#nigerian creatives

[bypreciousugo]

Y'all remember when I made a post about creating a Tumblr Community, called soFly Creatives, for Black creatives to come together and share our work? IT GOT APPROVED. Perioddddd!

Who wants an invite?!

[morrningst9r]

The lijadu sisters

[mightymur]

[ISBW] From Patent Memos to Nebula Nods with Wole Talabi

S20 Ep13: In Which Mur Attends Wole Talabi’s Creative Alchemy Transcript   “The primary driver of my sense of success is, ‘do I feel happy with what I’ve done?'” – Wole Talabi Mur chats with Wole Talabi, an engineer turned author (but still engineer). They discuss the Schrodinger’s Cat of publishing, the thrill of rewriting old stories for new audiences, and the joy of challenging the norms of…

[omalichathewriter]

A LITERARY MASTERPIECE : DISCOVERING NEVER TO LOVE AGAIN

A unique story which transcends between friendship, love, hope and uncertainties that accompany the journey of an average Nigerian girl and her struggle to keep her commitment to the love of her life. This literal work of art, written and published in 2004 by American based Nigerian author Ngozi Onyegbule has its setting in two very contrasting places : A small intimate town in the Eastern Nigeria , and United States of America. In this novel of 18 chapters, Onyegbule, was able to deliver an African fiction in English, that promotes the culture and tradition of Nigeria just like some remarkable diaspora Nigerian based authors; the likes of Buchi Emecheta and a few others. As its name depicts , this is a story of a vow made from experiencing the rough side of westernization.

SUMMARY

Never to Love Again is a fictional story that centers on a young beautiful girl by name SYBIL AFOR, who falls in love with a promising young teacher KENNETH NKWO. Sybil, the last child of her strict and disciplined parents, gets into a committed relationship with Kenneth: the handsome, sweet and caring part time soap supplier of her mother. These two characters go through several phases to keep their relationship glued in hope to get married someday. Their many years of friendship and commitment is thrown into new and complex trials which comes with Sybil’s move to further her study abroad. Though a struggling and underpaid young teacher, Kenneth quiets his plans to study law abroad, and channels his finances and energy, to complete the traditional marriage rites for his soon-to-be bride, and also reward her with a rich send-off party. Sybil arrives the western soil, and is faced with pressure from her sister, college roommate, and the environment around her to follow the path she has ventured into: coming to America, and forget about the old path : Kenneth and their commitment. After much thinking and deliberation, Sybil drops the bombshell of breakup on Kenneth by letter, who receives it with shock and horror. Karma strikes the face of Sybil as she is asked to leave her school and the country after she was found ineligible to matriculate. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Kenneth prepares to leave his home country, to study law. This leaves a heartbroken and deported Sybil in regret. But alas! a ray of hope appears for their relationship as Sybil receives admission from another school to start over again. Though the novel ended in a declined mood, there seems to be a sunrise to their relationship in the sequel “LOVE FORGIVES ALL SINS”

THEME: The novel has various themes laced in it, which would be of great interest to diverse readers. Some dominant themes are : Love, Peer-pressure, Doggedness, Respect, Cultural practices. And some sub-themes like : Independency, Friendship, Discipline, Courage, Fear, Early Detection can also been found. With makes it a jungle of many emotions and thoughts.

SETTING: Employing different places and cultures, the general setting of the novel is the late 20th and early 21st century. The movement of the characters also juggle from the western setting to the Nigerian setting.

PLOT: The plot, which is very much arranged and beautifully intertwined, graduates into the themes, characters and setting. So it’s safe to say that the plot is well planned.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: The rise and use of each character, shows that the author, carefully thought of each one, and their role-play before infusing them to the plot. The main/ round characters which are Sybil, and Kenneth,touched every aspect of their role with precise and accurate details. There are some stoic and flat characters who played their role perfectly without absorbing change like : Victoria Sybil’s sister, Rosario Perez, Anthony, Bethrand and host of others.

LANGUAGE AND WRITING STYLE : The author employs the use of Narrative and Descriptive style to tell this story. The use of figure of speech is also dominant, and it can be seen is some examples like : “one hundred feet long” ( line 3,page 124) which is used to describe the veil of a bride. “All hands were on deck” (line 2,page 122) “Marching to the altar” ( line line 5,page 119) “Small lord” ( page 101) . The author also makes use of the Omniscient point of view style to illustrate the various aspects of the book.

STRENGTHS: The greatest strength of Never too Love Again, is its accuracy and powerful illustrations of the people’s cultural practices, the different ways people see or accept the cultural practice amongst them. The fact that a lot of people would be able to relate to this story because of its authenticity and it vibe, is a major strength of this book. When you line the background and personality of the author with his fictional work of art, you would see that the author has had ample experience of both cultures, so it’s safe to say he knows what he is writing about.

WEAKNESS: The dominant weakness of this book, it’s in its typesetting. The absence of quotation marks in this book, is what makes it weak. This makes it harder for readers to differentiate between the characters speech from normal writing. This is a major weakness because it would take a longer process to read and accumulate.

IMPACT: Never to love again, has recorded significant progress and awards in United States, due to the diasporic nature of the author. But discoveries that are about to be made about this novel, would soon throw it into National archives and collections.

CONCLUSION

My dear book readers and lovers, you just have to add “Never to Love Again” to your TR ( To Read ) list, because a journey through the cultural display and the rollercoaster emotions in this novel, is worth every glance. Remember, be patient and make sure you savor each chapters essence.

I wish you a lovely read,

@omalichathewriter



[ajifa-co]

Photography by Adedolapo Boluwatife. View more online now in our Gallery ✷ #ajifagallery

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[mbharestuff]

Three days until Freda Epums's momentous, emotionally searing "The Gloomy Girl Variety Show" releases. I cannot begin to convey my excitement. It's going to knock people off their feet.

I've been watching her improve her craft for years, polishing each piece to a sunlike sheen. It's been magical to watch, I can't wait till you all can see it for yourselves.

[nirvnabj]

IFFIZI showroom set to open December in Abuja

[sailorjojogames]

Tristan Loves Fola | Oasis Springs 25 May 2024 💐

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I threw a BIGish Nigerian Wedding in The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories. 🤵🏿❤👰🏿

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[bypreciousugo]

BOOTS

“After Nila, an insecure young woman, discovers a pair of talking heels, she must go on a journey of self-love & acceptance in order to show her ex-boyfriend that he made a mistake in dumping her.”

written & directed by Precious Ugochukwu (@bypreciousugo)

Premiering soon on YouTube.

[specialagentartemis]

Black Women writing SFF

The post about Octavia Butler also made me think about the injustice we do both Butler, SFF readers, and Black women SFF writers by holding her up as the one Black Woman Writing Sci-Fi. She occupies an important place in the genre, for her creativity, the beauty and impact of her writing, and her prolific work... but she's still just one writer, and no one writer works for everybody.

So whether you liked Octavia Butler's books or didn't, here are some of the (many!!! this list is just the authors I've read and liked, or been recommended and been wanting to read) other Black women writing speculative fiction aimed at adults, who might be writing something within your interest:

N. K. Jemisin - a prolific powerhouse of modern sff. Will probably have something you'll like. Won three Hugo awards in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy. I’ve only read her book of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and it is absolutely story after story of bangers. Creative, chilling, beautifully written, make you think. They’re so good and I highly recommend the collection. Several of her novels have spun out of premises she first explored through these short stories, most recently “The City Born Great” giving rise to her novel The City We Became. Leans more fantasy than sci-fi, but has a lot of both, in various permutations. 

Nisi Shawl - EDIT: I have been informed that Nisi Shawl identifies as genderfluid, not as a woman. They primarily write short stories that lean literary. Their one novel that I’ve read, Everfair, is an alternate-history 19th century that asks, what if the Congo had fought off European colonization and became a free and independent African state? Told in vignettes spanning decades of political organization, political movements, war tactics, and social development, among an ensemble of local African people, Black Americans coming to the new country, white and mixed-race Brits, and Chinese immigrants who came as British laborers.

Nnedi Okorafor - American-Nigerian writer of Africanfuturism, sci-fi stories emphasizing life in present, future, and alternate-magical Africa. She has range! From Binti, a trilogy of novellas about a teenage girl in Namibia encountering aliens and balancing her newfound connection to space with expectations of her family; to Akata Witch, a middle-grade series about a Nigerian-American girl moving to Nigeria and learning to use magic powers she didn’t know she had; to Who Fears Death, a brutal depiction of magical-realism in a futuristic, post-war Sudan; to short stories like "Africanfuturism 419", about that poor Nigerian prince who’s desperately sending out those emails looking for help (but with a sci-fi twist), and "Mother of Invention" about a smart house taking care of its human and her baby… she’s done a little bit of everything, but always emphasizes the future, the science, and the magic of (usually western) Africa.

