#Nigerian Label

[theinfinitedivides]

me peeping in on the Ancestry subreddit every now on then while i monitor for sales and seeing they have a giant update coming up especially for West Africa......................... but then you zoom in and they're naming every updated region in the area and nothing for Igboland........................ what are you people doingggggg

[jessicalprice]

culture isn’t modular

I did a thread (actually several) on Twitter a few years ago about Christianity’s attempts to paint itself as modular, and I’ve been seeing them referenced here in the cultural christianity Discourse, and a few people have DMed me asking me to post it here, so here’s a rehash of several of those threads:

A big part of why Christian atheists have trouble seeing how culturally Christian they still are is that Christianity advertises itself as being modular, which is not how belief systems have worked for most of human history. 

A selling point of Christianity has always been the idea that it's plug-and-play: you don't have to stop being Irish or Korean or Nigerian to be Christian, you don't have to learn a new language, you keep your culture. 

And you’re just also Christian.

(You can see, then, why so many Christian atheists struggle with the idea that they’re still Christian--to them, Christianity is this modular belief in God and Jesus and a few other tenets, and everything else is... everything else. Which is, not to get ahead of myself, very compatible with some tacit white supremacy: the “everything else” is goes unexamined for its cultural specificity. It’s just Normal. Default. Neutral.)

Evangelicals in particular love to contrast this to Islam, to the idea that you have to learn Arabic and adopt elements of Arab culture to be Muslim, which helps fuel the image of Islam as a Foreign Ideology that's taking over the West.

The rest of us don’t have that particular jack

Meanwhile, Christians position Christianity as a modular component of your life. Keep your culture, your traditions, your language and just swap out your Other Religion Module for a Christianity Module.

The end game is, in theory, a rainbow of diverse people and cultures that are all one big happy family in Christ. We're going to come back to how Christianity isn't actually modular, but for the moment, let's talk about it as if it had succeeded in that design goal. 

Even if Christianity were successfully modular, if it were something that you could just plug in to the Belief System Receptor in a culture and leave the rest of it undisturbed, the problem is most cultures don't have a modular Belief System Receptor. Spirituality has, for the entirety of human history, not been something that's modular. It's deeply interwoven with the rest of culture and society. You can't just pull it out and plug something else in and have the culture remain stable.

(And to be clear, even using the term “spirituality” here is a sop to Christianity. What cultures have are worldviews that deal with humanity’s place in the universe/reality; people’s relationships to other people; the idea of individual, societal, or human purpose; how the culture defines membership; etc. These may or may not deal with the supernatural or “spiritual.”)

And so OF COURSE attempting to pull out a culture's indigenous belief system and replace it with Christianity has almost always had destructive effects on that culture.

Not only is Christianity not representative of "religion" full stop, it's actually arguably *anomalous* in its attempt to be modular (and thus universal to all cultures) rather than inextricable from culture.

Now, of course, it hasn't actually succeeded in that--the US is a thoroughly Christian culture--but it does lead to the idea that one can somehow parse out which pieces of culture are "religious" versus which are "secular". That framing is antithetical to most cultures. E.g. you can't separate the development of a lot of cultural practices around what people eat and how they get it from elements of their worldview that Christians would probably label "religious." But that entire *framing* of religious vs. secular is a Christian one.

Is Passover a religious holiday or a secular one? The answer isn't one or the other, or neither, or both. It's that the framing of this question is wrong.

And Christianity isn’t a plugin, however much it wants to be

Moreover, Christianity isn't actually culture-neutral or modular. 

It's easy for this to get obscured by seeing Christianity as a tool of particular cultures' colonialism (e.g. the British using Christianity to spread British culture) or of whiteness in general, and not seeing how Christianity itself is colonial. This helps protect the idea that “true” Christianity is good and innocent, and if priests or missionaries are converting people at swordpoint or claiming land for European powers or destroying indigenous cultures, that must be a misuse of Christianity, a “fake” or “corrupted” Christianity.

Never mind that for every other culture, that culture is what its members do. Christianity, uniquely, must be judged on what it says its ideals are, not what it actually is. 

Mistaking the engine for the exhaust

But it’s not just an otherwise innocent tool of colonialism: it’s a driver of it. 

At the end of the day, it’s really hard to construct a version of the Great Commission that isn’t inherently colonial. The end-goal of a world in which everyone is Christian is a world without non-Christian cultures. (As is the end goal of a world in which everyone is atheist by Christian definitions.)

Yet we focus on the way Christianity came with British or Spanish culture when they colonized a place--the churches are here because the Spaniards who conquered this area were Catholic--and miss how Christianity actually has its own cultural tropes that it brings with it. It's more subtle, of course, when Christianity didn't come in explicitly as the result of military conquest.

Or put another way, those cultures didn't just shape the Christianity they brought to places they colonized--they were shaped by it. How much of the commonality between European cultures is because of Christianity?

It’s not all a competition

A lot of Christians (cultural and practicing), if you push them, will eventually paint you a picture of a very Hobbesian world in which all religions, red in tooth and claw, are trying to take over the world. It's the "natural order" to attempt to eliminate all cultures but your own. 

If you point out to them that belief and worldview are deeply personal, and proselytizing is objectifying, because you're basically telling the person you're proselytizing to that who they are is wrong, you often get some version of "that's how everyone is, though."

