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‘Revolution Is a Collective Act.’ Lanaire Aderemi’s First Draft

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Today in 1993, Nigerian writer, Flora Nwapa, died

Today in 1993, Nigerian writer, Flora Nwapa, died aged 62. #RxHistory⏳⁠
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On 16 October 1993, Nigerian writer who was often called the mother of modern African literature, Flora Nwapa, died of pneumonia aged 62.⁠
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Nwapa was born on January 13, 1931, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She had her early education in Port Harcourt and Lagos before going to University College, Ibadan and then Edinburgh University in the UK. Nwapa is considered the mother of modern African literature because she was the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain.⁠
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Nwapa was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers. She achieved international recognition with her first novel ‘Efuru’, published in 1966 at the age of 30 years by Heinemann Educational Books. She also worked in both education and civil service positions, such as assistant registrar, University of Lagos from 1962 to 1967 and the minister of Health and Social Welfare in East Central State, Nigeria, from 1970 to 1971.⁠
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While never considering herself a feminist, she is best known for recreating life and traditions from an Igbo woman’s viewpoint. Her other known works include ‘Idu’, ‘Women are Different’ and ‘Wives at War’.⁠
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Click the link in our bio to read reflections by several writers on Flora Nwapa’s debut novel ‘Efuru’.⁠
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📝: Adams Adeosun and Tomisin Awosika⁠
📷: 1) Flora Nwapa in 1973. John Prieto⁠
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2) ‘Efuru’ by Flora Nwapa. Afreada / Instagram

‘The Nigerian state is not a failed state.’ #

‘The Nigerian state is not a failed state.’ #OnSite⚡️⁠⁠
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Today in 2020, the #EndSARS protests were underway. The peaceful protests started on 08 October 2020 and followed weeks of widespread outrage and anger at videos and pictures showing police brutality, harassment and extortion in Nigeria.⁠
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In this essay, Joshua Segun-Lean explores governance in Nigeria and argues that failed leadership in Nigeria is actually intentional. ⁠⁠
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According to Segun-Lean, leaders regularly confront Nigerians with crises that keep Nigerians distracted, and left in a permanent state of survival. He explains that in Nigeria the goal of ‘leaders’ has been to, ‘dissociate a people from any real scale of human tragedy, convince them that a world in which their lives are always forfeit is normal. A world where it is natural and expected to die in a stampede of 20,000 people scrambling to secure limited seats for a recruitment test.’ ⁠⁠
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According to Segun-Lean, ‘Nothing “makes sense” in Nigeria because nothing was designed to make sense. The denial of sense, of the reasonable and justifiable, of proportion, is critical to the status quo.’⁠⁠
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Read the full essay by clicking the link in our bio.⁠⁠
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📝: Joshua Segun-Lean⁠⁠
📷: Ayoola Salako

Which female characters stood out to you in your c

Which female characters stood out to you in your childhood reading? #OnSite⚡⁠
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Essayist and playwright, Lanaire Aderemi, shared hers in our latest First Draft:⁠
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‘The female character that stood out to me in the books I read growing up was Enitan from Sefi Atta’s “Everything Good Will Come” because of her feminist spirit. I was really young when I read the novel. I don’t think I had heard of feminism, but I always questioned injustice, especially the injustice women were told to endure. Reading Enitan’s experience of being a woman in Nigeria allowed me to understand that the personal really is political.’⁠
⁠
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing. Read Aderemi’s interview by clicking the link in our bio.⁠
____________⁠
📝: Lanaire Aderemi⁠
📷: Ojima Abalaka

