Desmond Tutu: We learn from history that we don't learn from history!

What I Wasn’t Taught In School: Black History Month!

by with One Comment First Published

There seems to be a lot you haven’t told us, and you shut down and hold back on the bold ones who stand against the way you’re trying to mold us.

Here’s a short spoken word film about a student who is frustrated at the repetitive black history teaching in schools. He believes Black History Month isn’t taught with as much depth and as much pride in schools and relays his thought to his teacher.  He questions why his school black history curriculum do not touch on influential people like Patricia E. Bath, King Musa I of Mali, Mary Prince, Sir Trevor McDonald, Ella Baker, Septimius Severus, Fuse ODG, Jamal Edwards, Garrett Morgan and Kwame Nkrumah.

Desmond Tutu: We learn from history that we don't learn from history!

 

madam secretary republic of west africa

Madam Secretary’s Republic of West Africa

by with 3 Comments First Published

On October 26, Madam Secretary, the new CBS show starring the lovely Tea Leoni as an affable, idealistic secretary of state, aired its sixth episode titled The Call.

IMDb lists the episode’s synopsis as “Elizabeth faci[ng] unexpected consequences when she makes a plea to the President to help with a dire situation in Western Africa.” Looks and sounds all good until you realize that the country in question is a made-up country called Republic of West Africa.

This isn’t the first time Hollywood has made up an African country. Because, why should it be bothered with geography? Currently, Wikipedia lists 96 fictional African countries in its list of fictional African countries. Close to twice the number the continent has in real life.

It was not the fact that Madam Secretary writers made up a new fictional country that made us uneasy. But, the expectation of more dished Hollywood stereotypes and inaccuracies. We were right!

The first couple of questions that sprang to mind during the first few minutes of watching the broadcast were: where on the map is the Republic of West Africa? Which countries surround it? Will Ebola be involved?

Thankfully, Ebola was not mentioned. And, we were given the answer to the first two questions. Republic of West Africa is “wedged between Gabon and Cameroon.” Wait, isn’t that Equatorial Guinea? Of which, that means Republic of West Africa is located in Central Africa, to be exact the west border of Central Africa.

The frustration of geography is something we all understand. For all our lives, we can’t figure out how a Central African country can be called a West African country. Without any doubt, the Madam Secretary writers could just not be bothered to research the fictional land they are depicting to make it believably real. Was the research team sleeping on a bicycle? Seems so. Continue Reading

Blended Movie Review

Adam Sandler Went to Africa the Hollywood Way

by with No Comment Republished

Adam Sandler has a new movie out called “Blended”, starring Drew Barrymore. Adam’s character, Jim, goes on a karmically bad date with Drew’s character, Lauren. They somehow happen to know the same person who has TWO tickets to Africa. This person gives them the tickets. They both go on FAMILY vacations to Africa, where they are forced to live with each other, maybe become friends, maybe screw around a little bit. Blah blah blahhhhhh.

Logical inconsistencies (because I don’t know how two tickets multiply into about 8, but let’s go with it) aside, the entire premise of this film is based on tired, overused, frankly embarrassing tropes about Africa.

First of all, they’re off to AFRICA. Yes, the COUNTRY of Africa, no country in particular. But who cares about details and specificity when it comes to Africa? Who is going to fact-check, anyway? Are Africans going to see this movie? Aren’t they too busy dying or starving to see the movie in the first place? Right, Hollywood? Americans have bluntly refused to be specific when it comes to Africa. I don’t get it! You can tell me about your vacation in Mykonos, a small island, in the country of GREECE, which is in continent of EUROPE, but you cannot tell me what country you went to in the whole of Africa! It is downright lazy and insulting. But it’s cool. They are off to Africa. Yay! Continue Reading

dangers of a single story

The danger of a single story

by with No Comment Uncategorized

I’m a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call “the danger of the single story.” I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an early reader. And what I read were British and American children’s books. I was also an early writer. And when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading. All my characters were white and blue-eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples.  And they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out. Now, this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria. I had never been outside Nigeria. We didn’t have snow. We ate mangoes. And we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to. My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer because the characters in the British books I read drank ginger beer. Never mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was.  And for many years afterwards, I would have a desperate desire to taste ginger beer. But that is another story. Continue Reading