Like we all go through life seeing other humans as incomplete and fundamentally flawed and the only way to "fix" them is to get them to believe what we believe. And, like, that is not how everyone relates to others?

But it's definitely how both practicing Christians and Christian antitheists relate to others. If, for Christians, your lack of Jesus is a fundamental flaw in you that needs to be fixed, for New Atheists, your “religion” (that is, your non-Christian culture) is a fundamental flaw in you that needs to be fixed. Neither Christians nor New Atheists are able to relate to anyone else as fine as they are. It's all a Hobbesian zero-sum game. It's all a game of conversion with only win and loss conditions. You are, essentially, only an NPC worth points.

The idea of being any other way is not only wrong, but impossible to them. If you claim to exist in any other way, you are either deluded or lying.

So, we get Christian atheists claiming that if you identify as Jewish, you can’t really be an atheist. Or sometimes they’ll make an exception for someone who’s “only ethnically Jewish.” If the only way you relate to your Jewishness is as ancestry, then you can be an atheist. Otherwise, you’re lying. 

Or, if you’re not lying, you’re deluded. You just don’t understand that there’s no need for you to keep any dietary practices or continue to engage in any form of ritual or celebrate any of those “religious” Jewish holidays, and by golly, this here “ex”-Christian atheist is here to separate out for you which parts of your culture are “religious” and which ones are “secular.”

Religious/secular is a Christian distinction

A lot of atheists from Christian backgrounds (whether or not they were raised explicitly Christian) have trouble seeing how Christian they are because they've accepted the Christian idea that “religion” is modular. (If we define “religion” the way Christians (whether practicing or cultural) define it, Christianity might be the only religion that actually exists. Maybe Islam?)

When people from non-Christian cultures talk about the hegemonically Christian and white supremacist nature of a lot of atheism, it reflects how outside of Christianity, spirituality/worldview isn't something you can just pull out of a culture.

Christian atheists tend to see the cultural practices of non-Christians as "religious" and think that they should give them up (talk to Jewish atheists who keep kosher about Christian atheist reactions to that). But because Christianity positions itself as modular, people from Christian backgrounds tend not to see how Christian the culture they imagine as "neutral" or "normal" actually is. In their minds, you just pull out the Christianity module and are left with a neutral, secular society.

So, if people from non-Christian backgrounds would just give up their superstitions, they'd look the same as Christian atheists. 

Your secularism is specifically post-Christian

Of course, that culture with the Christianity module pulled out ISN'T neutral. So the idea that that's what "secular society" should look like ends up following the same pattern as Christian colonialism throughout history: the promise that you can keep your culture and just plug in a different belief system (or, purportedly, a lack of a belief system), which has always, always been a lie. The secular, "enlightened" life that most Christian atheists envision is one that's still built on white, western Christianity, and the idea that people should conform to it is still attempting to homogenize society to a white Christian ideal. 

For people from cultures that don't see spirituality as modular, this is pretty obvious. It's obvious to a lot of people from non-white Christian cultures that have syncretized Christianity in a way that doesn't truck with the modularity illusion. 

I also think, even though they're not conceptualizing it in these terms, that it's actually obvious to a lot of evangelicals. (The difference being that white evangelical Christianity enthusiastically embraces white supremacy, so they see the destruction of non-Christian culture as good.) But I think it's invisible to a lot of mainline non-evangelical Christians, and it's definitely invisible to a lot of people who leave Christianity.

And that inability to see culture outside a Christian framing means that American secularism is still shaped like Christianity. It's basically the same text with a few sentences deleted and some terms replaced.

Which, again, is by design. The idea that you can deconvert to (Christian) atheism and not have to change much besides your opinions about God is the mirror of how easy it’s supposed to be to convert to Christianity.

Human societies don’t follow evolutionary biology

The Victorian Christian framing underlying current Western ideas of enlightened secularism, that religious practice (and human culture in general) is subject to the same sort of unilateral, simple evolution toward a superior state to which they, at the time, largely reduced biological evolution, is deeply white supremacist.

It posits religious evolution as a constantly self-refining process from "primitive" animism and polytheism to monotheism to white European/American Christianity. For Christians, that's the height of human culture. For ex-Christians, the next step is Christian-derived secularism.

Maybe you’ve seen this comic?

The thing is, animism isn’t more “primitive” than polytheism, and polytheism isn’t more “primitive” than monotheism. Older doesn’t mean less advanced/sophisticated/complex. Hinduism isn’t more “primitive” than Judaism just because it’s polytheistic and Judaism is monotheistic. 

Human cultures continue to change and adapt. (Arguably, older religions are more sophisticated than newer ones because they’ve had a lot more time to refine their practices and ideologies instead of having to define them.) Also, not all cultures are part of the same family tree. Christianity and Islam may be derived from Judaism, but Judaism and Hinduism have no real relationship to one another. 

But in this worldview, Christianity is "normal" religion, which is still more primitive than enlightened secularism, but more advanced than all those other primitive, superstitious, irrational beliefs.

Just like Christians, when Christian atheists do try to make room for cultures that aren't white and European-derived, the tacit demand is "okay, but you have to separate out the parts of your culture that the Christian sacred-secular divide would deem 'religious.'"

Either way, people from non-Christian cultures, if they’re to be equals, are supposed to get with the program and assimilate.

You’re not qualified to be a universal arbiter of what culture is good

Christian atheists usually want everyone to unplug that Religion module!

