Unsung Heroes: Mai Ruwa
Due to a failure of government to meet basic infrastructural necessities like constant power supply, running water, good health care and quality education for its citizens, many people are constantly having to provide these necessities for themselves. In fact, it has become quite normal for households to provide their own water and electricity and pay exorbitant fees for quality education and healthcare for themselves and their families. Personally, I can’t remember when we had water flowing from the tap from the water board. If I could put a time to it, I would have to say when I was an early teen. I remember this because for the longest time, we used to fetch water at our neighbors’ wells to fill the big drums that most big families had. And when these neighbors didn’t have water or there was short supply during the dry season, we were always prevented from fetching water. This continued until we dug our own well and became kings. Soon enough, many families started to bore holes in their houses and rig a system that stores and distributes water to them. It has become common place to see each house with its own ‘GP Tank’; typical case of a brand name replacing the generic name. As it is right now, the skyline of many houses are dotted with these water storage tanks. Drilling boreholes is not cheap. It costs anywhere from ₦150,000 to ₦2 million. In a country where 64% of the populace lives below the poverty line and is expected to take over from India as the poverty capital capital of the world (United Nations: Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis, 2016), where general unemployment rate is at a whopping 18.8% (Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 2017 Q3 Report) and where the average person struggles daily, access to clean, safe water is an ever-constant issue. This means that though all households need water, not all families can afford to have boreholes installed in their homes. ‘GP Tanks’ for storing water pumped from a borehole. Image: Premium Times Nigeria This is where the Mai Ruwa comes in. The Mai Ruwa is a Hausa term which translates to ‘water seller’. The term can be used for a person who has a borehole and sells water to people who go to them to fetch or to one who takes water in 20-litre jerrycans to people’s houses to sell. In most cases, it refers to the latter. A typical Mai Ruwa starter pack is a trolley (or truck as they are popularly called), 12 to 14 jerrycans and an able bodied man with the simplest of clothes and worn out shoes. Unfortunately, I haven’t ever seen a female Mai Ruwa. Or should I say, fortunately. So this is one of those jobs that is strictly an all men affair. The job requires pushing a truck carrying around 300 litres of water from street to street calling out people to buy. In poorer neighborhood, they don’t need to scream as much; there will always be people willing to buy. But in richer neighborhoods – and by richer I mean middle class neighborhoods because no one in the upper class bothers about these kinds of problems – it is an uphill task selling water there. Most people in these types of neighborhood only buy water when they have gone days or even weeks without power supply to pump water. Or, if the pumping machine for the boreholes are bad. Which was what happened to me last me last week. I recently moved from a core ghetto to a slightly better neighborhood. The house was still getting some work done so there was barely any water in house. I knew I had to get a Mai Ruwa to supply me water until the problem was fixed. When I was in the ghetto, all I needed to do was walk out of my gate and find someone selling water. But in this new neighborhood, that wasn’t the case. Everyone in the neighborhood had their own boreholes and didn’t need the services of a Mai Ruwa. I had to walk a long distance to find out. By this time, I was already tired and sweating profusely. But I found one! When I told him where we were going, he said each jerrycan cost ₦30. I told him I only wanted 7. He agreed and we set off for the long journey to my house. Mai Ruwa pushing his truck down a hill. Unlike my Mai Ruwa, this seems much easier even though it is still a lot of work. Image: Wikimedia Commons Now here is what I didn’t tell you. My house is atop a small hill and the entire road leading to the house is rugged, uneven and bumpy. Walking up the hill is a chore. Now imagine what pushing a truck with 300-litres of water means. As the Mai Ruwa started climbing the hill, I knew it was going to be an uphill task. (You know I did that on purpose, right?). He pushed the truck in one direction and was shocked when the truck rolled back and nearly toppled over. He used all his strength to keep the truck aright and paused to assess the road. I could see the wheels of his mind working as he considered what path to take that would offer the least resistance. He took off his shoes and started again. The truck kept swerving and the contents nearly spilling. He had done this like five or seven times when I saw he was almost quitting. I knew I had to do something. If he quit, it meant I wouldn’t get any water. If I was to get water, I had to help out. So I offered. Again, I could see him contemplating. I can almost swear he was wondering what kind of help I could offer since I am a woman. But he was already sweating and puffing. You could tell that the work had taken a toll on him.
