Natural Hair Blogs

I've been discovering many great natural hair resources, which are sparking up my renewed love affair with my hair.

Black Girl with Long Hair is one. I was most excited to find this blog because she posts pictures of styled natural hair and profiles women who are doing interesting things with their hair.

Naturally Scandalous is another. She's locing her hair now, but the archives contain posts about her natural hair journey.

Okay, so it's just 2 blogs for now. They are both keeping very busy.

9 Writers, 4 Cities: The Book Tour

There's so much happening in the Nigerian book space lately (Toni Kan book reading a few weeks ago, Sefi Atta book reading about a couple of months ago, the launch of a collection of poems by Abioye Taiwo two weeks ago) and I am excited this!!!!! This is despite struggling to finish the 'fairly slim' book I started a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, never mind my slowness; it should not be mistaken for disinterest.

From May to June, we have the pleasure of seeing nine writers on a book tour that will take them to 4 cities across Nigeria. 9 Writers, 4 Cities: The Book Tour is a series of book readings, book signings and discussions.

The participating writers are: Odia Ofeimun (poet and author of The Poet Lied), Toni Kan (author of Nights of a Creaking Bed), Lindsay Barrett (journalist, poet and author of several books, including Song for Mumu), Jumoke Verissimo (author of I am Memory), Tade Ipadeola (a lawyer and author of the poetry collection A Sign of Times), Joy Isi Bewaji (author of Eko Dialogue), Eghosa Imasuen (medical doctor and author of To Saint Patrick), A. Igoni Barrett (managing editor of Farafina magazine and author of From Caves of Rotten Teeth) and Bimbo Adelakun (journalist and author of Under the Brown Rusted Roofs).

The schedule is as follows:

2 May: Lagos, 2—7 pm, African Artists Foundation, No 54, Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi

6 June: Ibadan, 2—5 pm, Cambridge House, 20, Joop Berkhout Crescent, Onireke

17 May: Lagos, 2—7 pm, at The Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki

23 May: Benin, 2—5 pm, The Hexagon, 2A Golf Course Rd

6 June: Lagos, 2—5 pm, African Artists Foundation, No 54, Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi

Admission to all events is free. Signed copies of the participating writers’ books will be available for sale at all the venues on the day of each event.

The 6-week tour will be covered on the Farafina magazine blog while audio and video recordings of each reading will be placed on Switched On as podcasts. Dada Books, Daylight Media, The Palms, Planet One Television and August Media are also media partners on this project.

For further information, call 0706.114.1232, or email auggustmedia@gmail.com

Changes for the Hair

After so many months of hair fatigue, I finally feel invigorated and excited again about my hair. For so long I've kept it tucked away in braids, which I wear for most of the year. In the few 1 to 2 week breaks I take in between extensions, I'd wear my hair out in an afro puff and call it a day. And I was tired of the look. But, of course I would be. This is the same me, who had a new signature look every month when I was in university. What happened to that? I suppose life gets busy and I needed a no-fuss style.

One thing I've long wanted to do is to visit a hairdresser who REALLY knows how to care for and style natural hair. Usually when they say they do - especially here in Nigeria - it means they do braids, and usually painfully I might add, tugging at the hair and hissing in impatience as they work.

I can't take bad attitude especially when I'm a paying client. And I'm bored of braids, tired of the dependence on reluctant stylists and fearful of the ever-breaking hairline (one of the results of frequent braids). So, I've decided to take a break from braids for a while.

I visited a hairdresser who does natural hair the last time I was in London and she opened my mind to new styling options. Not one to subscribe to pressing the hair, I decided to give it a go. She blow-dried my hair straight and created ringlets with a curling iron. I didn't realise that natural hair could look so straight - uncannily like relaxed hair. The ringlets looked great, but didn't last too long as rain and humidity (when I returned home) got the better of it. When I eventually combed it out, the softness of the hair encouraged me to try pinning it up in different ways. Now, that has been staple for the last 2 weeks.

I don't think I will make a habit of subjecting my hair to so much heat, as that is also very wearing on the hair. I also have experienced one of the downsides: random hair that stay straight and do not revert back to their kinky state even after being washed (picture wearing an afro with a few straggly hairs hanging limply). However, the best thing to come out of this hair experiment is that I feel inspired again and I enjoy thinking of different ways to style it.

Constancy is comforting and easy, but as with many situations in life, it can get unexciting and uninspiring. Changing things up is definitely good the mind, soul and hair as I'm re-discovering.

Theatre @ Terra: 'Gbanja Roulette'

Every Sunday in May, Theatre@Terra will present Gbanja Roulette, a stage play.

Where: TerraKulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island
Time: 3PM, 6PM

In June and July, as Wole Soyinka turns 75, T@T will present '75 years of genius'- sketches and plays from the nobel laureate.

You can visit the Facebook group for theatre photos.

Call for Applications: IDRC and APHRC: 2009 African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship

FYI:

The African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are pleased to announce the second call of the ADDRF awards. The fellowship program awards dissertation fellowships to African doctoral students enrolled in sub-Saharan Africa universities who are conducting health-systems or sexuality related research.

Deadline for applications: April 30, 2009

The 2009 ADDRF seeks to facilitate more rigorous engagement of doctoral students in research, strengthen their research skills, and provide the fellows an opportunity for timely completion of their doctoral training.

The ADDRF will award about 15 fellowships in 2009. These fellowships will be awarded to doctoral students who are within two years of completing their thesis at an African university. Dissertation topics showing great promise of making significant contributions to efforts to strengthen health systems (governance, equity, health or population related issues) in the region will be given priority.

Eligibility:

Applicants must:

* Be citizens or permanent residents of a sub-Saharan African country,
* Be undertaking doctoral training at a recognized African university,
* Have completed all pre-dissertation requirements,
* Provide a detailed time-frame for completing their dissertation which should be endorsed by the head of department and the chair of the dissertation committee,
* Have a research topic that has been approved by their doctoral dissertation committee, as well as the official body overseeing ethical review of the research protocol, and
* Be able to complete their dissertation within 24 months of the start of the fellowship.

Read more about the fellowship.

The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activists

At last, something that will hopefully make sense of Twitter to non-users - particularly how the tool can be used by activists. Check out this resource developed by DigiActive.

Faith Evans Sings to Patti Labelle

Patti Labelle is one of my favourite singers - ever. I was indifferent to Faith Evans until I heard her sing this song, You Are My Friend, in a tribute to Patti Labelle on BET's Walk of Fame in 2001. I was literally in tears at how good she was. Patti Labelle was also rolling about in her seat (I remember that this was one of the two performances that she seemed to get excited over). This takes me back.

Word to the Wise

Read this in March's issue of Marie Claire:

It's amazing how much easier it is to pursue your dream when you remove certain obstacles - like common sense.

(Michele Shapiro, Fact-checker turned race-car driver)

Jada Pinkett Smith

A friend yesterday told me that I am very "pro women". LOL!! That is very true. Jada Pinkett Smith is one of my favourite actresses and she strikes me as someone who is also passionate about women living empowered and rich lives. It has been enlightening seeing her growth as an actress over the years since I first saw her in Menace II Society.

In this interview on NPR, Jada talks about her acting and music career, her work writing and producing for TV, clothing line and the school she recently set-up with her husband, Will Smith.

