Many of us would give up our objectives once we have failed more than twice or have been told we are not good enough. Unlike others, Bayern Munich defender Dante, did not relent in his pursuit for success, happiness and an outstanding career. In pursuit for the profession Dante loved so much, he was forced to sell his PlayStation in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
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Courtesy:Wikipedia
The Brazil centre back is regarded as one of the best in Europe and has earned rave reviews after helping Bayern to the Champions League final at Wembley.
But it wasn’t always such plain sailing for the curly-haired defender, who had failed several trials at clubs as a youngster and was told by his parents they wouldn’t be wasting money by taking him to anymore try-outs.
Dante, though, was having none of it and made the ultimate sacrifice for a kid – parting with his beloved games console in order to fund his own trips to different clubs.
‘Like every Brazilian boy, my dream was to be a footballer,’ he said.
‘I played on the streets in my neighbourhood, but my family didn’t believe I was going to be a footballer as I hadn’t succeeded in trials at local clubs.
They told me I should do something else. But there was something inside me that said I should continue pursuing this dream.
‘My parents said they weren’t going to support me so I decided to sell my games console to buy the bus ticket so I could go and do trials.’
Dante flogged his prized PlayStation and used the money to buy a bus ticket to Parana – 1600 miles away – and was eventually snapped up by a local team before getting his big break with a transfer to Juventude in 2002.
He moved on to France with Lille, and then to Belgium before moving to Germany and ending up at Bayern, who splashed out £5million to sign him.
The road to success is actually filled with stumbling blocks, it is pertinent to note that at sometimes the ultimate sacrifice is actually needed from us. Dante made the ultimate sacrifice and has achieved his objectives. The ultimate sacrifice for Dante is definitely not the same for others. First of all determine what is standing between you and your objectives and identify ways to removing the stumbling blocks. Be aware that achieving this might require extra work from your, therefore give it you best. Remember no venture no success!
January 27th 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad; it looked cool, we all wanted one (and some of us did), but did we really need it? 4 years later, there are 5 different models of the iPad, and nearly a hundred other brands of the tablet in the market.
When it comes to buying, impulsive actions are the wrong way to go … Imagine residing in Lagos, and your dream car is a Lamborghini, with enough cash in the bank it wouldn’t still be the ideal car for you to purchase because you would not get much use out of it given the quality of roads in the state, while a Range Rover would serve you very well. This scenario is a simple way to look at investments; because producers/manufacturers pay top money to convince us to overlook the critical decisions that influence our purchasing power – Advertising 101.
Thus, this article is aimed at arming you with the necessary information you need before purchasing that tablet (or any product!). Before spending your hard earned (or not-so hard earned) money, you have to ask yourself these questions:
I. Do I need it?
II. Is there a way I can buy it for less?
III. Do I have to buy it?
If your answers are ‘Yes, No, Yes,’ then go ahead, buy it; but if you’ve got 3 ‘Noes’ or 2 ‘Yeses’; perhaps give the buy a rethink.
Now that you’ve settled to buy a tablet, you have to consider this – What do I need the tablet for and what brand would suit my need? For this you don’t need to be a tech whizz, just consider the following, go ahead and spend that money!
1. Size – With tabs, size varies and this is for great purpose. A smaller tablet has the benefit of being lighter and easier to carry; while larger tabs have more screen space which makes the experience feel a bit more immersive. They are also preferable for web browsing. Small tablets are cheaper, while large tabs usually offer better battery life because they have room for a larger battery.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.2. The OS (aka Operating System) – There are basically 3 operating systems in the market - Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Windows’ 8 & RT. iOS is one of the easiest systems to use, even children get it, and if you’re new to computing then it’s one of the best to get started on. It looks simple and pretty, but more importantly it has some useful features such as easy access to multitasking and settings. Its biggest benefit is the App Store, with almost half a million quality apps and digital magazines optimised for the iPad there really is an app for anything, from fitness to gaming. Android, since it first launched in 2008, has one of its biggest benefits in customisability.
You can modify it to your heart’s content and set up your homepages just the way you want them. It has the Google Play store, whose apps are mostly designed for phones, and not tablets. This means they don't always make best use of larger screens. It also means 7-inch Android tablets are better to use than 10-inch ones because the screen size is closer to a mobile phone. And Windows 8 is basically the conversion of your PC (Personal Computer) to a tablet, as it runs on exactly the same operating system you get on your home PC or laptop, but optimised for touch use.
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That means all the programs you use on a normal PC will work on a Windows 8 tablet. Windows 8 tablets can replace a laptop and often come with keyboard attachments so they can be used just like one. The Windows RT, on the other hand, is a cut-down version of Windows 8. You can’t use all the apps you would on a Windows 8 tablet, but because it uses less power it’s lighter and the battery lasts longer. Unfortunately there are far fewer apps available for Windows RT than there are for the other operating systems. It’s taking a while to take off but Microsoft is supporting it so there’s sure to be more to come.
3. Connectivity - Most tablets come in two versions, a Wi-Fi only and a Wi-Fi and 4G/3G option. Wi-Fi only means that you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection to use the internet, while the 4G/3G tablets allow you to insert a SIM card so that you can use a mobile network to have internet access wherever you can get a signal.
4. Storage - If you like to have a lot of files, music, movies, games or pictures on your tablet you will need a lot of storage. Storage is usually measured in gigabytes (GB). Most tablets sadly don’t have this option as they rely on internal storage only, so you may have to spend more on a tab with more storage. But some tablets come with the option of adding some storage via a microSD card. These are bought separately and are relatively cheap. Only some Android and Windows tablets come with a microSD slot, you don't get the option on iPads, which means extra storage can be costly.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.5. Performance (Processor or CPU and GPU) – This is the tablet’s brain – it determines how fast it opens and uses apps. Processors of 1GHz speed or more are optimum and are best for fast performance. Also, tablets within the range of 512MB or more of RAM will produce better performance.
The most important factor to consider is your wallet/purse, if it’s well beyond your reach, look for a cheaper model and compare. You can never tell which tablet is perfect for you till you ask the necessary questions.
