Quickfire

Quickfire
Quick Fire

Questions answered by Bankole Thompson

1. Nicknames?
None

2. Toughest person you ever met?
Ralph Nader

3. Which dead person would you like to meet most?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

4. What do you love most?
Fairness

5. What do you hate most?
Deceit

6. Who do you love most?
God

7. Who do you hate most?
Injustice

8. Best friend?
Dana Roach, my girlfriend

9. How do you see yourself at times in the company of friends?
Reserved and conservative

10. Favourite movie?
Blood Diamonds

11. Favourite song?
Wings of Forgiveness by India Arie

12. Favourite sport?
Soccer and tennis

13. What can't you stand?
Laziness

14. Biggest regret?
Standing up for what I believe

15. Your fantasy?
None

16. Ideal partner?
My girlfriend Dana Roach

17. Greatest quality?
Motivational speaking

18. Weaknesses?
Sleep

19. Hilary or Barack Obama?
Barack Obama

20. Eating in or dining out?
Eat in

21. What would you tell God if you meet Him?
Why does he allow evil to triumph over good

22. Noisy or quite environment?
Quite environment

23. Brad Pitts or David Beckham?
None

24. One thing you can never forgive for?
Will always forgive

25. Fast car or luxurious home?
Comfortable home

26. One thing you will always be guilty of?
Working too much

27. Your greatest success?
Becoming top editor of a major publication in America

28. Your worst failure?
Speaking truth to power

29. The one thing you will never do?
Never let my rights be trampled upon

30. $1000 or 48 hours of global fame?
None

31. Shopping or clubbing?
Shop

32. Pussycat Dolls or Girls Aloud?
None

33. George Bush or 50 Cent?
None

Bloggers Note: Bankole Thompson is Senior Editor of Michigan Chronicle, one of the largest and most influential African American newspapers in the United States. His articles are syndicated by BlackPressUSA.com, reaching 15 million readers. An author of two brilliant books, Ignoring The Underprivileged and A Matter of Black Transformation, Thompson gives speeches and lectures at various universities across the US on various topics. He is a frequent guest at numerous radio and television shows across the US, and Michigan in particular.
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# Posted on Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 1:23 PM
Edited on Saturday, 19 April 2008 at 12:40 PM

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.
.


Don't Africa Me

Author: C. Paschal Eze
Publisher: Expertz In Print
Price: US$25.00

If there is anything that is certainly going to wobble the minds of those irksomely biased men and women of the malefic western corporate media and rip their hearts asunder this new year, it is definitely Don't Africa Me: “Their” geo-branding war, “Our” trade, tourism wounds, and Winning like China, a recently-published acerbic oeuvre by C. Paschal Eze. But if there is also any impeccable New Year gift for the African continent and its 740 million discriminated people, there cannot be any better one than this same blunt masterpiece from Eze.

Don't Africa Me is indubitably one of the most rousing, exhilarating, empowering and unwavering literary work that speaks for Africa. With lucidity, simplicity and clarity, candour and ardour, valour and vigour, Paschal Eze prepares the African mind for Africa's course as well as offers the positively eye-catching and thrilling Africa that is never shown on the screens of western corporate media such as CNN.

In a fast-moving world where Africa's image is blemished by the international corporate media, Don't Africa Me faces up to those powerful institutions to get out of their shells of ignorance and premeditated distortion and depict Africa the way Africa deserves. Eze takes issues with establishments such as CNN for portraying Africa as an evil continent purely characterized by what he refers to as the “PIDIC (poverty, instability, disease, illiteracy and corruption)” syndrome. This, Eze laments, is the main reason why Africa is loathed principally across the United States and potential investors and business executives don't see the continent as a business or investment haven.

