Trek for Joe - Hadrian's Wall Walk April 2012: I am in training as I blog. Living the dream.

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Have the South African police been bribed to talk nonsense?

I cannot believe that the South African Police are stupid. The statements of some highly-placed officers, finding 'guilty' the man accused of having arranged for his wife to be killed, even before he had appeared in court, makes me wonder why they make these statements that the defence could use to argue that their client would be unlikely to get a fair hearing in South Africa - and therefore should not be extradited.

Will we see democracy in Egypt?

After the resignation of Mubarak last week, do you think we shall see democracy in Egypt? Will the Military masters ansure and oversee a peaceful transition?

THE MIRROR BOY WORLD PREMIERE AND AFTER-PARTY

Nollywood Focus invites you to The Mirror Boy movie World Premiere and After-party.

Mirror Boy is the Nollywood movie everybody wants to see. Written and Directed by Obi Emelonye (Who's Next?, Echoes of War, The London Successor). The impressive cast includes Nollywood's foremost actress Genevieve Nnaji alongside a strong cast including Osita Iheme (Back from America), Fatima Jabbe, Edward Kagutuzi (The Bill, Law & order), John Charles Njie (The Calabash, Wrong Identity), and Modu Musa Ceesay (The Banjul Cops, My Gambian Holiday).

Produced by OH Films in association with The Nollywood Factory, The Mirror Boy (as talked about on CNN Inside Africa), promises to set new standards in Nollywood film-making. That's it friends, Nollywood continues its march to conquer the world. What is left is for everyone to come out and support the film by going to the cinema to see it.

What is the film about?

“The Mirror Boy” is an enthralling journey through the picturesque terrains of The Gambia, as seen through the eyes of a London-born 12 year old boy, TIJANI.

On the 13th of June and wholly out of character, TIJANI gets involved in a street fight in which a boy is hurt. Convinced that TIJANI needs discipline, TEEMA, his mum decides to take him to the Gambia to live with her sister.

On their arrival in Banjul, TIJANI encounters what he considers to be a simple apparition - a boy smiling at him in a mirror and vanishing afterwards.

However, seeing the same boy in a crowded street market the next day sets in motion a chain of events that culminates in him getting lost.

While the panic-stricken TEEMA struggles with the Police Force to find her son in an intriguing game of survival brinkmanship, TIJANI is left alone in the company of the enigmatic MIRROR BOY who is only visible to him.

As a bruising spiritual rite of passage, the MIRROR BOY takes TIJANI on a magical journey through the dark belly of the forest.

After a series of edge-of-the-seat adventures in the forest, TIJANI emerges the next day, a bewildered boy; for whom the lines between reality and fantasy; between the physical and the spiritual have been forever blurred.

His arrival at a time of mourning for a small kingdom upsets the evil machinations of a desperate Queen who; threatened by his innocent presence; is not afraid to wield her mysterious powers.

A cathartic climax helps TIJANI to unravel the mystery of the MIRROR BOY. It also provides him with a rather mystical explanation for the way his life has cascaded from the 13th of June towards this inter-twined fate with a father he has never met...

What does it cost?
There are 4 ticket options for you.

1. Limited unreserved Seating - £15.00 only available until 31/01/2011
2. VIP Limited Reserved Seating - £20.00
3. VIP Reserved Seating plus After-Party - £50.00 (The most popular)
4. After-party only - £20.00

Where can you get the tickets?
NOLLYWOOD FOCUS - The Mirror Boy Premiere Partners are selling online now --- NO BOOKING FEES! --- Pay Safely and Securely by PAYPAL by following this link: http://www.nollywoodfocus.com/2011/01/mirror-boy-world-premiere-and-after.html

Your e-ticket will be delivered by e-mail. Please note: Tickets will not be available at the door.

If you don't do online payments, you can send a cheque or postal order payable to: EASTERN LIGHT EPM INTERNATIONAL and send to:

Nollywood FocusEastern Light EPM International
Unit 136
113-115 George Lane
London
E18 1AB

If you are sending a cheque or postal order, due to the high demand for the tickets, in order not to miss out, send us an e-mail to let us know you have sent a cheque in the post and we will reserve your tickets.
All e-mails to nollywoodfocus@easternlightepm.com

Nollywood Focus is a publishing style of Eastern Light EPM International - spotlighting milestones and people in the Nigerian film industry.