So, for example, you have ex-Christian atheists who are down with pluralism trying to get ex-Christian atheists who aren't to leave Jews alone by pointing out that you can be atheist and Jewish.

But some of us aren’t atheist. (I’m agnostic by Christian standards.) And the idea that Jews shouldn’t be targets for harassment because they can be atheists and therefore possibly have some common sense is still demanding that people from other cultures conform to one culture’s standard of what being “rational” is.  

Which, like, is kind of galling when y’all don’t even understand what “belief in G-d” means to Jews, and people from a culture that took until the 1800s to figure out that washing their hands was good are setting themselves up as the Universal Arbiters of Rationality.

(BTW, most of this also holds true for non-white Christianity, too. I guarantee you most white Christian atheists don’t have a good sense of what role church plays in the lives of Black communities, so maybe shut up about it.)

In any case, reducing Christianity--a massive, ambient phenomenon inextricable from Western culture--to the specific manifestation of Christian practice that you grew up with is, frankly, absurd. 

And you can’t be any help in deconstructing hegemony when you refuse to perceive it and understand that it isn’t something you can take off like a garment, and you probably won’t ever recognize and uproot all the ways in which it affects you, especially when you are continuing to live within it. 

What hegemony doesn’t want you to know

One of the ways hegemony sustains and perpetuates itself is by reinforcing the idea not so much that other ways of being and knowing are evil (although that’s usually a stage in an ideology becoming hegemonic), but that they’re impossible. That they don’t actually exist. 

See, again, the idea that anyone claiming to live differently is either lying or deluded.

There are few clearer examples of how pervasive Christian hegemony is than Christian atheists being certain every religion works like Christianity. Hegemonic Christianity wants you to think that all cultures work like Christianity because it wants their belief systems to be modular so you can just ...swap them. And it wants to pretend that culture/worldview is a free market where it can just outcompete other cultures.

But that’s... not how anything works. 

And the truth of the matter is that white nationalist Christians shoot at synagogues and Sikh temples and mosques because those other ways of being can’t be allowed to exist. 

They don’t shoot at atheist conventions because there’s room in hegemonic Christianity for Christian atheists precisely because Christian atheists are still culturally Christian. Their atheism is Christian-shaped.

They may not like you. They’re definitely going to try to convert you. They may not want you to be able to hold public office or teach their kids.

But the only challenge you’re providing is that of The Existence of Disbelief. And that’s fine. That makes you a really safe Other to have around. You can See The Light and not have to change much.

What you’re not doing is providing an example of a whole other way of being and knowing that (often) predates Christianity and is completely separate from it and has managed to survive it and continue to live and thrive (there’s a reason Christians like to speak of Jews and Judaism in the past tense, and it’s similar to the reason white people like to speak of indigenous peoples of the Americas in the past tense). 

That’s not a criticism--it’s fine to just... be post-Christian. There’s not actually anything wrong with being culturally Christian. The problems come in when you start denying that it’s a thing, or insisting that you, unique among humankind, are above Having A Culture.

But it does mean that you don’t pose the same sort of threat to Christianity that other cultures do, and hence, less violence. 

[handweavers]

what bothers me about people not understanding how "expat" vs "immigrant" are politicized terms that have connotations outside of their most literal dictionary definitions is that many people have emphasized that the difference between expat and immigrant is just that expats intend to go home and immigrants intend to stay (and then some comment about how i "must not live abroad" or am talking about the USA specifically lmfao) and because you are insisting on talking about how im just a stupid idiot who doesn't understand English and am adding politics to something needlessly, i want to point out that there are many people labelled as 'immigrants' in the west - global southerners who work or live in the north - who do not intend to stay forever or become citizens or even permanent residents, they are here in the west to work or for other reasons, and fully intend to go home. but they are never called expats in common vernacular, you will never hear canadians or brits or french people referring to "Filipino expats" or "Nigerian expats" or "Colombian expats" if you are racialized you are an immigrant. my father experienced this for over 20 years!!

and speaking about Malaysia, my home country, you do not typically hear about Filipino expats or Indonesian expats, even when they are people who have come to Malaysia to work temporarily. the term 'expat' is both racialized and denotes a specific class status in this context. you can cite however many dictionaries you want and call me an illiterate brown person because youre Australian and you moved to Thailand and thus you are the Lord of Migration and the Immigration Understander but you are just proving my point

[modelsof-color]

Duro Olowu

Olowu was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a Jamaican mother and Nigerian father.He grew up in Lagos, spending summers in Europe and immersing himself in multiple cultures.

He moved to the United Kingdom when he was 16 , and like his father before him, Olowu studied law in England and later returned to Nigeria.

He soon gave up a legal career and moved back to London to pursue his true vocation as a self taught fashion designer, first designing womenswear collections for the now defunct London based label Olowu Golding.

In 2004, Olowu launched his women's wear label, beginning with a Spring/Summer 2005 collection, his womenswear label is known for its innovative combinations of colors and patterns, harmonious juxtapositions of vintage textiles with custom fabrics, and impeccably tailored silhouettes.

Olowu’s aesthetic vision is informed by his multicultural and international background, art, and other creative practices.

An empire-waist multi print silk dress from his debut collection, discovered by American Vogue editor Sally Singer, became an international hit. Selling out in renowned stores in New York, London and Chicago

In 2005, Olowu won the New Designer of the Year Award at the British Fashion Awards. The only designer to do so prior to their first catwalk show.