Written By: - Sola Agbaje
“A writer is someone who, first of all, is able to listen. To listen not only to the words, but the dreams of those who seem distant and diverse.” - Mia Couto
Considered one of Mozambique’s greatest writers, António Emílio Leite Couto (born July 5, 1955), better known as Mia Couto, whose works range from poetry, to children’s books to novels to picture books, has had many of his works published in more than 20 countries in various languages, such as Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian and Serbian. His literary style has been noted to be influenced by modern Latin American literatures; and in his works are found riddles, legends, metaphors and proverbs (which he has been noted for creating – aka "improverbs").
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Couto was born and raised in the city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city. The son of Portuguese emigrants, who moved to the former Portuguese colony in the 1950s; his poetry was published in a local newspaper, Notícias da Beira when he was 14. Three years later (1971), he moved to the capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) to study medicine at the University of Lourenço Marques.
In April 1974, the anti-colonial guerrilla and political movement, Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique or FRELIMO), who overthrew the Portuguese colonial government, asked Couto to suspend his studies for a year to work as a journalist till September 1975, and then as the director of the newly created Mozambique Information Agency (AIM). He ran the Tempo magazine until 1981. 1985, after he resigned from the newspaper, Notícias, he went on to finish his course of study in biology.
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Below are some interesting facts about Mia Couto:
He became the first writer from Mozambique to be awarded the $50,000 prized 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature on November 1st, 2013.
Couto’s novel, Sleepwalking Land (1992), was named one of the 12 best African books of the 20th century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, and it received the National Fiction Award from the Association of Mozambican Writers (AEMO) in 1995.
His parents were forced to emigrate to Mozambique from Portugal in the 1950s for political reasons.
His first book of poems, Raiz de Orvalho, was published in 1983; it included texts aimed against the dominance of Marxist militant propaganda.
Couto has mentioned works by Brazilian writers – João Guimarães Rosa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, João Cabral de Melo Neto, and Latin American writers Juan Rulfo and Gabriel García Márquez as his biggest literary inspirations.
The most important book to Couto is the unfinished work, O Livro do Desassossego (The Book of Disquiet), by Fernando Pessoa. He has called it his Bible.
In 2007, he became the first African author to win the prestigious Latin Union Literary Prize.
His name ‘Mia’ comes from his love of cats, as the Portuguese for meow is “miar.”
Currently, he is a biologist employed by the Limpopo Transfrontier Park. He recently completed a contribution for a new book that was started by the late Portuguese writer and 1998 Nobel Laureate, José Saramago. He is also working on a historical novel about a Mozambican emperor who ruled the entire south of Mozambique until the beginning of the 20th century.
Written By: Olusola Agbaje
Nnedinma Okoroafor was born on April 8th 1974 in Cincinatti, Ohio and is a Nigerian-American writer and professor.
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She specializes in fantasy, science fiction and speculative fiction.
She is a 2001 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan and holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Nnedi is a professor of Creative Writing currently at the Chicago State University and lives in Illinois.
She received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award for her story “Amphibious Green”
After her 2001 award, she published 2 books for young adults: The Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker.
Zahrah the Windseeker won the Wole Soyinka price for Literature in Africa and was shortlisted for the 2005 Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards and a finalist for the Garden State Teen Book Awards and the Golden Duck Award.
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“The Shadow Speaker”, one of her books won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, a Booksense Pick for Winter 07/08, a Tiptree Honor book, a finalist for Essence Magazine Literary Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Golden Duck Award and an NAACP Image Award nominee.
Her first adult novel, “Who fears Death” won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was a 2011 Tiptree Honor Book and was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award.
In 2011, she returned to young adult with “Akata Witch” which was a junior library guild selection and nominated for Andre Norton Award. It was also on the American’s library association’s Amelia Bloomer project honoring children’s book with feminist themes.
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Okoroafor’s short stories have been published into anthologies and magazines.
1n 2009, she donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the North Illinois University Library
She has a daughter, who goes by the name Anyaugo.
She grew up wanting to be an entomologist.
She earned her BA in Rhetoric from the University of Illinois, MA in Journalism from Michigan State University.
Her first full length play, Full Moon was produced by a theatre company in Chicago, 2005 and her screenplay was filmed in Nigeria, 2011 by Tchidi Chikere.
Her greatest influences are Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson, Hayao Miyazaki, Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
You can follow her on twitter @Nnedi or check her website www.nnedi.com
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tweleve year old Nigerian American albino, Sunny discovers her magical powers and a secret society of magical Leopard people across the world. Sunny and her friends, Sasha, Orlu and Chichi, each with their respective traits have the task of finding Black Hat Otokoto and in this process of interaction, they get to know each other better.
The book has a sequel which should be out sometime in 2015 and opens your eyes to the beauty of the paranormal world. Sounds like a Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione story at some point but there’s the uniqueness to Nnedi Okoroafor’s work.
Written By: Frank Ugo
The beautiful continent of Africa has been graced by lots of talented musicians who have been able to blend cultural and traditional sounds with a universal appeal. West Africa especially has been the home of creativity for the motherland for so many years thereby extending through new generations.
Kojo Antwi (Kwadjo Antwi), one of the class acts to come out of Ghana has been a revelation for the country and he is counted among the legends of the game. After leaving school, he started his music career immediately by playing with Boomtalents. He was shortly after discovered and became the frontman of the then newly formed Classique Handels later Classique Vibes.
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The authentic and energetic youth band, within a short period captured the ears and eyes of Ghanaians and the neighbouring West African countries. The potential the band had and the early discovery by an international agent brought the band to Europe where they performed with overwhelming success in several festivals in Denmark and Sweden alongside Reggae & African well known Stars.
The band was however confronted with popularity and immigration problems within a short period of time, bringing about the disintergration of this wonderful band. Meanwhile, Kojo after a short while went solo. His first solo album: All I need is you, became a chart buster in Ghana. It was so popular that you could hear it been played anywhere music sounds in the country.
The album gave him the encouragement to continue and to become what he is today. THE Nr. 1 MUSIC STAR OF GHANA SINCE 1989. Today, Kojo´s popularity in Ghana cannot be described with words alone. Series of awards, Nr. 1 hits in any Music charts around the country with any album he releases, nonstop airplays, TV shows in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Senegal and U.T.N.A.,(United Television Network of Africa), tells how fast his career is gaining grounds to cover Africa as a whole.
He was once nominated for the African Musician of the year 1996 held in Juli in Johannesburg, South Africa, only to be beaten by Papa Wemba. Kojo has already made tours in Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory and Burkina Faso, playing only at State Halls and Stadiums for thousands of people. In Ghana any performance with the star gets sold-out.