Karen Lord - an Afro-Caribbean author.  I actually didn’t particularly like the one novel by her I’ve read, The Best of All Possible Worlds, but Martha Wells did, so. Lord has more novels set in this world—a Star Trek-esque multicultural, multispecies spacefuture set on a planet that has welcomed immigrants and refugees for a long time, and become a vibrant multicultural planet. I find her stories rooted in near-future Caribbean socio-climatic concerns like "Haven" and "Cities of the Sun" and her folktale-fantasy style Redemption in Indigo more compelling.  And more short stories here.

Bethany C. Morrow - only has one novella (short novel?) for adults, Mem, but it was creative and fascinating and good and I’d be remiss not to shout it out. In an alternate-history 1920s Toronto, scientists have discovered how to extract specific memories from a person—but then those memories are embodied as physical, cloned manifestations of the person at the moment the memory was made. The main character is one such “Mem,” struggling to determine who she is if she was created from and defined by one single traumatic memory that her original-self wanted to remove. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative, and very interesting.  (Morrow has some YA novels too. I read one of them and thought it was okay.)

Rebecca Roanhorse - Afro-Indigenous, Black and "Spanish Indian" and married into Diné (Navajo). I’ve read her ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series starting with Trail of Lightning, and am liking it a lot; after a climate catastrophe, the spirits and magic of the Diné awakened to protect Dinetah (the Navajo Nation) from the onslaught; and now magic and monsters are part of life in this fundamentally changed world. Coyote is there and he is only sometimes helpful. She also has a more traditional second-world epic high fantasy, Black Sun, an elaborate fantasy world with quests and prophecies and seafaring adventure that draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of the US and Mexico rather than Europe. She also has bitingly satirical and very incisive short stories like “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” about virtual reality and cultural tourism, and the fantasy-horror "Harvest."

Micaiah Johnson - her multiverse-hopping novel The Space Between Worlds plays with alternate universes and alternate selves in a continuously creative and interesting way! The setup doesn’t take the easy premise that one universe is our own recognizable one that opens up onto strange alternate universes—even the main character’s home universe is wildly different in speculative ways, with the MC coming from a Mad Max-esque desert community abandoned to the elements, while working for the universe-travel company within the climate-controlled walled city where the rich and well-connected live and work. Also, it’s unabashedly gay. 

And if you like audiobooks and audio fiction (I listened to The Space Between Worlds as an audiobook, it’s good), then Jordan Cobb is someone you should check out. She does sci-fi/horror/thriller audio drama. Her works include Janus Descending, a lyrical and eerie sci-fi horror about a small research expedition to a distant planet and how it went so, so wrong; and Descendants, the sequel about its aftermath. She also has Primordial Deep, about a research expedition to the deep undersea, to investigate the apparent re-emergence of a lot of extinct prehistoric sea creatures. She’s a writer/producer I like, and always follow her new releases. Her detailed prose, minimal casts  (especially in Janus Descending), good audio quality, and full-series supercuts make these welcoming to audiobook fans. 

-

Nalo Hopkinson - a writer who should be considered nearly as foundational as Octavia Butler, honestly. A novelist and short story writer with a wide variety of sci-fi, dystopian futures, fairy-tale horror, gods and epics, and space Carnival, drawing heavily from her Caribbean experiences and aesthetics.

Tananarive Due - fantastical/horror. Immortals, vampires, curses, altered reality, unnerving mystery. Also has written a lot of books.

Andrea Hairston - creative and otherworldly, weird and bisexual, with mindscapes and magic and aliens. 

Helen Oyeyemi - I haven’t read her work but she comes highly recommended by a friend. A novelist and short story writer, most of her work leans fairytale fantastical-horror. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a collection of short fiction and recc’ed to me as her best work. White is for Witching is a well-regarded haunted house novel. 

Ashia Monet - indie author, writer of The Black Veins, pitched as “the no-love-interest, found family adventure you’ve been searching for.” Magic road trip! Possibly YA? I’m not positive. 

