themes, etc of these movies seem so tacky I actually want to cry most times.
The grammar is mostly poor, everything is grossly exaggerated and over dramatized, the situations are not always realistic and everything looks the same. For example, boy meets girl, woos girl, girl plays hard to get for two scenes. In the third scene boy and girl run into each other at a boutique, they get talking, boy persuades girl to have some ice cream with him at a nearby 'eatery', the ice cream scene lasts for 30 minutes with the actors not talking, just smiling at each other while some weird background music, i.e Kenny G, is playing at full blast ( apparently the aim of that scene is to teach the viewers how to eat ice cream, I suppose), next scene has boy and girl on the beach, boy is chasing girl while she runs around laughing, he eventually catches her, picks her up like a rag doll, spins her around, then they share an unconvincing kiss etc(In the absence of a beach, they might run round a tree, preferably mango or coconut, but it always ends with the unconvincing kiss).
Boy then takes girl to meet his family where his mother takes one look at girl and decides girl's family is too poor and unknown in society to marry her precious son (sometimes it's the other way round in which case girl would be the president's daughter), boy gets angry and vows to marry girl despite all pressures from his family, there are a couple of assassination attempts on girl's life (including an acid bath attempt, voodoo spells) but she overcomes and marries boy. THE END. And oh! sorry, almost forgot, Boy's mother is struck by a mysterious sickness and confesses all she did to girl on her death bed, begging for forgiveness...... and so on and so forth.
Oh, I forgot this isn't about the movie industry, got carried away for a bit. Sorry.
It is sad that many of Africa's children cannot find their way back to her, and I don't mean those in the diaspora. Mostly those right here at home, please don't call me judgmental, but I find it hard to understand why a Nigerian woman will spend over a hundred thousand Naira to get someone else hair on her head in the name of lace wig. It's weird. Firstly, check all history books, there is power in the human hair, you just don't put other people's essences right on yours like that..I don't quite get it.
Secondly, what is wrong with your own hair???
Thirdly, if you are black, you have little or no business having straight hair like that of a horse, it's just odd. It's not us. I'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money, but I think the biggest scam that black women swallowed hook, line and sinker is the RELAXER KIT scam. They've successfully made most African women feel if their hair isn't straight, then it doesn't look right. And so we subject our hair and scalp to hot chemicals to achieve a look which is alien to us. Like that American comedian said, 'When white women see black women with relaxed hair, they feel relaxed'... Probably it's because they feel, oh she's one of us, no fears :)
Who's living our own lives while we live theirs?
It's time for us to embrace who we really are, forget about the corruption, hunger, tribal wars and things, if I could choose, I would definitely be African in my next life. It's good to embrace other civilizations,but if it's at the expense of yours being eroded, then perhaps there should be caution.
I felt proud to see that among the seven wonders of the world, the only one standing is the Great pyramid of Egypt even though it is the oldest. Civilization truly started in our backyard, so don't be told different.
We owe ourselves and this great continent a duty, to love each other. Only with this love can we dispel harmful rumors about each other, detect government propaganda with which they use to siphon more money while painting the people as impoverished, illiterate and backward, to the west.
With this love we can shun stereotypical views for example, Not all Nigerians want to take your money, not all Ghanaians are miserly, not all Ugandans have HIV. Yes. etc.
Only with this love can we unite and come to the actualization that Marcus Garvey, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, etc wanted for us.
Because this is the only place our souls can truly call home. Only here are we truly free. Because we are Africa, and Africa is alive, still

This 'haters' business.

I'm always amused when people talk about haters and how they cant stop their shine and all that. It cracks me up, I tell ya.
And if you listen to HipHop, rap specifically, you'll see this haters business has been taken 2 a whole different level- A more amusing level (to me, that is).

I'm of the school of thought that the only person that can stop you is the person that stares back at you when you look in the mirror. (Err... Just be sure there's no one behind U when U do that). But I cant deny the existence of folks who don't like other folks for some strange reason or no reason at all. As in, they just take a look at you and decide you're not likable. These folks will go out of their way to try to hurt your feelings and/or make you feel small. Like the guy who wrote on my wall telling me "In your mind you think you'll be d next Asa abi?", or the guy who said I should stop taking close-up photos cos they emphasise ALL my facial flaws (him papa) hahahaha, and many others too embarrassing to mention.

Funny tho. But I'm still growing n learning. And if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have taken these people off my friends list, cos the fact is WE ALL NEED HATERS. To propel us to work harder, to stir us into vowing 2 not rest until we reach our promised land. I wonder where David would be without Saul and Goliath, like Moses and Pharaoh, the Israelites and the philistines, Mandela and the government of his hay-days, and so on and so forth.

I'm just saying if we were empty and our future was just the regular, nothing spectacular, then noone would feel threatened enough to want to distract us with little, petty stuff, away from the bigger, brighter picture. And so, I'm using this medium to thank my haters. I appreciate you. Cos in a way you can see what I may be too short-sighted to see. I may see the struggles, the pains and the disappointments, the constant broke-ness, the relentless hustlings, etc etc. But U know wat U see. I give God thanks 4 what U see.

April tales

I am learning a lot these days. Safe to say, I am growing. I have learnt from my bottled up pain, anger and disappointments, which although made me tougher and a bit angry, has thankfully not taken away the Love in my heart. I thank God I can still care, feel, and reach out, even if some people are resistant to affection probably due to stuff that happened to them.

I currently do not have a manager as a musician and if you fit the bill, please apply.
I’m not really worried that I have to DIY (Ok, do it myself most times), but I need that extra person that believes in me enough to say, “HEY!!! So what if you’re depressed and mourning a lost love, Get your ass up and go perform at this gig, or Taruwa for that matter!”