He was invited directly from Ghana in ´93 as the aspiring star of Africa for the famous African Festival in Delft, Holland. He also passed through Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the U.K. performing upon the invitation of the African Societies thus making this tours more African than European.
"It is time to get out from the national into the intercontinental market, the world should hear more about real life, love, happines, agony and poverty down in Africa." Those were Kojo's words when asked about his idea of music and how it should be harnessed.
Kojo plays Reggae with lots of African influences in the Lovers Rock style and Roots Reggae alongside authentic African songs. He sings in both English and vernacular. He has lady dancers, lady background singers and top Musicians who have worked with international Stars like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. He also has a Master Saxophone player from Sierra Leone.
Written by: Azeez Sanusi
“I am thankful to the organizers of this event, Etisalat Nigeria for this most excellent and necessary prize. We are all aware of the shortage of literary prizes and it is heart-warming to know that Etisalat Nigeria sees and values the significance of such literary works in Africa,”
An elated Ms. Bulawayo thanking the judges, patrons, and Etisalat Nigeria for the award and for the opportunities the prize has afforded her. The Zimbabwean author, NoViolet Bulawayo, was on Sunday, February 25th 2014, crowned winner of the first Etisalat Prize for Literature with a £15,000 (N4.12 million) cash prize. The award presentation ceremony took place at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
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The prize, which is a Pan-African prize (relating to all people of African birth or descent), is the first to recognize debut fiction writers, saw Bulawayo (the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing Winner) win for her debut novel - “We Need New Names” (May 21st 2013).
Runners-up, Yewande Omotosho and Karen Jenning were presented with Samsung Galaxy notes. They also won book tours to two African cities and Etisalat will purchase 1000 copies each of their books which will be distributed across the continent.
Bulawayo, in addition to the £15,000 cash prize, was presented with an engraved Montblanc Meisterstück pen, a Samsung Galaxy Note and will attend the Etisalat Fellowship at the prestigious University of East Anglia as well as being mentored by Giles Foden – Author of the “Last King of Scotland” (1998). She will also have book tours in three African cities and get the chance to start work on her second book.
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According to the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher, the Etisalat Prize for Literature award was designed to recognize and reward debut writers of fiction in the African region, with the objective of discovering new creative talent from Africa and promoting the burgeoning publishing industry on the continent.
“As a rite of passage, published and unpublished literary works of art have been passed down from generation to generation in Africa. Etisalat Nigeria is indeed pleased to celebrate all authors in the African literary spectrum from the greats such as Wole Soyinka, Miriama Ba to Ben Okri, Alain Mabanckou and Chimamanda Adichie. As such, Etisalat Nigeria is proud to use its maiden edition of the Etisalat Prize for Literature pan-African award to recognize and celebrate the amazing work done by these unique individuals,” he said.
There was a special performance from celebrated African music legend, Youssou N’Dour, who performed a number of classics including “Redemption Song”, “7 Seconds” and “New Africa”.
The flash fiction competition winner, Uche Okonkwo, was also announced. The author won for her story, Neverland. She got a cash prize of £1000 (N275, 000) and a Samsung Galaxy note. Runners up were Bonaventure Chukwu for Fear and Nzere Jeremiah for Silent Screams, each winning £500 (N138, 000) and Samsung Galaxy notes.
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Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk was born on Palm Street in Calabar on the 31st of October 1986 to a clergyman cum forester father and a headmistress mother. According to him, his mother was the disciplinarian. Unfortunately, they died in 2008 and a few months after, his elder brother. However, it didn’t kill the dream for Iyanya who had just won the MTN Project Fame West Africa as he released his debut album ‘My Story’ in 2009. The album showed his versatility as an RnB’ artist especially on the song ‘Love Truly’. Singing for Iyanya started in the church choir where he was a choirmaster at age 5. His education was in Calabar and he graduated from the University of Calabar with a degree in Business Management.
Prior to winning the contest, he sang karaoke in bars and was motivated by the likes of Craig David, R Kelly, 2face and Olu Maintain. He started rapping with the stage name “Lofty”. Popular musician, Kcee of the Limpopo fame was one of the first people who saw his talent and looked out for him. The first time Iyanya came to Lagos for music, it was through Kcee and its pretty okay to say he was a helping factor for who Iyanya is today. Luck shone on him after he visited his hometown and saw people’s affection for Etighi dance. He then decided to do a song that would popularize the dance and then Kukere came about. Kukere which means “don’t worry, don’t think” shot him to the spotlight and he became a household name. He then released other hit singles like “Ur Waist, Jombolo, Le Kwa Ukwu, and Away”. Iyanya sees himself as a versatile artist and wants to be known for RnB’ and Afrobeats. Iyanya has performed at a lot of shows, events, dinners both home and abroad. He released his second album “Iyanya vs Desire” in 2013 and has been on tour once (USA/Canada) sometime in 2013. Iyanya has the following awards to his credit
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Artist of the Year 2013 at The Headies
Hottest Single of the Year 2013 at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards for ‘Kukere’
Best Pop Single 2012 at The Headies
He has 2 studio albums, 22 singles, 14 videos and 5 promp singles to his name and hopes to drop an EP later this year. Iyanya has collaborated with artistes like Emma Nyra (who is signed to his record label, Made Men Group which he co-owns with Ubi Franklin), Minjin, N6, Flavour, Lola Rae, Ajemina and D’banj amongst others. Iyanya, who is an MTN ambassador, also doubles as an ambassador for Solo Phones Nigeria, a mobile phone company in Ikeja. This contract which elapses in October 2014 is allegedly worth 35 million naira. He also signed a one year deal with Zinox Computers. Iyanya is also known for his sexy body and waist dances which made Red Sheet Magaine call him “The Sexiest Man Alive” sometime in 2012.
You can follow Iyanya on twitter @Iyanya, email him for bookings – bookiyanya@gmail.com or check his website – www.iyanyamusic.com
Social psychologist Barbara Frederickson has written a book about her research which suggests that people who experience positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio to negative ones eventually arrive at a tipping point “beyond which they naturally become more resilient to adversity and effortlessly achieve what they once could only imagine.”
How confident a performer are you? Do you go into auditions or performances feeling certain that you are going to play your best – and do so from the very first note? Or do you grapple with doubt and anxiety (perhaps even days or weeks before), and have a tendency to begin your performance tentatively? If you’re like most musicians, you probably fall in the second category more often than you’d like. And not only is this an unpleasant feeling, but it is a poor strategy for on-stage success as well.
