83rd birthday of Flora Nwapa

(Born 13 January 1931, Ugwuta, Igboland)

First continental African woman published novelist (Efuru, 1966, and, soon after, Idu, which she begins to work on at the onset of the Igbo genocide and later publishes in 1970) whose landmark work as well as that of sociologist Kamene Okonjo’s open up the expanse of possibilities in Igbo Women/African World Studies within which the subsequent scholarship, practice, artistry and writings of especially the following have richly flourished: Adaora Lily Ulasi, Felicia Ekejiuba, Zulu Sofola, Helen Chukwuma, Phanuel Egejuru, Buchi Emecheta, Osonye Tess Onwueme, Obioma Nnaemeka, Onyeka Onwenu, Ada Udechukwu, Genevieve Onyuike,  Chinyere Kalu, Felicia Eke, Anthonia Kalu, Joy Ogwu, Ifi Amadiume, Nkiru Nzegwu, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Catherine Acholonu, Ama Ogan, Gloria Chuku, Stella Chinyelu Okoli, Ijeoma Uchegbu, Irene Iroche, Evelyn Oputu, Ifeoma Okoye, Chi-Chi Nwanoku, Rose Adaure Njoku, Chris Anyanwu, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Arunma Oteh, Viola Onwuliri, Francisca Okeke, Stella Oduah, Amaka Igwe, Juliana Onwumere, Eucharia Nwaichi, Maureen Ngozi Eke, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, Ada Uzoamaka Azodo, Okwuonicha Nzegwu, Carole Ijeoma Njoku, Ngozi Onwurah, Chinelo Achebe-Ejueyitche, Adaeze Ifezulike, Unoma Azuah, Nnenna Okore, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Obiageli Okigbo, Chi Onwurah, Nwando Achebe, Gloria Ernest-Samuel, Joanna Chikwe, Amara Okereke, Chinelo Okparanta, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Amaka Osakwe, Amara Enyia, Chioma Okereke, Chinwe Ozoegwu, Adaora Udoji, Uzoamaka Maduka, Ogo Offodile, Chinyelu “ChiChi” Offodile

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44th anniversary of Nigeria’s launch of phase-IV of the Igbo genocide

On 13 January 1970, Nigeria launches phase-IV of the Igbo genocide, foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, which now  focuses on the degrading/dismantling of the surviving frames of the economy of Igboland, pulverised during phases-I-III of the previous 44 months, intertwined, gruesomely, by spates and stretches of pogroms that have continued unabated, as catalogued in the following link, especially from sub-title phase-IV: http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com.br/2013/10/genocidist-generals-genocidist-theorists.html

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124th birthday of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

(Born 12 January 1890, Paris, TN, US)

Economist and theologian, first African American president (vice-chancellor) of Howard University (1926-1960) during which the university attracted a range of luminaries to teaching positions including the philosopher Alain Locke, poet Sterling Brown, surgeon Charles Drew, political scientist Ralph Bunche and chemist Percy Lavon Julian

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“MINT” and all that…

One should take these fair-weather, illusory, “just-feel-good-about-yourself-despite-the-obvious”-brand of socioeconomic projections and typologisations (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25548060) with a pinch of salt: the previous day it was called “NEPAD”, yesterday it was “BRICS”, today it is “MINT”, tomorrow it could be “CLICK”, and following day, “ZYBTV” and on and on it goes... Essentially, the brand is a variation on the theme of the cargo-mentality amnesia but this is quite factitious and more pernicious than the prototype (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com.br/2011/03/cargo-cult-mentality-nigeria-and.html).

 One cardinal feature of development/societal transformation never posed in these projections is the internally-operationalising logic of the process. The engine of such an enterprise is anchored within the internal environment of focus. Development couldn’t, really, be anything except it is understood in the context of the internal defining frames and goals of the communitarian or societal space in question: Britain characterises and determines its development; Igboland characterises and determines its development; China characterises and determines its development; Malaysia characterises and determines its development... South Korea characterises and determines its development… the United States characterises and determines its development... Following from this, “outsiders” often recognise that such a societal space of reference is undergoing this historic, phenomenal transformation well after this process has very much steamed ahead. Not before!

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99th birthday of Dean Dixon

(Born 10 January 1915, Harlem, New York, US)

Versatile conductor in a career stretching for 45 years, beginning in 1931, he occupies both principal and guest orchestral conducting positions at home and abroad – Sweden, Germany, Austria, Britain, Israel, Australia, Mexico

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90th birthday of Max Roach

(Born 10 January 1924, Newland, NC, US)

 Drummer, one of the influential innovators of the be-bop jazz revolution of the 1940s-1950s with fellow-drummer Kenny Clarke and lead proponents Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Thelonious Monk (piano) and Bud Powell (piano) and later Charles Mingus (bass) and Miles Davis (trumpet), influential band leader, composer, academic

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124th anniversary of the patenting of William B Purvis’s fountain pen

William Purvis (Philadelphia, US) patents his fountain pen invention, 7 January 1890, and reflects, quite perceptibly: “[T]he object of my invention is to provide a simple, durable and inexpensive construction of the fountain pen adapted to general use and which may be carried in the pocket”

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