Doctor's Diaries - Cheryl Dorsey

From the Echoing Green blog, I was led to this programme on the PBS website. Doctors' Diaries has followed seven Harvard Medical School students over the last 21 years (This is in the same tradition as the Seven Up series, which followed a set of children from the age of 7 years and re-visited them every 7 years after that.)

I have only watched one of the videos: the one following Cheryl Dorsey from her time as a fresh-faced med student. Cheryl Dorsey is now president of Echoing Green, which funds start-up social innovations. In fact, she was an Echoing Green fellow in 1992 for her idea, the Family Van, which was a community-based mobile health unit that provided basic health care and outreach services to at-risk residents of inner-city Boston neighborhoods.

It is fascinating for me to see her path veer from an initial plan to specialise in pediatrics to her current position managing one of the biggest social entrepreneurship funding organisations, because I am very interested in learning how people got to do what they are doing now - especially if their current position is polar opposite from their starting point.

Toni Kan - Book Presentation

Toni Kan and Cassava Republic request the pleasure of your company at the public presentation of his two critically acclaimed books:

Nights of the Creaking Bed and Songs of Absence and Despair

When: April 18th 2009
Time: 2PM prompt
Where: Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos

Anatomy of a Woman

Theatre@Terra presents Anatomy of a Woman, a stage play on relationships between men and women and asks the question "What do women really want?"

One woman. Three suitors. An over-bearing aunt.

Starring Kemi 'lala' Akindoju, Nkiruka J. Ossamor, Olarotimi Michael Fakunle, Sola Robert Iwaotan and Gbenga Adekanmbi.

Written and directed by Wole Oguntokun

Where: Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage St, Victoria Island, Lagos
When: Every Sunday in April
Time: 3PM & 6PM
How much: N2000.00

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck

I really enjoy Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing and so I was very pleased to learn that she has a third book out; a collection of short stories this time called The Thing Around Your Neck. I look forward to reading it sometime soon.

I was also drawn to this Guardian article because of the fabulous twist out that Chimamanda rocks in the accompanying photo (above).

Men are Strong, Women are Eye Candy

This last week, most of the world it seems has been focused on the G20 Summit in London and the NATO meeting in Strasbourg.

The Obamas are bonafide rock stars. They were the first couple everyone wanted to meet. Much was made of the meeting between Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, France's first lady.

As a news item on the meeting of the two women started on the TV, I muttered "They better not talk about fashion". Ah, if wishes were horses, is all I can say, beggars would ride in grand fashion.

The main focus of the news piece was indeed what both women had on. This "fashion face-off" had been long anticipated by the public, the reporter said.

"Had it?, I wondered or is this just the lazy, sexist angle that the reporters wish to pursue.

I get so irritated when I see women reduced to no more than arm candy for their husbands and more attention paid to what they are wearing than what they have done, what they are doing,and what have to say.

This article in the Observer by Heather Stewart comments wonderfully on this sexist imbalance.

The Tech Awards

The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum of Innovation, honors innovators from around the world who use technology to benefit humanity in the categories of Environment, Economic Development, Education, Health, and Equality. 15 Laureates will be honored at

The Tech Awards Gala on November 19th, 2009 and five Laureates will share a cash prize of $250,000. Self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. Individuals, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit companies are all eligible. View more details on the Tech Awards website.

The deadline is April 10 2009.

Radio Talk Show: Rule of Law

The Lagos-based NGO, Human Development Initiatives is organising a programme about the rule of law. The programme takes the form of a radio talk show aimed at discussing and learning more about the rule of law.

According to HDI: The rule of law is about observing due process, ensuring that there are checks and balance with the arms of government, and promoting and protecting citizens' right.

To give input on the programme, visit the HDI website: www.hdinigeria.org or the blog: www.hdinigeria.blogspot.com or call their office + 234 809 961 8748.
your input is necessary as we are trying to educate the youths on thier

Girls Helping Girls

I like to highlight interesting, powerful work going on around the world. I came across Girls Helping Girls, an organisation based in Kolkata, India. Run by 17 year old Sejal Hathi, Girls Helping Girls is an international nonprofit organisation that empowers girls to transform their world by mobilizing them to eradicate poverty, increase access to education, improve health, and promote peace.

GHG' first initiative, Empower-a-Girl, is a grassroots sister-team program that partners girls in the US with those in developing countries to collaborate through cultural exchange, education, and social change projects to achieve major global goals. The second, the Sisters 4 Peace Network, is a social change platform and community that provides girls the one-on-one mentorship through a family of successful girl entrepreneurs, the resources, the toolkits, and the support network to launch and sustain their own initiatives or advocate and micro lend for existing ones.

Read an interview with Sejal on the Change.org website.

Project Alert

Last week on Today on STV, Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, the Executive Director of Project Alert on Violence Against Women appeared on the show to talk about Project Alert’s 10th year anniversary. With her were the organisation’s ambassadors: actresses Kate Henshaw-Nuttal; Stella Damasus-Nzeribe, and Susan Harvey.

This might be many people’s first time hearing about the organisation, although they have been in existence for a decade now. In that time, they have provided shelter for 580 women and children in Sophia’s Place, a shelter for women who are victims of gender-based violence. Project Alert also provides counselling, legal aid and skill acquisition.

In recounting some of the highlights in the fight against VAW (violence against women), Ms. Effah-Chukwuma talked about Lagos State’s Domestic Violence Law of 2007, which among other things allows people to take a protection order against VAW victims other than themselves, e.g. neighbours, relatives, friends.

Project Alert has also been working on training members of the police to respond in more effective and empathetic ways to reports of violence.

During the course of the conversation, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal opined that women have low self-esteem, which is largely why they are victims of violence. Well, I feel that while many women have been raised to believe that we live in a man’s world, this is an extremely sweeping generalization of all women.

Stella Damasus-Nzeribe believed that this violence is encouraged because boys are treated better than girls, with girls having to defer to the boys and men in their lives (even if this boy is their younger brother).

Susan Harvey spoke about the need to create awareness and raise funds for Sophia’s Place. Indeed, their 10th year anniversary celebrations will include a fund-raising event to raise money to buy an apartment in a quiet, secluded place.

More information or to find out how you can help, visit the Project Alert website (www.projectalertnig.org) or contact Silverbird TV.

A Run Towards the Cure - Breast Cancer

I had such fun last weekend. I participated in a charity walk to raise money for breast cancer prevention. A Run Towards the Cure was organised by Children Survival and Development of Nigeria (a nonprofit organization founded by Mrs. Onari Duke) and The American International School of Lagos, in conjunction with the Passionately Pink program through the Susan G. Komen foundation (a U.S. based foundation that has made historic gains in the fight against breast cancer).

I love walking (one of my secondary school nicknames was Miss Waka About) and combining it with a charitable goal is even better. I am vaguely familiar with the breast cancer walk organised by the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the States, and I remember it as being a 3-day walk (problem number 1) for which you had to raise a minimum of $1,000 (problem number 2). I never participated.

When my friend and Pilates instructor mentioned that she was putting together a team for the Run Towards the Cure, I hesitated because I DO NOT RUN. After she assured me that she would be walking, I agreed to.

Getting out of the house at 7am on a Saturday morning was not the big deterrent for as many people as I expected. The start point of the walk, American International School, was teeming with enthusiastic walkers. I also expected since breast cancer predominantly affects women (yes, a few men suffer from breast cancer too!), most of the runners/walkers would be women. And perhaps this was the case, but there was an unexpectedly high number of men and children taking part.