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The good news is that confidence is something you can change – and that you actually have quite a bit of control over your level of self-confidence. This may come as something of a surprise to you, as there are many who believe that confidence is largely a character trait, that you either have it or you don’t. Others think that only success or positive feedback can build confidence, and that you can’t make mistakes or experience “failure” if you want to become more confident.
Well, it turns out that these are all just misconceptions. Many musicians suffer from a great deal of self-doubt and insecurities, despite great success. There are musicians who were not the most talented, but succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations because their belief in themselves never wavered. And with regards to just practicing more, most of us already know that this alone doesn’t necessarily increase our confidence.
So what do you have to do to become more confident? One of the keys to becoming a more confident performer is mastering your self-talk. Self-talk is the term that psychologists use to describe that internal dialogue we all have with ourselves throughout the day. You know, the one that calls us clumsy when we stub our toe on the bedpost, or an absent-minded idiot when we get back from the grocery store and realize we’ve forgotten the one thing we went there for. Some of us talk out loud or mumble to ourselves, others keep it all inside, but we all have that voice inside our head that is often very difficult to turn off.
For better or for worse, we tend to listen to ourselves and believe the things that we say to ourselves. If you tell yourself that you are a failure and untalented hack, and do so consistently and repeatedly, you will start to believe that you are indeed a failure. You will soon begin to feel like a failure, and ultimately act in ways that will confirm this perception of yourself, “proving” that you are indeed a failure.
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Keep in mind that your subconscious mind is listening to everything that you say to yourself, and that it doesn’t have a filter. It will take in everything that you say, and over time, unconditionally accept the most consistent messages as reality – whether this is actually true or not. It doesn’t matter if you are only kidding, or don’t truly believe the things you say to yourself. Your subconscious doesn’t have a sense of humor, and is completely literal. And for better or for worse, your self-confidence (or lack thereof) resides in your subconscious beliefs.
We’ve all experienced frustration at times with computers, because they are so literal. They don’t care what we meant for it to do, only what we told it to do.
Your inner computer doesn’t know or care what you really mean by “I’m never going to be able to play this piece well.” It doesn’t know if you truly do lack the ability to play this piece, or if you just need to work harder, or perhaps just give it some time to simmer on the back burner. Your subconscious just takes it in, and over time, you will start to believe that you really don’t have the ability to ever play this piece. You will have a tendency to act on this belief, perhaps working on it half-heartedly, thinking less creatively, and giving up sooner when feeling stuck. Eventually, you will discover that exactly as you predicted, you do struggle with this piece. This is called a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we sabotage ourselves (even in our lives outside of music) by creating new self-limiting prophecies all the time.
If you want to feel, act, and be more confident, you must first take control of your mind and begin thinking like a confident person.
How do you learn to think like a confident person? Most of us aren’t truly aware of what we say to ourselves, especially when practicing or performing. The first step is to identify and write down these thoughts.
Identifying Self-Talk
The vast majority of the thoughts that your mind generates when you are under pressure are unhelpful. They are often irrelevant (“Hmm…I wonder what I should eat for dinner”), overly analytical (“Keep your thumb unclenched, fingers light, elbow around, shoulder down…”), or self-destructive (“Uh-oh, here comes that passage that I screwed up in rehearsals”).
Keep in mind that your brain has a fixed attentional capacity, meaning that you can only pay attention to so much stuff at once. For instance, try convincing your significant other that you truly are listening to what he/she is saying even though you are sitting in front of the TV staring at the screen. Think they will buy it? Fat chance, right?
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So if your brain can only process a certain amount of data at once, you can choose to fill it with either helpful stuff or harmful stuff. It’s like budgeting a finite amount of money – why would you waste money on things you don’t need or want if you only have a limited amount of it?
Similarly, you can utilize your limited attentional currency on thoughts that are conducive to building confidence and success, or on thoughts that destroy confidence and lead towards failure. There is no neutral thought, just as there is no neutral purchase with your money. You are either buying something you really want, or something that zaps your bank account and moves you further away from buying the thing you really want.
So how do you keep your mind from self-destructing? The first step in re-programming your mind is to identify what is currently being programmed.
One of the most effective ways of identifying your thoughts is to create a self-talk log.
Step 1: Pick a piece you are working on that is fairly challenging.
Step 2: Set up a recording device and begin recording.
Step 3: Play for about 5 minutes, but any time you have a thought, pause and repeat it out loud (verbatim) so you can capture it on the audio recording.
Step 4: When you’re finished, get out a notebook, draw a line down the middle of the page, and transcribe all of the thoughts you recorded on the left side of the line.
Now, take a look at all of the thoughts you wrote down. Count them. How many thoughts did your mind generate in those 5 minutes? A few? A ton?
How many of them were critical, unsupportive, irrelevant, distracting, and the type of remark that you would never say to a friend? Did you insult yourself or make personal attacks (“You suck!”)? Were you able to keep your mind rooted in the present, or did your thoughts linger on mistakes or even review past incidents when you’ve made that same mistake (“Why do I always play that note out of tune?”)? Did your thoughts project into the future (e.g. “Jeez, there I go again; I’m never going to be able to get this part down.”)?
On the flip side, how many of your thoughts were relevant, supportive, and helpful to your performance? Reinforcing thoughts, or cues that remind you what correct technique and the desired outcomes feel and sound like – such as “fluid bow changes”, “keep the air flowing”, “ooh, nice slide, that was awesome!”, or “sustain”, “whisper”, etc.? Were these few and far between?
Now it’s time to begin changing your inner thought patterns and making them more conducive to building confidence and future performance success.
Take a look at all of the self-defeating thoughts you wrote down in your notebook. You’ll find that these thoughts tend to be based in the past or future – neither of which you have control over at the moment. Failure-type thoughts are also unproductive in that they don’t help you in any way. All they do is make you feel worse about yourself.
One by one, begin rewriting the negative thoughts as more supportive, constructive, or self-enhancing thoughts in the right-hand column. Here are some examples.
Failure-Type Thinking and Success-Type Thinking
There’s no use in practicing. So-and-so is just more talented than I am. There are a lot of successful people who had to work hard to get where they are. I can be one of them if I practice the right way. After all, they wouldn’t say that success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration if there weren’t some truth to it.
