Thurs-spiration

If you must stay alive, stay focused.

If you must stay alive, be you.

If you must stay alive, do you.

If you must stay alive, get a chair and select your friends and gangs

like you are picking beans.

If you must stay alive, live within your limits.

If you must stay alive, have someone you can trust.

If you must stay alive, take risks worth taking and make every minute of the day count.

If you must stay alive, stay miles away from procastination.

And finally, if you must stay alive, be fucking strong and focused, ‘coz, no folk gat time to take ya through the tutorial of being strong and focused.

If

You

Must,

Stay

Alive.

THE WORLD WOMEN’S DAY AND ME.

I should have written this before now, but I hadn’t the time to, I spent my day working my ass out to get some children to be better than I have become. I just pray they continue to follow that part.

Some days back I got into an arguement with a high school classmate of mine on what feminism is and what it is not. What triggered the arguement was a post she made on her whatsapp status and the follow-up that came after it. First of all, she made a post about her support for women out there who are struggling to make ends meet. She later dropped a follow-up stating that she is not a feminist or whatever Africans tag feminism. I took her up on it and made it clear to her that she is a feminist by supporting women who are struggling with life. She denied being one, stating that Africans have so bastardized the concept so that for them, it has come to mean any woman who do not like marriage, who wants to be a single mother or who hates men( I will talk about the African social media perspective of feminism in a different post). Giving her a straighthead-follow-up, I gave her Chimamanda’s definition of feminism in her “We Should All Be Feminists”,a talk she presented on TED Talk big stage. All supporters of women should read this essay, it worths the whole hyping.

After the whole arguement, she got convinced and accepted the concept into her life like a new convert, (I won a soul for the women feminist folks💪🔥💃). She further said that, women should read the works of great female writers, I told her to aspire to write hers.

I may not have what it takes to make an outstanding post for Women’s day, I may not have the big vocabularies to express my feelings to my women out there, but I want urge all women all over the world to continue struggling to be on their feet. I will urge them to be themselves and not another, because, every other person is taken. Also, being yourself helps you to live your life within your limits. Do not forget to always take risks that are worth taking. Try to achieve a new feats everyday no matter how little it is. To my fellow queer fellas, do not forget to kiss every lady you would love to kiss( with their consent ofcourse), this world is damn to small and life is too short to live in pretence. To my babies who smoke for the granms and run the dope street, divert your attention in to something else. To my black American babies who struggle to live a life in God’s own country, keep the struggle one hundred percent real. Do not allow nobody to fuck with ya in the street. To my “strong woman, African woman, you ain’t born to hate men, you were born to make men see reasons to love women, to keep the family together, to build the home and to tell the African girl child that life is not all about marriage.

To every lady out there who truly understands that being a feminist goes well beyond the walls of demand for equal right for both sexes in all ramifications, to those who understand that struggling to stand on your two legs rather than waiting for a man to stand you up is the main game, to my women who live in the streets to put food in their plates, all house helps, female drivers, conductors, capenters, prostitutes, and so on, I write to encourage you in your struggles, do not give up hope, do not be frightened. Be ready to look challenges in the face and tell it to go to hell. Happy world women’s day to us all. Chekwube Anyaegbunam, let Germany favour you, my love. Mum, you are my own version of woman of steel and may that steel spirit never depart from you. Jumy, I can only tell you to be stronger than you have ever been. Ihuoma, you are my version of celebrity girl friend, be strong for us. Chika, you have never failed to understand the task of being a woman, keep the good work going, sweetie. Lajuice, of all the girls I have as friends, I still ask myself how you are able to be 100% positive minded, I have always loved you from the moment I saw you, yes! My heart bailed on me when it saw you. Unfortunately, I can’t undo that, babe, be good. Favour, you are my very good friend and my baby girl, we feel weak, but we ignore it and stand on our two legs, that’s what I want you to do for me. Confidence, I am so in love with your personality, you’re my version of super girl, I need you to keep being strong. To all women all over the world, you all are my own very version of legends in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. I am gonna ask you the question Sarah Lance asked Ava Sharpe; when did a legend ever go quietly? The answer is never. Yes, never! Never try going quietly! Enjoy your day and play safe.

”’FLASHBACK FRIDAY”’

“I’ve read quite a few of the seminal feminist texts, but for a long time, I didn’t. And I like to think I learned a lot about gender and power by watching local women in Nigeria, particularly women who are sort of lower down on the class hierarchy because I kind of felt that so much was against them that sometimes they exhibit a kind of strength that I didn’t find in more educated and privileged women.” – Adichie

I personally find the single image of strength in women troubling. The bourgeoisie image. The very privileged image. The educated higher-middle class and upper class image.

Troubling because as a person who is interested in the “everydayness” of people, I’ve learned that strength defies social class.

I should tell you about the female Keke rider (commercial tricyclist) I once met at 7 and 8 junction and how she unflinchingly told this annoying man off after he had told her that she wasn’t fit to be patronized because ‘she’s a woman’. Or this woman in a bus I boarded last year. How she talked about her husband who had lost his job, and how he joined her in working at her restaurant. How he did the dishes and served customers since his cooking wasn’t really good. I remember how she flatly responded saying that they both have to because they both need to eat and survive and it isn’t really that deep after some passengers had eulogized her husband for ‘helping’ his wife to wash plates.

I should tell you about a friend’s mother who single-handedly runs one of the biggest soft drinks depots in Enugu, despite being constantly reminded of how it’s a ‘business for men’.

Or this particular meat market at Colliery Road with female butchers.

I particularly want to celebrate all the ordinary women who do extraordinary things everyday. Women who still hold their own with little or no formal education. Women that are never in the news. Women who haven’t used 600 million naira for house renovation. Women who haven’t embezzled 13 billion pounds in a space of less than seven years from a country struggling to attain development. Women with few privileges that still embody strength. Those women that sell fruits in UNN girls’ hostels instead of their bodies at Otigba junction. Nwanyi Nsukka… that one that hustles day and night at Ogige selling Ugba and Abacha or Ogiri or Okpei or Azu Mangara or Azu Fridge or Vegetables or Okrika, or Okpa. Umunwanyi Ogbete… Those ones with sane and safe hustles amidst class intimidation existent in Enugu. Everyday women!

Happy International Women’s Day!

-Odenigbo(2017)“`

This was written by a fellow chorister in 2017 in remembrance of the world women’s day. He reposted it on our choir group chat and I had the priviledge to be lost in the euphoria of the work. Kudos to him.