Calypso: Enslaved African gift and its Mighty Sparrow, by Owei Lakemfa
Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow, the “Calypso King of the World”, flew away on September 27, 2026. He was ninety. Calypso music was invented in the seventeenth century by African slaves in Trinidad who had mainly been taken from the Ibibio, Efik and Igbo peoples in present-day Nigeria and Congo. It is generally […]
Ruto and Falana: Brother for enslavement and brother for liberation
By Owei Lakemfa His Excellency William Ruto, Kenya’s newly minted President, prides himself as the Hustler-in-Chief of the country. He says he is from the “Hustler Nation” – the informal economy where he used to sell chickens for survival. However, having a dog-eat-dog street ideology as he claims, does not preclude a sense of basic human […]
The National Industrial Court, NIC, should not be for hire
By Owei Lakemfa Once the Muhammadu Buhari government had failed to get striking lecturers in our public universities back to class, I knew it would head for the National Industrial Court, NIC, shopping for an injunction. Tragically that is what governments in the country and rich employers have turned the NIC into: a fishing pond […]
Gorbachev as an agent provocateur, fifth columnist or undertaker
By Owei Lakemfa The world evolved at various stages of development but conflict and conquest were not usually very far. Great empires rose, but habitually at the expense of the conquered. They also fell, usually due to internal contradictions. But when two nations, Portugal and Spain, rose with the backing of the Catholic Church, it […]
Broken truths and broken ribs: Kukah’s forensic examination of Nigeria
By Owei Lakemfa The year 2018 was one of self-examination for Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari who flew in on the wings of change had been in power for three years and the situation had simply become far worse. The inflation rate when he came in was 9.01 per cent, shooting up to 15.68 per cent […]
Small but mighty Trinidad and Tobago freed after 464 years
By Owei Lakemfa IT was like a seamless gathering. Diplomats and academics. Practioners of two assertive professions: lawyers and journalists. Cultural ambassadors and traditional chiefs. It was evening in Abuja on Monday August 22, 2022. We were gathered for the pre-independence 60th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago, T&T which comes up on August 31. The […]