Why do I always rush that passage and mess it up? I’m such a screw-up! Hey, take it easy. Even the best make mistakes too. Get refocused and move on. Plenty of time to figure out why this happened later.
Does the dialogue on the right side column seem corny or fake to you? Maybe it is, but the idea is to come up with thoughts that help you feel more positively inside, and ultimately keep you moving towards success. Next time you hear yourself engaging in a loser-type thought, jump on it instantly and “overwrite” it with the more encouraging thoughts you have come up with.
This is so important because this is how people who are interested in becoming the best they can be think. This is how winners think. Start making yourself more aware of your self-talk, learn to think more like your own best friend, and you will absolutely find yourself feeling – and performing – more confidently.
Written by: Azeez Sanusi
Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk was born on Palm Street in Calabar on the 31st of October 1986 to a clergyman cum forester father and a headmistress mother. According to him, his mother was the disciplinarian. Unfortunately, they died in 2008 and a few months after, his elder brother. However, it didn’t kill the dream for Iyanya who had just won the MTN Project Fame West Africa as he released his debut album ‘My Story’ in 2009. The album showed his versatility as an RnB’ artist especially on the song ‘Love Truly’. Singing for Iyanya started in the church choir where he was a choirmaster at age 5. His education was in Calabar and he graduated from the University of Calabar with a degree in Business Management.
Prior to winning the contest, he sang karaoke in bars and was motivated by the likes of Craig David, R Kelly, 2face and Olu Maintain. He started rapping with the stage name “Lofty”. Popular musician, Kcee of the Limpopo fame was one of the first people who saw his talent and looked out for him. The first time Iyanya came to Lagos for music, it was through Kcee and its pretty okay to say he was a helping factor for who Iyanya is today. Luck shone on him after he visited his hometown and saw people’s affection for Etighi dance. He then decided to do a song that would popularize the dance and then Kukere came about. Kukere which means “don’t worry, don’t think” shot him to the spotlight and he became a household name. He then released other hit singles like “Ur Waist, Jombolo, Le Kwa Ukwu, and Away”. Iyanya sees himself as a versatile artist and wants to be known for RnB’ and Afrobeats. Iyanya has performed at a lot of shows, events, dinners both home and abroad. He released his second album “Iyanya vs Desire” in 2013 and has been on tour once (USA/Canada) sometime in 2013. Iyanya has the following awards to his credit
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Artist of the Year 2013 at The Headies
Hottest Single of the Year 2013 at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards for ‘Kukere’
Best Pop Single 2012 at The Headies
He has 2 studio albums, 22 singles, 14 videos and 5 promp singles to his name and hopes to drop an EP later this year. Iyanya has collaborated with artistes like Emma Nyra (who is signed to his record label, Made Men Group which he co-owns with Ubi Franklin), Minjin, N6, Flavour, Lola Rae, Ajemina and D’banj amongst others. Iyanya, who is an MTN ambassador, also doubles as an ambassador for Solo Phones Nigeria, a mobile phone company in Ikeja. This contract which elapses in October 2014 is allegedly worth 35 million naira. He also signed a one year deal with Zinox Computers. Iyanya is also known for his sexy body and waist dances which made Red Sheet Magaine call him “The Sexiest Man Alive” sometime in 2012.
You can follow Iyanya on twitter @Iyanya, email him for bookings – bookiyanya@gmail.com or check his website – www.iyanyamusic.com
Written By: Franklin Ugo
Are you a writer seeking international recognition? Purple Leaf Publishing Ltd is looking for authors who have a book to be published in the following genres – self help books, cookery books, autobiographies (Non-fiction) and children's books.
Purple Leaf Publishing, a UK based publishing company is looking for the next great author. If you are a writer who has a manuscript or are working on, this is your chance to get published internationally.
The author has full creative control over their own book, as their (Purple Leaf) editing, design and production teams ensure the highest quality treatment for your book. Working closely with the author at every step to make sure the book is produced exactly the way the author describes it.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Purple Leaf Publishing is a company established to publish works of new and established authors. Purple Leaf Publishing offers two types of publishing, traditional publishing and self publishing.
Purple Leaf Publishing is a fully customized book publisher, making it unique in the publishing market. They are interested in talented authors, and authors who are passionate about writing; and they publish fiction, nonfiction and children’s books.
If you have written a biography, children’s book, fictional story, cook book or any other subject we would like to hear from you. Whether you are a writer seeking to share your story with the world or a professional interested in enhancing or building a business with your book, a student wanting to publish their thesis, Purple Leaf Publishing has unique programs and services to help you achieve your publishing goals. These services will be tailored to your needs.
Whether your manuscript is a ready-to-print finished PDF file or a working draft requiring editing, illustration, and formatting services, they’ve got the resources you need to create a professional trade paperback or hardcover book and distribute your books cost effectively.
How to hand in your Proposal? A proposal should a detailed idea of what your book will be about. Your initial submission should include a letter of introduction, a proposal as outlined below, your CV or resume, and a sample chapter or two.
Brief Description. In a few paragraphs, describe the work. Be sure to include what you consider to be the outstanding, distinctive, or unique features of the work. This narrative description should explain the proposed book's purpose, themes, arguments, scope, contribution to scholarship, and place in the literature.
Outline / Table of Contents. Include a detailed outline of the book with paragraph-length descriptions of each chapter.
Apparatus / Illustrative Materials. What do you estimate to be the length of the completed book? Approximately how many photographs and/or line drawings (charts, graphs, diagrams, etc.) do you plan to include? If illustrations are planned, please send photocopies of sample art – do not send original photographs, artwork, negatives, or any materials that are irreplaceable.
Market Considerations. For what type of reader is your book intended?
Competition. Describe existing books in this field and spell out how your book will be similar to, as well as different from, these works. Discuss specifically their strengths and weaknesses, how your coverage may vary from the competing titles.
Status of the Work. What portion or percentage of the material is now complete? When do you expect to have a complete manuscript?
After receipt of your proposal, your work will be accessed in a timely manner, but because Purple leaf Publishing receives hundreds of book proposals each year, it may take up to two weeks for a response to this initial submission. During the waiting period, we do not accept phone queries regarding the status of your proposal.
