Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts

October 1 - Independence Day in Nigeria

Posted October 1, 2020



An address from the president. 

A military parade. 

A parade of students and unions, set to Nigerian
folk music. 

Concerts.

All of these feature in Nigeria's celebration of its October 1, 1960, declaration of independence from Britain. (I'm not sure if the parades and concerts will occur this year - because of the pandemic.)


Another thing that might be cancelled: 

New York
City usually hosts parades and other celebrations of Nigeria's independence - the largest such celebrations in the world outside of Nigeria. On normal years, around 75 THOUSAND people show up! - so that's very likely to be cancelled this year!

Did you know...?

  • The third largest movie-making capital in the world - after Hollywood (U.S.) and Bollywood (India) - is Nollywood! 
Apparently, Nollywood is big business and contributes about 5% of the nation's GDP. That's definitely a bigger slice of the national pie than Hollywood, which is only one part of the "arts and culture" 4% slice of the U.S. GDP pie! 

 


Even though, according to a Nigerian who wrote about their film industry, Nollywood films are famous for their crummy production values and "shouty, eye-bulging overacting."

It seems that folks all over Africa love to watch Nollywood films. And there are a lot of them!

 


 

One good reason that there are a lot of them: most Nollywood films are created in 7 to 10 days, and cost between 8 and 14 thousand U.S. dollars. In contrast, Hollywood averages a year per movie and 70 MILLION U.S. dollars!


  • I read that traffic jams - which are called "go slows" - are a pretty good time to get shopping done. That's because street vendors sell everything from fruit and veggies to chocolates, from belts to socks, from electrical appliances to oil paintings to the jammed-up car drivers and riders.


Truthfully, I can't help but think that all of that street vending makes traffic jams even worse!




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July 3 - Anniversary of a Quick-Draw Portrait

Posted on July 3, 2019

Last year, the French President Emmanuel Macron was visiting Nigeria, and at the New Africa Shrine he was presented with a portrait.


The portrait had been drawn quickly and publicly, in just two hours as people waited for Macron's arrival. Capturing someone's likeness isn't at all easy to do even if you take days and days - so making a portrait in front of people in just two hours is pretty amazing.

You know what else was amazing? The artist was just 11 years old!



Kareem Waris Olamilekan is considered a hyperrealist artist. This kind of art uses materials such as charcoal and pencil to create drawings (or paintings) that resemble high-resolution photographs!

Hyperrealism is popular in Nigeria right now, especially among younger artists. 

By the way, Olamilekan is also known as Waspa, and people can follow him on Instagram by searching for his full name or by typing waspa_art. 




Waspa works from photos using graphite (pencil), paint, pastel, and even ball-point pen, Check out more about Waspa here.


Just to show you that Nigeria is currently a hotbed for hyperrealism, here are pieces by:

Olumide Oresegun


Arinze Stanley


Oscar Ukonu






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May 29 - Public Holiday in Nigeria

Posted on May 29, 2019

The reason for today being a holiday in the African nation of Nigeria is a bit unclear. 


May 29 used to be Democracy Day, because it is the anniversary of the day when a military government gave up its power to a democratically elected government on May 29, 1999. 

But last year, the government announced that Democracy Day will now be held on June 12 every year. That, too, is a historical anniversary - the anniversary of the 1993 election that has been called Nigeria's freest, most fair election.

So - all the lists of Public Holidays in Nigeria list the June 12 date as Democracy Day, but this will be the first year in a long time that May 29 wasn't a holiday, and there may have been some questions and grumbling and...

And so - a couple of days ago, at a press conference, the Minister of Information and Culture announced that both May 29 and June 12 would be public holidays! Not to mention the fact that just a few days ago, May 27, was ALSO a Nigerian holiday! It was Children's Day!!!

Well, hey, more days to celebrate!!

Not sure exactly what we're celebrating today...but...

Celebrate the people! According to an informal poll, Nigerians are hard working, happy, and friendly, and there is a lot of diversity of culture. (There are 250 different ethnic groups in the nation!) 


Celebrate the weather! Most of Nigeria has a pleasant climate, called tropical savannah; it's warm and moderate as to rainfall. There are of course variations - Nigeria is about twice the size of California, so it's not super small! - including areas that have monsoons, areas that have lots of rainfall all year, and areas that are desert.



Celebrate opportunity! As I mentioned a few days ago, Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa. Some people in that informal poll linked above mentioned that they feel that there are many ways to "make it" in their country - ways to be creative, ways to contribute, ways to succeed.






Celebrate natural beauty! Nigeria has plenty of it!












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