We started off from 1004 onto Samuel Manuwa street, onto Ozumba Mbadiwe and into Adetokunbo Ademola. We progressed down Ajose Adeogun and then looped back in front of Victoria Crown Plaza Hotel back towards the way we came. Some people ran quite alright, but most of us walked. Though not at what I would consider a leisurely pace. Shamed by the thought of strolling into the finish line, I ran that much and it felt good (ha!). I promised that next year I would consider running the entire route and would train for it. Well, it's good to be ambitious...

Bar Camp Nigeria

... based on the 'un-conference' style of similar Bar Camps, like those in Kenya, Tanzania. An un-conference is an informal gathering of professionals and enthusiasts for a period of learning and sharing. It differs from the typical conference where information generally flows from presenters to participants, and rather takes a more participatory approach.

This will be the first Barcamp held in Nigeria and the details are:

Date: Saturday, April 25 2009
Venue: Tom Associates Training Centre and Conference Hall, Lagos

For more info, subscribe to the Twitter updates: twitter.com/barcampnigeria.

This Charming Man

One of the things I promised to do this year was to read more ..... wait! Don't I make that resolution every year? Perhaps.

Anyway, with much excitement I finished my latest read This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. This was not a difficult read by any means, but those usual demons of no time, misplaced priorities (read: too much time spent aimlessly surfing) and no time reared their ugly heads. And I had selected this book, because I figured that light-hearted reading was the perfect antidote to a schedule bursting with other activities.

Well, to an extent, it was. It was very easy and engaging reading that I had no problem picking off where I left off - even after not reading it for over a week. Like most bestsellers, it was a page-turner and I was hooked into the storyline from the first chapter. A couple of years ago, I worried about my new-found interest in chick lit at the expense of my more serious books. I don't worry about that anymore; I'm just enjoying reading more regularly. And besides, I'm reading a lot more for work, so I suppose there is some kind of diversity.

Now, I'm reading a Christian romance - What a Girl Wants by Kristin Billerbeck. The first one I read a few years ago, Boaz Brown by Michelle Stimpson was quite good - unexpectedly so. So, I'm hoping this one is a good read.

Bloggers to Make History at G20 Summit‏

So it looks like this citizen journalism thing might be around for a while. Read on:

********** ********** **********

A coalition of NGOs - the G20Voice – and the UK government are breaking with convention and, for the first time, allow 50 bloggers to report live and direct from the G20 summit, on 2 April 2009 in London.

This unprecedented event, backed by the Government, gives the bloggers and their audience the chance to engage with and influence world leaders on issues including development, climate change and women's rights. The bloggers were nominated by the public, with more than 700 nominations received in 12 days.

The organisations behind G20Voice are OxfamGB, Comic Relief, Save the Children, ONE and Blue State Digital. G20Voice is a collaborative effort demonstrating the breadth of commitment to ending world poverty and inequality.

The 50 include a broad range of influential, knowledgeable and popular bloggers from the G20 countries and the developing world. These include:

• Sokari Ekine – a pioneering Nigerian blogger


• Jotman – an undercover blogger exposing injustice in Thailand and Burma


• Daudi Were – a leading organiser of African bloggers


• Dr Kumi Naidoo – head of GCAP and contributor to Huffington Post


• Cheryl Conte from Jack and Jill Politics - representing the US
  "Black bourgeoisie"


• Enda Surya Nasution – the father of Indonesian blogging


• Rowan Davies – representing the 200,000 members of Mumsnet


• Rui Chenggang – China's leading economics broadcaster and blogger with 13,000,000 viewers every evening on CCTV


• Richard Murphy – the leading expert on Tax Havens

They will be joined by thousands of bloggers online at
www.g20voice.org with audio and video livestreaming, and also via Skype broadcasts from inside the summit.

There is a full programme of events for the 50 invited bloggers. The event begins on 1 April with the official launch, including a series of briefings and round table discussions. On the day of the summit bloggers will have access to briefings from senior figures and world leaders. Members of the delegations have been invited to speak with the bloggers to discuss the developments in the main summit chamber.
Journalists are invited to come to the blogging tent to meet and talk with bloggers throughout the day.

Karina Brisby, G20Voice project founder and Digital Campaigns Manager, Oxfam GB said: "The G20Voice project was inspired by the articulate, engaging and often outraged posts, tweets, podcasts and videocasts from bloggers all over the world about the current economic crisis and how that affects the issues they are passionate about such as poverty and climate change.

"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of people around the world using digital tools to inform themselves and then contribute to debates about the issues that affect their lives. G20Voice recognises the importance of bloggers and gives them a unique opportunity to report back to their audiences direct from the G20 Summit itself."

Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns at Save the Children said: "G20Voice will tear back the curtain as leaders draw up their blueprint for global recovery. Thanks to G20Voice at this summit the world will be watching. Bloggers will witness the summit from the inside - and the world will know whether leaders are building a future fit for the world's children, or one that rewards only the rich. Gordon Brown has set the bar for the London G20 summit next month by promising that the UK will meet its aid commitments despite the economic downturn. He must ensure other G20 countries do the same. If action to prevent children dying isn't taken now we could see this financial crisis claim the lives of a generation of children."

Oliver Buston, Europe Director of the Africa campaign group ONE said: "At ONE we’ve always been focused on empowering individuals to raise their voices against extreme poverty. This group of citizen-journalists includes some of the most articulate voices on this issue, and it’s exciting to be a part of bringing them to this international stage. The world’s poorest people are being hit hardest by a global crisis not of their making – the bloggers will have a chance to ask tough questions of world leaders, and demand solutions that will benefit everyone, not just the wealthy few."

How to Find G20Voice Online:
Web: www.g20voice.org; Twitter: @G20Voice; Flickr: www.flickr.com/g20voice; Youtube: www.youtube.com/G20voice; Moblog: moblog.net/voice

FYI:
The G-20 (more formally, the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world's largest national economies, plus the European Union (EU).

The G-20 is a forum for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. It studies, reviews, and promotes discussion among key industrial and emerging market countries of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.

Heidi, Geek Girl Detective

Like I need more time-wasters in my life. I was led to Heidi, Geek Girl Detective via someone I follow on Twitter (*now* I'm starting to see the benefits of Twitter).

Heidi is a techie in a mid-size bank somewhere in the United States and these comics are all about her adventures. I'm still on the first story, but so far it's hilarious. I remember when I worked at the NGO in Boston. Sometimes I would be in the I.T. department attending to my computer problems as calls came in from other employees. The I.T. staff was generally nice, but if the problem being reported was deemed stupid, snarky remarks would follow the call. And if the question was deemed *incredibly* stupid, they might never pick up calls from that employee ...ever! Okay, no seriously they would, but perhaps not before trying to ignore the call for as long as possible. LOL!!!!!!

Heidi, Geek Girl Detective reminds me of that world.

Teaching to Blog

Are you teaching anyone to blog or planning to? If you are, you will find these resources helpful: How (and how not) to teach blogging; and How to Grow a Blog.

Yes, setting-up a blog is easy, but maintaining it for the long haul is not a walk in the park. I have been teaching some people how to blog. The first issue you have to address before teaching someone to do something is why they would want to do it. I cast my mind back to school where I would always be taught the how before the why. But the time we got to the why, I really could give a damn.

Teaching itself is basically very hard and doing it well is both a science (because there are steps that must be taken to break down knowledge and share it in a way that makes sense to the students) and an art (because it is also a gift that some people are just born with and every good teacher has their particular style).

Interview - Idris Elba

No, I didn't get the opportunity myself. Wouldn't that have been the day.

I found a great interview with the actor Idris Elba on an NPR Fresh Air podcast.

About the first half of the interview focuses on his new TV role on the show The Office (US edition). The rest of the interview explores his role as Stringer Bell on my fav show The Wire and his music career.

Check out the interview. There's also a link to a profile on the actor in the Guardian, dated March 2008.

Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrating Nancy Hafkin

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, which is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. And to celebrate the day, I'm blogging about women in technology who have influenced me in some way. It's especially important to celebrate the achievements of women, because research shows that having role models and mentors greatly motivates younger women seeking to participate more in technology.

Now what does being "in technology" mean? It could be as varied as working as a programmer to a database developer to a researcher to a vendor and even to a writer.

Over the last few decade or so, I have been fortunate to meet several women who I have learnt from or been inspired by in some way. And initially, I was going to attempt to write about all of them, but that plan is a little ambitious for now, so I have selected the woman who was one of my earliest guiding lights, who gave me an idea of the realms of possibilities, which existed for me.

She is Dr. Nancy Hafkin. I was introduced to her when I was job-hunting in the U.S. This was in 2001 and it was a particularly bad time to look for a job, because a few months before the dot-com bubble had burst, which resulted in the folding up of many internet-based companies and the loss of many information technology jobs. I was given Ms. Hafkin's number because she was considered to be very knowledgeable about the gender and technology cross-discipline. I had not heard of her then, but I Googled her, as was my practice.

I was so impressed and rather awed by what I read. Nancy Hafkin led the research on ICT for development (information and communication technologies) and gender and ICT issues since the early 1980s. She had worked on the African continent on ICT4D issues for approximately 20 years, including positions at the UN and the Economic Commission of Africa. However she had recently returned to the Boston area.

When I got in touch, by email and then phone, she was extremely warm and helpful. She asked me about my interests and shared advice on organisations to try and people to get in touch with. I was particularly humbled because coming from Nigeria, I know all about the "Big Man/Woman Syndrome" where you could not get audience with most accomplished or influential people without going through layers of protocol first and despite that, still having to deal with a patently dismissive attitude from said person.

A couple of months later when I got a job offer, I emailed Ms. Hafkin to share the news with her. It was about four years later at a conference I attended just before moving back to Lagos that I finally met her face-to-face. She was one of the speakers and I could not wait to introduce myself to her after the panel.

I started off "You don't know me, but I am ....."

"Ore XX", she completed.

I was stunned and bowled over.

"How did you know? I stammered.

She smiled. "I just knew."

She was thrilled to hear that I was moving back home (one of the few who didn't immediately assume that I was having visa problems or being deported).

When I mentioned in an off-hand manner that I was thinking about getting a PhD but was not so sure anymore, she beamed and encouraged me to do it. Then, she reeled off a list of Ivy League schools that she thought I should apply to.

"Hmmm, this lady really thinks A WHOLE LOT of me. Ivy League? I don't know about that...."

Shortly after the conference, I moved back home and haven't had the opportunity to see her again. However, her encouraging words, accomplishments and her spirit left an indelible impression on me and have propelled me on in my career choices ever since.

I remember when I was thinking about topics for my Masters degree thesis and after dancing around various subjects, circled in on women and IT. I wasn't quite sure if it was a viable area for exploration and it certainly didn't have that ring of prestige that some of my colleague's topics did. I wasn't sure where it would lead, if truth be told aside from a vague plan that I would "work with women and girls" in a role where technology met society.

However, now because of women like Dr. Nancy Hafkin, I feel like I made a series of alright choices after all. While her work is about technology, it is centered on the people who use the technology: how they use it, how they can use it more efficiently and also on the people who are not using the technology: why not, what technology has to offer them and how user challenges can be addressed. This has been a good guide for me and I know because she was helped pioneer a new field, I'll be better than okay doing something unconventional, as long as it is something I feel called to do.

Learn more about Ada Lovelace Day: http://findingada.com/

Read the other posts on the Ada Lovelace mash-up

BBC project offers training and equipment to citizen journalists

The BBC World Service is offering citizen journalists equipment and training for its "Your Story" project, as well as the chance to have their content featured on major BBC news programs.

Your Story is the BBC World Service's citizen journalism project, running since June 2008. Anyone can send in ideas for stories and news reports, or personal stories, photos, audio and video.

Through the program, BBC broadcast journalists work with individuals to pursue report ideas and will provide them with recording equipment, training and advice. Some of the generated content ends up online, while some goes on air and may be broadcast on major BBC news programs such as the Newshour and the World Today.

For more information visit the Journalism.co.uk website.

These Computers

I've been having computer issues. My laptop almost from the time I got it has intermittently had problems booting up. Sometimes it starts and sometimes it freezes and I have to restart it. Eventually, things got to a head and the hard drive had to be replaced. I thought it was okay, but after all that, it still hung this evening. I don't know about these HPs... The new Pavilion models look cute and all, but it's unnerving to have such an unreliable computer. My last HP wasn't great either, though maybe I just used it a little past it's sell-by date.

I think my next computer will be an Apple.

Josephine Nzerem - Human Angle

Two weeks ago I met Josephine Nzerem, founder of Human Angle. I found her to be an extremely passionate woman, especially about protecting the rights of women notably in the area of widowhood rites. Then, yesterday I came across this interview with her on the Social Edge website. You can browse both the Social Edge and YouTube sites for more inspiring interviews.

V Monologues

Times & Seasons - Art Exhibition

In the spirit of this wonderful arts month, here's another entry for your calendars.

A friend of mine, D. Gilbert Sagay Diete-Spiff is showing his latest collection of knife paintings (i.e. paintings created with knives, NOT paintings of knives). The exhibition, which is entitled Times & Seasons opens on Sunday, March 15 at 3:30PM and runs until the 19th.

Where: Exhibition Hall, National Museum, Onikan, Lagos
When: Sunday, March 15 to Thursday, March 19 2009

There's a workshop on the 16th and 17th (by invitation only).

Arts Events in Lagos - March 2009

There are quite a number of things happening this month.

Wole Soyinka's "The Swamp Dwellers"
The National Theatre and the National Troupe of Nigeria present Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers, directed by Nick Monu. Soyinka's first major play was first published in 1958 and is a combination of European drama tradition and Yoruba culture.
Where: National Theatre Lagos, Cinema Hall II
When: Mar 6-8, Mar 13-15 & Mar 20-22, 5:30PM

Lagos Jazz Festival 2009
The Lagos Jazz Festival, featuring concerts, jam sessions, exhibitions, get togethers and music master classes, which will be staged at different venues in Lagos.
Where: Various venues TBA
When: Mar 21 - Mar 27

V Monologues 2009

To celebrate the International Women's Day, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) - www.kind.org - presents V Monologues: The Nigerian Story, a play based on interviews from 150 women from all over the country. The aim of the play is to raise awareness on violence against women and girls in our society. The gate fee will be donated to charity.

