The Arts-Muse Fair

A VISIT TO THE BADAGRY SLAVE MUSEUM BY HABEEB ADAM Only a few feelings can rival the joy of having your Special One by your side as you go on a cruise into the past, teleporting from one century to the other. In our own case, it wasn’t a joyous journey entirely. It was rather a mixed feeling of exoticness, intense pity and rage to varying degrees. The trip to the coastal town of Badagry commenced on a somewhat disappointing note. What shouldn’t take more than 2 hours at most lasted more than 5, all thanks to the omnipresent traffic jams and the potholes-ridden Lagos-Badagry Expressway. And as we set out, sardine-packed with a few dozen other passengers in a rickety Molue, we couldn’t help but note the irony of visiting the slave museum 14 decades after the abolishment of slavery, yet in a pitiable condition not too different from the way the slaves were shipped to the Americas – stacked like a pack of frozen fish underneath the ships. Rejoicing with the freed slav...

The African Writers Development Trust has announced Speakers for the 2019 African Writers Conference. The African Writers Conference this year will focus on Cultural Stereotypes in African Literature: Rewriting the Narratives for the 21st Century Reader. This conference will hold on 28th September at the Sarit Centre, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. A statement from Namse Udosen, Public Relations Manager of AWDT lists the 5 speakers from 4 African countries as Sabah Carrim (Mauritius), Nnane Ntube (Cameroun), Nabilah Usman (Nigeria), Alex Nderitu (Kenya), and Tom Odhiambo (Kenya). Sabah Carrim (Mauritius) – Keynote Speaker   Sabah is a Mauritian novelist with two novels: Humeirah (2012) and Semi-Apes (2015). Both stories are set in Mauritius where she was born. Sabah's short stories have been selected for publication in writing competitions organised by the Commonwealth Foundation and Goethe Institute South Africa. ​ Sabah is also a law lecturer and a freelance editor ...

The MIT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bootcamp brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, business executives and students from various parts of the world. Bootcampers sleep only 4 hours a day and work for 20 hours; learning team work, primary market research, innovation, product development, pitching and other things which adds up to be the most rigorous experience of their lives. Each team was tasked with developing an idea into an innovative business within 5 days. My team had a Neuro Scientist, two Data Analytics professionals, an Economist, Microbiologist and a Computer Engineer. If you’re hoping to enroll for the MIT bootcamp, prepare to reach your elastic limit, break, and remake again. The unique experience of the bootcamp can hardly be replicated anywhere else in the world. The academic materials, the quality of mentors and lecturers and the superior arrangement and coordination of the whole exercise is exceptional. It is a sharp deviation from the narrative of business sc...

Deadline: June 19, 2019 The  LensCulture Art Photography Awards  aim to recognize and reward visionary artists using photographic processes and images. Running for the second year, the Awards give photographers the platform to express their creativity and experimentation with the photographic medium. Organizers are looking to receive original entries shaped by entrants’ unique vision and skills in different categories ranging from prints made for gallery walls, to sculptural objects and totally new forms and formats. Get the details  here

Yesterday Friday, a photography competition for secondary schools in Niger state opened in Minna. Some of the contestants The contest, which will end today, is organized by the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation - Minna, and sponsored by Mr. AbdulBerqy Ebbo, the D.G – ICT of Niger state. Some students getting ready for the contest The contest requires participants to creatively take outdoor shots of given locations in a specified period and submit both soft and hard copies for assessment. All photos entered for the competition will be exhibited before winners are announced.     Some participating students Prizes for winners of the contest include Nikon D80 plus N50,000 cash for the first prize winner, N70,000 cash for the second prize winner, and N50,000 cash for the third place winner. BM Dzukogi, Founder - Hilltop Arts Foundation At a brief opening ceremony held at the Foundation’s headquarters located at Hilltop School Minna, the Founder, BM...

According to estimates, Ghana’s population is 'just' 29.4 million. Ghana is therefore small, compared to Nigeria, but she is able to do big things that positively impact not only on her neighbours or the West African sub-regional space but up to the continental level. Her hosting of the headquarters of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), with it a diplomatic status to boot, readily comes to mind. A fruit shed in Aburi. Photo:  Aminu S Muhammad No town in Ghana probably holds enough significance and nostalgia for Nigerians like Aburi, located in the Eastern Region of Ghana. This beautiful hillside town, with arguably the best weather in Ghana owing to its altitude, was in February 1967, the host of a last ditc hed effort by Ghana and other countries to save Nigeria from an imminent civil war that sadly went on to cause the loss of over a million lives. Gowon and late Ojukwu, the two men who led Nigeria to a civil war. Photo: informationng.com Although t...