79th birthday of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

(Born 5 January 1938, Kamĩrĩĩthũ, Kenya)

Novelist, playwright, essayist, conscience and treasured dissident voice in these turbulent times in the African World, indefatigable promoter of publishing in African languages as he, himself, has done consistently in the Gĩkũyũ beginning in the late 1970s when he publishes Caitaani Mũtharabainĩ which he later translates into English as Devil on the Cross (1980)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Devil on the Cross (London: Heinemann African Writers, 1987, 256pp, £9.41/US$12.20, pbk)

For a succinct insight into the expansive contributions of  Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o to the heritage of African World Letters and associated development, see, for instance, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (Dakar & Reading: African Renaissance, 2011), pp. 45-50. 

(Joe Henderson Quartet, “Keystone” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Chick Corea, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Studio-Masters, Los Angeles, US, [?] January 1980])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

74th birthday of Chuks Ihekaibeya

(Born 5 January 1942, Umuahia, Biafra)

Erudite scholar, diplomat, member of the crucial communication directorate of the Biafran resistance government during the Igbo genocide, carried out by Nigeria and its suzerain state Britain, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, during which 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of this nation’s population are murdered in this foundational genocide of post(European)conquest Africa

(Charles Mingus, the iconoclastic bassist and composer, plays the piano: spontaneous compositions and improvisations... [personnel: Mingus, piano; recorded: Impulse!, New York, 30 July 1963])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

116th birthday of CLR James

(Born 4 January 1901, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)

Revolutionary marxist theorist and philosopher, author of the classic, The Black Jacobins (1938) on the historic enslaved African uprising in France’s conquered and occupied Saint Domingue, the Caribbean, in the 1790s, in which the Africans defeat the French and its pan-European naval and land forces’ allies (including, especially, British and Spanish) and proclaim the Republic of Haiti, 1804, a victory whose profound consequences are etched indelibly in the psyche of the French Establishment as it relates to African peoples and the African World subsequently

(Sonny Rollins Quartet, “St Thomas” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 22 June 1956])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

“agitate” vs “proclaim”

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe 

Biafrans do not agitate for freedom. They proclaim their freedom. No one agitates for freedom; freedom is proclaimed! Biafrans proclaim the restoration of their independence. This right to freedom is inalienable.

(Sonny Rollins Trio, “The freedom suite” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Riverside Records, New York, US, 7 March 1958])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Victor Uchendu

(Born 1 January 1930, Nsirimo, Biafra)

Sociologist and one of the leading scholars on Igbo civilisation

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

94th birthday of Ousmane Sembéne

(Born 1 January 1923, Ziguinchor, Sénégal)

Father of African Cinema

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

93rd birthday of Milt Jackson

(Born 1 January 1923, Detroit, US)

ARGUABLY THE most distinguished vibraphonist of the bebop revolution of the 1940s-1950s and co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet (full personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; John Lewis, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums), 1952-1992

(Milt Jackson & John Coltrane, “Bags and Trane” [personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Hank Jones, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Connie Kay, drums; recorded: Atlantic Records, New York, 15 January 1959])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe