Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Could not find a title.

Today was the first day of chimamanda Adichie's creative writing workshop and my humble self was in attendance. She is such a simple lady, absolutely unaware of her beauty and her talent.

Each partcipant was given a few minutes to introduce themselves, which was probably a mistake, some people just didnt stop talking. One lady said she started writing at the age of twelve. She gave us the precise date and time. She went further to mention so many other works she had written, their titles and synopsis and how she tore up some of them in anger. Chimamanda had to cut her short asking her to round up but she still didn't get it, she spent another five to ten minutes rounding up. I used to think that writers were the "tushest" people but my dear friend disillusioned me. She was completely unaware of the yawns and frowns of the rest of us. One other lady said she was hoping Chimamanda would find her a literary agent, Haba, first day? I just thought na wa for usooooo.
But it was fun, a lot of intellectual and creative people. and fidelity bank gave us some mouth watering dishes.

My sister is reading the guardian newspaper and is telling me about the university of Illorin's intention to ban male students from braiding hair and wearing earings. Nigeria continues to amaze me. what bleeding business has the school authority with the way the students look at a time where the quality of our education is so low. It reminds me of the last time I was at the university of Ibadan, where a lecturer said my hair wasn't fit for the academic environment.(I have dreadlocks) I graduated about 6 years ago and some crap lecturer who imparted absolutely nothing to me dared to comment on my hair? By the time I finished with him, he apologised and ran.

I look forward to a time where we will move from such mundane things and concentrate on higher matters, where people will not be judged by their appearance but the contents of their minds. I was at the university of leicester some time ago, and was shocked by their dressing. I couldnt help it, I stared. This is the least concern of the lecturer,all they want is a chance to mould their students into tomorow's giants in every industry irrespective of how they dress.