Wedding Messages Have to Change
Image: Yen I was at a wedding recently and as usual, was frustrated with the wife-centred message that came from most of the preachers at the event. A couple of things stuck out like thumbs dipped in palm oil and I knew I just had to talk about it. First, one of the preachers – someone you can tell is old fashioned – spoke a lot about the role a wife should play, which, if you attend many weddings, is submissive. I was not surprised by his message; I had heard it one too many times. What surprised me was a statement he made as he rounded up his message. ‘When you come to town, don’t go to your father’s house oh. Go straight to your in-laws’ house. That is your new home.’ I was shook! Before I delve into every emotion and thought I had when I heard this, I should mention the second thing that got me all hot and bothered. Another preacher, this time a more modern, cosmopolitan one, came up to deliver his message to the couple. He focused on what men and women need in a relationship. He said women needed; 1. Public Display of Attention; 2. Love; 3. Care…among others. For men however, he described their needs as; 1. Sexual satisfaction;2. Loyalty; 3. Peace…among others. I was piqued at his categories. Was he suggesting that men and women had differentneeds, especially when these broad categories were the differentiating qualities? I know there are exceptions to the rule but is there anyone that doesn’t need love, care, peace, loyalty? The public display of attention was iffy but only men need sexual satisfaction? I waited to have him balance out his message, to have him say that all these were human needs and not specific to gender. It didn’t come. I must say…I was disappointed with that. Maybe I expected too much but I hoped a more urban preacher would highlight on sexual satisfaction for women. You almost never hear any preacher talk about it. Female sexuality is not something that is brought up often in church settings. It doesn’t take much to see that many people assume female sexuality is a perversion; that women shouldn’t like, want or need sex; that sex should be something that women givemen and not something that should be mutually enjoyable and satisfying. This should be shocking in light of more biological information but damn! These thoughts don’t seem to be going away. Here is the kicker though! Women are sexual beings just as men are! Let me go and bit further. Women wantsex! And before your pulmonary vein bursts or an embolism occurs, I have to say this. Women. Need. Sex! Women want to be caressed, kissed, taken to sexual heights un-imagined, pleasured and satisfied as much as men do. And this is not just something that happens when women are ovulating or just because they want babies. I think that the way female sexuality has been portrayed as (best) an aberration and (worse) promiscuity, has made many women curb their needs to fit into the larger normative behavior of society. This has led to one too many sexually frustrated women who just lay there and go through the motions because it is respectable to be a wife and producer of the only end product of sex approved for the female gender; children. This is a problem in our society. It is so bad that I heard a story of a young couple who so loved God and each other that, though they dated for many years, didn’t have sex until their wedding night. The sex was horrible as the husband described it. He tried everything to spice things up. They even talked about it. But the girl had been so used to hearing that sex was a duty that she did just that. It was a chore to her and she wondered why her husband kept insistingon sexual satisfaction for her when only men needed that. In a marriage that is barely three years, the husband has already given up on sex except when she wants to make babies; which she isn’t ready for. If this woman had been taught that sex and female sexuality were as real as male sexuality and satisfaction, she would have been riding her husband and screaming like a banshee when he went down on her because it was okay to do that now that they were married; for those who subscribe to the sex-only-for-marriage ideal. I wanted the preacher to talk about these things. To mention how couples should make it a point of duty to please each other, satisfy each other, be adventurous with their lovemaking, give and receive head, role play, and in the rap artist Wale’s voice, have sex on the bed, floor, couch, more, more, more. I understand that the wedding banquet may not the place for in depth details of sex but just as it was easy to mention male sexual satisfaction, it should have been as easy to do the same for female satisfaction. Anyway, I was really disappointed that the message didn’t touch on that. However, that wasn’t as disappointing as the message on her in-laws’ house being her new home. To me, it seemed like they were trying to isolate her from her family just because she was adding a new one. I know that there is a possibility that it wasn’t the intention of the preacher but that is how it sounded. I am worried about such statements because a lot of factors could make going to her in-laws’ house bothersome. She may not like them or they may not like her or she may prefer the home she has known all her life rather than the one she is just getting. Even if she loves her in-laws and they absolutely adore her, she may not always want to be around them. And why should she ignore her family because she is
A Wake up ‘Konk’ on My Big Head