In 2009 he was named the Best International Designer at the African Fashion Award

In recent years, Olowu also began curating contemporary art exhibitions in galleries and museums beginning with his highly praised exhibitions, "Material" (2012) and "More Material (2014) at Salon94 gallery in New York.

His first museum exhibition was 2016, the critically acclaimed, "Making & Unmaking" at the Camden Arts Centre in London.

In early 2020, Olowu curated his second museum exhibition,"Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago" at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

[strawberry-spectre]

saw someone say Spelldon's only chara trait is being Valentine's bf so heres some Spelldon hcs >:(

his first instrument was the lyre, Apollo had taught him how to play bc he followed Hermes everywhere to hear him play again

he was born from the blood of Circe, rebirth and growth potion and the Costus spectabilis (national flower of Nigeria)

he used to braid the Aeaean nymphs hair as a child and got really good at it

he has dimples

he's insanely curious

he DIYed 80% of his clothing

he pierced all his ear piercings by himself with a sewing needle

he hates labels bc other monsters compared him to Casta growing up

he doesn't fear anything, fear fears him

he will wake up at the break of dawn every morning just to watch the sun rise then go back to sleep

he used to make dandelion wine with Casta and his mother every summer, it's one of his favourite memories of Aeaea

he used to run around Aeaea barefoot until he stepped on a sharp rock and started bleeding

he first started travelling with Casta when he was 14 and she was 16, he works backstage during shows

he likes dancing

his powers is dependent on the sun, the more sunny, the more powerful he is, thats why he loves summer

he mainly focuses on potions making though, so his natural powers are mid at best

ask him about politics and you'll be listening to him for 4+ hours

he gets sidetracked really easily

sometimes he will just stand while gazing out a window looking very pensive with his hands behind his back, and his mind would just be empty

his handwriting is lowkey sharp

he will look up to the sky and start talking about stuff, to others it seems very strange but he's just talking to his grandfather :D

he's in Environment club, MH Music Society, Mad Science club and SKRM

he's 17

he's lowkey stressing bc he doesn't know what he wwanna be in the future

one of his pet peeves are monsters who walk slowly

he's chaotic good

Circe never stopped his curiosity and encouraged him + gave him oppotunities to explore and investigate so he's become really independant, pesistent and a good problem solver

he has noise cancelling headphones with spikes

he has slit pupils cuz i think it'll be cool

he's a bit reckless bc he wants to prove himself and lowkey impatient

he hates when monsters bordeline yell when they sneeze bc it always jumpscares him

he loves collecting pretty plates and cups

he likes playing rpg games

he speaks english, greek and italian

he steals Casta's credit card all the time

constantly doodling

doomscrolls on social media when he can't sleep

when he's flustered he takes a step back and averts eye contact

his bed is full of plushies, and his walls are filled with posters

loves wearing fishnets

he's half nigerian and half greek

he tried to pierce his own snake bites at 3am but before he could Casta busted the bathroom door open and forced him to go to a professional

loves late night walks/early morning walks

professional procrastinator

he doesn't like Ghoulish Literature class bc he doesn't like writing essays

introvert

struggles with having a monotone voice, he sounds neutral even if he's excited or angry

resting bored face

[dreamings-free]

the 28 Clothing Ecru Socks featured in the F/W 2023 campaign of the London-based, Nigerian-British luxury bag label Lu.by.Lu - posted to instagram Dec 2023

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/8/2024 PART 3: ABBY

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: October 8 was another rabbit hole day of my Blogtober program, and I have managed to refrain from slapping a snarky nickname on this little marathon of American race-centric horror movies that raise some uncomfortable questions. Can white guys make compelling movies about Black anxieties? Can Black directors get away with making white actors say things white people shouldn't get away with saying? The answer is…it depends on who you ask!

And if you want to know why I'm capitalizing one word and not the other, it's because I generally agree with the AP statement about the lack of meaningful cultural commonalities between white-skinned people--other than generalized privilege, of course. In my mind, it is useful to talk about whiteness in political contexts, but it is not so useful to talk about a "White" ethnic identity unless you are into white pride, which I would prefer not to validate. I understand that this is not a perfect solution, and many people feel that the lowercase "w" supports the delusion of whiteness as the universal default for humanity. I do not want to invite a big heavy debate on my silly little movie blog, but you should feel free to comment with links to worthwhile discussions on this subject, as long as you are doing it in good faith and you are not a white supremacist asshole. END STANDARD DISCLAIMER

Due to Warner Bros' litigiousness, this poor movie is only available as a version pulled from a badly damaged print--but if you can make it through the fuzz and the scratches, it's pretty entertaining! The great William Marshall plays an archeologist-cum-exorcist who witlessly frees a Nigerian deity to possess his daughter-in-law Abby (Carol Speed), a pious suburban housewife. Abby soon transforms from a devout, hardworking preacher's wife into a sadistic sex maniac, and it will take more than the usual power of Christ to exorcise her.

