There is an epidemic of stupidity in Nigeria and majority of Nigerians are suffering from the sickness; from the street to the Office of the President.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
author of "In the House of Dogs", "The Prophet Lied" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers. "In the House of Dogs" is about life inside Nigeria.
Great nations are not built by making great speeches, but by doing great things for human development and nation building.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, author of "Children of Heaven", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Prophet Lied" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers worldwide.
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
What Makes A Great Movie?
What makes a great movie is not the size of your camera;
It is not the size of your cast;
It is not the size of your crew;
It is not the size of your budget;
But the size of your IMAGINATION.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Artist, writer, filmmaker and publisher.
Author of "Children of Heaven", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Bye, Bye Mugabe", "In the House of Dogs", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Prophet Lied", "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream" and co-author with Dr. Chika Christian Onu of "Naked Beauty", the first Nigerian screenplay published for commercial distribution.
One of Chima's most popular short stories, "Daughter of a Beggar" is included as "Beggar's Daughter" in the critically acclaimed "CAMOUFLAGE: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria".
#Fridayvibes ππ✌πΌ️ π
Reading in Motion showing beautiful Nollywood starlet, international pageant beauty queen and model Celina Ideh in "Lagos in Motion: Sights and Sounds of Africa's Largest Megacity" documentary film of Ekeyerengozi Michael Chima. The screenshot of this scene has become the most popular screenshot from a Nigerian motion picture. Screenshots or stills are important in the art of filmmaking and can be published as a photo book which I have done with "Lagos in Motion" and it is the first book of screenshots of a film or TV production in Nigeria, published and distributed by Amazon.
I have not completed the principal photography of panoramic views of Lagos City from sunrise to sunset and π nightfall.
Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria
—Weekly Trust
“…a large-scale anthology… Camouflage spots the work of [71]…writers. Some have already made their name internationally…What is remarkable, though, is how many fine and startling contributions there are from writers who—unlike Adichie and Habila—are still hardly known.”
—The Sunday Independent of South Africa
“…an intricate literary nest woven with straws plucked from Nigeria’s large universe of artistic talents, scattered across the earth.”
— Sunday Sun
“[An] explosive confluence of contemporary voices deployed in various guises and tones to express individual perceptions of the Nigerian situation…a monumental achievement for Nigerian literature.”
— Daily Independent
“[ Camouflage] proves…the depth and richness of contemporary writing by post-Independence generation of Nigerian writers.”
— The Guardian
“…a ground-breaking anthology.”
— National Mirror
“Nigeria’s new writers, delicate and declamatory, intimate and political, immediate and global, imagine themselves into voice in this rich volume. The words are tender, agitated, beautiful, shapely—and breathed directly into the ear. Read this collection to grasp the scope and sophistication of contemporary Nigerian literature, yes, but read it firstly for its pleasures."
— Gabeba Baderoon, recipient of Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Poetry.
CONTRIBUTORS
* Afam Akeh * Adeiza Atureta * Ekene Atusiubah* Omale Allen Abdul-jab bar* Denja Abdullahi * Al-kasim Abdulkadir * Bolaji Adekeye * Wisdom Anierobi * Toyin Alli * Maryam Ali Ali * Felix Obi Abrahams * Pius Adesanmi * Nike Adesuyi * Chimanada Ngozi Adichie * Adolphus II Amasiatu * Amu Nnadi * Seyi Akinlolu * Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima* B. M. Dzukogi* David Diai * Amatoritsero Ede * Victor Ehikhamenor* James Eze * Chiedu Ezeanah* Ismail Bala Garba* Helon Habila* Kamar Hamza* Ogaga lfowodo * Nengi Josef Ilagha * Bina Nengi-Ilagha * Uduma Kalu * Victoria Sylvia Kankara * Toni Kan * Akeem Lasisi * Halima Lawal * Ahmed Maiwada * Mu'azu Maiwada * Razinat T. Mohammed * David Odinaka Nwamadi * Obi Nwakanma* Simeon Chibiko Nwakaudu * Uche Nduka* Angela Nwosu* Maik Nwosu * Nkechi Nwosu-igbo * Onyebuchi Nwosu *Uchechukwu G. Nwosu * Chinyere Obiobasi * Nonye Bethel Obiukwu * Sunday Enessi Ododo * Crispin Oduobok * Patrick Tagbo Oguejiofor * Tolu Gbenga Ogunlesi * Chux Okei Ohai * Sylvester Urdeen Omosun * Ernest Onuoha" Promise Okekwe * Onookome Okome * Ike Okonta * Pita Okute * Bolaji St Ramos* Lola Shoneyin * E. E. Sule * Sumaila lsah Umaisha * Uche Peter Umez * Chika Unigwe * Uzor Maxim Uzoatu * Emmanuel Onyedi Wingate *
ABOUT THE EDITORS
NDUKA OTIONO is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Supervisor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research including Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria and General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors.
————•❀✼❀•————
ODOH DIEGO OKENYODO is a poet and literary journalist whose collection titled From A Poem to Its Creator was shortlisted for The Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2008. Okenyodo coordinates the World Poetry Movement in Nigeria under the platform of the Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation, an NGO that uses poetry to engage development issues for awareness and sustainable behaviour change.
Happy Birthday great man of the arts.
I am happy for you with all the thanksgivings to Almighty God for blessing you with long life and prosperity.
Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya is one of the greatest artists of all time.
I am proud to have been tutored by him and I made him proud by representing Nigeria as an illustrator at two international book fairs cosponsored by the UNESCO in Japan in 1983. I was the youngest participant among lecturers, including professors. Then in 1993, I had the honour as a curator to include his unique artworks in the 1993 World AIDS Day Art Exhibitions at the National Museum and National Arts Theatre in Lagos, Nigeria. If there was a Nobel Prize for fine arts, he would have won it.
He is also the most published African artist in contemporary modern art.
First Bollywood Film Adaptation of a Nigerian Novel: Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home
Only a couple of the Hausa novels have been translated into English. “Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home” was translated by Indian publishers and subsequently made into a Bollywood movie. The book is available on amazon.com, which describes it as “an Islamic soap opera complete with polygamous households, virtuous women, scheming harlots, and black magic.” Author Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, a veteran founder of the movement, was herself a child bride twice, after her first husband returned her to her family, and she only learned to read and write as an adult. https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-ap-top-news-religion-international-news-marriage-3fc0caa13a8646908219306c3e08225b
SOYINKA and the Quest for the Ori Olokun
The first African Nobel Laureate in Literature Prof. Wole Soyinka is 80 years old today, born on July 13, 1934. And the enigmatic and phenomenal genius is famous for his dare devil exploits including the one that landed him in jail.
In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years after he secretly and unofficially met with the military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the Southeastern town of Enugu (August 1967), to try to avert civil war. Go and read his "The Man Died" for his prison notes.
In 1978, Wole Soyinka was made aware of the existence of a bronze head in a private collection in Brazil – similar to the disputed one discovered by the famous German archaeologist Leo Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) in 1910, which now stood in the Ife Museum, but of far greater quality. In his memoir "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" (2007), Soyinka recalls how, in a spirit of cultural duty, and with the knowledge of the Nigerian authorities, he mounted a kind of guerrilla raid with a group of friends, stealing the object from the apartment in question in near-farcical circumstances, and removing it to the Senegalese capital Dakar, where experts proclaimed it genuine. Suspicious, however, of the lightness of the object, Soyinka examined it further to find the letters “BM” stamped on the back: it was a British Museum replica, once sold in the museum’s shop. Soyinka then declared the British Museum’s head to be the real 'Ori Olokun", even though it was excavated 18 years after Frobenius’s original discovery.
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka Orikinla Osinachi, prize winning Nigerian writer since age 13, author of Children of Heaven, Sleepless Night, Scarlet Tears of London, Bye, Bye Mugabe (now being revised with the new title of Bye, Bye Zimbabwe and other books.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROF. WOLE SOYINKA
The Lion of African Literature.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka(Yoruba: AkΓnwΓ‘ndΓ© OlΓΊwo̩lΓ© BabΓ‘tΓΊndΓ© S̩Γ³yΓinkΓ‘; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (pronounced [wΙlΓ© ΚΓ³jΔ©nkΓ‘]), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, human rights activist, actor and filmmaker in the English language and Yoruba. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.
A #Netflix documentary film on SOYINKA will be a hit from OTT platforms to the cinema. He is the Big Picture of African Literature.
I am the best for the production design of the documentary film.
Netfix, HBO or Amazon should not miss this great opportunity.
My 2021 Summer 2021 Lists. Whether you’re camped out on the beach… | by Barack Obama | Jul, 2021 | Medium
@barackobama
Whether you’re camped out on the beach or curled up on the couch on a rainy day, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a great book in the summer. While we were still in the White House, I began sharing my summer favorites — and over the years, it’s become a little tradition that I look forward to sharing with you all. So without further ado, here are some books I’ve read recently. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
At Night All Blood Is Black — David Diop
Land of Big Numbers — Te-Ping Chen
Empire of Pain — Patrick Radden Keefe
Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
When We Cease to Understand the World — BenjamΓn Labatut
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future — Elizabeth Kolbert
Things We Lost to the Water — Eric Nguyen
Leave The World Behind — Rumaan Alam
Klara and the Sun — Kazuo Ishiguro
The Sweetness of Water — Nathan Harris
Intima ucies — Katie Kitamura
See the complete lists on
https://barackobama.medium.com/my-summer-2021-lists-f522aac3b97c
#twitternigeriaban
#TwitterNigeria
"Don't mistake Idiocy for Democracy."
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "In the House of Dogs", "The Prophet Lied", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigeria: My Eyewitness Account of the 2015 Presidential Election" and other books.
Eevi Jones, bestselling author.
The Best Children’s Books About Entrepreneurship For Kids
by Stephanie Burns
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Gary Rubinstein (Author) Mark Pett (Author)
Description
Being Perfect Is Overrated
Beatrice Bottomwell has NEVER (not once!) made a mistake. She never forgets her math homework, she never wears mismatched socks, and she ALWAYS wins the yearly talent show at school. In fact, the entire town calls her The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes! One day, the inevitable happens: Beatrice makes a huge mistake in front of everyone! But in the end, readers (and perfectionists) will realize that life is more fun when you enjoy everything--even the mistakes.
From the award-winning children's book author Mark Pett: The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes is the perfect find for parents looking for teacher gifts or award winning children's books for their own collections. This book teaches growth mindset in a fun way, in the spirit of Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and Beautiful Oops. Like the little heroes in Rosie Revere Engineer, Most Magnificent Thing, and The Day the Crayons Quit, little Beatrice Bottomwell is an inspiration for kids who dream big.
Praise for The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes:
"Beatrice offers a lesson we could all benefit from: learn from your mistakes, let go, laugh, and enjoy the ride." --Jennifer Fosberry, New York Times bestselling author of My Name Is Not Isabella
"This funny and heartfelt book conveys a powerful message about how putting too much pressure on yourself to be perfect can suck the joy out of everything. Beatrice's discovery that you can laugh off even a very public mistake shows the importance of resiliency and helps perfectionist kids keep things in perspective. Most importantly, Beatrice reminds the reader that it's more important to enjoy the things that you do than worry about doing them perfectly." --A Mighty Girl
Gifts Ideas
Still looking for holiday gifts? Look no further—a book is always a perfect gift, and we know just the right ones!
As always, we encourage you to check with your favorite local bookstore how best to support them this holiday season, whether it be curbside pickup, ordering via their website, or on Bookshop.
P.S. If ordering a holiday gift via Bookshop, we strongly encourage you to choose PRIORITY SHIPPING at checkout and no later than next Wednesday, the 16th. Or get them a gift card!
The Nigeria Prize for Literature is the biggest prize in African literature worth US$100,000 to the winner. It is fully sponsored by the Nigeria LNG Limited, that founded it in 2004 for outstanding literary works by Nigerian authors in Nigeria.
The prize rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature: repeating the cycle every four years.
I was opportuned to be with the inaugural members of the organising committee during their meeting in 2004, at the Federal Palace Hotel & Casino on Victoria Island, Lagos. I went there to meet with the famous Nigerian novelist, Eddie Iroh and Ms. Siene Allwell-Brown, the famous broadcaster at the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) who was now, the General Manager for External Affairs of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Limited. The Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo was there. His beautiful daughter, Elizabeth Banjo came second to me when I won the first prize in a national essay competition sponsored by the Pop Magazine for children and teens in 1976.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature is laudable for improving the welfare of the winners. But it has not improved the literary culture of Nigeria. It has failed to achieve what other coveted literary prizes have achieved in America, Europe, Asia and Australia where winning a major prize for literature makes the winner a bestselling author by boosting the celebrity status, increasing the popularity and increasing the demand for the winning author and the winning book like the Pulitzer Prize in America and the Booker Prize in the UK. The news will make local and international headlines and will increase the public appreciation and sales of the books among readers. But contrary to our expectations, majority of literate people in Nigeria don't even know the titles of the winning books of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. If you doubt me, do a public opinion on radio and TV on the streets of Lagos, Abuja and other cities in the country, and you will see how clueless and ignorant majority of Nigerians are about the so called most prestigious literary prize in Africa and the winning books.
