When a region has been subject to genocide, slavery or Maafa (holocaust), colonialism, apartheid and financial exploitation also known as neoliberal multilateral agreements, how do we legitimise its place in a globalized modernity without examining its bruised psyche? Through rebranding it? MsAfropolitan does not intend to rebrand Africa, but aims to be part of a [...]
I am currently in Lagos. I am working on projects with TV and Radio Continental and the STAR company/Seeing through the Arts collective who are using art and creativity to promote important causes in society. There is a similar reasoning behind the MsAfropolitan Boutique, namely to use fashion and creativity to highlight the importance of the African [...]
I’d hate for my experience on earth to be lived with a heart containing animosity towards fellow human beings. We may act like different races are different species due to the irrational inventions of some power hungry ancestors of the human race, but I don’t want that confusion to make me equally disillusioned about our [...]
I believe in the sixth sense, not in a ‘seeing dead people’ way, but the sense of shift, that feels the brewing zeitgeist of future generations. The things that they will understand, that our generation can not. This is what activism and creativity alike ought to explore. Can one set of people understand what the previous [...]
Contrary to popular belief many feminists have active, and even pleasant love lives. Before I continue let me clarify, and oversimplify (terribly) for purposes of this commentary, by saying that there are two types of feminists. It’s oversimplifying by the way, because we live in an age of individual feminisms rather than theory-centered doctrine. And [...]
1. People that moan about the use of expletives. 2. The combination of capitalism and yoga. I can’t claim to know all there is to yoga but I can say for certain that apart from keeping you healthy, yoga philosophy aims to connect with something profound, some call it god, some peace, some essence. There [...]
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached – Simone Weil When I think of London my thoughts float lightly because I feel detachment. Scandinavia is an abandoned home. Whenever I spend a long time (one week +) there, I’m reminded of why I moved to [...]
If creativity isn’t about community in one-way or another it is dull at worst and provoking at best. Artists that manage to emphasize the spiritual, aesthetic and social elements of living are those that bring to us gifts of understanding. Artists that exemplify this idea are musicians like K’Naan, Baaba Maal, Nneka, Blitz the Ambassador, Fela, [...]
It’s understandable that many of us are tired of talking about hair . There’s so much around this topic. However, I’m not at all exhausted with the hair topic yet. I think we should keep talking about hair because our strands are bearers of shared cultural experiences. I don’t think the hair conversation is about [...]
It’s my birthday today. I’ve given myself two birthday presents. One was a day with nature. I started the day with a long and playful walk in the woods. The forests in Finland (where I am right now) make me feel like a little girl; the strawberries you can pick and munch on as you [...]
There are those who believe that Oprah is a prophet of Satan, spreading a message against Christianity. Then there are a growing group who similarly to Oprah, or maybe even because of her, are keen to explore alternative ways of connecting with divinity, not by dismissing the teachings of Jesus but by understanding them in conjunction [...]
The right words are on the tip of my tongue, the ones that will touch somewhere in people’s souls where yellow is yellow and can never be red. But I am not sure that I can write them yet. Maybe I first need to be less colour-blind myself. In the meantime what I do know [...]
Recently, two elderly men came into the same crowded train carriage as me. One had a walking stick so the other assisted him on to the train and on to the seat which I stood up to offer. I’d guess the men were in their early 80s but I’m not good at predicting the ages [...]
Writing down some of my new year’s resolutions earlier this year inspired me so much I’ve been maintaining the practice by making ‘new month’s resolutions’. In March my goal was to sleep more and as a result feel more energetic and reconnected with mother and father earth but I failed miserably. Instead March was a [...]
Apart from lyrical gratification, what do you get when you fill the Royal Festival Hall in London Southbank with artists like Senegalese superstar and advocate of women’s rights Baaba Maal, Speech Debelle, VV Brown, Eska, Krystle Warren and Annie Flore? You get a powerful evening of inspirational female voices from across three continents aptly title [...]
I eavesdrop a lot, my ears are like antennas picking up conversations that I’m not supposed to hear. It might be indecent but hey, it’s fodder for my craft. So the other day whilst enjoying a coffee at Starbucks, I pretended to read an article on my ipad, but in reality I was occupied by [...]
Rules are meant to be broken, so I’m going to go ahead and break rule no 4. in my previous post and simply post a link today. The link will take you to an interview I did over @ Afrilove, and I’m sharing that one in particular because it’s actually about the topics I’ve had [...]
I am in love and I want to document the emotions as they develop so that I forever can read the memories. I want to take note of my affinity for your presence. I want to run on the streets naked (like Erykah Badu). Full of wild emotion. I roll my tongue softly when I [...]
The year is 2011. I’m at home in Lagos, Nigeria. I feel excited about the year to come. I always feel excited about a new year, there is always a chance for more of everything, that’s what I like about it. I’m thinking about 2010, the people I met, what I learnt, what I (still) [...]
Happy Holidays people! See, I’m supposed to be writing this from Lagos, Nigeria but then we had this snow incident in London last Saturday that meant my flight got cancelled. And honestly speaking it would have been irresponsible for me to fly regardless because I’m down with a relentless flu. So I’m in London, recovering, [...]
Despite what I’ve said in many a past job interview I deal badly with stress. It’s one of the things that I handle with no finesse. Yet, last week I agreed to unreasonable amounts of work, which climaxed into a sleepless, frantic weekend. Then yesterday as the pressure released, I had a minor anxiety attack. [...]
After a shopping round in town today I decided it was about time I watched the video that has the high street in plumes, namely ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West. My head is now fuzzed with thoughts about chicken breasts and I’m vegetarian, so it’s not because I want some KFC The short story is that I [...]
From the first time someone says, Who do you think you are? we learn how to repress ~ Lauryn Hill I have a new category on the blog. It’s called self release and will contain posts that have to do with personal development. I’m calling it self release rather than self help as the latter [...]
Although I was posting about black hair, I recently wrote about emotionally draining people, who suck your energy like a sponge. I said: …such ‘drainage’ shows up in life not as a relevance to who they are, but to who you are; as an opportunity to create a relationship with how you react to situations. [...]
I’m not religious but I believe religion has enriched my life. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria in what might be considered a typical African family home. It was a two story house with a three-bedroom flat on the top floor, and another similar flat on ground level. In the back compound there were two [...]
Some people can be emotionally draining. They don’t necessarily mean to be, but their energy somehow manages to soak yours up leaving you drained of flavour like that last scoop of ice cream you’ve had in the freezer for a wee while too long. Recently I had such encounters and instead of feeling less affected [...]
I was recently interviewed for a TV programme, which I will write about in a future post, and one of the questions I was asked was what MsAfropolitan is about. I have a love-hate relationship with this question. Reason being that MsAfropolitan is me, but I also think of MsAfropolitan as anyone who relates to [...]
I started writing this post feeling down. That’s the last part of this post, a bit pathetic. Like many, I’ve developed an online attention disorder. My attention span online is 140 seconds and I don’t even have the patience to convert that into minutes. It’s no surprise that my attention span has reduced so dramatically. [...]
Is there anything good about ageing? I spent a week in Finland this month, with my grandmother, in an elderly home amidst woods and lakes, and I must say, there’s something about being in a home for the elderly, a stillness that should be a part of younger life too. I don’t mean to glamorize old [...]
Children are planning to take over the world in a movement called poto. How else can you explain that a few weeks ago on a London train a small boy continuously shouted the word ‘poto‘. Fast forward a few weeks to this past Saturday on a flight to Finland another child sat behind me and [...]
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