Sunday 31 May 2015

Niyi Osundare Poetry Festival… Accolades For Global Scholar, Poet At Maiden Festival



By Anote Ajeluorou



IT was a harvest of accolades for Nigeria’s poet laureate and winner of Nigerian National Merit Award 2014 and Distinguished Professor of English at New Orleans University, U.S., last week when colleagues, former teachers, scholars and friends gathered at University of Ibadan, Oyo State, to celebrate him in a festival in his honour, The Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival (NOIPOF 2015). It was the maiden edition and designed to celebrate the cerebral poet, scholar and public intellectual, who has revolutionary marketplace evokes the days of ancient Africa’s griots and storytellers.
  The organisers envisioned the festival as “A conscious blend of art, culture and tourism deliberately set within the university community in the historic city of Ibadan… to celebrate this icon as a worthy role model for the younger generation to aspire to acquire knowledge, because knowledge is power”. Students from Government College, Ibadan and Osundare’s alma mater, Amaoye Grammar School, Ekiti, were in attendance to give effect to a generational shift and role modelling. But University of Ibadan students stayed away from the festival because they were largely unaware on account of poor publicity.
  Some renowned scholars present included the keynote speaker and Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malette, Prof. AbduRasheed Na’Allah, Emeritus professors, Ayo Banjo, Ayo Bamgbose and Femi Osofisan, Prof. Dan Izevbaye, Prof. Abiola Irele and guest speakers, Prof. Isidore Diala of Imo State University. Others were Deputy Vice Chancellors –Administration and Academics - University of Ibadan, Profs. Ambrose Aiyelari, who represented the Vice Chancellor and Gbemi Oke, Prof. Sonnie Adagboyin, Prof. Segun Ojewuyi, Dr. Sola Olorunyomi, Dr. Niran Malaolu, MD, Booksellers Ltd, Mr. Kolade Mosuro, filmmaker, Mr. Tunde Kilani, Mr. Tunde Adegbola, Chairman, HEBN, Mr. Ayo Ojeniyi and Dr. Kunbi Olasope of Classics Department, University of Ibadan.
  Oyo State Cultural Troupe kicked off proceedings with a vigorous performance. Thereafter, chairman, Banjo, Osundare’s former university teacher, who replaced absentee Mr. Femi Falana, expressed his joy at being a part of Osundare’s literary and academic journey. “It’s always a joy to be part of anything involving Osundare. He’s an exceptionally different and gifted scholar and writer. Osundare came to us with a load of talent. We have been catalysts of the development of that talent. He’s a source of joy and pride to University of Ibadan. He’s a gift to the whole of humanity. He’s still young and we’re going to hear much about him. I wish him all the very best in future”.
  Deputy Vice Chancellor, Aiyelari, had earlier spoken in the same vein when he called Osundare “our pride in this university”. Oluwole Afuye then did an Ikere-Ekiti chant, which touched a nerve in Osundare, an illustrious son of Ikere-Ekiti.
  Na’Allah didn’t start his delivery without performing a Yoruba folk song in call and response fashion. Although the audience was a bit reluctant at first, but he got them to the groove and it enlivened the hall. A poet himself, Na’Allah took the audience through Osundare’s special place in the hall of global poetic and traditional oral performance from which he derives most of his source materials. According to him, “Osundare is celebrated both at home and abroad; he won the NNMA 2014”.
  Na’Allah then traced the trajectory of Africa’s modern written tradition from pre- to colonial and post-colonial eras. He said shortly after colonialism, the works of English poets like Shakespeare and others were the norm, noting that Africa’s literary revolution started with such equally revolutionary writers like Ngugi wa Thiong’o, whose writing was consciously polemic in nature in taking on the establishment, a mold Na’Allah said Osundare followed in his own revolutionary poetic rendition. “African literature began to be incorporated into English Departments, including African culture, which the new writing embodied. We need the people to deepen this cultural revolution like Okot p’Bitek and even Wole Soyinka have done. Their poetry is about our culture, our traditions.
  “Then came Osundare; his is poetry that incorporates African traditions, African medicine, African religion and spirituality, which were captured through chants, narratives and incantations. We need Africa’s young people to be part of this cultural essence for continuity value-reorientation”.
  Also for the Vice Chancellor of the state-owned university, Osundare’s poetry is a rebirth of ancient African poetic tradition, being an accessible poetry. This, he said, sets it apart as poetry belonging to the people and for the masses for whom African poets of old used to compose and render their special crafts. As he put it, “Elevated idea of poetry is a western concept. African ways of life are expressed through poetry, which the commoners understood. We needed poets to sing to us in elementary and secondary school levels. Then came Niyi Osundare; his poetry was so powerful for me. They were the moonlight songs we used to sing as children, this new poetry of Osundare is closer to us. At the same time, he is speaking to us in our daily lives, to our spirituality, speaking truth to power; it’s the kind of poetry we could relate with.
  “We need to understand the poetry that came to us, that of Osundare. This is what Nigeria must be doing, to celebrate our own, the likes of Soyinka, Osundare, Osofisan; we need to celebrate them”.

NA’ALLAH also took a swipe at government policies that tend to downgrade literature as a lower cousin to science, technology and engineering. He condemned the recent calls by Tertiary Educational Trust Fund (TETFund) for application for National Research Grant only for science, technology and engineering and omitted literature from benefitting from such funding opportunity. Na’Allah argued, “They forgot that poetry is technology, that humanity is the mother of technology! We need to make the point about Nigeria being celebrated around the world not because of science, technology or engineering. Nigeria got the Nobel Prize in Literature, not in Engineering. And we will get another Nobel Prize through Osundare very soon!
  “Nigeria cannot succeed if we silence poetry that expresses our inner feelings, that carries our traditions and illuminates our world. Poetry isn’t just the arts; it’s encompassing. Literature is everything”.
  Na’Allah said Africa’s folk heritage needed to be studied to unearth their scientific worth, adding that the folk narratives and moonlight songs educated a whole generation of Africans on self-sustaining values for nationhood. He condemned what he called ‘Cyber Personalities’, a product of technology that was corrupting young people and alienating them from the reality around them. “Old values are not part of the cyber world; we need to go back for balance in the values in poetry and those of technology. Our poetry contains the technology we need to advance in society. Through Osundare’s poetry we can reevaluate ourselves; it illuminates us”.
  He emphasised the need for the festival to continue so it could propagate the ideals Osundare stands for, adding, “We must have major thinkers of our nation who represent us, who stand for vision in our lives. We must bring literature to the centre, even as people tend to degrade it. What we’re doing today is exceptionally different because it is what determines our values. More of this festival must be borne. We already have Wole Soyinka Festival, Niyi Osundare Festival; we must also have Femi Osofisan Festival and so on. At Kwara State University, we now have Abiola Irele School of Theory and Criticism, which will begin from June through August every year. We must create theories that centre on our values and explain ourselves to the world”.

WHILE responding, Osundare thanked everyone for attending in spite of difficulties arising from acute fuel shortages in the country, saying it wasn’t the best of time to organize anything. He read a piece ‘Death came calling’, an except from his Hurricane Katrina collection City Without People after Oyo State troupe had performed another piece. But he read it after regaling the audience with a folk song. He said writing the volume six years after the hurricane that nearly killed him and his wife “was a healing process; it came to me as therapy”.
  On his alma mater, Osundare said, “Amaoye Grammar School is where it all started. I’m happy to have my fellow students coming to celebrate with me. In 1962 our principal, Chief Adeniran brought us to this Trenchard Hall to see a Shakespeare play performed. I saw television for the first time, too, in Ibadan. Teachers matter and they matter so significantly. I’m asking our teachers to be more honest with their work. Our students must challenge our teachers. The international standards our universities used to enjoy have eroded. And I should know. We must go back to where our universities used should be”.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