ABBY is one of those films that reminds me to question what exactly is meant by "blaxploitation". There is a tendency to put that label on any all-Black genre film made between the 1960s and 1980s, though this is misguided. Blaxploitation is actually sort of hard to define. I tend to think of it as primarily describing movies that exploit Black stereotypes to entice audiences--Black or otherwise--who find them appealing; examples are BLACULA (great!) and BLACKENSTEIN (pretty dire). Such movies may be made by Black or white filmmakers. Blaxploitation can also describe exploitation movies made by and for Black audiences; Melvin van Peebles combined exploitation-style entertainment with sharp political messages, and Rudy Ray Moore made delightful vanity projects for himself and his friends from the Chitlin Circuit. You couldn't fairly say that either of those guys mainly exploited stereotypes and the audiences that enjoyed them, even though they did capitalize on them. On the other hand, I always bristle when people call GANJA & HESS a blaxploitation movie; I guess if the only older Black films you watch are in the blaxploitation category then that's what it looks like, but it is way too posh, intellectual, and experimental to participate in any exploitation category.

ABBY was made by William Girdler, who is white, and an interesting character in exploitation history. He turned out nine films in six years, including the incredible terrestrial JAWS knockoff GRIZZLY. Even when he was making a cash grab, he didn't skimp on entertainment value, and ABBY succeeds with its strong characters played by an absolutely stellar cast. This is certainly a blaxploitation film, as an African-flavored coattail-rider of a mainstream hit, replacing THE EXORCIST'S Pazuzu with a horny Yoruban Orisha. However, the main characters are all hardworking, upstanding suburbanites; even the nightclub scenes are full of regular folks having a good time, not insulting caricatures. Those scenes are actually the weakest of the film since they break up the movie's core cast with a bunch of extras.

William Marshall, best known as Blacula and also the King of Cartoons, is fabulous in this...although he also has a tendency to slow things down just because of his flamboyant style of speech-making. Carol Speed gives a gleefully perverted performance as Abby, though the Orisha is voiced by Bob Holt, who in 1972 voiced the Lorax and the Onceler. I know I shouldn't say "the Onceler" on this website, but the freaks who react to that could really stand to watch something as good as ABBY instead of continuously beating off to children's media. Uh anyway, the actual biggest star of this movie is Juanita Moore, who may not have much to do here, but she was nominated for a fucking Oscar for fucking Douglas Sirk's remake of fucking IMITATION OF LIFE. She is no fucking joke. And there's also the great Austin Stoker, famous for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. This movie may be a typical exploitation picture in many respects, but it is full of talent and made with care.

With all that said, just so I don't run the risk of making ABBY sound like more than it is, I should note that William Marshall expressed dismay at the loosely-handled African elements of the story. It sounds like he recommended some more respectful revisions, and was ignored. However, Carol Speed defended the film, for all that it misrepresents and rips off, as a terrific piece of entertainment. What she said could be applied to any number of exploitation classics: "There are no (new) stories since the Bible."

[olderthannetfic]

Own voice seems really vague concept?

Everything under a big label can be own voice, even if the people writing for it don't actually have the same identity.

I'm bi-W. If I write F/F it's own voice, but it couldn't be lesbian own voice. So me and lesbian would have bi and lesbian own voice respectively. So if we both write F/F we'd be considered own voice under the same label; F/F.

If a black person writes a story about a black character that's own voice. If the black person writes about a Nigerian person, when they're Black-American that's not own voice. But it would still be considered own voice because the author and character are both black.

A disabled person writing a disabled character is own voice. But if the disabled author has a different disability it's not own voice. Most will still call own voice because the big label is disability.

The concept of own voice really relies big time on authors being very detailed about their identity, and exposing a lot of info that readers don't actually have a right to know.

--

And that's why it's largely marketing fluff and a way to pigeonhole minority authors and demand they perform minority status "correctly".

What it was supposed to be was the good kind of affirmative action in giving new authors a shot at publication. (And let's be clear: publishing has issues there and a little leg up for some fresher voices wouldn't go amiss.) But like anything, it soon turned sour.

[eluxurex]

Bio I Guess (C'mon We've All gotta do this) UPDATED

Yo! I see you've found my blog! (insert clapping noises). Anyways, I'm a teenage artist, self shipper and a noms enthusiast! I do art, I write dumb stuff and sometimes sing dumb songs on Starmaker. I am an Undertale fan and a lover of G/t.

I now have have a separate blog for my Undertale AU, Keytale which is @eluxurexisrandom and from September 5th has made this blog the most randomest place ever to exist. I would highly appreciate it you go check my other blog, which where most of my undertale au stuff are posted.

Extra Info:I am a Nigerian and a Christian. I can do requests and will always try answer questions. (Unless like it's for donations, which I may not answer)

I also have some OCs, which are probably the ones you'll see the most here.. The first is Rezmo, my mascot and then my persona, Eluxurex.

Also, here are some of my uniqe tags

#shyson ramblings

#eluxur's thoughts

#eluxurasks

Oh and don't ask too personal or weird questions. Thx

(Noms is the current replacement for sfw vore, lately because of the problem people have found with it and labeling the nonsexually fixation as a fetish, so I would have advice anyone who has this same fixation and do the same and rebrand your blog to separate ourselves even further from people who see it as kink or sexually. People who have varying opinions on this, your opinion is respected and valued, but kindly do not harass me or send hate. It just shows how you can't handle diversity and can't accept the fact people can have different likes or fixations. Thx for reading this.)

Also please Note this: This is a MINORS ONLY tag.