The worship of Holy Thugs in Venezuela

I was astonished to hear, on BBC World Service, a programme about the worship of the spirits of criminals who had been killed in police shootouts. These Santos Malandros, or Holy Thugs, are said to have learnt, at the time of their death, of the destructiveness of their conduct and work with great dedication to prevent young people from committing crimes whilst protecting the general public from crime.

This is so amazing, I invite you to check it out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ccrrb

THE OPTIMIST AND THE PISSED OFF: TWO POEMS ABOUT FLOWERS

Since I am not a person of science, my first contribution to Dr Azuonye's blog is poetry. I am thinking about Nigerian politics and how we deal with issues there. After the primaries on Thursday, Nuhu Ribadu vs Goodluck Jonathan emerged as Presidential candidates. How are Nigerian poets going to chronicle the events? Are we going to just bitch at them, or are we going to find something good, however small and anchor our hopes and aspirations on it? Last night I read through some of my own scribbles and found two poems about flowers. I just thought I should share them with you. Strange, my state of mind in these works.


A POEM ABOUT FLOWERS
(For Victor Ehikhamenor)

"Don't write about flowers when the roads are bad"
you charge your kindred poets.

A firestorm rages inside my head.

I choose to write about flowers;
the petals in phantom wreaths rotting,
beautiful menace on imaginary graves
that hold corpses felled by Bakassi blades.

A fireflood roars in my veins.

I choose to write about flowers, because
to paint only potholes and sing only
of blood-flooded streets beautify ugliness.
I'd rather grasp at a shadow of beauty.

A hope bird sings on my shoulder.

I choose to write about flowers;
the testament to loves still thriving
in our compassion-droughted land.
I will defend this dreampot with my life.

If I don't write about flowers, you see,
demons shall vanquish my loftiest dreams.
They will regress me to the age of darkness,
and I, optimistic still, refuse
to be walked backward.


THE SMART ALWAYS DRAW FLOWERS

It is easy to fetch a clean sheet of paper.
The desk drawer has hundreds of those.
Lay it like a keen ear in front of your
broken spirit, upon a gross tabletop;
a tabletop that enjoys a frigging sad tale.

Quickly clear the desk of everything else,
then begin to draw pictures. Silly pictures;
flowers, more flowers, yet more flowers!
If the pictures stay bright, vibrant, smiling,
they might induce a timeout from shit.

You are one of those rectitude-whipped
screwballs, awake when you should sleep,
smashing up your sorry laptop’s keyboards,
you moan about this, about that, and that.
Everyone else’s mind except yours is sick.

The leaders and their goons are full of shit,
but you, you are smart and full of vision! I say
you are crap if all you can do is draw flowers
and beat up a helpless laptop keyboard, brother,
your name has never been on a ballot paper.

The baboons with big big balls throw a ball -
to jerk off, you slip on their semen and fall.
They laugh, they mock you, their feet in the air.
The Dollars are in the baboons’ vault. Tough!
No bottle to fight them? Go draw flowers.

- Nnorom Azuonye


"A Poem About Flowers" from The Bridge Selection: Poems for the Road - Nnorom Azuonye (2005)

"The Smart Always Draw Flowers" from The Red Pastures - Nnorom Azuonye (forthcoming July 12, 2011)

© Nnorom Azuonye

The shooting in Arizona, yesterday, 8 January 2011

I am reluctant to see anything random about the shooting of Cogresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, along with 17 others, in Arizona yesterday. I think it is the translation into action of the incitement to violence emerging from the so-called Tea Party movement of the US Republicans. I understand that Sarah Palin is to be questioned about the posters she made with pictures of Gabrielle Giffords and others in the cross-hairs of a gun. It only takes a mentally unbalanced person to see this as an "instruction" to shoot. Political debate in America has now become a war that will be fought with guns on the streets of the country.