1. The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment (BEKE), a project of the International Missionary Council in coordination with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and British colonial governments of Tanganyika (Present day Tanzania), Kenya, Uganda, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi) in the mid-1930s, took place between 1935 and 1937. 35 educational films were produced for the education of the black ("bantu") people. The BEKE productions were silent, low quality films with naive plots that usually involved a "wise guy" (giving the good example) prevailing over a "stupid guy" (impersonating bad habits). The main teachings conveyed by the films were about hygienical rules, methods of cash crop cultivation and cooperative marketing, and "prestige films" that highlighted the institutions of British rule.
2. Only three of the BEKE films survive and are held at the British Film Institute Archives, they are: "Veterinary Training of African Natives" (1936), "Tropical Hookworm" (1936), and "African Peasant Farms - the Kingolwira Experiment" (1936).
3. 1934, in the French colonies, Africans were, by law, not permitted to make films of their own. This ban was known as the "Laval Decree". The ban stunted the growth of film as a means for Africans to express themselves politically, culturally, and artistically.
4. In 1955, however, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra – originally from Benin, but educated in Senegal – along with his colleagues from Le Group Africain du Cinema, shot a short film in Paris by the name of Afrique Sur Seine (1955). Afrique Sur Seine explores the difficulties of being an African in France during the 1950s and is considered to be the first film directed by a black African.
5. Before independence of francophone colonies, only a few anti-colonial films were produced. Examples include Les statues meurent aussi by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais about European robbery of African art (which was banned by the French for 10 years).
6. The first African film to win international recognition was Senegalese, Ousmane Sembène's La Noire de... also known as Black Girl. It showed the despair of an African woman who has to work as a maid in France. The writer Sembène had turned to cinema to reach a wider audience. He is still considered to be the "father" of African Cinema.
7. The Federation of African Filmmakers (FEPACI) was formed in 1969 in order to focus attention on the promotion of African film industries in terms of production, distribution and exhibition. FEPACI looks at the role of film in the politico-economic and cultural development of African states and the continent as a whole, making it a critical partner of the then OAU, now the AU.
8. Ethnologist and filmmaker Safi Faye was the first African woman film director to gain international recognition.
9. In 2008, Manouchka Kelly Labouba became the first woman to direct a fictional film in the history of Gabon. Her short film, Le Divorce, addresses the clash between modern and traditional values and its impact on a young Gabonese couple's attempt to divorce.
10. The cinema of Nigeria (referred to informally as Nollywood) grew quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind only Indian cinema. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
11. The release of the Straight-to-video movie Living in Bondage in 1992 by NEK Video Links owned by Kenneth Nnebue launched the Home video market in Nigeria. Nnebue had an excess number of imported video cassettes which he then used to shoot his first film on a Video Camera.
12. April 1966, the first Art Festival was hosted in Dakar; 26 films from 16 African countries were screened at this festival. At the end of the Festival a resolution for the creation of an inter-African body of Cinematography was made and this was led by the African Cinema group.
13. The first African film to win an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film was Tsotsi (2006), a South-African production. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
14. Since 1896, more than 4000 films have been produced in Egypt, which accounts for three quarters of the global Arab film production. Egypt occupies the position of one the biggest film producers of the Middle East.
15. Nigerian filmmaker, Adamu Halilu, whose 1976 film, Shehu Umar, a chronicle of the life and times of the eponymous turn of the century figure whose life story he traces in this narrative about Islam in West Africa. The film is an adaptation of the novel Shaihu Umar, written in 1955 in Hausa by Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, the first Prime Minister of Nigeria.
Nigeria as a leading country in African development, be it in arts or sciences, has produced several musical legends who through their innovations and outstanding exhibition of creative immagination have made a name for themselves, their families, country and indelibly imprinted the African continent on the global musical map. Such is the journey of the Masked One (Lagbaja) who through his own determination is today considered as an African legend not only in Nigeria but in the world.
Born Bisade Ologunde in Lagos, Lagbaja is a masked Nigerian Afrobeat musician. According to him, his mask which he wears during stage performances or in music videos, is a representation of man’s facelessness. Lágbájá is a Yoruba word meaning "nobody in particular". It depicts the anonymity of the 'common man'. The mask and the name symbolize the faceless and the voiceless in the society, particularly in Africa. He is also known as "Omo baba mu'ko mu'ko"
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Though the concept of his name and what he represents was developed long before, his first album titled 'Lagbaja' was released to national acclaim in 1993. Over the years and more albums later, the music continues to fascinate with its unique focus on a core of African drums. His music is a product of various influences ranging from traditional Yoruba music to Jazz. Often, the music is purely instrumental- an interplay between traditional Yoruba percussion, drums, chants, western instruments, and especially the saxophone. When there are lyrics, they are primarily sung in Yoruba, English or a blend of the two as is colloquially spoken in Yoruba cities.
Many of his songs dwell on serious social issues, while others simply entertain. Some compositions are often done primarily for dancing, informing the audience of lengthy dance numbers, while other songs address complex social issues through biting wit made palatable by disarming parables, irony, and multilingual puns. Meanwhile, one thing that links all the songs together is his use of traditional African drums.
Traditional Yoruba drums are the most prominent. Four families of these drums are employed in creating different grooves and moods. The dundun/gangan family is the most prominent and at times up to five drummers combine all the various components to create the polyrhythms. The bata ensemble is led by two musicians who alternate between soft high toned driving rhythms with their omele bata, and thunderous loud talk with their mum drum- iya ilu. The general percussionist leads the sakara drum ensemble. The fourth family, used as the backbone of the groove is the ogido, a derivative of the ancient gbedu. The ensemble of drummers constitute the larger part of the band. Vocalists and western instrumentalists make up the rest.
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Lagbaja’s groovy fusion has been referred to as afrojazz, afrobeat, higherlife and afropop until now that he himself has christened the music AFRICANO, alluding mostly to the central role of African drums and grooves in his music. In March 1997, Lagbaja established his club, 'Motherlan' in the heart of Ikeja in Lagos. Motherlan’s design is influenced by the traditional African town or market square, where people gather under the moonlight for ceremonies and artistic events like dance, music, story telling, wrestling etc.
He has therefore received several awards for his unwavering loyalty to African traditional displays carrying along music lovers from different ages and clans inspite of his yoruba affiliation. Such awards also include the 2006 Channel O Music Video Awards for Best Male Video (“Never Far Away“) among others.
