I just got one of those calls that set my britches on fire. You know the ones that have you seeing red and looking at your own partner/spouse with a side eye, daring him or her to “try that mess if they want to”? Yeah. That call. I have a brilliant acquaintance who has a […]
When I was an elementary school student at Soul Clinic International School, a stout, fair-skinned woman was ushered into my sixth grade classroom and introduced. Her name was Madame Naomisi. “This is your new French teacher,” the Headmistress told us. She then went on to explain some things about how we were all required to […]
Say what you want to about Nigerians, but I don’t know of another group of people – as a collective -more driven towards success in our corner of the continent. And they love to flaunt it. They are ostentatious, extravagant creatures, and couldn’t care less how you feel about their unabashed display of their vibrant […]
“Ghana was ‘green’ long before there was a Green Movement.” That’s one of the expressions my Green friends and I have often smugly repeated to one another. Our pride is in a Ghana that just 30 years ago was so verdant and eco-responsible, it put Norway, Denmark and all those other northern European countries who […]
Question: Would you buy a can of Pepsi from someone who looked like this? Really think about it, so we can talk about it. It’s no secret that I am an unabashed fan of Lupita Nyong’o. She literally burst from obscurity to superstardom overnight. I’m sure she is absolutely brilliant in 12 Years a Slave, […]
I feel strange writing this piece today. It’s been four days since Komla Dumor’s passing, and in this Western society in which I’m firmly planted, I’m supposed to be over the shock by now. But I’m not. When someone of importance dies, we talk about it for a few days (or in some cases a […]
I certainly didn’t want this to be the news to pull me out of my writing funk. I was in the grocery store an hour ago, thinking privately about how there hasn’t been a single event lately to motivate me to write. Nothing has quite called for my indignation. I spent the better part of […]
So this is it, huh, MOM Squad? We’re three days in to 2014. Three whole days already! I’ve been giving a lot of thought about what I want my first words on the blog to be in the New Year, and the only thing that has been consistent on my heart and mind since the […]
I was there you know…when the tweet was first sent on December 20th. I saw the RT from @Reads4Pleasure’s time line: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Ah. Who was this fool who had said something so insensitive, classist and subversively racist? I clicked on her profile. She only […]
You know how it is when you’re on social media: People post and re-post memes and quotes meant to exemplify insightful profundity in 140 characters or less and the masses nod, “like” it, and carry on chewing cud, just as we’d been doing x number of hours before we logged on that morning. But sometimes […]
*Disclaimer: I don’t how much of this is me or the meningitis talking (I contracted meningitis last week, hence the long silence. FYI.), but I have some things to say about White Christmas that need saying! You see, Twitterverse? What did I tell you? No sooner had I gotten off the plane then there was […]
I was supposed to go to Morning Star School, but I didn’t get gain admittance. I can’t remember if the fees were too high or I bombed the entrance exam or if they just didn’t have room for one more student… I just remember the sense of relief I had when we walked away from […]
Like a bedraggled feral feline presenting a mangled carcass to a would-be master, Twitter will sometimes drops thing on my timeline and looks at me expectedly after I’ve perused its contents. This week, the little blue bird brought me this: *Vulgarity alert for all my religious readers!* [youtube=http://youtu.be/E0CazRHB0so] Now that you’ve been “offended” (or not) […]
I don’t own any “church clothes”. This point will become relevant shortly. It’s been two years since I attended church regularly, which is almost a sin because my husband is a deacon. My work schedule (which I confess I chose) had me in-store during the hours of service. I changed my schedule a little over […]
*I’m writing this knowing that portions of this post are going to irk some of my conservative and liberal readers alike. The moderates might not be so mad at me. By “moderates”, I mean only one person: A-Dub, my sister. I was recently interviewed by the Ndeye, the curator of Under the Neem Tree […]
I recently read Boakye Glover’s The Justice, a Ghanaian political thriller. It was a definite page turner, fraught with action, suspense and action, courtesy of Caleb Osei, the novel’s hero and ‘blowman’. The book – the central theme of which was the love of God, country and family – was released during an interesting time […]
*There are some people – an exceptional few – who are paragons of emotional stoicism. These people have all the emotive sensibilities of a fragment of driftwood. This post is not about you. It’s about the rest of us. Just FYI… Strong. Black. Woman. What comes to mind when you hear these words? Close your […]
Lawd have mercy. This isn’t what I wanted to write about this Monday. I wanted to discuss something with substance… something that was going to make us all think, and ponder, and turn to inward reflection and contemplativeness. Unfortunately, the fodder I was fed this weekend forced me to contemplate things I’d rather not have. […]
Once upon a time in this country we call America, there was an institution called slavery. You may have heard of it; horrible thing it was… race based slavery. Within this institution, some of the most appalling and harrowing atrocities were meted out against people – men, women AND children – of African descent. We […]
I have recently become fascinated with doppelgangers and the idea that we, as humanity, are all connected in some way. The post I am about to share with you has been dismissed as far-fetched, but this is the Mind of Malaka, daggonit! If dubiousness can’t find comfort here, where else shall it go? I’ve wanted […]
With all the hustle and bustle and horror of the last two weeks what with the Trayvon Martin case, the shooting death of Darius Simmons, the row over the Boston bomber on the cover of Rolling Stone, and the unpleasantness in the news in general, I forgot to bring you the details of my book […]