While prejudiced cable televisions in the West only display images of “slums and scavengers” to their viewers every time they feature Africa, Don't Africa Me presents an Africa that has a reformed market with average economic growth of 5.4%, an Africa with one of the world's most popular tourist attractions and vibrant market for investment, an Africa where people dress well rather than the absolutely stupid notion of Africans walking around naked, an Africa where people live in modest and luxurious houses instead of the disgusting perception in the narrow-minded West that Africans live in jungle, and an Africa where people go to school to study medical science, technology, engineering, media etc and excels in their chosen careers. Eze exhibits The Other Africa that is never shown by western propaganda tools such as CNN and BBC.

Don't Africa Me discusses the ongoing identity crisis fuelled by the West and from within the African mind. This well-researched book features answers of various African professionals in various parts of Africa and the US to the question of whether they prefer to be called Africans or nationalities of their respective countries. Most of these professionals prefer to be called Africans for various reasons but Eze differs. To him, it is not only unfair but also derogatory to call a Nigerian an African while a Chinese is referred to as Chinese (not Asian) and Vietnamese as Vietnamese (not Asian). He believes this whole idea of identifying citizens of every African nation is part of the Brand Africa package invented by the west to bring the 54 states of Africa under one big bad umbrella of destitution.

In Don't Africa Me, Eze believes that Africans in the West not wanting to be identified as people from Africa also contributes to Africa's shattered and battered image. This category of people, according to Eze, includes those African professionals in America who speak in borrowed tongues in order to fit in as African-Americans and those African immigrants who often times, threaten to send their kids to Africa anytime they do wrong “as if the African continent was a very lonely prison cell or petrifying torture chambers”.

Don't Africa Me does not spare Hollywood celebrities like Parish Hilton and Angelina Jolie and donation-worshipping global NGOs in the likes of Feed The Children. Contrary to these “here and there” celebrities' claims of caring for Africa at heart, C. Paschal Eze is with the strong conviction that they merely go out there to exploit Africa and promotes their brands in the media. He condemns charitable NGOs for sending the wrong signal that nothing is good in Africa thereby sending away potential investors, tourists, importers and exporters.

Don't Africa Me in a nutshell, challenges Africans and African states to emulate the-then- hated-and-now-cherished China and re-brand the current Africa Brand and then stand up and be counted.

If you are honestly interested in knowing the real Africa, the Africa that gave birth to even-the-West-cannot-deny celebrated global icons such as Mandela, Tutu, Achebe, Gambari, Annan, Soyinka, Emeagwali, Maathai and host of others, turn off your TV, boycott ignorant and myopic lectures by so-called Africa experts in the west and please, please, please read Don't Africa Me: “Their” geo-branding war, “Our” trade, tourism wounds, and winning like China.

Don't Africa Me is available for purchase at amazon.com and paschalezemedia.com.
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# Posted on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 1:20 PM

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.
Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Harper Perennial


"They will teach you that a white man called Mungo Park discovered River Niger. That is rubbish. Our people fished in the Niger long before Mungo Park's grandfather was born. But in your exam, write that it was Mungo Park".

Master put across his candid and strongly-felt political point to his houseboy, Ugwu while equipping him with the academic tools he needs in championing the cause of 'our people', in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's intimately touching, heartbreaking and vividly written novel, Half of a Yellow Sun.

A novel characterised by literary excellence, a genuine plea for memory and emotionally-powerful poetry and with the theme of love and war, of patriotism and man's imperfection, of human rights and human wrongs, Half of a Yellow Sun has its setting in the 1960s Nigeria during the Biafra War. 29-year-old Chimamanda invites her readers to explore the world of a small, strange set of people who are experiencing the extrovert conflict from different angles of life.

Odenigbo (Master) is a 'little crazy' university professor with a chronic and radically uncompromising concepts of pan-Africanism and revolution. He turns his living room into a kind of a "white man not welcome" conference hall where black professors at Nsukka University and friends like Professor Ezeka and Miss Adebayo meets for discussions and debates on politics and black affairs. His day-to-day activities includes listening to Radio Biafra on his 'new and very good' radiogram and reading copies of Daily Times and Renaissance during breakfast, all-day long political discussions and arguments with friends on issues such as black identity, white man's racism and the plights of blacks in South Africa and Rhodesia, playing tennis and going to staff club for drinks in the evenings. In the boxes of books he receives from overseas, Odenigbo is referred to as 'a war-robbed colleague' by 'fellow admirers of David Blackwell in the brotherhood of mathematicians', the senders.