Written by: Azeez Sanusi
The planet’s biggest awards for movies (The Academy Awards/Oscars) has come and gone, the winners have accepted their statuettes at the 86th Annual Academy Awards show at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, USA.
This is the complete list of Oscar award winners (with some cool facts of nominees/winners):
Best Picture12 Years a Slave (Winner)
American Hustle
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Dallas Buyers Club
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
Captain Phillips
Cool fact: Gravity has become only the sixth film released predominantly in 3D to receive a best picture nomination. The others: Avatar (2009), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Hugo (2011) and Life of Pi (2012).
Best ActorMatthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyer's Club(Winner)Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Cool fact: This is Matthew McConaughey's first nomination and win.
Best ActressCate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (Winner)
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Cool fact: This is Cate Blanchett's first Best Actress Oscar. Nominated six times, she won her first Oscar for her supporting role in The Aviator in 2005.
Best Supporting ActorJared Leto, Dallas Buyer's Club (Winner)
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Cool fact: This is Jared Leto's first nomination and win; and Barkhad Abdi’s nomination makes him the first Somali actor to ever receive an Oscar nomination, which is also his first screen performances.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Best Supporting ActressLupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave (Winner)
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Cool fact: This is Lupita Nyong'o's first nomination and win, which is also her first screen performances.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity (Winner)
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Cool Fact: Alfonso Cuarón becomes the first Latino filmmaker to win the Best Director award. While, Steve McQueen becomes just the third black filmmaker to ever receive a nomination in the category. The others are John Singleton (Boyz 'n the Hood) and Lee Daniels (Precious).
Best Original ScreenplaySpike Jonze, Her (Winner)
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Dallas Buyers Club
Nebraska
Cool fact: This is Spike Jonze's first win and fourth nomination.
Best Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave (Winner)
Before Midnight
Captain Phillips
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street
Cool fact: This is John Ridley's first nomination and win. Bob Nelson is nominated for his first screenplay, Nebraska.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Best Original Song"Let It Go" from Frozen, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Winner)
"The Moon Song" from Her, Karen O. and Spike Jonze
"Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, U2 (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.) and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton)
"Happy" from Despicable Me 2, Pharrell Williams
Cool fact: "Let It Go," has allowed Robert Lopez to join the elite EGOT club – a group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. The group currently consists of only 11 members: Richard Rodgers, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Scott Rudin and others.
Best Original Score
Steven Price, Gravity(Winner)
Alexandre Desplat, Philomena
William Butler and Owen Pallett, Her
John Williams, The Book Thief
Thomas Newman, Saving Mr. Banks
Cool fact: John Williams becomes the highest nominated individual, 44, in this category –original score, with 5 wins. Williams has 49 overall nominations, the second most for an individual in Oscar history, trailing only Walt Disney, who has 59.
Best Production DesignCatherine Martin, Beverley Dunn, The Great Gatsby (Winner)
American Hustle
Gravity
Her
12 Years a Slave
Cool fact: Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby) has now won 4 Oscars, she previously won 2 for Moulin Rouge! (2001). She’s become the most awarded Australian in Oscar history.
Best Film EditingAlfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger, Gravity (Winner)
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
American Hustle
Dallas Buyers Club
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Cool fact: Gravity became only the fifth film to be nominated in all seven technical categories: best cinematography, film editing, best original score, production design, best sound editing, best sound mixing and best visual effects – winning 6.
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity (Winner)
The Grandmaster
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Prisoners
Cool fact: Emmanuel Lubezki's nickname is 'Chivo' (the goat).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Best Sound Editing
Glen Freemantle, Gravity (Winner)
Captain Phillips
All Is Lost
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Lone Survivor
Best Sound Mixing
Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro, Gravity (Winner)
Captain Phillips
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor
Best Foreign Language FilmThe Great Beauty (Winner)
The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Hunt
The Missing Picture
Omar
Cool fact: The Great Beauty has become the first Italian film since Life is Beautiful (1998) to take the award. With this win, Italy ties France for the most wins for any country, with 13.
Best Documentary Feature20 Feet From Stardom (Winner)
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
Best Documentary Short SubjectThe Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Winner)
Cavedigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
Prison Terminal: Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Best Live Action Short FilmHelium (Winner)
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem
Best Visual EffectsTim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould, Gravity (Winner)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness
Cool fact: Gravity received a total of 10 nominations this year.
Best Animated FeatureFrozen (Winner)
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest and Celestine
The Wind Rises
Cool fact: This is Disney’s first win in the category (without Pixar studios’ involvement).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Best Animated Short FilmMr. Hublot (Winner)
Feral
Get a Horse!
Possessions
Room on the Broom
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club (Winner)
Bad Grandpa
The Lone Ranger
Best Costume DesignCatherine Martin, The Great Gatsby (Winner)
The Grandmaster
American Hustle
The Invisible Woman
12 Years a Slave
Other cool facts are:
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) has now directed more best picture Oscar nominees than any other living director, eight.
All nine nominees for the best picture award were released between October and December 2013: Gravity – Oct. 3, Captain Phillips – Oct. 10, 12 Years a Slave – Oct. 17, Dallas Buyers Club – Nov. 1, Nebraska – Nov. 15, Philomena – Nov. 22, American Hustle – Dec. 12, Her – Dec. 18 and The Wolf of Wall Street – Dec. 25.
Written By: Olusola Agbaje
Whether we like it or leave it, conditions about one’s present career may change significantly over time especially with new roles, change of positions within the company, layoffs as the case may be or increased responsibility from the career and family cycles. It is important to start late than never to begin to make plans at any point in one’s career for startups particularly, and even for those who have attained at least four years in the current career.
Here are some smart ways to make right financial decisions early in your career:
Take full advantage of company’s employee paybacks: One can create wealth over time from remunerations, allowances, settlements etc. if there is consistent saving over time. Four years may not be enough career individuals to have made significant savings, going forward, one should exploit the many sources of income in the companies. The culture of making small contributions to personal saving accounts available in many banks as well as maintaining strong financial discipline can be very helpful in the future financial needs.
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Make effort to reduce cost of living: It is a well-known fact that most career individuals spend most of salaries on exorbitant rents, fueling of vehicles, household furniture, food and hospitality, wardrobes etc. It is best to keep these expenses low so as to make brisk savings and take on other pressing things to avoid future regrets.
