Post "SS" Beef [Featured Artiste: 'Motola]

Behold a “rant-and-rave” blog post! (*giggles*) The title of this entry notwithstanding, I am not about to launch into an in-depth analysis of beef and its many qualities and uses.  And no, I am not about to lay out the recipe for banga soup either….LOL! Okay, enough with the intrigue already! “SS” here stands for “Secondary School.”  I must have mentioned secondary schools a couple of times on this blog, but what I neglected to mention was the name of the one I attended.  I am still not ready to disclose that, but I do have a bone of contention with certain “admirers” (Oh, I’m sorry! I do believe I misspelt that word! I actually meant to spell this one: H-A-T-E-R-S! LOL! Or like Yoruba folks who swallow their “H” would pronounce it, ‘ATERS’)

I attended a well-known federal government college in Nigeria, and while I have never had a problem with that, I have noticed that more than a few people do.  




My experience in Nigeria AND surprisingly, here in the US, is that people often ask me what secondary school I attended (no one really asks about primary school) and as soon as I say the name of the school, the comments start rolling in.  By the time I give examples, I suspect you may probably guess at the school sef….LOL!  Oya, here are examples of reactions:

L2: A Second Language [Featured Artiste: Dach-Mo]

My native language is NOT English.  It is Yoruba.  Are you shocked? I doubt it, but I will explain myself nonetheless.  I define “native language” for myself alone, as the language spoken by members of my ethnic group.  Being that I am from Lagos (Yes, I really am from Lagos), it is obvious why I would assert that Yoruba is my native language.  But, the problem with this my definition is that it does not apply to everyone else.  It is essentially “discriminatory,” the reason being that so many other people cannot define their native language the way I defined mine.  In fact, some people would even argue with me that English is their native language.  But, I disagree.  While English is the OFFICIAL language of Nigeria because we were colonized by “Mama Sha-ly” and her people (okay, I ought to just say “The British,” but Mama Sha-ly sounded well….cooler! *grinning*), it is not our native language because we are not originally from England.  


It is amazing how a person’s perspective can change just by living in another man’s land, and that is what happened to me. When I lived in Nigeria, I never really thought about language as per whether English was the official language, bla, bla, bla.  In fact, I never had any desire to speak anything else other than English and maybe other European languages like French (call it “colo-mentality” as in “colonialism mentality” and you’d be quite correct).  Fast-forward to a few years in the US, and my perspective has changed. Not only am I more interested in learning Yoruba, but my interest in learning Hausa has been re-kindled as well.  Okay, let me explain.

Beyond the Laughter [Featured Artiste: Kome]

Whoa! It’s been quite a while since I updated! I need to be more consistent (you don’t say….*loaded with sarcasm*).  But instead of groaning and complaining, I am going to get right to it! (Yay!)

So, by now, most people must have either seen the clips of the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) pageant or at least “heard” about the bloops and unbelievable ‘ibons.’  (How stale of me, shey?! Weeks after de tin don cool down finish, I just dey yarn my own tory! But I am going somewhere with this, ehn, just hang on) Now, I personally don’t really care for pageants because I really think the most beautiful girls in Nigeria (or in the world) for that matter may never be seen on TV.  They tend to be the ordinary people that just will not be in front of a camera for any number of reasons.  Having said that, I watched the clips of both the “Good, Bad and Ugly” moments before the pageant and the “Silver moments.”