When & Where:
Mar 21 at Goethe-Institut, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria Island (please register!)
Mar 25 & 26 at Muson Centre
Mar 27 at National Arts Theatre, 5PM

Read my post on last year's performance.

Theatre@Terra Presents Prison Chronicles

Theatre@Terra presents Prison Chronicles, the story of a country and its people.

Starring AMAA Award Winner Sam-Uche Anyamele, Future Award Nominee Nkiruka J. Osammor, Gbenga Adekanmbi, Sola Roberts Iwaotan, Olarotimi Michael Fakunle and Precious Anyanwu-Marcous. Written and Directed by Wole Oguntokun

When: Every Sunday in March 2009 at 3pm and 6pm
Where: TerraKulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos

Crown Troupe Presents ...

... Ayodele Arigbabu's Moremi RSV and Femi Odugbemi's Bariga Boy.

Where: Cinema Hall 1, National Theate, Iganmu, Lagos
When: Sunday, March 1 2009 (3PM & 5PM)
How Much: N500 (adults), N300 (children)

NaijaPulse

NaijaPulse is a new microblogging tool. You can think of it as the Nigerian version of Twitter. You get to share updates of yourself (in 140 characters or less). SMS is not yet supported by this tool, so if you want to share on the go, you have to do it with the email functionality of your phone or BlackBerry. You can also link it to your Facebook (though I couldn't find how to do this) and Twitter accounts.

Women & Hollywood

Just discovered this blog: Women & Hollywood: News and Commentary About Women and Hollywood from a Feminist Perspective. Looks interesting.

Nonprofits: Business Plans Versus Grant Proposals

This post by Patrick O'Heffernan, Are you a business plan or grant proposal social entrepreneur?, on the Social Edge blog comes at a handy time when I've been wrestling with writing a business plan for my nonprofit.

When it was first suggested to me that I write a business plan (about 2 years before I would actually set-up the organisation), it seemed that its purpose would primarily be to determine the feasibility of the world-be organisation. Fair enough. My friends sent me templates and I picked the simplest looking one and started work. Only it was much harder than I had hoped. Along the way, I dropped it meaning to continue with it at some point.

Anyway, fast-forward a couple of years and the nonprofit had started operations. Again I was advised to develop a plan, which which both help map-out the organisation's plan of action, and serve as a fund-raising tool. Fair enough, I thought again.

However, working on it has not been easy, however I have a semblance of a sort-of -ish plan. But, this was not the NGO school I came from. In my previous work experience, our source of funding came primarily from grants, which we got after slaving over proposals or completing often complex and multi-layered application processes. This is what I am used to and was expecting. The notion of asking companies to invest in your idea is a novel one; though perhaps one can think of grants as a form of investment in an approach or person who is going to address a social need.

I have experienced life in the nonprofit during an economic downturn before and it definitely wasn't fun to wake-up each day not knowing if this was the day your position would be axed as part of cost-reduction tactics. I remember feeling that it was crazy that our ability to do our work (not to mention our livelihood!) was dependent on whether we were given money or not, and I vowed that if I remained in the nonprofit world, I would find a better way of doing things.

Maybe that is the opportunity presented by this option to go a more business and bottomline-oriented route.

Patrick O' Heffernan highlights some advantages to starting a business to accomplish social goals:

• Quicker and sometimes easier to get investment capital
• As long as there's a market need for your products and you're well-priced, your revenues and profits will keep you in business regardless of the latest fads among donors
• You are responsible for your income and you decide what needs to be done to keep it flowing, i.e. no being at a donor's mercy
• Flexibility, because market changes and competition (and not grant agreements nor program officers' requests) drives your business decisions

Naija Bloggers Award

Nominate a blogger (or yourself) for a Naija Bloggers Award. Visit, naijabloggersaward.blogspot.com for more info.

Sefi Atta's Swallow

I finished reading Sefi Atta's Swallow this weekend. I had dragged on for too long on what is a fairly small book.

This review on NEXT.com, Sefi Atta's Hard Swallow, captures some of my sentiments.

Book Readings: Seffi Atta, Toni Kan, Karen King-Aribisala

Sefi Atta will be reading from her books Swallow and Lawless and Other Stories this week. She will be joined by Toni Kan (author of Night of the Creaking Bed) and Karen King-Aribisala (author of Our Wife and Other Stories).

When: Wednesday, February 25 2009 (5 - 7PM)
Where: Multimedia Suite, British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, and

When: Friday, February 27 2009 (From 6PM)
Where: TerraKulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos

Visit the Guardian website for information about other literary events.

Social Enterprise Lessons from Funmi Iyanda's Change-A-Life Project

I am sure that you'll have heard about the 7th edition of journalist Funmi Iyanda's Change--Life project. It's been all over the papers, airwaves and blogosphere.

She was a guest of Ireti Doyle's on Today on STV this morning and I caught part of the interview, where she talked about Change-A-Life, her motivations and her hopes for it. Being in the media herself, she's undoubtedly an interviewer's dream: chatty; witty; and very interesting to listen to.

She spoke about the way she runs the project, which made me think about some of the things I have been reading about keeping social enterprises afloat in these tough economic times.

With Change-A-Life, she:

• Keeps her operations lean and mean: This means that she does as much as she can with as little as she can. You don't necessarily need a hugely-staffed organisation to make an impact.


• Recognises that government has an important role to play in alleviating societal problems: In fact, that is what we believe to be their main job. However in our part of the world, we typically see governments abdicating this responsibility and this work being taken up by able and interested individuals and organisations. F.I reminds us and the government that our efforts should complement and not replace theirs.


• Taps into her resource network: Acknowledging that she can only do so much, she draws from people she knows who have time, expertise, money, influence and other resources to share.

To find out more about Change-A-Life, visit Funmi Iyanda's blog.

Miami

Photo Credit: Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times

It's been a while since I blogged about traveling. Well, hopefully I will get to visit many interesting places this year and have the opportunity to write about them.

I saw this article about how Miami Beach is coping with the economic recession. Miami is one of my favourite places to visit and is all about ostentation: the glitz, glam and very gaudy. It's long shed its former image as the place where American senior citizens go to retire. Re-reading one of my favourite childhood books, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, indeed showed me a very different Miami from the city that I know and love now.

There's a cool slideshow on the NYT site with quintessential MIA images.

The Anita Borg Awards

Nominate deserving women for the Anita Borg Institute awards for women leading technical innovation. The categories are:

* The Anita Borg Award for Social Impact and The Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership: Established to recognize outstanding leaders who embrace Anita Borg’s lasting vision to change the world for women and for technology.

* The Denice Denton Award: Recognizes a man or a woman under the age of 40 who has demonstrated a significant leadership capability and positive impact of the lives of women through technology.

* The Anita Borg Change Agent Awards: Honor technical women that live and work outside the United States.

Learn more ...

New 'Policy and Internet' Journal

The Policy Studies Organization (PSO), the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), and Berkeley Electronic Press are proud to announce Policy and Internet, the first major peer-reviewed journal investigating the implications of the Internet and associated technologies for public policy. The journal's first articles will be available in summer 2009.

Read more about P&I and about submitting your work.