Olanna is the beautiful and down-to-earth daughter of Chief Ozobia, a wealthy Igbo man. She is madly in love with Odenigbo and not even her parent's disapproval of the 'mad professor' nor Odenigbo's boring nature can erode her love and affection for him. She unceremoniously dumps Mohammed, her rich, lively and handsome Yoruba lover for Odenigbo when the latter impressed her by escorting a white man back to the queu after he was signalled by ticket sellers to jump the queu, at a theatre. She disappoints her parents after spoiling their plans to hook her up with Chief Okonji, a prominent government official, in the name of family business. When she is sent out of Odenigbo's house by his wickedly superstitious bush mother, she ends up having sex with her twin sister's lover, out of depression. She turns her back to her parent's wealth and opportunities in the city to physically and psychologically suffer from the ongoing conflict and live a poor, laborious life with Odenigbo in the spirit of love and loyalty to the cause of Biafra. She hardly sees eye-to-eye with her twin sister.

Ugwu is Master's houseboy from a poor village, a nonentity (to Master's standards) who does not know where Congo is or that Americans and the Belgians killed Lumumba. Master once call him a 'stupid ignoramus'. His greatest strength is loyalty and so is his greatest weakness. He continues to call Odenigbo Master even when he asked him (Ugwu) not to call him Master but Odenigbo. He is loyal and dedicated to Master and his services so much that he sees everyone who is close to Master as a threat to his houseboyhood in Master's household. He cares for Master more than Master cares for himself. He is ecstatic and proud about the new title Master gives him; "Ugwu, my good man". He is indeed an ignoramus who learns everything fast. He is a superstitious village boy who believes so much in dibia and interprets the presence of a black cat in Master's residence as presence of a witch. He falls in love with Eberechi, a neighbour and gives her milk and sugar he steals from Master and Olanna.

Richard is a white British expatriate, an outsider in the heart of the Biafra war. He introduces himself to guests at parties as a writer. He is unsure and unclear about the theme of his writing. In all the parties Susan, his companion and supposed guide, takes him to, he feels out of place. He has a dry sense of humour and the only phrase he uses in a bid to amuse, create laughter and get attention is 'I am Richard Churchill. No relation of Sir Winston's, I'm afraid, or I might have turned out a little cleverer'. Party girls call him Susan's pretty boy. He falls in love with Kainene and meets with her regularly at a secret suite in her father's hotel. He lacks confidence about himself, his small willy and his ability to satisfy a woman during intimate encounter, a reason he shivers and fails to perform well when kissing, touching and caressing Kainene. He commits himself to Kainene's cause, the cause of Biafrans.

Kainene is Olanna's twin sister. Unlike Olanna, she is ugly and unattractive. She thinks western and acts western, not valueing things done in the tribal ways. She and Olanna stops talking to each other, chat or laugh together as they use to do when they were young. She's jealous of Olanna's beauty and the attention she gets from people including her parents. She can't stand Odenigbo and his revolutionary nature and thinks Olanna is too attractive for him. She was mad at Olanna when she finds out that she sleeps with Richard. She runs her father's business and ends up devoting her time in helping the victims of the conflict, the sick, the dying and the poor.

As the intensity of the war between Nigerian and Biafran militants grows, the loyalties and perseverance of this strange set of people are woefully tested. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie brings these people closer the way none of them imagine and separates them farther the way none of them imagine and back and forth, as the war gets closer and closer to their individual minds and door-steps.