Someone who knows what it means to be a struggling, sometimes broke musician, one who can correct in Love, who isn’t insecure, isn’t perfect but wont settle for less, with good moral standards. One I can respect and can love me back.

Cos you see, I am strong willed. It isn't always a good trait. I tend to always want to have my way.
I sleep until ten in the morning and need a horse to drag me out of bed if I have to wake up earlier than that. I also like good food and I’m working on my tolerance level so please bear with me, as I’m “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” like most federal government roads in Nigeria.

Moving on, I just got off a tour of some campuses/states across Nigeria. I couldn’t afford to go with my own cameramen/photographer, so I don’t have great copies of performances and pictures I’d like to upload. I wish I had four hands, I’d play the guitar with two and film my performances with the other two, but alas, I’m just a normal human being like you :)
But I’ll see what I can do about the uploads.

Last week, I was out of town. Some stuff went down and its safe to say “unpleasant shit” happened.
Now, a dear friend of mine has been trying to teach me for years now about the difference between a “Nice” person, and a “Good” person.
Well I learnt in a week what he’d been trying to teach me in two years.
A nice person will do stuff for people because it’s within his/her power and may not cause him/her any discomfort. I.e. “I have three million naira lying dormant in my account, it’s no biggy if I give the starving Olaniyan family, five thousand naira.

The good guy, on the other hand, GOES OUT OF HIS WAY to help people. A good person busts his ass to be there for whomever needs him/her and God help you if you’re family (not blood type family) it’s almost an obsession.
When a good person is powerless to give help, you can hear/feel it in the way they act. They will call ,SMS , beep and check up on you frequently to see if other doors have opened.

I was happy that I knew a lot of nice people, but I thank God for His blessings. For every nice people I know, He gave me two good people. It almost brings me to tears when I reminisce on how people showed me love these past two weeks. I am biting my lips to keep from naming names, but seriously I want to be like you when I grow up :)Thanks ever so much.
PRAYER POINT: Dear Lord help me be a good/better person :)

Talking about heartbreaks, I’m currently heartbroken because one of my best mates lost his elder sister.
I’m not going to dwell much on it because I have a feeling he wouldn’t want me to. But I’m extra hurt when I see how hurt my friend is. My friend is a good person, and despite the hurt and grief he was going through, he still created space to be there for me. I respect and love him too much.

Still on best friends, I heard of a recent case where two friends had their sights set on one guy. Long and short is girl A met said guy first and became friends with him. She liked him but was taking her time. Guy knew girl A liked him.
Now, her friend, girl B meets said guy at some church event and knowing fully well her friend liked him, struck a chord with him, and started going on dates with guy.
Girl A finds out, throws a tantrum, to which girl B replies “He said you guys are just friends and nothing else”.
I’m amused about the matter because hey, Shouldn’t you stick to what your “friend” says and ignore the words of some horny guy who’s probably just looking to get laid?
Is it wise to pick the words of a stranger over those of your friends?

And if the “love” or lust runs its course and is gone and everyone moves on;

Should you trust such a friend?
Pretend some seeds of “wariness” have not being sown?
Ignore the voices in your head that says they will do it again, and this time to someone you may actually love?

THIS IS BECOMING A LONG ASS NOTE, BUT KEEP READING. (If you’re still awake).

I wish more people would come to realize good friends are hard to come by. Forget the facebook or twitter or cyber mirage. Your friends are people who know where you live and real stuff about you others don’t know.
All others are acquaintances or maybe budding friendship(s).

We ruin great relationships sometimes because we fail to separate who we are with other people from who we are with friends and family. If you’re the office gossip at your work place, do not bring it into your circle of friends.
It goes to you if you are the office bitch or controlling boss, don’t bring it home or to your friends, and act like people are kids you can talk to however you please. Love is not enough. People are sensitive, have egos and eventually won’t be able to stand you. #Iamjustsaying



Lately I have met people who complain about how they help people and those people turn out to abandon them, or steal their friends or contacts or whatever.
We need to understand that life is a spinning circle. What you do will come back to you. Good or bad.
If you do good to others, expect no rewards, if you do, you lose a bigger reward. If you can, forget any good you do to others, just let it go.
And nobody can steal your friends or contacts. If they were so loyal in the first place, trust me, they won’t bail on you so quickly. Yes, some people are wired to be ungrateful, but understand that we all are probably over 18, and can make decisions. Also don’t forget to remember, :) that there is a provision for freedom of association in our constitution.
Besides, isn’t there a slight chance you’ve “stolen” friends from people? Eh? Just think back a bit, after all we’re not all brown eyes and innocent faces..

ABOUT LOVE…. (The man and woman type :))

I want love. I think we all do. I don’t know about needing it for now. I’m too afraid.
How does one go from being in a committed relationship for eight years, to breaking out in sweats when thinking of marriage? I don’t know, please don’t ask.
I think I need some more time, I’m not trying to give anyone a hard time, I just need to chill a bit.
I’m not a fan of intense love, the one where you fall sick when you don’t see him in a week or where you’re all up in each others faces i.e facebook+yahoo messenger+text messages+phone calls+skype+Gtalk+Twitter+

Myspace+all the other social networking sites and tools. JEEZ!! And we wonder where the romance and MYSTERY went?
Some of my cheeky close friends ask me about "that thing". “How do you cope without it?” They ask.
Errr………………………………….. hehehehehehehehehe
Let’s just say I’m saving myself for marriage, hehehehehehe

WAIT OH…. Remember the title of this note oh, “LIFE, ISSUES, AND SOME FICTION ”
So there’s a disclaimer notice.

I don’t need someone to swoop me off my feet and save me like Lois and Clarke of Superman fame. Just need a good person who likes to laugh and is content with holding hands. For now. :)