-

This also doesn’t include Black non-binary sff authors I’ve read and liked like An Owomoyela, C. L. Polk, and Rivers Solomon. And this is specifically about adult sff books, so I didn’t include Black women YA sff authors like Kalynn Bayron, Tomi Adeyemi, Tracy Deonn, Justina Ireland, or Alechia Dow, though they’re writing fantasy and sci-fi in the YA world too.

And a lot of short stories are out there in the online magazine world, where so many up and coming authors get their start, and established ones explore offbeat and new ideas.  Pick up an issue (or a subscription!) of FIYAH magazine for the most current Black speculative writing.

[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

[adorablediscoveries]

Artist Turns Flip-Flops into Stunning Portraits

Eugene Konboye, a Nigerian artist, is transforming discarded plastic flip-flops into vibrant portraits. In doing so, he is contributing in his own way to cleaning up the environment in a country where plastic pollution has reached record levels. What began as a college assignment in 2017 has since evolved into a full-fledged career for Konboye.

His studio in the city of Abeokuta now trains aspiring artists who want to follow in his footsteps and create flip-flop portraits. To source the raw materials for his art, Konboye primarily collects from landfills and riverbanks.

After bringing them to his studio, he washes and disinfects the flip-flops. Then, he cuts and glues the pieces onto a board to create a face on each one. It’s a process that demands significant time and patience. Once collected, the flip-flops are carefully washed, cut, and sorted by color and type, preparing them for the creative process.

The final result is a creative expression that blends art with a tangible commitment to environmental preservation. Some clients visit his studio with photographs, which he uses to create personalized portraits. Beyond these commissions, his other works are inspired by the vibrant local community, turning the simple act of repurposing flip-flops into a quiet fight against pollution.

[ajifa-co]

Editorial “AREWÁ” photographed by Omorinsola Olatunde. View the full series online in our Gallery ✷ #ajifagallery

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✷ Instagram: @ajifa.co

[cognitivejustice]

‘The onus is now on us to innovate our way out of a problem we did not create.’

So says Nkwo Onwuka, founder and Creative Director of Nigerian artisanal clothing brand NKWO Official, and a pioneer of sustainable fashion on the continent. On 15 August 2024 at Workshop17 at the V&A Waterfront, the designer will headline Africa Textile Talks, an educational journey into the heart of sustainable textiles, slow fashion and design.

I have named my presentation 'The Last Square Loom'. Without giving too much away, the loom serves as a metaphor for the restrictions we impose on ourselves or that have been imposed on us and how we need to break out of these confines to build up our communities and ensure the preservation of our culture and heritage.

Source

[universaln0b0dy]

Alya Cesaire (mlb rewrite)

[Note] Hey, hey! I wanted to start rewriting and designing miraculous for the fun of it. Please note that this is just for fun and giggles! I will try to keep the rewrite as close to the show as possible, at the same time I want to put as much of my ideas into it as I can. Also this is probably an angst au, because of my 3 am brainrot.

Alya Cesaire

Honestly I love her as a character, though she is a bit too supportive of the plans Marinette has and she still believes Lila? Like tf- But she is still cool in my book. I have to say, Marinette butted Aly into her love life herself, so I don't get why people think of Alya as annoying for being involved in Adrinette? Well enough of me yappin, let's get into the rewrite!

Backstory:

Look, I at first wasn't sure what to do with her. So I thought of her personality first! So uhh, Alya has a complicated relationship with Celebrities and rich people in my au. So I decided, why not make her grow up in a mega city? We had that in geography! In case you don't get what I mean, Mega cities are giant city's, which are known to grow hastily. Occasionally you can also have harsh disparities, like a bunch of rich people houses, but right around the corner you have the slums. (A bit exaggerated)

So I decided to choose Lagos as the city Alya grew up in? Idk still not sure, so that may change. But important ist, that Alya already learned early on life that life is unfair and that even if the rich see the poor every day, they'd rather spit on them than help. (Also a bit exaggerated)

So I decided that one of the reasons that Alya wants to become a journalist is to find all the dirt on the rich and shine light on things truthfully, regardless of what she mind find.

She is half french, half Nigerian and moved to France when she was 10, back then she didn't live in Paris.

She and her siblings enjoy the life on the country side, until their parents get a better job in Paris. She gets into a new class and meets Marinette who gets bullied by Chloe, but Alya wouldn't let that slide.