What makes it prestigious? The prestige of the worth of the cash prize of US$100, 000 or the intellectual esteem of the winning authors?
The sponsor of the Nigeria Prize for Literature and their public relations company have failed to use the prize for the appreciation of the reading culture which is most vital to the improvement of the literary culture of Nigeria where majority of Nigerians don't read books, except for the recommended text books for pupils and students. Majority of Nigerians stop reading after graduation and after their professional examinations.
Just handing out US$100, 000 to the author of the book selected as best entry in the national competition is not enough to improve the lives of Nigerian authors and improve the literary culture of Nigeria without making sure that Nigerians read their books and celebrate their literary achievements as examplary role models worthy of emulation in the inspiration for outstanding success in human development and the advancement of modern civilisation in Nigeria.
Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka sitting with Adeleke Adeyemi and his wife Wosilat Adeyemi at the event of The Nigeria Prize for Literature award ceremony on February 6, 2012, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
The Federal Ministry of Education and ministries of education in the 36 states and Abuja should be involved in the appreciation of the Nigeria Prize for Literature to make recommendations for the winning books to be included in the selections for reading booklists of primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions. For example, I recommended that Adeleke Adeyemi's Children's story book, "The Missing Clock", that won the Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2011 should be on the reading list for primary schools in Nigeria and in particularly in Ekiti state, the state of origin of the author. And the Federal Ministry of Education should purchase as many copies as possible for distribution to all the public schools in the country. The prize winning authors should have interviews on radio and TV and the governors of their states should celebrate them.
There should be reading and book signing tours for the winning authors to selected schools and tertiary institutions; to clubs like the Ikoyi Club, Metropolitan Club, Capital Club, Ikeja Country Club and other locations that will increase the appreciation and cultivation of literary culture in the Nigerian society.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Founder/CEO, WEREADππ
https://bookshop.org/shop/Weread.
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series
247 Nigeriia) / Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
#TikTok's Parent ByteDance is Worth More Than the Top 10 Nigerian Banks Combined
ByteDance, the parent company of short-video app TikTok, generated $5.6 billion in revenue for the first-quarter of 2020, Reuters reports. This figure represents 130% growth in revenue year-over-year for the China-based company, which is now reportedly worth more than $100 billion.
Zenith – N159.3bn GTB – N142.3bn Access Bank– N102.3bn UBA – N77.1bn First Bank– N68.2bn Stanbic– N66.2bn Fidelity – N20.4bn Union Bank– N15.1bn FCMB – N13.9bn Sterling– N7.4bn
WeREAD
WeREAD is for book lovers and everyone who loves to read books.
https://bookshop.or
#BlackFriday Offers From Bookshop
The dirty little secret of the Print On Demand (POD) industry is that most of us use the same service to do the printing, and we all distribute our books through Ingram. So the quality of our books and the places to which we sell them are identical. The only real differences are the prices we charge, the quality of our customer service, and our business models.
The large POD services – Authorhouse, iUniverse, XLibris, and Trafford, (now all owned by the same parent company, Author Solutions, which is a creation of venture capital firm Bertram Capital) – and many of the smaller POD companies have a business model built around selling a base publishing package, and then upselling you on additional services. Whether you sell a copy of your book to anyone or not doesn’t really matter because their profit comes from upselling authors on products and services. This is why they take any book submitted to them, regardless of quality. They care more about how many of you they can squeeze through their doors than they care about quality. If they truly cared about quality, they wouldn’t be putting so much garbage on the market, which actually hurts our entire industry.
Unlike the other POD firms, BookLocker is not into upselling you on products and services. We’re not going to sell you bookmarks and coffee mugs with your book’s cover on them because it would be a waste of your money. Our goal is to get a quality book quickly into the market (usually in a month or less) with the lowest out-of-pocket cost to you. We then try to create an environment that favors book sales.
We feel our approach is a better way to do business. It is a sustainable model for both us and you because it aligns our business interests. When a sale happens, you make money and we make money. Both of us win.
And our model works. The majority of BookLocker’s revenue comes from public book sales, not service fees.
Some of the other POD companies appear to charge low upfront fees, and even no upfront fees. But those prices don’t include everything you need to get the book into the market. Later, after you’ve signed the contract, they hit you with hidden charges – fees for distribution, graphics, ebook creation, barcodes, expedited service…the list goes on and on. By the time your book is actually ready for sale, you’ve probably paid over $1000 – sometimes much, much more – to get your book in print, greatly increasing the time it takes to make back your investment through sales.
At BookLocker, our published setup fee price includes everything to get the book out into the market, period. No runaround. No surprises. No hidden fees. And BookLocker keeps the setup charge low so you can make back the investment as quickly as possible through book sales. Here is what we charge for a standard paperback:
BOOKLOCKER: $517 (deduct $200 if submitting your own cover)
For that price you get…
Other BookLocker features:
Compare that with the cost of other POD firms:
NOTE: All publishers below currently offer distribution through Ingram (the largest book distributor), as well as inclusion of their titles in the major online (amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, etc.) and physical bookstore systems.
>> iUniverse: $999.00 (includes 5 “free” copies) <<
Rated "Publisher to Avoid” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Warning: Has a variety of “extra” charges like $2 per page if your manuscript is submitted with incorrect headers/footers, page breaks, line and paragraph formatting, more than 25 photos/graphics, more than 2 images on your cover, tables, etc. They own your files after creation and you have to pay $150-$750 to get them if you leave their service! No expedite service. Turnaround is 3-4 months. NOTE: AuthorHouse is owned by Author Solutions, a holding company that also owns Xlibris, iUniverse and Trafford. See those companies above and below.
>> CreateSpace: $1022.00 (Deduct $299 if submitting your own cover) <<
Rated "Just OK” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Add $500 to price above if you want more than one color and image featured on your cover. Limit of 10 interior images; charges $15 per image and $25 per chart/table/graph thereafter. Does NOT publish hardcover books (all others here do). IMPORTANT: BookSurge was rolled into CreateSpace in November, 2009 but they kept employees, equipment, etc. Read more about BookSurge’s problems HERE. We ordered some BookSurge books and one looked so bad they inserted an apology note inside, saying it was the best they could get from their supplier. They ARE their supplier! Another one arrived with the interior pages appearing upside-down. Read numerous complaints about CreateSpace, posted to their own forum, HERE.
>> Lulu: $1131.00 (Deduct $450 if submitting your own cover) <<
Rated "Pretty Good” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Lulu now charges directly for many services they previously farmed out to other companies. Lulu appears to be having customer service problems and authors are upset about their high shipping costs. Read THIS to learn more.
>> Trafford: $1324.00 <<
Rated "Publisher to Avoid” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Warning: Has a variety of “extra” charges like $2 per page if your manuscript is submitted with incorrect headers/footers, page breaks, line and paragraph formatting, etc. Charges $5 extra per image. Expedite service available for the $2199 “Elite” package. NOTE: AuthorHouse is owned by Author Solutions, a holding company that also owns Xlibris, iUniverse and Trafford. See those companies above and below.
>> AuthorHouse: $1517.00 <<
Rated "Publisher to Avoid” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Charges extra for photos/graphics ($5 per image after first 10 – included in cost above). Expedite fee ($500) is for publication in 30 days instead of 6 months (included above). Claims ownership of files you pay them to create…meaning you can’t use the edited/formatted files if you want to move your book later. NOTE: AuthorHouse is owned by Author Solutions, a holding company that also owns Xlibris, iUniverse and Trafford. See those companies above and below.
>> Xlibris: $1972.00 – (includes 5 “free” copies) <<
Rated "Publisher to Avoid” by Mark Levine, attorney and author of The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.
Charges expedite fee of $349 (included above) for publication in 2 months instead of 4-6 months. Charges $10 per image (included above); $20 per table. Limit of 1 cover image. NOTE: AuthorHouse is owned by Author Solutions, a holding company that also owns Xlibris, iUniverse and Trafford. See those companies above.
***Prices above based on least expensive package offered by each publisher on similar offers targeting U.S. authors. Fees include interior formatting (based on a 200-page book), original cover design with up to 5 images, print proof, ebook creation, up to 25 interior photos/graphics, an ISBN, barcode, a listing on the publisher’s website and distribution by Ingram, all within 6 weeks.
NOTE: Many companies offer perks that others don’t, some try to upsell authors on extraneous services, and a few even claim ownership of files the author has paid them to create. Study each publisher and contract carefully before making your choice.