At last, curtains fall on UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014


By Anote Ajeluorou



Last Friday marked the formal closing of UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, which the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt, hosted with yearlong book and literacy activities. It’s a book initiative of the world’s cultural organisation to emphasize the place of books in world’s civilization. From April 23, 2014 through April 23, 2015, Rainbow Book Club held various activities to celebrate the book and deepen the values of literacy enshrined in it.
  Last month, Director of UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, Mrs. Koko Kalango, whose Rainbow Book Club managed the programme, handed over to the city of Incheon in South Korea, as host for 2015. Bangkok, Thailand, handed the baton over to Port Harcourt in 2014. It was the first time an Africa sub-Saharan city would host the book capital.
  Among activities highlighting the closing ceremony was a symposium designed as an overview of programmes of the book capital, the challenges encountered, the successes recorded and how these could be transmitted to the future in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria at large. It turned out a stimulating and lively show, with discussants from a wide range of fields involved in the book chain, including a librarian, a publisher, an academic and a radio presenter as moderator - Dr. Blessing Ahiazu, Promise Ogochukwu, Uzo Nwamara, Onyi Sunday (moderating) and Chubuike Akwarandu and Breni Fiberesima.
  With some 200 book clubs established in primary and secondary schools (both government- and privately-run), the panel was of the view that the book clubs should be sustained and replicated. They also argued that the benefits of the book clubs should be extended to schools outside Rivers State to other states for extended benefits, as a way of deepening the value of the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 across the country. Further, schools where book clubs are established should be assisted to ensure the sustainability of the clubs for their continuing benefits to the pupils and students even after Port Harcourt has ended its reign as UNESCO World Book Capital.
  Also, Rainbow Boo Club was enjoined to partner with other book clubs in the city to help sustain the gains so far made. Private schools with wealthy parents were enjoined to assist the book clubs to grow. The panel also tasked the state government to extend the building of libraries in model schools to other schools while private school were enjoined to open up their libraries instead of keeping them locked.
  A librarian, Ahiazu said there was need to sustain reading habits, but that this could only happen when there were libraries in neighbourhoods in every community, as was the case in developed countries. She lamented the absence of community and public libraries in the country and said it posed a challenge to literacy and learning.
  Parents were also challenged to own libraries at home, as building block for children. “Most parents don’t have libraries at home,” Ahiazu stressed, “Parents don’t encourage their children to go to libraries. Parents need to challenge children to read. Changing values must begin with parents. Give books as gifts to your children, even as wedding gifts. That was what I did to my children. And it helped”.
  Rainbow Book Club was advised to maximize the gains made during the year, as manager of the book capital, adding, “Rainbow Book Club should see 2014 as a turning point for the book and pursue policies that are friendly to corporate bodies and individual to support the propagation of books and reading. Government should also introduce tax incentives and holidays to encourage support for books and reading.”
  Teachers also had their own share of advice on how to stimulate children’s reading appetites both in and out of schools. It was agreed that teaching was a vocation requiring passion and that it should not be seen as a mere meal ticket, as was often the case. For instance, it was argued that a teacher’s poor handling of a subject could affect a pupil to the extent that he loses interest in that subject. A panelist, Nwamara confessed to abandoning studying engineering or medicine because his Mathematics teacher made the subject difficult for him to understand.
  He stated, “Teachers often make learning a particular subject difficult for students. Teachers need to be trained and retrained to make learning fun and effective. Some teach because it’s a meal ticket; teaching should be for the passion. The psychology of the teacher is key. There is need for guidance and counseling units in schools to diagnose students’ problems and steer them in the right course and even determine the efficiency of teachers in students’ performance in a particular subjects where they persistently fail, especially if they are doing well in others”.
  A teacher who responded canvassed the need for students to appreciate books and for them to develop interest and hunger to read and enlarge their vocabulary.
  Also, Kalango said deepening reading habits among students was a collective effort, saying, “It’s a team effort and not a single person’s effort. Actions speak louder words; it’s a demonstration of what needs to be done. Be careful what you do around children; they are watching”.
  Growing up as a child Kalango said she saw her parent reading books, magazines and newspapers in the house, adult habit, which she said rubbed off on her and her siblings; it provided the foundation she was to build on later in life as promoter of books and reading.
  She said out of the 12 books read each month while Port Harcourt the World Book Capital six were adapted for stage and properly staged. The other six books had copyright issues that could not be resolved before the event. However, 12 dramatisations were held during the year.

REPRESENTING Rivers State Government was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Michael West. He said no nation could develop without focusing on education, as it bridges the world. According to West, “There’s no education without books. Reading and writing are hallmarks of education. In Rivers State we realize this and make it a focal point. It’s not just the provision of infrastructure and the recruiting of teachers, we provide well-stocked libraries in public schools. We instruct schools to inculcate reading habits in our children.
  “Choosing Port Harcourt as World Book Capital 2014 was an honour for us; we thank UNESCO for the honour. We have named one of our schools UNESCO Primary School to commemorate the World Book Capital 2014. We thank Mrs. Kalango for making this to happen. A reading society will always progress. It’s the only way of transforming our society from that of a third world to the first world”.
  Awards in various categories were given to some organizations and individuals who made the World Book Capital year a success.

HOWEVER, the closing ceremony was far less spectacular than the opening in many respects. First, governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, whose idea prompted the yearly Garden Literary Festival, later renamed Port Harcourt Book Festival, failed to show up. Not even his estranged deputy, Tele Ikuku, whose office oversaw the World Book Capital programme, showed up or sent a representative. No commissioner also came save the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, West.
  Since Amaechi’s political travails with the Presidency, books seem to have taken flight from his menu of activities. The one-time burning passion of the University of Port Harcourt graduate of English and Literary Studies began to nose-dive when he was absent at last year’s weeklong book festival. It was considered strange in a year his city was hosting UNESCO World Book Capital. A Permanent Secretary from the office of Ikuru came in representative capacity for the entire government.
  Indeed, it was anti-climax in a sense even from the literary point of view. Notable literary regulars at the festivals were absent. It was at the opening last April that Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka called on the Federal Government to bring back kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls in his keynote address; the call went virile and later became a mantra the world over, which Dr. Oby Ezekwesili later adopted as her year-long mission. She, too, a board member of Rainbow Book Club, did not show up for the closing.
  Clearly, the list of absentees was long. Pa Gabriel Okara is another regular of the city’s book activities; he was absent. Dr. Elechi Amadi is another regular at rainbow Book Club events; he was absent. Prof. Omolara Ogundipe didn’t show up as well. Pa Lindsay Barrett was also absent. So, too, was his son, Ignoni Barrett and Kaine Agary, two Port Harcourt literary folks. The Department of English and Literary Studies that usually represents University of Port Harcourt had no regular member in attendance. Dr. Obari Gomba is a notable poet in the city; he didn’t attend.
  Just a handful of literary figures were present. They were Chimeka Garricks and Uzo Nwamara and other upcoming ones, including the Songhai 12.

NEVERTHELESS, the N3 billion Port Harcourt Book Centre seems the crowning glory and milestone achievement of Port Harcourt as book capital 2014. It is Amaechi promise delivered. Already near completion, the centre was partly sponsored by Shell Petroleum Development Company, and will be managed by Port Harcourt Literary Society, an unknown body gradually riding on the back of Amaechi’s largesse to push itself forward and in the centre of things. It had been Amaechi’s vision that the book festival be weaned from government’s sponsorship and remain truly independent. This is what the centre would do to give fillip to the literary arts in the city.
  But what fate would befall literary activities in Port Harcourt after Amaechi leaves and Nyesom Wike, a legal mind, assumes office as governor? As a former Minister of Education, will he still see the value of books and invest in them by continuing the festival? In fact, what legacy did he leave behind as Minister of Education? Will he dismiss the entire festival and the promotion of books, as his predecessor’s fad that must be dismantled just because of that? As Minister of Education Wike did not attend a single book event, not even the one in the city from where he will govern from June.
  This means that the fate of books in Port Harcourt city will face a grim period if Wike were to wield the regular philistinism stick prevalent in Nigeria. In that case, literary enthusiasts in the city will have to develop a formula to continue their pastime without government.

At last, curtains fall on UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014


By Anote Ajeluorou



Last Friday marked the formal closing of UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, which the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt, hosted with yearlong book and literacy activities. It’s a book initiative of the world’s cultural organisation to emphasize the place of books in world’s civilization. From April 23, 2014 through April 23, 2015, Rainbow Book Club held various activities to celebrate the book and deepen the values of literacy enshrined in it.
  Last month, Director of UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, Mrs. Koko Kalango, whose Rainbow Book Club managed the programme, handed over to the city of Incheon in South Korea, as host for 2015. Bangkok, Thailand, handed the baton over to Port Harcourt in 2014. It was the first time an Africa sub-Saharan city would host the book capital.
  Among activities highlighting the closing ceremony was a symposium designed as an overview of programmes of the book capital, the challenges encountered, the successes recorded and how these could be transmitted to the future in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria at large. It turned out a stimulating and lively show, with discussants from a wide range of fields involved in the book chain, including a librarian, a publisher, an academic and a radio presenter as moderator - Dr. Blessing Ahiazu, Promise Ogochukwu, Uzo Nwamara, Onyi Sunday (moderating) and Chubuike Akwarandu and Breni Fiberesima.
  With some 200 book clubs established in primary and secondary schools (both government- and privately-run), the panel was of the view that the book clubs should be sustained and replicated. They also argued that the benefits of the book clubs should be extended to schools outside Rivers State to other states for extended benefits, as a way of deepening the value of the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 across the country. Further, schools where book clubs are established should be assisted to ensure the sustainability of the clubs for their continuing benefits to the pupils and students even after Port Harcourt has ended its reign as UNESCO World Book Capital.
  Also, Rainbow Boo Club was enjoined to partner with other book clubs in the city to help sustain the gains so far made. Private schools with wealthy parents were enjoined to assist the book clubs to grow. The panel also tasked the state government to extend the building of libraries in model schools to other schools while private school were enjoined to open up their libraries instead of keeping them locked.
  A librarian, Ahiazu said there was need to sustain reading habits, but that this could only happen when there were libraries in neighbourhoods in every community, as was the case in developed countries. She lamented the absence of community and public libraries in the country and said it posed a challenge to literacy and learning.
  Parents were also challenged to own libraries at home, as building block for children. “Most parents don’t have libraries at home,” Ahiazu stressed, “Parents don’t encourage their children to go to libraries. Parents need to challenge children to read. Changing values must begin with parents. Give books as gifts to your children, even as wedding gifts. That was what I did to my children. And it helped”.
  Rainbow Book Club was advised to maximize the gains made during the year, as manager of the book capital, adding, “Rainbow Book Club should see 2014 as a turning point for the book and pursue policies that are friendly to corporate bodies and individual to support the propagation of books and reading. Government should also introduce tax incentives and holidays to encourage support for books and reading.”
  Teachers also had their own share of advice on how to stimulate children’s reading appetites both in and out of schools. It was agreed that teaching was a vocation requiring passion and that it should not be seen as a mere meal ticket, as was often the case. For instance, it was argued that a teacher’s poor handling of a subject could affect a pupil to the extent that he loses interest in that subject. A panelist, Nwamara confessed to abandoning studying engineering or medicine because his Mathematics teacher made the subject difficult for him to understand.
  He stated, “Teachers often make learning a particular subject difficult for students. Teachers need to be trained and retrained to make learning fun and effective. Some teach because it’s a meal ticket; teaching should be for the passion. The psychology of the teacher is key. There is need for guidance and counseling units in schools to diagnose students’ problems and steer them in the right course and even determine the efficiency of teachers in students’ performance in a particular subjects where they persistently fail, especially if they are doing well in others”.
  A teacher who responded canvassed the need for students to appreciate books and for them to develop interest and hunger to read and enlarge their vocabulary.
  Also, Kalango said deepening reading habits among students was a collective effort, saying, “It’s a team effort and not a single person’s effort. Actions speak louder words; it’s a demonstration of what needs to be done. Be careful what you do around children; they are watching”.
  Growing up as a child Kalango said she saw her parent reading books, magazines and newspapers in the house, adult habit, which she said rubbed off on her and her siblings; it provided the foundation she was to build on later in life as promoter of books and reading.
  She said out of the 12 books read each month while Port Harcourt the World Book Capital six were adapted for stage and properly staged. The other six books had copyright issues that could not be resolved before the event. However, 12 dramatisations were held during the year.

REPRESENTING Rivers State Government was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Michael West. He said no nation could develop without focusing on education, as it bridges the world. According to West, “There’s no education without books. Reading and writing are hallmarks of education. In Rivers State we realize this and make it a focal point. It’s not just the provision of infrastructure and the recruiting of teachers, we provide well-stocked libraries in public schools. We instruct schools to inculcate reading habits in our children.
  “Choosing Port Harcourt as World Book Capital 2014 was an honour for us; we thank UNESCO for the honour. We have named one of our schools UNESCO Primary School to commemorate the World Book Capital 2014. We thank Mrs. Kalango for making this to happen. A reading society will always progress. It’s the only way of transforming our society from that of a third world to the first world”.
  Awards in various categories were given to some organizations and individuals who made the World Book Capital year a success.

HOWEVER, the closing ceremony was far less spectacular than the opening in many respects. First, governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, whose idea prompted the yearly Garden Literary Festival, later renamed Port Harcourt Book Festival, failed to show up. Not even his estranged deputy, Tele Ikuku, whose office oversaw the World Book Capital programme, showed up or sent a representative. No commissioner also came save the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, West.
  Since Amaechi’s political travails with the Presidency, books seem to have taken flight from his menu of activities. The one-time burning passion of the University of Port Harcourt graduate of English and Literary Studies began to nose-dive when he was absent at last year’s weeklong book festival. It was considered strange in a year his city was hosting UNESCO World Book Capital. A Permanent Secretary from the office of Ikuru came in representative capacity for the entire government.
  Indeed, it was anti-climax in a sense even from the literary point of view. Notable literary regulars at the festivals were absent. It was at the opening last April that Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka called on the Federal Government to bring back kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls in his keynote address; the call went virile and later became a mantra the world over, which Dr. Oby Ezekwesili later adopted as her year-long mission. She, too, a board member of Rainbow Book Club, did not show up for the closing.
  Clearly, the list of absentees was long. Pa Gabriel Okara is another regular of the city’s book activities; he was absent. Dr. Elechi Amadi is another regular at rainbow Book Club events; he was absent. Prof. Omolara Ogundipe didn’t show up as well. Pa Lindsay Barrett was also absent. So, too, was his son, Ignoni Barrett and Kaine Agary, two Port Harcourt literary folks. The Department of English and Literary Studies that usually represents University of Port Harcourt had no regular member in attendance. Dr. Obari Gomba is a notable poet in the city; he didn’t attend.
  Just a handful of literary figures were present. They were Chimeka Garricks and Uzo Nwamara and other upcoming ones, including the Songhai 12.

NEVERTHELESS, the N3 billion Port Harcourt Book Centre seems the crowning glory and milestone achievement of Port Harcourt as book capital 2014. It is Amaechi promise delivered. Already near completion, the centre was partly sponsored by Shell Petroleum Development Company, and will be managed by Port Harcourt Literary Society, an unknown body gradually riding on the back of Amaechi’s largesse to push itself forward and in the centre of things. It had been Amaechi’s vision that the book festival be weaned from government’s sponsorship and remain truly independent. This is what the centre would do to give fillip to the literary arts in the city.
  But what fate would befall literary activities in Port Harcourt after Amaechi leaves and Nyesom Wike, a legal mind, assumes office as governor? As a former Minister of Education, will he still see the value of books and invest in them by continuing the festival? In fact, what legacy did he leave behind as Minister of Education? Will he dismiss the entire festival and the promotion of books, as his predecessor’s fad that must be dismantled just because of that? As Minister of Education Wike did not attend a single book event, not even the one in the city from where he will govern from June.
  This means that the fate of books in Port Harcourt city will face a grim period if Wike were to wield the regular philistinism stick prevalent in Nigeria. In that case, literary enthusiasts in the city will have to develop a formula to continue their pastime without government.

Graham-Douglas Honours African Women With Performance In Dublin


By Anote Ajeluorou



Nigeria’s Bikiya Graham-Douglas will next week perform an eclectic piece on the potential of the African woman at this year’s African Week in Dublin. African Week is an Irish Government shuttle diplomacy programme in association with African Ambassadors to celebrate Africa and interactions for trade and commerce with a view to strengthening relationships between the Republic of Ireland and Africa. Graham-Douglas will perform a piece by Dipo Agboluaje, who is also the writer for the classic African narrative Obele and the Storyteller, which was recently performed in Port Harcourt at the closing ceremony of UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014.
  Shortly before she jetted off to Ireland last week, Graham-Douglas, who is also the founder of Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, said from her Ikoyi home in Lagos how excited and honoured she was to be chosen to showcase the resourcefulness of the African woman at such distinguished event. She said it was an opportunity for the African woman to shine and tell her own story in her own unique ways to the world.
  According to her, “I’m performing a piece about the African woman. It’s a piece about the empowerment of the African woman and it will be held at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin. I’m very excited and nervous about it. The story of the African woman is about her having freedom, having education, the right to be free from violence, and her right to be heard. Her story is about how she could recognize her capacity to perform and not just her capacity as a woman to perform the usual stereotypical woman’s duties society ascribes to her.
  “Some of these woman who are educated and highly experienced, but they are not seen beyond being a woman. If she is given a voice and allowed to succeed, she will affect her community positively and it will trickle down to her environment. It’s taken for granted how powerful a woman can be. Educate a woman and you educate an entire community is a truism. I’m really excited to be able to contribute to the growth of the African woman and to perform at the African Week in Dublin”.
  Graham-Douglas also took time to speak on her other projects, a new film she just made that will come out soon, a theatre performance in the offing and a playwriting competition. She affirmed how rooted her love for the theatre is in spite of the occasional pull from the filmic sub-genre of the performance art.
  Lunchtime Heroes is the new movie she just made; it’s a film devoted to the talents and ability of children where she believes they need to be helped to develop in whichever direction their talent takes.
  Lunchtime Heroes is a film I just did with Seye Babatope,” she said. “In the training for theatre you equip yourself with techniques and skills to perform and experiment with different forms. Film and theatre resonate with people differently. I’m happy to be a part of either film or theatre. I enjoy film but I get an explosion on stage; there’s a satisfaction that comes from stage, a satisfaction you get with the audience that is not in film. With theatre it’s a powerful connection one has with the audience – they laugh, cry and hate with you in the interaction on stage that’s absent in film”.
  She is looking to giving a bigger performance of Obele and the Storyteller at Easter next year. However, Graham-Douglas’ next project is a playwriting competition with which she aims to expose and empower young playwrights in the country. The best scripts will be performed at a grand event sometime in July or August.