87th birthday of Flora Nwapa

(Born 13 January 1931, Ugwuta, Biafra)

Okee nwanyi mmadu, first African (continental) woman published novelist – Efuru, 1966, and, soon after, Idu, which she begins to work on at the onset of the Igbo genocide (mid-1966) and later publishes in 1970; her landmark works as well as those of sociologist Kamene Okonjo’s open up the expanse of possibilities in Igbo Women/African World Studies within which the scholarship, artistry and writings of subsequent generations of intellectuals, working worldwide, have flourished immensely

(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Action” [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Charles Tolliver, trumpet; Bobby Hutcherson, vibraphone; Cecil McBee, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 16 September 1964])

 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Sharply contrasting worlds!

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TWO “youths” in the southwestcentral region of Africa with such contrasting worldview – for one, it is to threaten and threaten to, and murder and murder and murder as their parents and grandparents have done during the course of the Igbo genocide these past 51 years and the dreadful legacy of foreparents’ trail of murders and subjugations of indigenous African populations across the northern stretches of the region since they left their Futa Djallon homeland in Guinea-Conakry just over 200 years ago to the day; the other “youth”, in the south of the geography, is engaged in an assured quest for freedom that views life, African life, as sacrosanct and is eager to employ its incredible talent to transform the lives of its people, an outcome with epochal consequences for the region and the rest of the African World.

(Jackie McLean Quintet, “Love and hate” [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Grachan Moncur III, trombone; Bobby Hutcherson, vipraphone; Larry Ridley, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 20 September 1963])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe