Three of my write-ups were published yesterday in Nigeria’s NEXT Newspaper.
You may also read up this article “Appraising arts and heritage in Black History Month“ in the same paper: .
Browsing ktravula – a travelogue! blog archives for March, 2010.
I do not live in New York. I am miles away from it, but yesterday I successfully talked a good friend of mine who lives there to attend an event that I felt held some significance for me, for this blog and for Nigeria. It was titled 2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence Against Women and it was held at the John Tishman Auditorium at the New School for Social Research.
The speakers included Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace laureate, 2003; Founder, Defenders of Human Rights Center, Iran, Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mary Robinson, President, Realizing Rights, former President of Ireland and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
The event was doubly memorable because by 12noon New York time, the winner of the WLP Essay Competition featuring about 100 entries from over thirty-three countries was announced, and it was no other person than Temitayo Olofinlua – the same Temitayo of Bookaholic Blog a regular commenter on this blog. Her entry was titled On Fear, a powerful exposition on the challenges of women in Nigeria and most of developing countries of the world.
I feel proud to be associated with her, not only because of the brilliance of the entry, but also because of the humility, dedication and hardwork of the strong young woman. Congratulations from me, from my friend, and from all of KTravula.com.
A guest-post by Jolaade Adesanya
as narrated by Yemi Adesanya
She was extremely excited at the first mention of the request from uncle Kola, to write something for his blog. Then the big question came when it was time to settle down to it “why does he want me to write, mummy?”. “I think he wants to know what you think about different things.” “OK!”. She then began to tell me the different things she’d like him to know about – she loves babies (a neighbor has just delivered a baby girl, she is now a regular visitor to their home), she doesn’t like the school bus (mum/dad should take her to school instead), she doesn’t like yellow buses (they are always driving roughly), she loves her daddy and mummy!, and yes she loves herself, because she loves babies!
What goes on in a 4 yr old girl’s mind is beyond me, mine is always asking difficult questions, questions that leave you wondering if she is not some old woman re-incarnate. The latest question that got me wondering; “if someone is getting married, will they have the wedding in the girls mummy’s church?”.
Her story is as follows:
My name is Jojo, my uncle calls me that.
I love myself, I love my mummy, I love my daddy
I don’t like people driving rough
I like eating fried egg and yam
Mrs Oladimeji is always dozing in the class.
STOP
It was impossible convincing her to write her name, instead of Joojoo, she definitely wants uncle Kola to know the pet name given her by uncle Kunle!
She promised to continue writing this story, but for now, a road marker STOP marks the end.
_______________________
Jolaade Adesanya is my lovely four and a half year-old niece, and she writes from Lagos, Nigeria. The first mention of her on this blog was way back in August when I first went to Six Flags. You can read the entry here.
Yemi Adesanya is my accountant sister who works in Lagos and who has been a very lovely, very dependable, and equally a very delightfully mischievous sibling. If you want to find her, head over here. Of course you may have to buy shoes or bags in the process. She sells them in her spare time instead of writing which, as you can see, could as well have been her vocation as well.
Jolaade’s picture courtesy of Chris Ogunlowo.
Let no one ask me why she chose to paint her face when the photo was about to be taken, or whether it is standard procedure for children of this age to paint their faces like that. You will have to figure it out for yourself 😀
Have a nice weekend.
I got home from school yesterday to find these post-it notes on my door. Ben had left them there.
I wrote my reply in red, and left the sheets on the door so that he can see it whenever he comes back. When I see him, I intend to inform him of how impressed I am at his resourcefulness since, as I know for a fact, I wasn’t the one who taught him pele (the Yoruba word for “I’m sorry/forgive me” ) and there is no other Yoruba person living in this building, or within a mile of our residence.
“Lemp Mansion is a house in St. Louis, Missouri. The ghosts of several Lemp family members are said to haunt the mansion.” – Wikipedia
“There is no place in the city of St. Louis with a reputation that is quite as ghostly as the Lemp Mansion. It has served as many things over the years from stately home to boarding house to restaurant…but it has never lost the fame of being the most haunted place in the city. In fact, in 1980, Life Magazine called the Lemp Mansion “one of the ten most haunted places in America”. – http://www.prairieghosts.com/lemp.html
“The Lemp Mansion is located in St. Louis, Missouri, a short distance away from the Mississippi River. Take Broadway from Interstate 55 and follow that to Cherokee Street. Go west on Cherokee and turn right onto De Menil Place. The address of the mansion is 3322. The Pointer Family has owned and operated the Lemp Mansion since 1975. The Lemp family line died out with him and the family’s resting place can now be found in beautiful Bellefontaine Cemetery.” – http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/hauntedhouses/LempMansion/
Now that we know (almost) all about this building, where it is located, and what makes it so remarkable, could someone tell me why this traveller is now thinking of actually going to spend a night there?