I'm Back! Yay!

Hi guys!

Yes I'm back to blogging, but not really on this page.

Check out my new blog: eko series.

It's chick lit, laid-back, and fun. You'll love the girls! lol!

click here.

Enjoy!
Isi

I miss blogging!

I miss blogging! Thinking of what the focus of my blog should be. Something I’d love to keep doing even when blogger gets trite, like it normally would. Will get to it shortly.

But since I’m here now, I’d like to congratulate my dear FB friend and fellow author/writer, Myne Whitman for her new and shinning Nigerian fiction site: www.naijastories.com
Myne is such an enterprising young lady with a warm personality (just chatting online you can tell); let’s rally around this literary site and make it soar. Be a reader, a writer, contributor of the site and leave your beautiful and constructive comments behind. It’s right here.

Book Jam comes this Saturday, April 24 at the Silverbird Lifestyle store at the Galleria. By 3pm. As traditional of the event, there’ll be a select group of authors reading from their works and a crowd of literary enthusiast. Be a part of it!

I am working on my second book at present, and I am very excited about it. More gist on that later…

So what will you be up to this Sunday? I’ll be spending a better part of my morning in the kitchen; then the afternoon will be for munching most of my culinary samples afterwards; my evening, well, I’ll be back online to chat up a couple of friends.

Have a fab Sunday!

Isi

SPICE debuts!

SPICE is an all fashion and style magazine for the discerning. Grab your copy; call 0803-328-6604, 0702-808-9176, or visit your nearest vendor. More outlets soon!

EKO DIALOGUE now available worldwide!

Hi bloggers!

You can now get your copy of EKO DIALOGUE, a witty collection of short stories anywhere you are in the woooooooorllllld!!!!

Visit http://www.naijareads.com and place your order today. We deliver to any destination in the world!

Eko Dialogue is fast-paced, brilliant and fluid you almost feel the blares, toots and cynicism of Eko (Lagos) literally come alive and jump straight at you. Promise me you'll get your copy *wink*

Looking forward to hear from y'all!

Happy reading!

Isi.

NNENNA OKORE HOLDS FIRST MAJOR EXHIBITION IN NIGERIA

Nnenna Okore, the talented and internationally acclaimed sculptor and installation artist, returns to Nigeria to hold her first major art exhibition beginning June 20th, 4pm, at the Goethe Institut in Lagos. After a successful series of exhibitions at galleries in the US and the UK, the Assistant Professor of Art at North Park University, Chicago will bring her vibrant and constructive approach to sculptural and installation art to a keen Nigerian art audience. The exhibition will be opened by her former professor and mentor at the University of Nsukka and famed art sculptor in his own right El Anatsui. Nnenna often uses materials found in urban environments. Her artworks reflect the way that natural and man-made materials evolve, decay and transform, while other pieces can take on the character and flowing shape of traditional woven cloths or elements of nature. She has received several awards and residencies worldwide, and has been exhibited in several prestigious galleries and museums including the Museum of Art and Design, New York and the October Gallery, London. The German Cultural center, the Goethe Institut are her hosts for this show presented by Kachifo Limited, publishers of Farafina Books.
This event is sponsored by DANA AIR and proudly supported by FARAFINA.
The show runs at the Goethe Institut from June 20th until July 10th. Learn more about this artist by logging on to www.nnennaokore.com

Hiya peeps!

Be my darls and check out http://jollykids-isi.blogspot.com/

My experience as a mother has taught me one thing: mothers need all the help they can get!
Oh yes, I have had many challenges as a mother; like most other mothers out there, it is a problem keeping a day job because nannies and helps quit on me at dare moments; and sometimes it's hard to think straight with the kids jumping all over the place, turning your once spotless home into a hub of chaos!
And when kids want something - THEY WANT SOMETHING! It never crosses their mind if you can give them that 100% attention they desire.

So Jolly Kids is a business I will be dedicating all of my efforts.

Apart from your weekly shopping, we spend hours with mothers in caring for their little angels.
If you need to celebrate your babies birthday and you do not wish to raise a muscle, we are here to make it work!

Do check out the blog and give me a call!

Motherhood is bliss!

The Hushed Voices.