Oh, how could I have forgot to have mentioned this? The stuff I just explained above is just something I don't really post about anymore, but still in the community. This blog is just a place for literally anything else, like I said before.

[shadycomputerpolice]

The Role of Seperatism in Female Liberation

Yes, seperatism will not end patriarchy. I have never seen any seperatist make that claim so I wonder why anti-seperatists like to point that out like their lives depend on it. Also, no singular act, outside of killing all males, can achieve that.

And yes, seperatism is often an individual action. Just like anti-beauty: not shaving, not wearing make up and heels, etc but we still understand that those acts of resistance, even though individual, have value and contribute positively to women and girls' wellbeing.

What seperatism does claim is that it protects women and girls' wellbeing by denying males access to them.

As seen in the images above, for [misogynistic] crimes to happen, all three elements: opportunity, desire and ability must be present and removing just one of them prevents crime. The images above apply to all crimes but since we are talking about female seperatism we can tailor it down to Gender Based Violence (GBV).

Seperatism is about preventing GBV by removing opportunity for harm. Individual seperatists can achieve personal safety in their homes while seperatist communities can achieve community wide safety. So when you claim seperatism is useless you are basically saying crime prevention efforts that focus on denying potential criminals the opportunity to commit crimes is useless. If that is your claim then you have to provide evidence of that.

Seperatists recognise that women cannot influence the ability and desire of males to harm females because behavioural change is self motivated so they focus on what they have control over which is the opportunity for harm.

Now are males, like all predators, going to seek new ways to gain opportunities to harm females, yes of course they are. Outside of GBV, criminals are always changing their strategies especially when their previous strategy becomes well known and people stop falling for it. Using cyber crime as an example because I am Nigerian (LOL), when people stopped falling for the destitute African Prince method, they changed to other methods like romance scams and blackmail. Criminals/Predators are always to seek new ways to catch their victims/prey which is the why the victims/prey must always be alert and aware of the criminals/predators methods so that they can protect themselves.

So yes, as long as men exist, they will be no feminist utopia where women and girls can exist without the threat of violence. We will always need to be on guard and strive to protect ourselves from them no matter the method they use.

Seperatism cannot save all women and girls in the world just like how crime prevention efforts in Ghana cannot save me in Nigeria and I shouldn't even be expecting it to because geography, language barrier, national laws, etc. What can be done is we adapt the methods used in Ghana to our local context and apply it to see results.

Seperatism is an elective individual and geographical community level action that has the potential to save all women and girls but nobody is kidnap unwilling people and hold them hostage.

And I know, someone is going to scream " VICTIM BLAMING" and to that I say, I don't care about being labelled a victim blamer. However, if you have another viable method for keeping women and girls safe, kindly put forward your idea so it can be evaluated. Please note if you suggest "educating men and boys", I will block you because I don't have the patience for that level of stupidity and delusion.

Sidenote:

I always wondered why allegedly smart women will "but child brides in Afghanistan" as a counter to female seperatism. The wins of feminism activism will always be limited by geography. There is no feminist activism that will impact the lives of ALL women and girls. An individual's or organisation's target population will be limited by geography and unfortunately by resources. You can't help everybody applies in feminism too.

Imagine if someone said that about abortion rights in the US. "Fighting for abortion in America doesn't help child brides in Afghanistan". Most people can see how ridiculous and frankly insulting it is to bring up that issue.

[weonbullshit]

I didn't wanna post this too soon, but I'm really excited.

For Nyumal traditional wear (at least for Golah), I wanted something familiar but different, so I'm combining Nigerian (primarily Yoruba), Chinese, and Indian traditional wear.

I'm thinking that this is more traditional, but I also have ideas for modern clothes based on African American street wear from the 90's/2000's!

Also, I forgot to label the Tikka.

What do you guys think?

[soapcookies]

you’re fat and dark skinned which is rejected by European beauty standards so you came to tumblr where everyone is delusional and supportive. You don’t feel like you fit into the standard of being “feminine” because being feminine has been overshadowed by white feminism and conservative feminism. That’s why it’s easier to label yourself as he/him. Can’t call me an ugly woman if I’m not a woman right ? 😬

whetin b dis ooo...i used the pronouns he/they before i got fat 😭. in my Nigerian family and the spaces i frequent, my size and appearance are seen as beautiful. i adore my ample weight, my wide hips, my round cheeks and strong legs. i actually consider myself to appear very feminine! i get why you would think this. i'm sure there are plenty of Black people who struggle to find their femininity when juxtaposed against white, thin bodies. my pronouns are an homage to pre-colonial gender expression, to incorporate the masculinity i feel inwardly and spirituality, not because of how i look. i consider myself having multitudes. i contain both feminine and masculine and i do it with ease. i have never considered myself "ugly". never in my life would i EVER fix my mouth to curse that which was passed down so lovingly onto me from generation to generation. i never even replied to you and yet you sought me out, thinking i wanted wahala, that i wished to ridicule you or quarrel with you. I no wan make u vex o! you no sabi how much joy i feel in this my fat, dark body, nor how desired and loved i feel in Black queer spaces. i don't parade for oyinbo acceptance and interest. in fact i make it a habit to distance myself from them. i'm so glad that you gave me an opportunity to speak about how much i have grown to love all of me. sosongo!!!

"everyone on Tumblr is delusional", and yet you sef are here, abi? you know you don't earnestly believe that.