Change.Org: Social Entrepreneurship

Have I shared one of my favourite blogs, Change.Org's Social Entrepreneurship channel? Not sure if I have. I started following this blog when it was launched a little while ago and the information I've found there have been valuable for my work.

Pitched at people working in the nonprofit and social enterprise circles or interested in making positive changes in their communities, this blog is frequently updated with thoughtful posts and links to what others in the field are talking about.

Yesterday, I read The Entrepreneurial Presidency: Five Ways to Govern Like a Startup, which is most appropriate in this economic downturn. It's very useful information for nonprofits, which are widely expected to perform miracles on a shoe-string budget. However, this is not always the case, especially here in Nigeria where "NGO" is an evil acronym for organisations expert in churning out successful grant-winning proposals, where the money goes straight to the founder's bank account.

It captures 5 key things to do:
5. Do more with less
4. Harnessing your team's talent around a meaningful mission
3. Find the right partners
2. Learn from everything
1. Iterate and scale success

Then Charity's Existential Dilemma: Are We Really Making a Difference? explores the feeling of helplessness that many people in nonprofits experience regularly, i.e. Is all this slaving away under difficult working conditions having any sort of real impact? Wouldn't I be doing more by handing over my life to a corporate behemoth in return for lots of money, which I can spend on and help boost the economy?

International Women's Day: Call for Participation

It's almost time for 2009's International Women's Day (Sunday, March 8) commemoration and the Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is inviting participation in this year's celebration of women's achievements all over the world.

Here's what you need to do:

To commemorate IWD, please write about your ‘shero’. Who is a shero? This is a woman, who you admire for the things she has done to encourage and empower other people – particularly other women. This could be a woman you know personally or are yet to meet, whose life story you have drawn inspiration from because of the challenges she has overcome, the positive changes she has led in her community, her achievements, or acts of kindness.

Your write-ups will be published on the W.TEC blog.

Please send your write-ups to info@w-teconline.org by Monday, March 2 2009.

W.TEC is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to learn how to use technology as a means of empowering themselves socially and economically (see www.w-teconline.org).

Twittering

I have been wondering what to do with my Twitter account. It seemed rather pointless to have if I can't use it with my cell phone. I've tried twittering from my phone by sending SMS's to the UK number but that didn't work. Maybe there have been delays verifying my phone, but since Twitter doesn't send out SMSes to non-US numbers it's difficult to find out.

Today, I learnt about twe2.com, which allows non-US and Canada people to receive tweets. So I signed-up for that today and the one direct message I've received didn't come into my phone. I checked on their website later and found out that they are back-logged in confirming new accounts.

So, I'm thinking.... It would otherwise have been such a useful tool and I'm keen to explore the possibilities.

Update (18/2/2009): My Twe account has been confirmed and I just received my first direct message. Now, let's see if my mobile number has been confirmed by Twitter.

Update II (18/2/2009): I stumbled across this post with tips on making more effective use of Twitter.

Standtall Wins BlogHer '09 Award

Congrats to Standtall of The Activist. She runs a vibrant blog where she discusses and rails against all forms of gender-based discrimination.

Why are congrats in order? Because ST was nominated for and has been awarded a scholarship to attend BlogHer '09, the annual meeting of the online community of women bloggers (see this NYT article). This award is for 5 activists who live outside of the US and who are using their blogs to raise awareness about and address societal problems.

ST wins a full 2-day conference pass to BlogHer'09, a round trip plane ticket to and from Chicago, IL for the conference, 3 nights stay at the Chicago Sheraton during the conference and the opportunity to present her work during a session at BlogHer '09. This is a well-deserved award.

A Fellow's Experience @ TED2009

Joshua Wanyama of African Path shares his experience at TED2009 in Long Beach and as one of the inaugural fellows.

Check out the rest of Joshua's blog for other posts about TED2009 and the TED website to watch the talks.

The Hope for Girls Project: Empowering Girls Through Basketball

Have I mentioned that Today on STV is one way in which I find out about things happening around town?

Well, on this morning's show a young lady and an older gentleman (shame, I can't remember their names now) were interviewed about an initiative, which they coordinate called the Hope for Girls Project. HFGP seeks to mentor and empower young women using basketball. This is about the second such project I have heard of in Nigeria using sports to reach out to young people (I heard about the first also on Today on STV, but that was focused on boys, if I remember correctly).

The very first time I heard about using sports to educate, empower and mentor young women was in Nairobi last year with the Binti Initiative, which brought young women together to play football matches, and afterwards shared with them information on sexual and reproductive health.

Back to the HFGP interview, the young lady called Bola used to play for the First Bank women's basketball team. She now works as a financial analyst for ESPN in the US, but is still involved with HFGP. This year they will hold their first basketball and empowerment camp for young women between 11 and 19 (I think!).

I was very impressed with the way she spoke about the need to impress on young Nigerian women of their worth, especially in a society that does not frequently appreciate them and where their value tends to stem from external factors like family, marriage and children.

Ireti Doyle countered that very often how we are treated is a direct result of how we carry ourselves and that perhaps Nigerian sportswomen weren't demanding for their rights. Bola responded that typically female athletes aren't in a position to demand for *anything* and this is even more so in Nigeria with its unequal treatment of men and women (And this is on top of the general lack of support for sports that affects both sexes).

More for information about the Hope for Girls Project, email hopeforgirls.ng@gmail.com or get in touch with Today at STV.

Update: A link found for this project, http://sportforchange.changemakers.net/node/16603

Info-Activism Camp, Bangalore

The Info-Activism Camp is an initiative of Tactical Technology Collective and taking place this February in Bangalore, India. It promises to be a hugely exciting event.

What is Info-Activism, you might ask? According to TTC, "info-Activism is an approach which helps rights advocates tactically utilise information, communications and digital technologies to enhance advocacy work."

The event blog features interviews with many of the participants, where they share their thoughts and experiences using ICTs for their advocacy work. Check it out: www.informationactivism.org/blog/.

Here Ms. Christiana Uyoyou Charles-Iyoha, executive director of Nigeria's Centre for Policy and Development (PolDeC)
shares a bit about her work, including research undertaken by PolDec exploring uses of mobile phones for activism.

Competition: Invent our World

See the opportunity below:

Come up with an invention – a new or adapted technology – and enter the Invent Your World Challenge.

Ashoka GenV and the Lemelson Foundation will support 50 young inventors in using their inventions to create positive change – by providing mentorship, seed funding, networking opportunities, and even a $20,000 scholarship.

Submit your one paragraph idea before March 15, 2009.

Prizes and opportunities include:
* Seed Grants: Up to US$1,000. May vary from region to region.
* Trip to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Awarded to five top invention ventures. Each winning team can send two members to take part in a global youth summit on climate change. Each team will also receive an additional $1,000 cash prize.
* Scholarship: US$20,000 awarded to most outstanding invention venture. Scholarship may be split among lead venturers.

This competition is open to youths between the ages of 12 and 20 in North America and Europe and 12 and 24 everywhere else.

Visit the website for more information.

Generation Make It Happen

My friend Oghomwen Ehigie is setting up the blog Generation Make It Happen, to profile people under 30 who are "making it happen" in their communities.

The blog will feature mini documentaries directed by Oghomwen, about young people who are creating some positive changes in Nigeria, through their work, activism, businesses, art, NGOs, and other area. She will profile young people whose personal stories are inspiring and who had to surmount mountains in the pursuit of their dreams.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, please get in touch with her by email, oehigie.auditions@gmail.com.