When fighting soldiers kidnaps Ugwu on the road while he is seeing off his lover, Eberechi and takes him away to enlist him in the army, Master Odenigbo, Olanna, Richard and Kainene, comes together and pursues the same cause; to work on Ugwu's safe return home. Ugwu finally returns home alive but a mentally disturbed and traumatised young man as a result of what he is forced to see and do by captives and whether or not Eberechi is in good health. Richard must keep away from him the news that Eberechi was 'killed by shelling'.

Kainene leaves home in the morning for trading at Ninth Mile, an enemy territory and promises to return in the evening. One week and counting, no sight or news of her. Odenibgo, Richard and Olanna exhausts all plans and all corners without any trace of her. The reader does not know the exact fate of Kainene but knows that the three people fears for the worst and gives up eventually.

Thus, Olanna's final cry; "When I come back in my next life, Kainene will be my sister".

Half of a Yellow Sun is a must-read for anyone interested in literary masterpiece.


Sheriff Bojang Jnr's note: I have the personal blessing and permission of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to review her book. Much grateful to her for the trust and confidence. Half of a Yellow Sun
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# Posted on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 1:13 PM

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.


Purple Hibiscus
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Harper Perennial

“Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère”. Right from that moment, anything that can go wrong in a family, goes wrong in this very Christian but dysfunctional household, in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Best-Selling debut novel, Purple Hibiscus.

Set in Nigeria, the plot of Purple Hibiscus is based on a Fifteen-year-old girl forcefully exposed to religious intolerance at such a tender age. It tells the tale of a notoriously religious patriarch who on the one hand, takes it upon himself to cater for the needs of the outside world, strangers and on the other hand, cruelly abdicates from the responsibilities he owe to members of his own household, those that are supposed to be dear to his heart.

Unlike normal teenagers in a normal household, Fifteen-year-old Kambili, the first-person narrator, lives the life of a caged bird. She is a high achieving and level-headed girl who excels in school. She is the daughter of Papa (Eugene), a wealthy philanthropic who owns a factory and publishes a politically-outspoken newspaper. He takes the traditional title, Omelora (The One Who Does for the Community) as a result of his generosity to his umunna (community) especially the church. He is well-respected, praised and hailed by the community for his good gestures.

Behind that veneer of goodliness, of sainthood, Kambili's Papa is a brutal and vicious dictator who rules his household with an iron-fist. Underneath the face of that caring and moderate Christian is a religious intolerable man with the conviction that anyone who is not a catholic isn't worth associating with. Chimamanda uses him to portray a domestic violence very much from within, from deep inside, in this extraordinary, compelling, fascinating and emotionally-engaging first novel.

Growing up in this authoritative household is not easy for Kambili and her older brother, Jaja and their understanding and soft-spoken mother who speaks “the way bird eats, in small amounts”. Kambili and Jaja lacks the joy and freedom that goes with childhood. They are frequently beaten, shouted at and barred from everything exciting to a child of their stage, by Papa. They live under the shadow of the bullying dad and they are strictly forbidden from owning their little individual minds; the way they think and reason. As a result, Kambili thinks the thoughts and reasons the reasons of Papa. They are barred from visiting their grandfather, Papa-Nnukwu because Papa says the old man is an idol worshipper, a 'pagan'. The life they live is dictated by a timetable (of when to pray, study and sleep) which must be austerely adhered to.

The events at home continues to haunt Kambili as far as behind the walls of her school. Words won't come out anytime she opens her forbidden mouth to speak because she is haunted by the fact that at home “there are lot of things we don't talk about”. When Amaka, her cousin, confidently asks Papa about a 'tiny village', Kambili wonders how she “did it, how she opened her mouth and had words flow easily”. Kambili won't say anything in school so her peers calls her a 'snob'.

Despite the oppression and suppression she succumbs to, Kambili loves Papa and holds him in a high esteem. To her, it is normal for him to act the way he does, to beat and intimidate her. She believes he does it for her own good.