Today in 1987, Thomas Sankara was assasinated. #Rx

Today in 1987, Thomas Sankara was assasinated. #RxHistory⏳⁠
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On 15 October 1987, Burkina Faso’s first president, Thomas Sankara, was killed by an armed group alongside 12 other officials in a coup d’état organized by his former colleague, Blaise Compaoré. Sankara’s body was dismembered and buried in an unmarked grave while his widow and two children fled the country.⁠
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34 years after he was assasinated, Sankara’s murder trial began on 11 October 2021 in a military court in Ouagadougou. 14 men including Compaoré have been accused of his murder. ⁠
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As president, Sankara’s policies were oriented toward fighting corruption, promoting reforestation, promoting women’s empowerment, averting famine and making education and health national priorities. He even withdrew Burkina Faso from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.⁠
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When Compaoré took over, he overturned nearly all of Sankara’s policies, reversed the nationalizations, rejoined the IMF and World Bank and ultimately rejected most of Sankara’s legacy. Compaoré remained in power for 27 years until he was overthrown by protests in 2014.⁠
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Although Sankara—who was 33 years old when he became president—was murdered at the young age of 37, he continues to be remembered as a martyr of Pan-Africanism. Thomas Sankara once said, ‘While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas’.⁠
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Read more about Sankara’s revolutionary leadership at the link in our bio.⁠
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📝: Adams Adeosun and Tomisin Awosika⁠
📷: 1) President Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso speaking at his press conference at UN Headquarters on 04 October 1984. UN PHOTO.⁠
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2) Marco Werman / PRI ⁠
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3)Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso President, and Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet Andrei Gromyko greet each other before talks at the Moscow Kremlin. TASS / Getty Images.⁠
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4) Sankara and Fela. Fela was born this day in 1938. Unknown Photographer.

Today in 1938, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was born. #RxH

Today in 1938, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was born. #RxHistory⏳⁠
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On 15 October 1938, Nigerian musician and political activist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Fela was a multi-talented instrumentalist, and a composer. ⁠
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Born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper middle class Nigerian family, he was the son of women’s rights activist, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, an Anglican priest. In 1958, Fela moved to London to study medicine but ended up attending a college of music instead.⁠
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In 1963, Fela returned to Nigeria where he formed a band, trained as a radio producer and performed with Victor Olaiya. He is widely regarded as the pioneer of the ‘Afrobeat’ music genre.⁠
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An advocate of pan-Africanism, his music became increasingly political until he was considered a dissenter. In the build up to the 1979 presidential election, Fela started a pro-citizens political party called the Movement of the People. However, his candidacy was refused.⁠
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He continued making music until the 1990s. In 1997, at the age of 58, Fela died from AIDS-related complications. Around a million people attended his funeral.⁠
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Today, Fela is immortalized in the arts of Nigerian and international artists who draw inspiration from the genre he pioneered and the life he lived. Felabration, an annual festival celebrating Fela’s legacy, attracts visitors from all over the world.⁠
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Read more about Fela by clicking the link in our bio. ⁠
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📝: Adams Adeosun and Tomisin Awosika⁠
📷: 1) Musician Fela Kuti performs at Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Michigan, in 1986. Leni Sinclair / Getty Images. ⁠
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2) Nigerian musician and composer Fela Kuti (1938-1997) performs at Vredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands on 3rd November 1988. Frans Schellekens / Redferns.⁠
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3) Fela and Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe. Unknown Photographer.⁠
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4) Fela and Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara. Sankara was assasinated this day in 1987. Unknown Photographer.

‘Where are the history books about women?’ #On

‘Where are the history books about women?’ #OnSite⚡⁠
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Essayist and playwright, Lanaire Aderemi, first realized that women were insufficiently represented in African history during a General Studies class in secondary school. She explains in our latest First Draft:⁠
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‘Every week, we were taught about Africans that made history. I remember in year nine, after several weeks of learning about war and military rule, my teacher randomly recounted events from the Aba Women’s Protest of 1929. I remember he described the women as rebellious and barbaric because they burnt colonial buildings. At that time, being “rebellious” was a very dirty word. I remember after the class, I rushed to the library, determined to read more about the Aba Women. I remember asking the librarian: “Where are the history books about women?” and I remember she was silent.’⁠
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First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing. Read Aderemi’s interview by clicking the link in our bio.⁠
____________⁠
📝: Lanaire Aderemi⁠
📷: Ojima Abalaka

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