Here and There: Curled, Twirled and Crimped

This opinion piece by Amma Ogan in today's issue of Next newspaper explores why so few Nigerian women are wearing their own hair.

My Mornings with STV

I always watch Today on STV when getting ready for work in the mornings. It has become an essential part of my morning routines, the same way I used to get ready to The Today Show all those years ago (Wow! How time flies. Well, that's a topic for another day).

I was happy to see Today on STV increased by thirty minutes from one hour. I always thought that one hour was much too short. And I always felt that the show really needs to start from 6AM.

One thing that has always struck me is the quality of guests they have on. While some have an obvious reason to be there (knowledgeable about a subject and have relevant contributions to make to the ongoing discussion, promoting an album, film or event); some patently do not.

It's very painful to listen to a guest talk a whole lot without saying much. It's perhaps even worse to hear them start a sentence only to leave the rest hanging in the air - maybe in the vain hope that viewers will pick-up their message by extra sensory perception? The guests spouting fake Americana and Britico accents (the former tends to be more common) are possibly the worst of the lot. Hmmm, no, on second thoughts perhaps that honour would go to those guests who obviously don't know what they are talking about, which begs the question .... Well, why are you here?

I often wonder how the presenters manage to keep a straight face when faced with one of these types of guests. I guess that's where the professionalism of the interviewer comes in.

This morning, I watched a segment with a guest whose inability to articulate himself left me feeling quite irritated (and this was in both English and in Pidgin). That interview did not last very long and I wondered at the end of it what the point was.

The Jazzhole Faaji Sessions - #4

Apologies for posting this late.

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Lekan Babalola, Afro-Jazz percussionist with Cassandra Wilson and Kate Luxmore, a classically trained clarinetist, collaborate with the legendary Faaji master, Fatai Rolling Dollar and master guitarist, Sina Ayinde Bakare, on new songs from their forthcoming album on the Jazzhole Classic recording label.

Lekan Babalola, is a master percussionist and has played with Jazz greats like Roy Ayers, Fela Kuti and Ernest Ranglin. presently, he is touring around the world with Blue Note recording vocalist Cassandra Wilson, but in between gigs has managed to slip into Lagos to work on a number of Jazzhole Classic Recordings.

Lekan, is currently producing the rootsy, high-life guitarist, Alaba Pedro, fusing his Afro-Cuban rhythms on another Jazzhole Recording due for release later this year. The last time these great musicians performed together was during one of the memorable concerts of The Starcomms/Jazzhole Collaboration held a few years back.

Venue: The Jazzhole, 168 Awolowo Rd, Ikoyi
Date: Saturday 31, January 2009
Time: 6 - 9p.m prompt (limited space)
Gate: N1500 per person

NB:Fatai Rolling dollar and Sina Ayinde Bakare, will also be performing together at Salamander Café, Abuja on Thursday 5th of February, 2009.

Theatre@Terra Presents Sizwe Banzi is Dead

Starting this Sunday ...

The classic stage play on the universal search for identity.
When: Every Sunday this February at 3pm and 6pm,
Cost: N2000 for adults
Where: Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island.

Natural Hair Inspiration

I receive occasional emails from my fellow natural haired sisters. Some want advice on where to go to get their natural hair styled, some are just happy to find someone else who wears her hair natural.

I've been bereft of any inspiration lately, so I've taken to browsing the web for ideas of styles and support. Within the last few days, I've found the following:

• How I Freed Myself and Embraced My Locks: Funnily enough, I've visited this writer's hair album (don't worry if you didn't get that; I think only natural haired women chronicle their hair adventures in this way) and she has an amazing amount of hair.


• Black, Kinky and Proud! I was so happy to discover this post and read it joyfully, noting along the way that the author went to my alma mater. ONLY for me to click on the comments and see that I have not only read this post, but my comment was the first. LOL!!!


• Essence 'Natural' Hair Styles 1 and
  Essence 'Natural' Hair Styles 2: Note the sarcasm. I hate it when magazines try to pass off wigs, weaves and anything else that is OBVIOUSLY an artificial hair piece as natural hair. But, it's worth a look for the ideas, if nothing else.


• Then, the best one, which I saved for last is the author Tayari Jones, who wrote the fabulous book The Untelling. She as a Flickr album, which I don't think (hope) she won't mind sharing since it's linked in multiple places from her blog. She has a lot of natural hair and always seems to have the coolest styles.
  Tayari, please share your hair tips. Better still, kindly send your stylist down to Nigeria to help me with my hair.

Wikigender

Here's a new resource: Wikigender.

Wikigender is your online platform to find and exchange information related to gender equality. Users are invited to comment on or improve existing articles, and to create or upload new documents.

Check www.wikigender.org for more information.

The International Museum of Women - IMOW

In the spirit of discovering new online resources, I’d like to share the website of the International Museum of Women (IMOW).The mission of IMOW is, very simply put, "to value the lives of women around the world". This they do, by documenting and showcasing the lives of women all over the world. IMOW is unique among museums, because its exhibitions are available only online.

The latest exhibition is Women, Power and Politics, which chronicles untold stories of women recognising and using their power. It ran from March to December 2008, but the exhibition is permanently archived on the IMOW website, so you can still check out the art and poems, download podcasts, watch videos, and read stories of women doing great things in their various communities.



There are quite a number of resources to view about Nigeria, including an overview of women’s political participation, a write-up about women’s protest against exploitation by oil companies, a look at artist Chinwe Uwatse, who uses traditional Igbo art to celebrate Igbo women’s political activism and a profile of the women’s human rights organisation, BAOBAB.

There is a wealth of information on this site, but it’s not overwhelming for the viewer because you can browse by topics, like Biology, Appearance, Environment, Religion, Voting and Organising.

This is not a collection that invites passive observation, but one that encourages you to do explore, claim and celebrate your power to create positive change. For instance, the exhibition features a toolkit, which compiles resources that can help women engage with power more effectively. I was very excited to see this collection, with categories such as Learn to Lead, Speak Your Mind and Run for Office; I was especially happy about Empower Young Women and Start a Non-Profit Organisation ( Heeeey! I wish I had found this last one a year ago. ).

This is not just an exhibition where you sit back and absorb the information presented. If that wasn’t quite inspiring enough, there is a list of 100 actions that can be taken by women to exercise their power.

There’s obviously been a lot of thought and time put into this exhibition, so it’s not a resource that you will sweep through in one go. Rather, it will be a space that you re-visit from time to time. I certainly will and I’m sure I’ll refer to it in future posts.

Competitions/Funding Opportunities

Apply and share:

Vodafone Challenge - Deadline Feb. 2
The Vodafone Americas Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of its Wireless Innovation Challenge, a new competition that seeks to identify and fund the best innovations using wireless related technology to address critical social issues around the world. Three winners will be awarded prizes of $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 for unique, late-stage wireless innovations that offer the best potential for creating social change in the areas of education, health, economic development, the environment and access to communication. For more information and to submit, visit: http://challenge.vodafone-us.com/

Intel's Inspire Empower Challenge - Deadline Feb. 17
Intel's INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge is looking for ideas from individuals, developers, organizations, and the public at large for using technology to address a global issue in the areas of education, health care, economic development, and the environment. Winners will get $100,000 USD to get their idea off the ground!
For more information, visit: http://ga0.org/ct/A1_e8YS1ET2C/

Out of the Box

This year is about trying new things. LOL! Isn't every year come to think of it?