Ramat (AKA the Crazy One) I woke up this morning and as usual, I went online to get a sense of what happened in the hours that I slept. As I scrolled through Twitter, I basked in more stories about Beychella, was super proud of K.Dot’s Pulitzer, lost my cool at hearing of Cole’s album – which drops on April 20, 2018 – and got shocked out of my shoes by the fact that Joe Burden put his pettiness aside to compliment Nicki’s Chun Li. You can say I had a roller coaster morning. It was as I was going through these emotions that I stumbled on a tweet that made me bolt upright. It was, almost word for word, an idea that I came about sometime in December, 2017. I was supposed to begin implementation of the idea in January, 2018, with the culmination of my thought process coming together in June. I was excited about the prospect and kept envisioning what would happen when it finally became real. Somehow, I let January become April and till now, I hadn’t even put the idea to paper, talk more implementing the first stages. Rapsody Shaking her HeadCredit: Rapsody’s Giphy Channel I looked at the tweet over and again; from the eerily familiar design of the project, down to the words I wanted to use and I realized how, in wasting so much time, it would look like I was copying this idea when I finally did mine. I began to wonder why the flying hell I didn’t get to work when the idea first dropped. I didn’t have to think too far though. I knew exactly what the problem was! First, I didn’t think it was the right time. I wanted to wait for a perfect day to start, or when I wasn’t so busy with my day job, or when I felt writer’s energy. I know! That is not a thing. But I like it so, go and rest! Or whatever excuse came up to keep pushing it back. I really wanted things to be just right to get to work. But I waited. (Read wasted). And now, my idea is no longer just mine. Credit: NFL Giphy channel Honestly, this is the first time I have really felt bad about procrastinating. It is not like the idea was novel or I stood to make millions from it. I got the idea months ago and felt it was great. If you know me and my penchant for putting my work down, you would know that I almost never call any of my ideas great. But this one was! I was excited about deploying this idea and I knew it would change the lives of everyone who would come to share it. See what the delay has caused me?! Girl! You better get yourself together! The only plus side to this is that the idea is people-based and designed to provide a platform for people dealing with the varying degrees of dysfunction that plagues us as a people. No one has a monopoly on helping others. So yeah! Anyone who wants to colour me a copycat can go right ahead. But imagine if it was an idea that was life changing in the I-could-become-a-billionaire-if-it-takes-off kind of way. I could have just lost my ticket to living the fab life and taking vacations in Seychelles and Barbados because I procrastinated. I know that there are no guarantees in life but darn! Guarantees don’t come to people who waste opportunities because the time just wasn’t right! Sometimes, you really just have to make your Amala as the water is boiling. Credit: Giphy That tweet was the biggest wake up ‘konk’ on my big head if I ever saw one and boy am I rearing to go! I am not waiting for any perfect time or all that nonsense. I am going to put out stuff as they come and hope to get my groove and rhythm back on. So it is time to work work work work work work! PS: Ever wasted time on an idea and regretted it? Share your stories with me and we just might use it to inspire some people to get off that lazy arse!
Here is Why You should Subscribe to My Channel…Even though it is a Mess Now
My Vlog. Sigh. I started my video log in early 2016 as a way to put a face to my online persona and hopefully reach more people. But it wasn’t until I got a rude awakening at the end of 2015 that I began to think of my vlog. Settle in. I’ve got gist. I was a television presenter at a budding television station in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. I had been working as a radio presenter in the same corporation when I was invited for a screen test for the breakfast show of the station. At that point, it was the opportunity of a life time. You know how you don’t know you wantsomething but as soon as it is given to you, you immediately know that is what you need? Yeah! That was me! I was gleefully nervous but eager to try. After ten minutes of screening, they figured out that I could read the prompter and follow the direction of the camera; like a natural. I was told to resume work on Monday. Since it was a show that handled topical national issues, I went in with a brand of presentation that was heavy on getting to the fact of the matter. I researched each topic and prepared questions designed for context and clarity. I also had a penchant for asking tough questions; not necessarily because I wanted to be controversial but because I wanted to really know what was happening. I believed that if I understood the issue, then my audience would too. What was different about my style was that I didn’t defer to powerful people; even though I was dirt poor and could easily be crushed. If I didn’t like a person or a story been spun, you would know! And I didn’t like a lot of politicians! So, many times, I came out as brusque. You have to understand that I was working in a community where women were expected to be mild mannered and have little or no opinions. With me, that was impossible. I maintained my professionalism – whatever that was at that time – but if you think of a slightly toned down Maupe Ogun, you had my TV personality. From Left to Right: Me, Aaron Isaac and representatives of the Adamawa State Electricity Distribution Company on Safiya Breakfast Show. In October 2015, I had a run in with a top politician which led to my removal from the show. Okay…maybe I had a couple of those but this one had smoke coming out of the man’s ears. Let me put this into context. There were four of us who anchored the show. Two of them were mild mannered and very courteous to guests. Almost too courteous, I thought. The last person was so eager to be controversial that he deliberately sought out taboo topics on air. If he was doing it for knowledge sake, it could have been understood. But he was doing it for laughs and he and I didn’t work well together. Even though that was the case, Mr. Controversial and I were paired a lot on the show. The day we had the run in that broke the camel’s back was terse and one where I kept wondering why we were on the show together. We had a guest who was from a royal family in Adamawa State and an opposition political party stalwart. We were supposed to be talking about basic governance in the State and region. The show was going awry with some of the questions being asked by Mr. Controversial. I didn’t feel they had any baring on the topic of discussion. Unbeknownst to me, there was a lot of bad blood between our guest and many other powerful people in the community and those questions were deliberately asked to irk them. As soon as we got off air, we were told that we had set off a couple of fires and molten magma was heading our way. I didn’t know what it was that I had supposedly done, so I was cool. Plus, I cross-checked my questions and saw that none of them was trigger worthy beyond regular fact checking. My co-anchor was skittish but acting macho. The consensus was that we shouldn’t have asked certain questions. They went on and on. All the talk didn’t come from our producers, so I couldn’t be bothered. I went home…and missed the magma. Turns out all hell broke loose, drama was delivered, people were threatened, powerful men spread their wings and lots of begging followed to soothe frayed nerves. Then the hammer came. We were to be booted off the show. I received a call a day later informing me of the decision. When I went to the office the day after my removal, I saw that our replacement was so politically correct, that it bordered on arse kissing. Was this what they wanted me to be doing? Should I stroke the egos of powerful men to stay afloat? I scoffed! At that point, I knew that even if I was called back to the show, I wouldn’t do it. I neededto be true to myself but even more than that, I could not kiss anyone’s arse. I am too proud and pig-headed for that. Interviewing Professor Oluremi Sonaiya and Abdullahi Bulla, 2015 Nigerian presidential aspirant and National Treasurer (respectively) of KOWA Party This was when I decided that I was going to leave the station. Many things had come together to make me jaded about my stay in Adamawa State and I just wanted an opportunity to start over. I thought of going back to Kaduna State but remembered why I left in the first place. (I will find time to share that story, but not today). Then I thought about Abuja and wondered if it was the town for me. My mother lived in Abuja, there was opportunity for creatives and I would be close to home (Kaduna) if
The Birth of a Podcast
Crystal Starr with a MicrophoneGIF: Giphy February 7, 2013. Time, 5:25pm. I was in the ‘corpers’ lodge thinking of what I was going to have for dinner. I was low on cash and had been pretending I was on a fruit diet. That day however, I knew I couldn’t eat one more piece of fruit without going stark raving mad. As I pondered on whether to get Indomie or go to another corps member’s room to stylishly ‘beg’ for food, my phone rang. ‘What are you doing?’ Frama Ambrose. My boss in church. Or in plain terms, the head of our protocol unit. ‘Nothing much.’ ‘Get ready. I am coming to pick you in ten minutes. You are going to be on radio.’ I was shocked! Where was this man coming from? Who told him I could talk on radio? What was I going to talk about in the first place? The only coherent excuse I could come up with was, ‘I don’t have what to wear’. After a minute of laughter, he responded by saying, ‘It is radio. Nobody is going to see you.’ And that was how it began. That day, I was a guest on Campus 360, a show designed for students in tertiary institutions and the coolest show (at that time) on FM Gotel, 91.1. It was anchored by Stanley Innocent (another boss of mine). I can’t remember what we talked about that day but Stanley must have liked what he heard. He invited me for the next episode. I was so enamored of the show that I got my homie – Shade Opeyemi – to join in. We became regular features on the show. Like most things I love, I began to treat it like it was my project. I was doing research for the shows, talking to people about it and developing myself as I went. Stanley told me to understudy Toolz of The Beat FM and I fell in love with her style. She was sharp, witty, intelligent, fun and awesome. I wanted to be like her! It didn’t take me long to realize that I couldn’t but…I will get to that soon. A little over a month after my debut on Campus 360, the supervisor of the FM unit – Madam Chika Ngalome – asked that Shade and I come in for a meeting. She said she liked how we sounded and wanted to know if we would be willing to host a lifestyle program called StandOut. Shade and I said yes quickly. We were excited! Who would have thought we would have our own show on radio?! We were just two corps members who studied the sciences and we (probably) never imagined a life behind the microphone! And so we started. The show didn’t take off with the listeners because it was a bit abstract. We were talking fashion and lifestyle on radio and quite frankly, those two genres are better translated visually. Some topics hit more than others but it wasn’t so much. We got Azeezat Usman and Ololade Abdulkareem (my love) to join us on the show. We introduced new segments and tried to make it as relatable as possible. Honestly, I think it was a hard sell because I didn’t believe in the things I was talking about. Makeup? Didn’t wear them. Hair? Barely did mine. Clothes? I wore whatever was on the top of my box. I was just the wrong person for the show. But I loved it! I loved it so much that even though listeners weren’t connecting to the show, I kept at it. Then Rinji Kwarkas, one of the co-anchors on Campus 360 said to me, ‘Girlfriend. If you want to be taken seriously in this station, you need to be on one the flagship shows.’ These shows were Morning Splash (that handled topical issues) and Gotel Lunchbox, the station’s prime time entertainment show. I need to explain why Rinji made that statement. Everyone working on the shows I was on were all freelance presenters; we weren’t getting paid. We were basically doing it because we loved what we did. We wanted a platform and one was given to us. I was nearing the end of my service year with no prospects of what I was going to be doing afterwards. By this point, I knew I was going to stay on in Yola and run my blog but I needed something for money. So I knew I couldn’t do freelance anymore. I had to get paid! As the universe would have it, Madam Chika needed more Duty Continuity Announcers and asked if I would be interested. And Peter Cheman Koti, the person who produced and presented the flagship shows, had previously asked if I wanted to be on his show; to which I said no. I thought it was too much for me but as my monthly source of income started to dry out, I knew I needed to listen to Rinji. So I spoke to Peter and got on Lunchbox. He gave me a day to host the show and Carte Blanche to design it as I wanted. He shouldn’t have done that. (LOL) I completely switched his style and created my own thing. I only played songs off the billboard hot 100 charts, created some segments like How Smart Are You and Northern Flavor – the only instance I played Nigerian songs on my show – and music star profiling. My show was fun! I connected to a new audience that loved global pop culture, hip hop, R’n’B and celebrity gist. So Mondays and Wednesdays were for Nigerian sound, Tuesday (my day) was for international sound and Thursdays was a mixed of both worlds, anchored by Abdullahi Ahmed. Speaking of Abdul (as he was called by everyone), we hosted a couple of shows together and had good chemistry on air. It was a no brainer that when I finally decided to do the breakfast show – Morning Splash –
The Hopes of a Magazine…the Reality of a Blog.
I always wanted to own a magazine. I grew up reading Hints and Hearts until I was introduced to Reader’s Digest and Vogue. Who am I kidding? I used to read every magazine I came across; whether it was Sports Illustrated, Time, Watch Tower(yes! I read that!) or something really obscure. I spent time looking at the cover, the design, the layout before I even looked at the stories. And when I got to the stories, I would take just as much time to digest them and imagine my life in them. It was my desire to own a magazine. And a TV Station. And a film company. All while being a neurosurgeon and working with the United Nations to save lives. (I know! Overambitious!) My desire was so great that in my teens, I joined a gospel group – Crystals Family – where I was soon made the director of Da’scribes. Da’Scribes were the writers in the group. It wasn’t long before I was planning a launch of a magazine. I got people to send in pictures, stories, poems, song lyrics, jokes, puzzles and more in my quest to get content for the magazine. I spent hours on end designing prototypes of the magazine and even went further to interview people for our signature edition. It was all love and passion until it was time to produce. We realized that we were just a bunch of poor kids with big dreams. And bring dreams didn’t happen without money. We couldn’t afford to raise…was it ₦50,000 then… to get our copies out. Our inability to raise the money, plus our raging teenage hormones, got us easily burned out. The dream started to die; for many. Not for me though. That was my baby. So I kept the files, checking up on them every once in a while to remind myself that it could still happen. It was so bad that whenever I wanted to travel, I went with those files, believing that as soon as I ‘blew’, the magazine was going to go up. I am slightly ashamed to say that as I write now, those same files are right now in a bag on my wardrobe; beaten by time, slight mold and crushed dreams. By 2010, I knew the magazine business, especially the production of hard copies, was a dying trade. The quick uptake of the internet (read social media) meant that producing hard copies of readable material was like dancing in quicksand; you were going to drown in debt. I remember the first day I saw a Kindle with my friend Wuese. I was fascinated! What was this sorcery?! I could read a whole book from a device?! I was shocked. And then I wasn’t. Technology was taking over everything! And true to form, the magazines began to go online. Bellanaija was leading the pack in Nigeria for lifestyle. Linda Ikeji was replacing City People and all the other salacious magazines we used to turn to for gossip. Even the big names – Vogue, Elle, Ebony, O! – were all using teasers online to get people to buy their magazines. Newspapers? They followed suit! New York Times, Washington Post, even our Guardian, Thisday, Leadershipall knew that if they remained hardcopy issues, they were going to lose relevance and go bankrupt. I knew my dreams of owning a magazine, especially hard copy, had passed. So I joined the bandwagon and thought more about the online space than the paperback one. I started writing on Facebook until my friend Charles said, ‘Girl, you need to put your thoughts in a blog’. And that was how Shades of Us was birthed. The magazine was finally going to happen; but in a different format. I started out writing pieces about my frustration with how women and children were treated. Then I remembered how I used to write fiction during my boring classes to pass the time. And I thought to myself, why the hell not?! The first fictional story I wrote was corny for days. I wrote about love at a time when I wasn’t even into the love thing. And it was a hit! People connected to the story and shared their thoughts with me. They were surprised that a person who was so anti-mush could write something so mushy. It was funny because I knew I wasn’t feeling those emotions so I tried to live vicariously through my characters. As more people liked it, I knew that I was going to be doing fiction often. Anybody who has read my work can tell I have three voices; logical, eccentric and angry. That is because I write based on my personalities; Remimah, who prides herself on being a class act and always wants to be in charge of stuff; Ramat, who is deliberately fun and crazy and weird and all that nonsense and; Ada, who is the angry black woman. So when you see me use ‘we’ in a post, I actually mean me, myself and I. It is all fun and games until keeping up with the Joneses (I am talking to you Uche Pedro) leads to massive burn out. This is why I decided to open the blog. My friends Abraham, Kendo and Toks and my cousin Babiotos have all contributed to the blog. Like Olivia Twist, I want more! The goal is to post new content every day at 9:10am. It seems like a lofty goal but I know it is doable. So if you are interested in issues affecting black people anywhere in the world and want to share your perspective either in a story, article, news, rant, or whatever, please click here to submit an entry or send us a mail at shadesofusafrica@gmail.com. I think it is about time that Shades of Us really becomes ‘us’ away from just me, myself and I. Don’t you think so? And if you just want to read our stories, check out our various pages at 9:10am every day!
Unveiling the New Shades of Us
SZA with the moodCredit: Giphy Hello You! Let me formally introduce Shades of Us. I cannot believe that it has been almost four years since I started blogging and I never described in any post why Shades of Us exists. I have said it in a million and one ways but never formally said, ‘Oi! This baby girl is here and this is why she was conceived!’ But…that is about to change right now! Stay with me. (In Sam Smith’s voice.) Shades of Us is a media company discussing social issues affecting Africa, Africans and people of African descent, with a view to facilitating open, honest, unfiltered and unbiased conversations that leads to proper introspection, acceptance of strengths and weaknesses and change of perspective towards the greater goal of a new, refined, and stronger black continent and people. Shades of Us was founded on April 28, 2014, by Ramatu Ada Ochekliye (whoot whoot! That is my name!), to address dysfunctional social issues peculiar to black people living in Africa or descendants of migrants who may have voluntarily moved to other continents or who may have been forced, through human trafficking and slavery, to leave. Originally, Shades of Us was called Shades of Brown, with ‘…brown’ representing the convergent color of black skin tone and the earth’s richness. After much reflection, I knew the name had to be changed. First, because Shades of Brown was already popular in many countries and for varying products and services and secondly, getting my brand to stick out from that number was going to be nearly impossible. I discussed with my sisters and friends and we were at the point where using my name for was the most favored option. The reason was a no brainer; I was the only person in the whole world with my name, promoting the brand would be promoting myself and it would have just been easier to get the recognition I wanted. We had almost finally decided on this when I took a step and analyzed the name. I love my name to the moon and back but I wanted to create something that was bigger than me. I wanted something that could grow into a shared vision with the people who felt connected to my stories. So we brainstormed again and came up with Shades of Us. The founding principle of Shades of Us is the belief that all human beings are equal, have the same basic human rights and should be afforded the same respect and opportunities that guarantees the growth and development of each individual. Based on this founding principle, Shades of Us is subscribed to all thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of human rights and works towards promoting these rights for every human being but especially for every black person. Beyond the human rights declaration however, Shades of Us has adopted nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals as focal points of the change to implement. These goals include no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, reduced inequalities, peace, justice and strong institutions and being open for partnership for the goals. These goals translate to Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 16 and 17 of the sustainable development goals, which we believe should be the bible of development for all peoples of the world. Of these goals, we extol the virtues of gender equality and reduced inequalities more because we believe that they are springboards to achieving all the other goals we have adopted. We are especially biased towards the issues that affect women and children. This is because we believe that globally, black and brown women and children have been the most disenfranchised