Yesterday I woke to wonderful news. The first pleasant surprise was that no one who defined or impacted my adolescence had died. The second was that Serena Williams had gotten engaged! I greeted the news with the exuberance of a sunflower saluting the sun. I basked in it. I welcomed in it. I reveled in […]
The topic of Rashida’s sudden and meteoric rise to Internet fame is not something I’d planned to discuss, but a handful of people reached out to me and asked me for my thoughts privately and asked when I’d share those thoughts publicly, so here it is. I beg you not to take this as the […]
I’m getting pretty tired of writing about how awful 2016 has been and continues to be. My fatigue has compelled me to ignore several events that have transpired in pop culture and favor silence instead of comment. It’s not everything that requires a verbal (or written) reaction, abi? But dear brothers and sisters, there is […]
I’m not doing a year end review this year. 2016 SUCKED, and there’s nothing more to add. I don’t understand how one year – not even 365 days as yet – could harvest the souls (and minds, in some cases) of so many favored creatives, artists, thinkers and healers. I mean, really. Take Mos Def, […]
Dear Soon-To-Be-Formerly-Known-As- President Mahama: I trust you are well. Me? Oh…I’m all right. I just returned from an arduous (but fruitful) trek to Cape Town and I’m resting up. I had limited access to Wi-Fi during my road trip, but I caught bits and snippets of the news where I could. As you may well […]
Mzbel: I am not one of your fans. I can’t name a single song you’ve performed and up until yesterday I have been mispronouncing your name, referring to you as “Mmm-zee-bell” instead of “Mizz Bell”. I only have a passing familiarity with your person and your brand. I only mention all this to let you […]
Excellent read. The trend of colonizing Black culture shows no signs of abating.
John. Dude. Chale! How are you feeling right now? My spidey senses tell me you are relieved, but certain elements on Twirra swear you are despondent, based on the tone of the concession speech you gave last night. They forget that I know you better than they do, so we won’t mind them okay? I […]
It’s finally Wednesday! Many Ghanaians will be heading to the polls; your Woman Crush Wednesday has reneged on doing argon oil review she’s been promising to do; you still haven’t lost any of the weight from stuffing your face during Thanksgiving and now your ONE good pair of holiday trousers is hugging your testicles like […]
My son’s class conducted a life skills practical in their fourth term. Each student was given a bean, a shallow metal dish and some moist cotton in which to plant the seed. The goal was to connect the bean’s growth to the story of Jan en die boontjierank (Jack and the Beanstalk). Stone is a […]
It’s been difficult to feign enthusiasm for the 2016 edition of Ghana’s election process, and with an incumbent government performing so poorly, that should serve as a red alert that something is fundamentally wrong. With all the corruption scandals and improprieties exhibited by the ruling NDC, many more people should be rabidly howling for a […]
“Sigh…” I looked up from my phone, irritated. It seems like Nadjah is always sighing about one thing or another these days. “What? What is it?” I demanded. I was in no mood for her mercurial tween angst. Her episodes had been a burden on my nerves for weeks. “Well… It’s just that my birthday […]
The election is over, thankfully. We’d all hoped for some normalcy to return to our lives (Trump’s repeated threats to rip apart families and unleash his Gestapo on communities of color, notwithstanding) but things have only gone on to get more and more bizarre. Now, in post-racial America, we have white people who are convinced […]
Q: “Serious question: Evangelicals, how could you do it? How could you support Trump?” A: “We did it to protect the most vulnerable amongst us. We did it to protect the unborn.” ******* “So excited! I took my daughter in the booth with me to vote today. I asked her if we should vote for […]
Up until 3 weeks before the election, I was 80% certain that Donald Trump was going to win the presidency. I had voiced this repeatedly on Facebook, to the horror of my Democrat leaning/voting friends. As far as race and justice are concerned, I haven’t had faith in America in a long time – not […]
I need to conserve my daily word allotment to reach that 50K word goal by the end of November, and I’m already 6 days behind. 🙁 Curious about #NaNoWriMo? Read about it here! I’ll still be on Twirra and Face-Waste Your Time-Book if you want to hook up. Looking forward to reading all of your […]
The kids are not allowed to watch TV during the week, but sometimes, when the noise level is more than I can bear and the constant bleating of the words “But we’re so boooooored….!” is more than I can abide, I allow them one small indulgence. “Y’all can watch NatGeo Wild for a bit. But […]
The last time I wrote about Stukie’s disappearance, several Zambian media sources shamelessly plagiarized my work. Today I invite those same sources to copy and paste as much of this article as they wish. Everything I have to say is about you. 27-y-o Suwilanji Situmbeko who was reported missing on 10/21 has been located. The […]
One of the tenants of being a Good African Mother is to make sure that your children have a quality education that will ultimately prepare them for one of three respectable professions – those being: Doctor, Lawyer and Engineer. (Engineer usurped ‘Banker’ about 15 years ego, coinciding with the rise of the proliferation of social […]
My friend Dr. Suwilanji Situmbeko is missing, and we are all left with are a series of bizarre tweets and more questions than answers. In April of 2015, a 26-year-old Zambian Medical Doctor and MBA candidate majoring in Financial Management named Suwilanji Situmbeko shared his exciting news with me. He had been selected as a […]
My phone rang deep in the night as I was settling my head into my pillow. It was a dear friend calling from the US. “Girl, I know it’s late where you are…but we haven’t spoken in a while so I don’t care.” I laughed at her candor and told her I didn’t mind. I […]