Prof. Chinua Achebe’s Body Arrives In Nigeria
The body of late Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe arrived in Nigeria earlier today in Abuja. Prof. Achebe’s body arrived in a Nigerian flag-draped casket which was received at the airport by Nigerian officials
led by the Secretary to the federal government.
Acclaimed Nigerian writer Igoni Barrett reads from his work at the PEN World Voices Festival 2013 Opening Night
Check out his 2005 short story collection, From Caves of Rotten Teeth, here
Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed but attentive.
Come join freeDimensional on Friday for a fantastic event with Cameroonian artist Issa Nyaphaga.
(Source: freedimensional.org)
Statistics from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry indicate that the number of women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes” in Afghanistan had risen to about 600 in May 2013 from 400 in October 2011 – a 50 percent increase in a year and a half. Since October 2011, there has been an almost 30 percent increase overall in the number of women and girls imprisoned in Afghanistan’s prisons and juvenile detention facilities.
“Four years after the adoption of a law on violence against women and twelve years after Taliban rule, women are still imprisoned for being victims of forced marriage, domestic violence, and rape,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Afghan government needs to get tough on abusers of women, and stop blaming women who are crime victims.”
There are about 100 strikers, 30 of whom are being force-fed.
Reports continue to emerge of detainees collapsing from hunger in solitary confinement, while others remain shackled to hospital beds.
And remember, 86 of the 166 prisoners in Gitmo — a significant portion of the strike — have already been absolved of any terrorism charges and cleared for release. Not surprisingly, they make up a significant portion of the strike:
The hunger strike is being carried out not only by “suspects” being held at the facility, but many detainees who have long since been cleared for release, and who the administration simply never seems to get around to releasing. After years of waiting, many see death as the only way out, and the force-feedings as just one more arbitrary punishment.
A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it
(Source: venturepoetry)
Timbuktu’s literary gems face Islamists and decay in fight for survival
During the last days of the Islamist occupation of northern Mali, the al-Qaida-linked groups who seized control of the territory for almost nine months turned on the Ahmed Baba Institute. In what many people believe was a final act of revenge, and a senseless crime against some of Islam’s greatest treasures, they set the manuscripts alight.
These ancient manuscripts, which could number up to 400,000 across the region, are a source of pride in Mali – and across sub-Saharan Africa. As Africa gained independence from European colonial powers, the texts – the oldest of which date from the ninth century – became a means for the pan-African movement to refute racist notions of a primitive, unlettered continent with no written history.
![Gatsby and Stringer Bell: Reaching for the Green Light [WARNING: Spoilers]
Gatsby, like Bell, makes too obvious the fact that he likes money, needs it, because as anyone who has ever been broke knows, money never looks so good as when you have done without it, and the only people who can drop out of capitalism are the ones already rich.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/280d5e81e1b28ea3e391aeb8b90eb684/tumblr_mn46cpKxsu1qdq50ro1_1280.jpg)
Gatsby and Stringer Bell: Reaching for the Green Light [WARNING: Spoilers]
Gatsby, like Bell, makes too obvious the fact that he likes money, needs it, because as anyone who has ever been broke knows, money never looks so good as when you have done without it, and the only people who can drop out of capitalism are the ones already rich.
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.
