Featuring the National Assembly and a few other places.
Browsing the archives for the Art category.
Here is one of the monument to religiosity, a crucial an often inseparable aspect of the Nigerian personality – The Abuja National Mosque. A few metres away from the siting of this is the National Ecumenical Centre where Christian events of national significance is held. The amount needed to build this mosque would definitely run into millions of dollars, but it adds some beauty to the landscape of the city, hopefully to the mind and character of the people who worship there as well.
The auspicious site of the mosque and its sheer size makes it a landmark not to be easily missed. I compare it to the Washington Monument, thinking of how the obelisk guided me to itself through the labyrinth of Washington DC in December. Well, get to Abuja, anywhere from Zone 10 to Wuse Zone 3, you could probably find your way to the mosque on foot if you wanted to. I did, and I was rewarded.
I was at the Ilorin National Museum over the weekend in company of a few friends one of whom had just happened to be in the town by chance.
One peculiar characteristics of this museum is that it is housed in the same compound as a bar, eating joint, and a hairdressing salon. The signboard at the junction close to the museum itself had the name of the museum written in equally small letters as the other services offered in the premises.
It’s not altogether a bad thing. On the one hand, the presence of a bar might actually be a better attraction to the building than the content of the museum itself. From the patronage of the bar, it was clear that there is some complementarity at work there. The museum was closed because it was a Saturday and we couldn’t get to see the contents.
For some reasons beyond my control, I will be going offline for a few days (hopefully not weeks) from today. I won’t be able to update the blog until such a time until I get the issue resolved. Hopefully it won’t be for too long. If you need me, I’ll still be available to check my email occasionally so you may reach me at kt@ktravula.com. Please vote in my new poll to your right, and tell me what you think.
In the meantime, here are a few old picture posts. Enjoy.
Desertification June 1.
Time Lapse May 3
Defying Gravity November 23
Badagry June 8
Following Lincoln April 29
You should also check out Kiibaati.wordpress.com where a poet is taking new liberties with imagination.
Gone With the Wind and Glory are two sides of the same coin in the civil war history of the United States. Well, not really. One of them is a story that glorified slavery in some way, or at best treated it like just another part of life. The other was a feature on a real life event of an attempt to resolve the institution of slavery among other political differences in the country.
Gone with the Wind is a beautiful story of love, gallantry, bravery and honour. Bella loved Rhett, but Rhett loved Scarlett. Scarlett however loved Ashley, and Ashley loved his wife. Scarlett never got over her love until it was too late. A very moving ending to a story that spanned the period of the American civil war.
Glory is a moving story of honour, bravery, pride and a tragic military campaign of the first “coloured” regiment of the Union army in an attempt to take over the confederate Fort Wagner. Brilliantly told, the true life story never failed to rouse emotion at very memorable intervals. And Denzel Washington won his Academy Award as a supporting actor.
I can’t explain why I have been watching movies about the American Civil War in the past days, but I can say that it’s been worth it. It is filling a few gaps in my history lesson. And it raises a few questions too, why it was important to black men to enlist in the Union army to fight the confederates when all they would get was death, or at best a chance to kill. And how those capable of keeping slaves in servitude and fighting to entrench the evil system could be capable of gallantry, honour and love. Gone With The Wind manages to elicit my empathy for the Old South, and Glory managed to arouse my anger at slavery, war, and inequality. And all I learnt at the end of watching them both is the power of stories.