When military coup shows its ugly head in Nigeria, Kambili and Jaja are sent to live with their aunt, Aunty Ifeoma, a caring and outspoken university professor and a widow with three children. Away from home tyranny, Kambili and her brother, for the first time, enjoys the peace and tranquillity they craves for. Aunty Ifeoma's house is full of amusement, excitement, bliss and laughter which serves as a heart opener for Kambili and enables her to make up her mind that Papa's aggression towards her is not normal nor is it right. The pleasure and ecstasy away from home gradually lifts her from the silent world she lives in and exposes her to some kind of defiance at a time when defiance is most needed in order to set herself free from Papa's ruthlessness.

Chimamanda unveils a cruel world that fails to protect the children, a social status that prey on children and leave them at the mercy of tyrants in the likes of Papa. Through this exquisite and breathtaking novel, we have come face-to-face with the complexities of a family, faith and social pride.

I highly recommend this accomplished premier novel.

Power Quote: “Open the book, if you wish to be free”.

- Wendell Willkie
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# Posted on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 1:06 PM
Edited on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 1:26 PM

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Book Review by Sheriff Bojang Jnr.
Dances With Devils
Author: Jacques Pauw
Publisher: Zebra Press

If investigative journalism is vampirism, then Jacques Pauw, the veteran, versatile and award-winning South African TV current affairs programme producer and one of Africa's most celebrated, decorated, accomplished and intrepid investigative journalists, must have been the greatest human blood sucker across the African continent and perhaps a little beyond.

Whether he is pushed by sheer love for Africa or that journalistic thirst for being the breaker of breaking news, Jacques Pauw has trek Africa and exposes what eventually turns out to be one of the most gruesomely concealed evil, viciousness and ruthlessness on earth. He embarks on an expedition to volatile and pugnacious African states in search of anarchy. But anarchy is too puny a word to describe what confronts him in this expedition. He looks for political sanity but what he finds is the worst political insanity of its kind. He hunts for religious purity and what he gets is the most disgusting religious impurity ever. And he searches for social justice but what he witness is perhaps the biggest social injustice ever committed by man.

His book, Dances With Devils: A Journalist's Search for Truth, described by Nelson Mandela as one of the most important documents in the history of South Africa, narrates Jacques Pauw's distressing exploration to precarious Africa in pursuit of petty criminals, corrupt security officials, murderers, drug addicts, prostitutes, human traffickers, racists, gangsters, brutal dictators, fake gods and war lords. Along the way, Pauw has seen it all, from fresh corpses to decomposed ones, hacking of legs and genitals to absolutely fake prophecy, child soldiers to trigger-happy war lords they serves, from dead persons to their killers. And he succumbs to all, from death threats to imprisonment and from restriction of movement to escaping death in the middle of a Congo River. Jacques Pauw truly dances with devils.

Excellent in style and clear in content, Jacques Pauw's Dances With Devils is not the everyday book that puts you in a hilarious mood nor is it a work brings a smile on your face. It is a kind of a story that smacks you to the bones and wrenches your heart.

Charity begins at home and so does Jacques Pauw's mission. Dances With Devils notes Pauw's childhood and the rite of passage in the troubled, discriminatory streets of South Africa where minority whites are the sole beneficiaries of the nation's wealth at the detriment of the vast majority blacks. Practising journalism and being liberal or even anti-apartheid in the brutal apartheid South Africa is what makes him come head-to-head with his mother who is not convinced about his new-found career and liberalism.

With the title journalist under his belt and Vrye weekblaad newspaper kicking, Jacques Pauw exposes Vlakplaas, apartheid's police death squad, informing the world about the murders, attempted murders, arson attacks and other atrocities the squad commits day in and day out and how their dirty activities are authorised and sponsored by apartheid government. It is through Pauw's courageous revelations that the world comes to know about Vlakplaas henchmen and their notorious, bloodthirsty commander, Eugene De Kock.