It just doesn’t feel contextually appropriate to pick up a typical fashion/lifestyle magazine and be weighed down by the shocking true life story of a minor, barely six, repeatedly abused by an uncle, only to flip through the other pages and see the smiling faces of ‘fashionistas’ in their usual pomp and swish garbs. Cant really pinpoint my grouse here, but there just seemed to be no consistency in the theme, how could I for the love of humanity, have been expected to read a thing as despicable as that in one minute, shrug my shoulders, with a deep stomach wrenching sigh, make the sign of the cross and pray it doesn’t happen to my child, and in the next minute flip on to read other cheerful things about, well, fashion extraordinaire? How convenient could that possibly be? Were it a script from Nollywood, perhaps it might have been tolerable to have inserts of commercials jabbering irrelevantly. It is not something that took place in a foreign land that alienates me from the surrounding area; it is a true story of a 28 year-old Nigerian girl, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos who may never get her life straightened out for the reason that her uncle turned her into a sex slave to relieve himself of his most perverted fantasies many years ago when she was a child. That this story appeared in a fashion magazine is in itself nothing to raise hue about, but that it was rendered mechanically without any apparent interest or intent to bring the perpetrator to justice, the victim to solace or the readers to justification is perhaps the heart wrenching aspect. How are we supposed to get over such an issue if it is obvious that the status-qou is not being questioned, and justice is not being sought? Perhaps we are only expected to turn away and pray the news spreads to every home in Nigeria in the hope that mothers will be alerted that paedophiles are everywhere, but untouchable?
Who are these paedophiles? Our uncles, fathers, cousins, nephews, teachers, priests, and nannies? The people who should protect the little ones? The ones whom the children put their utmost trust in?
My grouse spreads across my face like a scar. Issues like paedophilia is not a ‘Super Story’ episode on Thursday evening when dad and mum leaves work early enough to sit with the kids with an accompaniment of soft drinks waiting to be entertained; it is an issue that should incite, provoke and bring forth tangible answers and pragmatic results.
Why are these things happening? And most of all why do we keep ‘quiet’? We talk, but we hide under pseudonyms that protect identities…and ultimately shield these psychologically imbalanced offenders. Our shame is in our silence. Nobody is talking. Our dishonour is in the culture that protects the depraved adults.
There are many stories of this kind, children abused by relatives, and the most horrifying detail is in the fact that it goes on for years, scarring the child emotional and leaving him/her traumatised for many years to come. And when it is time to voice out the pain which may now be too heavy to bear, the offender is either dead, sorry, or ‘untouchable’ – you know, an important figure in society; or in many cases the victim is unwilling to go the whole mile. She is still cautious, counting her losses, while society overwhelms her with its role of tradition.

I had interviewed a victim of paedophilia once. She was sexually molested by two uncles on different occasions. She talked about the episode, capturing details of the horrific incidents, I cringed. Apart from the article which was featured on, yes, a lifestyle/fashion magazine, she was going to write a book about her experience. I was glad, at least her identity was not concealed and I am certain the offenders will not be either as they are now exposed to the family and the world in general, it gives hope that some child will be saved soon enough from their grip, what relief!

But that is just one case out of a hundred quiet ‘pseudonym-ized’ circumstances.

What are the other victims doing? Some have been able to move ahead leaving their ‘shame’ behind, marry the men of their dreams and have their own children, they are sheltered; and a large number of husbands are not even aware of what had transpired between their wives and that 65 year-old uncle who they (the wives) plainly refuse to speak to beyond a ‘hello’ whenever they meet at family gatherings. Uncle is happy she is ashamed, his act is protected. He can go ahead and continue in his abominations; like her, the little ones will not be able to speak either, time will pass and their pain will dissipate and the chain remians unbroken.

Others end up like Kate, the unreal name of the 28 year old abused, who swears never to get married. She is in pain, her life is altered, but her uncle is untainted by his past. He has moved on to greater heights – of course he has his family, a doting wife, I presume, children he buys sneakers for, who travel to Dubai for vacation, and now he sits in a position of influence. His secret will die with him, he is certain of that because he knows you are a coward.

Oh dear, but that is what it is. That is the bed in which paedophilia rests on, unlike other crimes like robbery and drug abuse where people cry foul immediately it happens, a woman is concerned of how she is looked upon if the world knows she has been tampered with - men will not propose, friends will run away, society might even blame you. Like in cases where the child is said to be dressed provocatively, she is blamed partly for her abuse. Have you heard anything so sick? It is as off-coloured as the act itself!

Be rest assured that even if you are 3 years old and a relative beats you to submit to a shameful act of abuse, there are still some people, psychologically imbalanced individuals, who will assume the act to be minor, and tell you, ‘maybe, in some ways, it was your fault.’
It is true, a larger number of the society will interpret your cause in many ways vexing of the spirit. Still, it is your duty to save the next child and not camouflage in a garb that makes you a fictional character - one they are unable to relate with; be the heroine who stands and makes her voice heard in the hope of restoring a society of its madness.

Our love for ‘family’ that makes it impossible for us to point out the rotten eggs in our midst for proper penalty is probably the pits of it all. It is those ‘family’ roles we play that is most shameful – mothers who will not listen to their children when they cry out, ‘Do you know what Uncle did to me?’
Kate was slapped across the cheeks when she tried to speak to her mother years ago about the abuse, so goes her tale.
A society that refuses to pry – oh, we pry alright into the closets of celebrities. But while we are busy dissecting the livee of super stars, we should take the time to look through the windows of our neighbours. What do you see?

Report to the authorities if an uncle has his manhood inserted in the mouth of his five-year old niece!