Kalakuta

Nearly at wits’ end on how to resolve the myriad issues facing the Nigerian economy in the early ‘80s, the Shehu Shagari led administration experimented with a number of reform programs aimed at improving the lot of Nigerians. One of which was to expel unskilled and semi-skilled foreigners working in the country without valid residence or work permit. Pres. Shehu Shagari at a rally About 2 million immigrants were affected by the exercise which was wildly condemned by the international community, and did sever diplomatic relations between Nigeria and her West African neighbors. immigrants leaving the country The fact that little evidence exist to suggest that any far- reaching economic benefits stemmed from the exercise, has led many to believe that the government-sponsored expulsion was simply in retaliation for a similar policy enforced in Ghana in 1969.  While many account of the exercise wrongly refer to it as the expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria (perhaps understandably, due to t

Practiced for a variety of reasons ranging from tribal identification to protection from evil spirits, the culture of facial and bodily scarification, or ‘tribal makings’- a term loosely but popularly used by many Africans in reference to various forms of tattooing or body mutilation, has been a part of many African societies for generations. And it is still widely practiced till this day. Nearly all of Africa’s ancient kingdoms had scarification traditions as evidenced by archaeological finds of realistic sculptures bearing intricately-etched facial marks. The fact that such traditions had survived for millennia along with their accompanying rituals and ceremonies, has led many to believe that the tradition may be as old as man himself.  Ancient Greeks and Egyptian text also reveal that the practice of facial and /or bodily scarification was by no means restricted to the African continent alone; though the classic form of the practice has all but disappeared in other parts of the glob

It was a still night!! One could hear the silence! The moon was full; there was no need for fire   Our huddled little bodies formed a great semicircle;   Children from up street and Children from down street.  Baba crouched on his old stool, perched on the soft soil,   We could hear his teeth grinding on his bitter Kola;  Every child thinks he does that,   to conjure a better tale than yesterday's.   Like other nights it could be   'Alo' or some moonlight stories,   Laughter, tears, anxieties bottled in our tummies   We all sat there waiting, till Baba was ready   And when'er he chewed on this Kola,  he seems never in a hurry!  "Wackhum!, khum!," Baba cleared his great throat   "Alo oooo!!", he called out,  we replied, "alooo!! *alo- a kind of moonlight storytelling in west Africa peculiar to the Yorubas  ©️ Demo Timothy  twitter & instagram: @demotims

B -oundless lands and seas, that has birthed  L -egends colored with the brown of cocoa pods A -nd fortunes found in fronds of tall palms. C -anoes paddling fishes into earthen pots and K -ola nuts fitted into the browned aged teeth of culture A -frica, home of kings and kingmakers,  F -orbidden forests and skies, painting  R -ain showers and rainbows; speaking the  I -incessant voices of ancestral gods. C -antillation heard in the sanctums of A -frica’s black shining shrines. ©️ Demo Timothy  twitter & instagram; @demotims

  The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable respiratory disease caused by a new strain of virus that causes illness in humans. Scientists are still learning about the disease, and thinks that the virus began in animals; at some point, one or more human acquired infection from an animal, and those infected humans began transmitting infection to other humans. The disease spreads from person to person through infected air droplets that are projected during sneezing or coughing, or through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose.  It can also be transmitted when humans have contact with hands and surface that contain the virus and touch their eyes, nose, or mouth with the contaminated hands. The outbreak of the new coronavirus has reached every nation in Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people.    The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Africa on 14 February, 2020. The first confirmed case was in Egypt, and the first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Afr

The world’s highest-paid celebrities earned a combined $6.1 billion before taxes and fees, a $200 million drop from 2019, after the global pandemic shuttered stadiums and silenced performances around the world. The decline was the first since 2016, the year after Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao earned nearly half a billion dollars between them from the richest fight in boxing history. But even with Covid-19 lurking--and America on fire in every sense of the word following the murder of George Floyd--the show still went on. The top earning celebrities were Kylie Jenner and Kanye West​, who brought in $590 million and $170 million, respectively. West collected most of his ​earnings from his Yeezy sneakers deal with Adidas, while Jenner’s payday came from selling a 51% stake ​in her cosmetics firm to Coty in January. Kylie Jenner  While she had exaggerated over the years about the size of her business, the money she pulled in from the deal was real--enough to rank as one of the bigg

A Name is a word or words, a particular person, animal, place or thing is known by. It is also a reputation a person or a thing has; the opinion people have about that person or thing. A man's name is his most valuable possession. It is his only possession that can survive death . Onomatologists had discovered that the study of names of a given people could reveal a body of knowledge about them that other sciences may not reveal. A good name is better than silver or gold, the Bible says. And Africa and Africans take this into consideration when choosing names for their new born.   In Africa, every person is identified in one form or another, usually by a first name given shortly after birth. Names given to people have definite meanings, and parents, relatives and well-wishers are very conscious when choosing the names of their children or of an individual.   Thus, names are not merely labels or simply tags which the individual carries along with him. They have a dee