I don't fit into white supremacist standards and quite frankly, I don't want to. but i appreciate your concern.

let this be a space to celebrate yourself and accept yourself as you are!

[ben-marco]

Yeah Legion had something posted on their gender labels. Said they were sungender and using sunself pronouns, they/them pronouns, he/him pronouns and two other sets that were translated into Igbo (one of the major languages of their Nigerian heritage).

There was also a whole thing where they seemed to be trying to get every RAMCOA survivor they could find into Ireland for some reason

Sidenote: Apparently Corvid is doing okay. They're safer now

I remember the gender labels post. It's convenient that that got deleted as soon as it didn't serve Legion's personal narrative anymore.

Out of all the shit they do, it's the way they've tried to get survivors to move out of their home countries and into Ireland that unsettles me the most.

[fritesandfries]

Red Snapper Stew with Chrysanthemum Leaves 茼蒿

I had this amazing red snapper and crab stew with breadfruit at Moon Bar (Boston) a few weeks ago. It was one of those rare dishes that I couldn't stop thinking about. I wanted to make a version of this at home, taking inspiration from Nigerian stews but also use southeast Asian flavors.

An ingredient I used for this dish are chrysanthemum greens. These can be found in Asian grocery stores, although it may be labeled as tong ho/tónghāo. It tastes a lot like spinach, but the longer you cook it the more peppery and bitter it comes.

For 4 servings:

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1 whole red snapper (about 2-3 pounds), filleted

2 tsp. kosher salt, divided

2 tsp. grated ginger

5 garlic cloves

1 small yellow onion

1 tsp. dried oregano

2 c. water

2 tbsp. tomato paste

14 oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 c. chrysanthemum greens, lightly packed

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 green onions, sliced

In a dutch oven or heavy pot, heat vegetable oil over medium heat until the oil is shimmering. Meanwhile, season snapper with salt. Fry snapper fillet, about 5 minutes on each side. Set fried filet aside . Remove oil from the pot, reserving about 1 tablespoon. Over medium-high heat, sauté remaining salt, ginger and onion together until onions are softened. Add the next 4 ingredients and bring it to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Add chrysanthemum greens and stir. Add fried snapper. Season with lime juice and sliced green onions before serving.

[cialovesklopp]

𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈 — 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄

— 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚: where you finally get to know amara imani and her story of success

— taglist: @aechii​ @cl16version​ @Ippi_d (the usernames in black are the ones where nothing was found)

masterlist | taglist

read the article to find out more about her…

𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀?

We all love the hits “mine”, “freakum dress”, “jealous” — they’ve all made it into our top songs this year, released by none other than rising singer Amara Imani. But who is the singer actually and why do we adore her so much?

Amara Imani Éwandé is a Cameroonian singer, songwriter and dancer. Nicknames as “Princess of Pop& RnB”, she has been gaining fame quickly, rising with rapidity to the top of the music industry. 

Imani started her career on a feature on the single “Brown Skin Girl” for Beyoncé’s Lion King Album when she was 20 years old. The latter had often praised the girl, saying “Imani reminded her of her young self”. Before that, the Cameroonian singer used to upload various covers of songs like “halo”, “saving all my love” and “just the way you are”. For a short time, the singer had joined a band but their hiatus after a year saw the chance for her own chance in the music industry. 

𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐑:

Amara Imani Éwandé was born on October 7, 1999 in Douala. Cameroon to a Nigerian mom and Cameroonian dad. At the age of seven, she moved to London, UK as her dad got a job as Ingenieur there. Imani competed from a young age on in art competition, primarily in dancing, winning a lot of trophies. 

So how exactly did our queen switch to pop? And what makes her so special for us, so important that we go whenever she drops a single?

Imani launched her singing career at the age of 15 after sustaining a fatal injury to her knee that stopped the development of her dancing career. The singer had often said that dancing had been her career and she had only started singing as a side hobby. Imani gained her fame and platform in 2016, when she began posting videos of herself singing covers of popular songs on YouTube after her music group disbanded. In 2018 she gained the attention of Beyoncé, who had mentioned her account in an interview, praising the young girl. Her singing career took off from then on. 

The singer was approached by several record labels but refused any offers, preferring to keep her career low for the beginning. She resurfaced in the music industry a year later in 2019, when she partnered with Beyoncé and Wizkid on the song “Brown Skin Girl” for Beyoncé’s Lion King Album. After that, she signed under the record label Universal Music Group. 

After the success of Brown Skin Girl, Imani gained presence in the music industry world wide. She then began working on her first single followed by her first album. The popular song “Motivation” was her first release, topping the charts for a few weeks. Imani had said after the announcement of her first single “my music will be a mix of pop and R&B because this is what I grew up with. I’m trying to create new things with the two genres.”

“Slow Motion” counts as her second release with singer AMARIA BB as feature. Even though the song went 

But let’s just sway away from the facts and focus on her influence. With the appearance of Amara Imani, many doors of new genre mixes were opened. Who would have thought that pop and R&B went together. We have danced to Taylor Swift with her beautiful pop songs and sung our hearts out to Beyoncé’s iconic R&B ballads but we have never seen both in one. It was only a question of time that the young singer was given the name of “our next Bey”. With the release of her first album, Imani was able to break some of the records the Beyoncés had broken. the album “This is her” managed to stay in the top 10 of the charts for more than 25 weeks, a new record for rookie artists in the music business. 