Personality (season 1-3):

Courios and nosy. She is intrested in everything around her and no information is safe from her. Fun fact, that becomes a problem when she meets lady bug, unlike in the original mlb, Alya views Lady Bug as a celebrity not worthy of privacy, under the eyes of "the people have right of knowing who you are."

Kind, nurturing and helpful. When Alya isn't in journalism mode, she is caring. She is Marinettes very first friend and views her as a younger sister. She is in general a good older sister, while she isn't the oldest she never once backed out of baby sitting the twins.

Confident and protective. She believes she needs to protect the weaker people. Which also the first reason why she protects Marinette from Chloe and even from Adrien, who she like Marinette dislikes at first. She comes to accept after a while, becoming one of his most trusted friends.

The voice of reason, but supportive. You might go like: "Do you seriously plan on using Alya just as a person to give advice to Marinette. " No, I do not. While yes Alya is the more mature person, she is also just a teenager. So Alya will still support a few of Marinettes ideas, but will call her out when she is batshit crazy. But another intresting thing, despite Alya hating rich people she will be the first to help Chloe! Why? You will see, you will see.

Alya as Rena Rouge

Unlike Marinette, Adrien and Chloe she is handed the miraculous. That means she is the only one who must return it after fighting, so her superhero persona can't really develop as much as it could.

But there are still some small changes.

Secretive, after realising what being behind the mask is like, she realises that her identity needs to be a secret. That means Rena rouge is the most secretive about her identity.

She is cunning. You need to professionally trick a villain? Don't worry, Rena's got your back. She is surprisingly creative with her ideas and occasionally even helps lady Bug with planning.

Personality (season 4-5)

Everyone has character development and Alya gets some too. She still wishes to become a journalist and expose secrets, but she is a bit more understanding of the people behind the mask for example.

Like everyone she too starts acting more like an adult during the end of the series, but that is just a part being a hero I'd say.

A lil treat, she will also become more distrusting. That means at the start of the series she is very social and all, until something happens that kinda destroys her world view on a few things.

I sadly can't really say more about my plans with her otherwise I'd spoil a lot of the ideas I have :(

Drawing

I am really unsure about her hero design and her hair, but I really like her every day outfit for the sole reason she looks her age! She actually really likes fashion, kinda like Marinette does in a way of self expression, which doesn't stop her from grabbing the most comfortable thing she has in her stomach.

Well this ends out drawting session!

[dustedmagazine]

Amayo — Lion Awakes (Self-Release)

Amayo was the only actual Nigerian in the Brooklyn afrobeat juggernaut Antibalas, reigning from 1999 to 2021 in colored face paint and elaborate headdress over pulsing Fela-obsessed grooves. A devotee of martial arts, he is a practitioner of Kung Fu’s Chinese Lion Dance, as well as Nigerian Edo traditional arts. Lion Awakes celebrates all these elements of the Amayo creative package, unfurling frantic blasts of brassy syncopation around intricate narratives of supernatural kicking, punching might. This is not a long album, but it has epic scope that’s well beyond the limitations of the usual five-song EP.

It begins with Amayo’s tribute to his grandmother, a black magic shaman woman in touch with supernatural energies. The song, “Black Magic Sister” stutters on skittering, bunching syncopation, threading wheedling keyboards and off-beat cowbells through a sinuous call and response. Amayo holds court, letting the spirit move him as he sings, swaying with the back-slanted rhythms of reggae-adjacent afrobeat as he rides the current.

“Lion Awakes” runs steamier and funkier, guitars insinuated into a smolder of percussion, the beat rambling on, purposeful but not too fast. It’s too hot to run. The lion is the main character in three out of five of these tracks, strutting militantly in the snare-shot “Happy Lion,” triumphing over all comers in the final “Ascending Lion.” The Lion, I should mention, is Amayo, and of course he’s the hero of his own story.

Amayo brings the kung-fu-fighting samurai motif out into the foreground in “Shadowless,” a track whose bristling horns and burbling organ smoke but never erupt in flames. The menace is implied, never thrust forward, as Amayo whispers “Shadowless” against a slithery cadence of funk.

Amayo surrounds himself with an able collection of afro funk musicians from Africa and Los Angeles and Brooklyn. The backing is tight, in the sense of everything landing where it should, but also loose, with a give in the joints that makes you want to move. You probably didn’t know you needed an Afro funk concept album about a mighty kung fu warrior, but you did. You can thank me later.

Jennifer Kelly