in all indices of human development and so, we believe that speaking and acting against societal norms and ills that predominantly affect women and children would redress years of inequality and the drawbacks associated with it. Phew! The last three paragraphs were so serious, right?! I almost felt like I was talking to the United Nations in a bid to get funding for the project. That is in the offing by the way. We have so much work to do! Anyway, you may have noticed I described Shades of Us as a company, right? Well…because it finally is! Whoot whoot! Dancing the gwara gwara! Our registration came through this month after months of debating whether this was the route we wanted to take or not. But…we cannot continue to put out all this original content and hope to get that paper if we are not serious! So… we knew we had to become a business so that we can grow. Even one of the religious scriptures talks about moving from milk to solid food in a parable about maturity. And a great prophet once said, ‘Jungle don mature’. We are that jungle! So our business is open! The question you may ask is, ‘what do you offer?’ The answer is simple. Storytelling. We tell stories for Africa. We mean this literally and as a pidgin statement of exaggeration. Of course we have various methods of disseminating our stories to engender discussion. 1. Blog:Primarily started as a site to air personal grievances, Shades of Us has grown to a magazine of articles, in-depth interviews, news and fictional stories from our writers – and again, that is me, myself and I with each personalities that has a mind of their own – and other writers. 2. Podcast: The Shades of Us podcast is called The Review. We discuss music and movies put out by black people and share our thought on whether they are great, good, subpar or horrible. 3. Video log: This is very personal because it is where we, as Africans say, ‘show ourselves’. And because we are expanding this year, we are introducing new aspects to the company. They include; 1. Films:
Seeking Validation Outside Myself
It has been a little over 40 days since I last put up any content on my blog, podcast or video log. In reality, it has been longer than 40 days since I wrote anything for my blog and even longer since I had a new video on my YouTube channel. So what was the problem? Why did I abandon my babies for more than 40 days? The answer is quite simple…but very complicated. I fell into a rut. You see, I started blogging in 2014 after a friend urged me to go beyond writing on Facebook. I was green-eyed, eager to get my work in front of new audiences and burning with a need to carve a niche for myself. I came at blogging like a child with a piñata; I was excited at the possibilities! As I put out content, the statistics started to excite me. Every day, new people were reading my work! And beyond that, they were liking, commenting, sharing and exposing my thoughts to audiences I didn’t even know existed. I began to receive emails from people in the United States of America, France, Netherland, Japan and more. It didn’t matter that my blog views were minimal (usually around 500 per month). All I cared about was that my work was being read by people around the world. I was elated! I looked at what other bloggers were doing and read stories of how people made money off their blog. I was piqued…but not overly so. I imagined that my content was not ‘worthy’ enough to make any money. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know what to do to make money. I was just happy to be putting out a little bit of me and getting major feedback. As 2015 began to wind down, I thought of diversifying the platforms with which I disseminated my stories. I thought of doing something radio- and television-like. At this point, I was a radio and television presenter in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, and I had decided I was going to leave because I didn’t feel appreciated there. So I wanted to do something that kept me doing the things I loved the most and on platforms that appealed to me. But beyond that, I knew that while many people can adapt to all formats of information, some people just wanted to hear you and others, see you. So I conceived the idea of doing something along these lines to further widen my reach. At the beginning of 2016, I started my podcast which originally was an audio version of my posts on the blog. By April, I shot my first video log. I was beyond excited because I was doing something new, expanding the number of my skills and gearing for that big gig that would change my life; literally. By this point, my blog had begun to do poorly. The number of people reading my pieces dropped. I began to wonder. Was I doing something wrong? Were my posts no longer interesting? Was it too much? But then I rationalized; I didn’t write often; I didn’t have a defined posting schedule; I talked mostly about feminism (which many of my audiences found repulsive); I am a long-winded writer and many people’s attention span wasn’t more than 30 seconds; my posts were serious and about issues that ‘mattered’ etc. While this explained what was happening to my blog, I couldn’t for the life of me explain what was happening to my podcast. The short story…people were just not listening. I could spend hours on end recording, editing and putting it out there and not get a single listen. I was running mad. What could possibly be wrong?! And even though I could rationalize – many Nigerians were not into podcasts yet, there was no mobile data for the heavy files, many had already read the posts I converted to podcast episodes – I didn’t. Instead, I saw it as a failure on my path. The video log was doing really well at this point; for someone just starting on