And songs like “diva” or freakum dress” proved Imani’s point what she was trying to achieve in the music world. 

And let’s not forget her success off-stage. Especially in her romantic life, Imani was responsible for some big headlines after getting cozy with millionaire heir Evan Henderson. The latter had already expressed his interest in her music and often praised the girl, we quote “I love her music, she just gets it and manages to reinvent music. Definitely my favourite artist.”

The pair officially met at the launch of the new beauty collection of Sephora in 2021, one of the first events after the long quarantine. Till today, the couple is going strong but went through many on-off phases between summer and winter 2022. Close sources say, wedding bells are ringing and he is planning on popping the question. Our next Jay-Z and Beyoncé? We can confirm at least that we have found our next rising Queen B. 

𝒏𝒂𝒎�� — amara imani (amara: grace, kindness)

𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎 — normani kordei

𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 — cameroon / nigeria

𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 — black

𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 — andré éwande (father, cameroon), taraji imani (mother, nigeria), cynthia éwandé (adoptive)

— amara has a bachelor in engineering & business (she was studying while she gained fame and developed her career) 

𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓 — singer, songwriter, dancer

𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 — Amara speaks five languages (French, English, Spanish, fèfè, igbo) 

𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 — libra (sun), capricorn (moon), cancer (rising)

𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 — amara plays the piano and guitar but prefers the piano (used to play the violin but stopped in 6th grade)

𝒉𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒊𝒆𝒔 — art, fashion, reading, songwriting, rollerskating, cooking, dancing, hiking, swimming

𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆 — everything, amara can listen to r&b on some days and to old classics like marvin gaye on other days

𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒔 — amara used to have a hen and a dog when she was younger since that was normal in cameroon but when she moved, she left them back

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅 — beignet-haricots (a cameroonian dish which consists of beans mixed in a tomato-kind of sauce with beignets which are soft, sweet fried buns) -- for dessert amara prefers cupcakes and has a profound love of churros -- favorite ice cream flavour: cookies (a mix of biscuit and cookie dough

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌 — smoothies — Amara could die for them, she is definitely the kind of person to spend 5€ on a smoothie just because she tried it once

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒓 — she has several, it depends, Amara loves purple but she knows she looks best in gold

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆 — how to lose a guy in 10 days

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 — Mercedes (she does not know why but somehow the German car brand has made into her heart)

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 —  Football! Amara is a huge football fan, she also loves formula 1 because it was the only thing her father could manage back then as sport entertainment (they had enough money but time was never in their favour and they missed important matches)

𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 — Amara is a huge Lewis Hamilton supporter. She grew up supporting him with her dad and has made it very clear that she looks up to the British race but they have never met before

— Amaras favorite team is Liverpool but that is only because her dad supported it and she has never thought of supporting someone else than the team her dad supported.  𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 — varies from time to time but for the moment it’s ALL MINE by Brent Faiyaz

𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 — straight

𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒔 — she / her

𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔 — outgoing, optimistic, friendly

𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔 — organized,

𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔 — too naive sometimes, loud, stubborn

𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 — Amara is a very outgoing person and a huge extrovert. She can do sometimes come across as too nice but she is just a huge sunshine who grew up with a huge amount of love and kindness and wants to share it

3 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 — family, friends, music

𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 — definitely cameroon, Amara grew up there and even though it is a third world country, Amara wouldn’t trade it for anywhere

𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒍 — Michelle Obama, her mother, Beyoncé

𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒚 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 — 7 (because it’s her birthday number and the number of Harry Potter books)

𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 — find a balance between being successful and having her own peace of mind

𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀:

sorry — beyoncé 

7 rings — ariana grande

r.e.m. — ariana grande

b.s. — jhené aiko ft. h.e.r.

me, myself and i — beyoncé 

girls need love — summer walker

this is me trying — taylor swift

vip — aya nakamura

all mine — brent faiyaz

stop this flame — celeste

[unwelcome-ozian]

On September 21, 2001, the torso of a young boy floated in the Thames River near the Tower Bridge. It had been in the water for about 10 days before it was found. London Police called the boy “Adam.” A medical examination of the torso showed that the body had been dissected as though by a professional butcher of animals. The skin had been cut, and then a single chop had severed each limb. It was theorized that Adam was part of a human sacrifice to one of the 400 gods of the Nigerian Yoruba people.

All evidence pointed to a ritual murder. The boy, who was traced to the Benin City area of Nigeria through forensic testing was likely brought into the country for the murder. His stomach contents indicated that he had eaten German food before his death.

A year later suspicion fell on a human smuggler named Kingsley Ojo. The police searched Ojo’s apartment in 2002 and found a bag with a mixture of bones, sand, and gold flecks ---- a mixture also found in Adam’s stomach. The apartment contained a video tape labeled “rituals,” showing the ritual dismemberment of a human victim. Besides those clues, police couldn’t find a connection between Adam and Ojo. Ojo was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for human smuggling before being deported to Nigeria.

In 2013, the boy was finally identified as Patrick Erhabor by former caretaker Joyce Osagiede. Osagiede had taken care of Erhabor in Germany before he was trafficked into the United Kingdom by Ojo.

The person or persons behind the ritual dismemberment of the young boy are still unknown. It was believed he died to bring about “good luck.” Over the years, police managed to put many pieces of this puzzle together, his killers, however, still remain unpunished.