One of the things I'm doing is discovering some new blogs. For so long, I've had my old faithfuls saved in my blog aggregator. This is actually great when you're busy, however the downside of the upside is that it's so easy to get stuck-in-a-blog-rut, which is where I am now.

I've recently started looking for blogs that chronicle experiences that are as different from mine as possible (while still being an entertaining read, but of course).

So far, I've found Confessions of a Pioneer Woman about Ree, who used to live in L.A. but who is now married to a real-life cowboy (well, cattle rancher, aren't they the same thing?) and lives somewhere "in the middle of nowhere."

Then, there's Being Brazen, which I'm having problems subscribing to at the mo.

Dooce, which is not really a new discovery, but which I've been meaning to add to my blog aggregator and which I just did. So that's kind of new, because now i'll be reading it regularly.

I'm looking forward to reading Tokyo Girl Down Under, the tales of a British woman who has itchy feet (much like myself), who married a German, lived in Tokyo (which I really want to visit) and now lives in Australia.

Project Rungray, because I'm getting into fashion these days.

Then there's Bangladesh From Our View, featuring posts from young female bloggers in Bangladesh.

Well, that's enough for now. I've got to wake-up early tomorrow (today) for my Pilates class.

The New Gym

I recently joined a new gym (Proflex), because my old one (Eko Sauna) had opened a new branch and closed it's former place down. The new spot was out of my way, so I decided to shop around for a new fitness home.

It was a sad day, I admit, when I saw the notice of their impending closure. It's funny, because when I first started going there, I was so unimpressed with the condition of the gym and the state of equipment (mostly out-of-commission). I was happy to pay per visit rather than join the gym, because it meant that I would not be bonded in anyway to *this* place.

However, over time, as these things annoyingly seem to happen, I actually grew to like the place. By the time, it closed, I would say that my feelings for the crummy gym had blossomed even more. Eeek! They hired a new fitness instructor, who decided to push me far beyond my zone of comfort. And, where I had plateaued, I started seeing some changes in my physique. It must have been some really dramatic changes, because all of a sudden, EVERYONE I met would exclaim upon seeing me:

You've lost SO MUCH WEIGHT!! What did you do?

In general though, there was a very laid-back attitude among the gym patrons. Not so, in the new place. Everyone here appears to take their workout so seriously. Everyone seems to be so focused and knows what they are doing. I don't see the 30 second workout -- 20 minute rest, jisting, phone break -- 10 second workout routine that was so common in the old place. The difference is like Lagos and Abeokuta.

Already, I've spotted quite a few defectors from Eko Sauna. So that's where they've been all this time... And I thought they were just being lazy. If only I knew.

The Pursuit of Balance

I was talking today in my office about why many people seem to find more time to spend on social networking sites, like Facebook, as opposed to their blogs (if they have one).

Reasons we came up with was that social networking sites are a very easy way to connect and catch-up with friends; they tend to be less 'work' and more 'fun'. How else can you explain how much time you can spend checking out peoples' photos and commenting on them, when spending the same amount of time composing a blog post is unthinkable. Then, of course, blogging involves a lot of writing and most people I know do not like to write. Add on top, everyone's seemingly busy schedule, well, blogging goes right down to the bottom of the priority list.

This led us to discussing time management tactics. ST shared that she jots down ideas for blog posts on paper, in the bus on her way home, and on her phone. She also types out her posts in MS Word and copies and pastes them into Blogger when she gets online.

I used to do many of these things, but have definitely slacked over the years. Blogging more regularly for me usually meant late nights spent composing posts. Once I decided that I no longer wanted to sacrifice my sleep, that put paid to me almost daily blogging.

This makes me think about how we can achieve balance in life. My conclusion is that real balance is almost impossible to achieve. Something has always got to give. Something suffers slightly. From time to time, we swing between devoting too much time to one thing and less to some others. For me, right now, my blogging has taken a bit of a back seat, but the pendulum will swing back sometime.

Speaking of balance, I came across this article on S&F Online, titled Exploding the Myth of Balance, or Superwoman Bites the Dust, which explores the idea that women can have it all, i.e. a perfectly balanced life in which work and family lie easily alongside. It looks at two women - both feminists - but who made very different career and family decisions, and how they came to terms with their choices. It makes for an interesting read, because it examines that all too familiar situation when our ideals do not align with our realities, and we find that we need to make some difficult decisions.

Watching the Obamas

The world excitedly awaits the swearing-in of the United State of America's first African-American president. Some watch and wait to see what his presidency will bring. Some watch his wife Michelle's sartorial choices.

Prettyfying the F-Word

Making feminism more appealing? An article on Times Online explores this movement.

Women in Business

There are quite a number of funding and micro finance opportunities targeted at women only. Helping women is in. Apart from being part of measures to address gender imbalances, many companies are keen to tap into the potential economic force that they represent.

New York Times examined this trend last December, profiling Goldman Sach's 10,000 Women initiative. As part of this initiative, Goldman Sachs is sponsoring Nigerian women for a four-month Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management program at the
Pan-African University in Lagos.

Visit the 10,000 Women website to read more about the program. I just realised that the latest round of applications ended on Friday, Jan 9. However, you can visit the Pan-African University website to learn about possible future opportunities.

Vintage Ads

Kellog's PEP, originally uploaded by SA_Steve.

I found this album of vintage ads on Flickr. It's incredible the kinds of behaviour and thinking that used to be the norm. Some of these ads are so sexist, that all I could do was laugh out loud.

This particular ad shows how the person who tells the story or who conveys the message has the power to shape or reinforce our ideas of what is acceptable or normal. It's an encouragement to be the storytellers and not mere passive observers in the narratives of our lives.

Anyway, you've come a long way, baby .... or have you?

Paid Blogging Opportunity: Amplify Your Voice

I received an email from Joe Sonka, managing editor of Amplify Your Voice. He's interested in linking up with young women bloggers (age 15 to 24). Sorry to all the 'oldies' on the list, but feel free to pass it on to any women you know who fit the requirements. The position pays $100 a month.

See the details below:

• Amplify Your Voice is a new blog/activist website focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights for young people (http://amplifyyourvoice.org)


• The blog is an interactive community whose content comes directly from young people, tackling society’s approach to sexual health


• They are currently hiring a team of front page bloggers for the site, with a position for a talented young woman from the African continent who is interested in sexual and reproductive health


• The position is for anyone 15-24 years of age, pays $100 a month, and the requirements are 6 blog posts a month.


• The application info is here: www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/AFY_Joe/2008/9/25/AMPLIFY-WANTS-YOU--to-be-our-front-page-writer

The NEXT Paper du Jour?

I've been hearing about this for a little while, and now NEXT, a new daily newspaper by Pulitzer-winning journalist Dele Olojede has arrived. The Beta version of the website is online. NEXT also includes an SMS platform and an online TV station.

Their mission is not child's play either: they aim to be one of the best newspapers (and news websites) in the world in the next 12 months.

Well, I'll be on the lookout for the newspaper. It will be great if NEXT can make me excited to read the papers again.

A Private Experience: Short Story from Chimamanda

New short story from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the Guardian website.