YouTube. Each new video view sent me to cloud nine and left me smiling like a fool all day. But…I couldn’t keep up. It took hours on end to record each episode and editing was the absolute worst. As with everything that has no consistency, my views began to drop. So I was at a place where my blog, podcast and video log were all doing poorly. The irony was that, my blog views kept going up. I say it was doing poorly because the engagements – likes, comments, shares, feedback – were no longer flowing in. Any blogger knows that beyond views, engagements says a lot about your site. When I got to the middle of 2016, I had walked away from a job I originally loved for something I thought was my big break. The offer was juicy, the package was to die for and the opportunities were what I had been waiting for. I was so ready to start a new phase of my life until…I discovered it was a scam. I was hurt. I asked myself questions that I couldn’t answer. I wondered if I had been cursed to remain poor all my life. In that time frame however, I put out my best work on my blog. Pain is my biggest inspiration and so, to drown the contracting walls of my lack of a paying job, I worked harder than ever on my blog. I kept churning out content, putting out stuff, getting my voice out there. The views starting going up again. I was hitting a regular 2000 views per month with great interaction. Then the ‘high’ faded away. I was getting burned out. I didn’t have money. I could barely survive and if I wasn’t living in my father’s house, I would be starving. And because I am a bit of a worrier, I began to long for my days on
Love on the Brain and Everything We Didn’t Do Last Week
Hey you! Last week was super slow! I mean, snails achieved more than we did last week. But…thing were uber tight at our 9 to 5 and we just couldn’t deal. Anyway, how have you been? What was your week like? What got you pissed off? We were angry about many things; from abusive men who think it is okay to be violent to women, to Trump being Trump, to modern day slavery, with Libya in the fore front of the news and more. We are ashamed at what is happening there but the major issue is still why so many Africans leave their home countries for Europe through Libya. We solve those problems, we reduce the instances of human trafficking and modern day slavery in our continent. But we will delve into these at a later date. Full articles coming! So…what else did we focus on last week? Well, the ONLY thing we shared was a new podcast where we reviewed Rihanna’s ‘Love on the Brain’. Have you listened to #TheReview? We promise you that the episode was lit! You should listen! That was our week though. We have new articles coming in this week and we have got two review request; the first being ‘Safe’ by Nigerian Artist, M.I Abaga and the other being Justin Simien’s ‘Dear White People’. So we have a full week ahead. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+. So…stay connected. Be a part of the family. Tell us how we can be better. And as always, have yourself a great week! Thank you! Best Regards, Ramatu Ada Ochekliye Founder, Shades of Us.
Ending Violence Against Women, Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y and Closing Long Distances
Hey Roommates! This past week has been…extra! We almost wanted to hide under a rock for a few days. Of course we couldn’t find a rock that would serve us breakfast in bed, with strawberry dipped in chocolate and masseuses kneading all the knots and kinks out of our very weary shoulders and body. So…we worked! Thankfully, last week marked the start of the United Nations 16 Days of Activism; a series of activism-filled-days starting on November 25. As observed globally, the campaigns began with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and will end on December 10 with the commemoration of Human Rights Day. We joined in the campaign by demanding an end to violence against women and girls in our #OrangeTheWorld series. We will continue to lend our voices to the upholding ALL human rights for every race, gender, class or religion of people in the world. We also produced two new podcasts on The Review. Though we didn’t plan it, both reviews were around themes and people from the same era; 90s hip hop messaging. We reviewed Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y and Straight Outta Compton, the biopic about hip hop group, Niggas With Attitude…or as they are popularly known, N.W.A. Guess what? We finally finished our LONG DISTANCE series and received some major feedback about the what happened to the characters. Some people loved what happened to Adon and Jason while others were so pissed off, they wanted to explode. Yes! We are calling you out! You know yourself! How do you think the story should have ended? Share your views in the comments section and let us discuss. And oh! If you haven’t read the series, what are you waiting for? (Ramat, Remimah, be nice! Just drop the link hereinstead of being petty.) Anyway, that was our week. What do you want to see in the new week? Use the comment section to tell us! Thank you for being a part of our crazy! We wouldn’t rock if we didn’t have you! Read all we shared below and have yourself an uber fantastic week! · Here Comes the Bride (Part One, Two, Threeand Four) · Ending Violence Against Women · The Review: U.N.I.T.Y by Queen Latifah; · Why Do Men So Easily Harass Women? · Rape Cases; · Feigning Innocence; · I Was Attacked…And This is My Story; · Zireme’s Story: A Glimpse into Child Abuse and Marriage; · Good Christian People (Part Oneand Two); · Making Itoro a Woman; · The Review: Straight Outta Compton; · Do Sex Workers Deserve to be Abused? · Long Distance: The Finale. Best Regards, Ramatu Ada Ochekliye, Founder, Shades of Us