In the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, thanks to Jacques Pauw, many culprits confesses their sins and repents and key witnesses gives testimonies. Through his investigative journalism skills and sometimes mere obstinacy, he is able to convince apartheid thugs such as Dirk Coetzee to confess the crimes they commits such as the murder of the Pebco Three. In pursuit of the kind of news he wants, Pauw trades information and sometimes betray the informant's trust in the name of public interest despite having the strong conviction that *1“An agreement between a journalist and a source or informant is no less sacrosanct that the privileges that attaches to communication between lawyer and client or psychologist and patient”.

In Rwanda, what confronts Jacques Pauw is well beyond his imagination, beyond human understanding. From the chaotic tribal hatred between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, the broad-day-light lynching, hatching of legs, arms and genitals, mass graves to women and children running helter-skelter for help that never come, from culprits proudly carrying skulls of their victims, crying relatives searching for loved ones among laying corpses, religious Hutu leaders hiding runaway vulnerable Tutsis in their churches only to surrender them to armed Hutus for well-planned executions to hundreds of thousands of dead bodies dumped on the roads for collection just like rubbish bags, from sight of vacant, desperate eyes in their sockets, echoing voices of men, women, young and old wailing for help, pleading for mercy, exhausted women and young ones giving up running and eventually dying with dignity in one place, dead bodies floating down the river to tens of thousands of people dying as a result of hunger and starvation, Dances With Devils offers behind the scenes of this unforgivable and unforgettable genocide of all genocides on the African soil.

Jacques Pauw's greatest achievement in Rwanda is certainly his exposé of the United Nations as a decrepit, flawed and purposeless organisation especially during a time of desperate need. He perfectly narrates how UN betrays the million Rwandans who die, how UN chiefs in New York orders its troops on the ground to merely stand aside and watch while a million people perishes. He successfully tells the story of how UNAMIR Commander, Gen. Romeo Dellaire's request for *2“just 5000 well-armed men from UN to stop the killing and restore order' in Rwanda was heartlessly and horrendously rejected by so-called UN technocrats including African Kofi Annan, UN Peace Keeping boss at the time, citing heavy financial cost.

It is also in Rwanda that Jacques Pauw brings journalism to disrepute, where he greedily and arrogantly flouts the rule of humanity, of common sense, by deliberately influencing, in fact, ordering members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front to aimlessly open fire using RPG rocket launchers, mortars and machine guns, so that he can have the action on camera. He admits that this is *3“an inexcusable blunder”. Whether or not Pauw's investigative success in Rwanda outweighs this “inexcusable blunder” and any culpability on his part for that matter, remains debatable.

In Sierra Leone, Jacques Pauw further brings to light the sheer wickedness and ferocity of war mongers such as Foday Sankoh and General Mosquito and exposes the ludicrousness and futility of their cause. He tells the stories of child soldiers, how they were drugged into killing and chopping of hands and arms, how they eventually enjoys executing their masters' orders, how they are traced and chased in the streets by their victims in the post- war Sierra Leone and how their war time activities continues to haunt them.

In Nigeria, an Evangelist called TB Joshua emerges. He is widely known as Prophet Joshua and he heads The Synagogue, Church of All Nations. To his congregation and thousands of others from far and near, he is a messiah who among other things, liberates man from diseases such as HIV/AIDS and epilepsy and place an unborn baby in its right place in the womb by saying just a short, simple prayer. His clients includes presidents, royals, celebrities and ordinary people.

In Dances With Devils, Pauw unveils this so-called prophet as nothing more than a dupe, a con man who prey on people using the church and playing casino with God. He reveals how the fake prophet tries to bribe him and woo him into believing in his fake sainthood.

From human trafficking and prostitution in Mozambique to famine and drought in Sudan and from drug abuse and trafficking in Tanzania to corruption and deadly river transport in Congo, Jacques Pauw succeeds in telling his distressing tale with acumen and empathy, valor and vigor.

Dances With Devils is a book no one should miss.
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# Posted on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 10:24 AM

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