Campaign for mother tongues, Wa Thiong’O tells Africans

Campaign for mother tongues, Wa Thiong’O tells Africans
  By Prisca Sam-Duru 

Kenyan literary icon, Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, has advised Africans to resist every effort by their governments to criminalise Africa native languages. According to him, preventing people from speaking or writing in their mother tongues is the easiest way for them to lose their identities. Professor Wa Thiong’O gave the advice while sharing his prison experience at the 2016 Ake Arts and Books Festival at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State.



 Speaking on the topic, Prison Stories and Literature of Resistance, the famous writer, who disclosed that he discovered his ability to write in his mother tongue, Gikuyu, during his incarceration by the then Kenyan President, Jomo Kenyetta, condemned the idea of preventing children from using native languages in school. He said: “The time has come for Africans to campaign against criminalisation of our native languages. This was a strategy used by the colonial masters to control their subjects. “They started by imposing their names and languages on their subjects to destroy their naming system, discon-nect them from their names and languages: this is a practical means of mental subjugation.” 

USAID Unveils Nigeria’s First Ultramodern Polio Modular Laboratory

USAID Unveils Nigeria’s First Ultramodern Polio Modular Laboratory 

 by Prisca Sam-Duru

 In a bid to  improve the efficiency of polio diagnosis in Nigeria through reliable environmental sampling, the United States Government, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) have inaugurated a state-of-the-art polio modular laboratory at University College Hospital, Ibadan. 

 While examining the ultra-modern amenities with representatives of the Federal Government, U.S. Consul General John Bray observed that the new facility, which cost an estimated $400,000, exists alongside a World Health Organization (WHO) accredited polio laboratory in Ibadan, but is the first one in the country equipped to detect the wild polio virus from waste water.

 According to Consul General Bray, “This new facility will enhance Nigeria’s ability to respond to polio outbreaks quickly, by promptly diagnosing polio from samples received from the 48 environmental sewage sites across the country.” adding that “The eradication of poliomyelitis will be accomplished only when polio laboratories provide convincing diagnostic evidence of the absence of wild poliovirus infections in humans and prolonged circulation in the environment”  

 More than 70 participants attended the event, including Nigerian government officials, representatives of donor agencies, UN agencies and Rotary International.

 To help Nigeria tackle its high mortality rates, USAID helps increase access to quality family planning and reproductive health services, immunizations, polio eradication, malaria prevention and maternal health services. USAID also provides technical support to immunization campaigns through social mobilization, and other activities.

Ritualistic performances rock 2016 Lagosphoto festival

Ritualistic performances rock 2016 Lagosphoto festival 
By Prisca Sam-Duru



FOR the seventh consecutive time, the first international arts  festival of photography in Nigeria, LagosPhoto, has succeeded in its determination to reclaim public spaces, by showcasing world class photography at every available space in Lagos. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads • One of the images on display at the ongoing LagosPhoto festival in Lagos Themed “Rituals and Performances”, this edition of the festival opened to the public on October 22, 2016 at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos while satellite exhibition venues in arts and cultural spaces throughout the city extended to Omenka Gallery, Africans Artists’ Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Goethe Institute, A White Space Gallery, Red Door Gallery. It features exhibition, workshops, screening, artists’ presentation and large scale outdoor installations in Lagos. Viewers at the grand opening were obviously delighted at the introduction of performances to the festival. The performances by Jelili Atiku attracted many of them to his stand as he thrilled them with various displays of some ritualistic moves involving the use of calabash and other local objects. Winners of the Etisalat Photography competition also emerged during the grand opening. As announced by the CEO Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Wilsher, for this years Etisalat Photography Competition, Maxwell Aigborga took the third position for his entry titled Lagos Traffic, 2nd position went to Oluwatobiloba Amusan (Celebration of Love) while Abidemi Iromini took the top position for his entry, Lonely Walk. They got an iphone, Samsung phone and  canon camera respectively. Contemporary photography LagosPhoto presents photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the promotion of social programmes, and the reclaiming of public spaces. It features 42 photographers spanning seventeen countries and aims to provide a platform for the development and education of contemporary photography in Africa by establishing mentorships cross-cultural collaborations with local and international artists. The Curator, International Projects, LagosPhoto Foundation, Maria Pia Bernardoni, said they decided to explore the act of repletion to enact the idea and it becomes like a ritual. ”We looked at the repetition that shapes gender, image identity, social agency, power and social constructs in contemporary society. The repetitive acts imbued with belief become coercive and normative, it shapes our general idea of what is true and African image, gender, beauty, religion, social class and so forth.” Rituals and Performance explores the role of acts of repetition that shape gender, image, identity, social agency, power and social constructs in contemporary society. The repetitive acts imbued with belief become coercive and normative. It shapes our general idea of what is true in determining an African image, gender, religion, beauty, social class and so forth. Contemporary visual representations directly affect the cultural meanings associated with image construction and interpretation. Throughout the duration of the festival which draws to a close on November 21, works by the thirty photographers from seventeen countries covering areas of exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions, screening, and large scale outdoor installations in congested public spaces in Lagos, form subjects for debates and conversations.