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Keep tap on acquiring education: Financials spent on acquisition of College, University degrees and certificates could be said to be enormous investment into one’s future. Earning higher educations can afford one more opportunities and improve career choices in the nearest time to come. Furthering one’s education can provide better understanding on new methods and techniques useful for the job experience/career. It is wiser to enroll for education using many available e-learning prospects in this Internet age without having to physically visit the location of the educational institutions.
Improve your skills: There is no known limit for innovations in many professions and careers. Day after day, new set of knowledge and technology evolve that require new training and new skills should one continues to be relevant. The first four years of one’s career should afford the best chances for investing in many skills acquisitions endeavours, whether on the job or any other kinds of job such as computer literacy and appreciations, learning of foreign languages, etc. This will give you edge over others, and reduces fear of lay-offs due to redundancies; especially in the present world of worst unemployment records.
Extend your horizon to invest in properties and other businesses: It is so easy to get a bank loan or other financial services if one has collateral in the forms of land, building, business entities etc. Depending on one’s will to succeed, he should have other sources of income to reduce over dependence on one career and stress on one’s finance in case of any eventuality. These can be achieved by investing in properties that could make one earn good money, because of its potentials to appreciate in value over the time to come.
Lupita Amondi Nyong’o was born as second of six children on 1st March, 1983 in Mexico City, Mexico during the time of her parents visit to Mexico, where her father was a visiting Academic of Political Science to El Colegio de Mexico City, Mexico. Nyong’o hails from the Luo ethnic group of western Kenya to both Kenya parents (a father politician and academic, Peter Ayang’ Nyong’o, and a career mother, managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation and her own communications company, Dorothy Nyong’o).
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Lupita returned to her native country, Kenya barely at age of 1 with her parents, where she started her early education at All Girls College, Hamphire College with a film and Theatre Studies Degree and Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting in the United States. She attended Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico’s Learning Centre for Foreigners to learn Spanish (Seven months). She speaks English, Spanish, Swahili, and her native Luo fluently. Nyong’o is a dual citizen of Kenya and Mexico.
Ngong’o draws her inspiration from few individuals: Alex Wek, a South Sudanese Supermodel dealing with the issue of people of colour; and Fiennes, a professional actor for her career choice. Her artistic family background helped her acting career too, such as many children performances during family get-togethers and outings to see plays.
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It can be said that Lupita came from a family of very successful individuals, from her father, a Kenyan Senator representing Kisumu County (2013), to her mother, the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation and her own communications company, to her cousin, Tavia Nyong'o, a scholar and professor at New York University, to her older cousin, Isis Nyong'o, named one of Africa's most powerful women by Forbes magazine (2012), to her uncle, Aggrey Nyong'o, a prominent Kenyan physician, killed in a road accident (2002).
Lupitastarted her acting career during her college day with Oliver Twist being her first play, but, her professional acting debut asJulietinRomeo and Julietproduced by Phoenix Players, a Nairobi, Kenya-based repertory company at age 14. She featured in other productions of the company such as On The Razzle and There Goes The Bride.
In 2008, she featured in short film East River, shot in Brooklyn, New Year with Marc Grey directing. Also, Lupita returned to Kenya to star in the Kenyan television series Shuga, anMTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention. While, in 2009, Nyong’o wrote, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, a story of the treatment of Kenya's albino population that played at several film festivals and won first prize at the 2008 Five College Film Festival. Again, she directed The Little Things You Do music video by Wahu ft. Bobi Wine, which was nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.
During her studies at Yale, Nyong’o featured in several stage productions such as Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale. She acted in the film 12 Years a Slave shortly before graduating from Yale in 2012. The movie was released in 2013 gave Nyong'o rave reviews for her role and received many awards nominations such as a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and two Screen Actors Guild Awards including Best Supporting Actress, which she won. She co-starred in Liam Neeson's film, Non-Stopin 2014.
She received the Herschel Williams Prize, acting students with outstanding ability, for the 2011–2012 school year at Yale. Lupita won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film 12 Years a Slave, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award on March 2, 2014.
Nyong'o face was selected as one of the faces alongside those of Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning and Bella Heathcote for Miu Miu's Spring 2014 campaign. Lupita has appeared on the covers of many magazines such as New York's Spring 2014 fashion issue, and United Kingdom’s magazine, Dazed & Confused. She has consistently featured on Harper's Bazaar's Derek Blasberg's Best Dressed List from Autumn 2013.
Written By: Abraham Alfa
The innovation of smartphones has greatly been beneficial to many people that are considered as the best invention of the 21st Century. However, there are great deals of issues thrown at us by this innovation of putting Internet service within the reach of our palms, laps and pockets. The major challenge is that of privacy and security for data packets, voice calls, audio and video chats, messaging services, etc. This article points clearly to places one could encounter privacy and security issues; and thereby suggesting ways to avoid them – knowing a problem is half way to finding the solution (a popular quote). What you should know about your smartphones include:
Majority of Internet service providers (ISP) such as Verizon and AT&T for instance, collect pool of information about their customers’ Web-browsing and location which they put together (through aggregate and anonymize process) to retail to marketers, companies, security agents and others. Your loose information could make some people rich.
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Smartphones without virtual private network (VPN) for Web-browsing for its customers would make a lot of the browsing activity vulnerable, because of lack of encryption features that could reveal information about their interests to unsolicited individuals. One should not buy smartphones without VPN enability.
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The proof is in the pudding according to ALCU technologist Chris Soghoian during a security conference in San Francisco on 27th February, 2014. That means to keep your smartphones secure requires regular updates for its security applications.
It is a common feature that running into friends and close associates could put stress and demand for use of your smartphone; they could possibly download malware or malicious apps from Google play. Your smartphone should be able scan apps and reserve decisions about what information to share (or open-access) with anybody in case they come in contact with your phones.
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Presently, there are very effective and powerful apps for spying and intercepting audio and video chats, voice calls, images, and even very intimate contents. That may have informed several encryption mechanisms for many chatting platforms or apps recently. Always make sure your chat apps are encrypted to protect your contents online.
Smartphones retailers could track your movements and browsing activity from your phone through unencrypted messaging apps, tracking devices and WiFi connections. It is usual of your smartphone retailer to check and test your phones before purchase as well as keeping records of your personal details that may include: home or office address, phone number, IMEI etc. That is why you should be concerned about privacy and security of your smartphones.
You may have to put in a lot of effort to protect your smartphones such as use of ad blocker, encryption and VPN. Also, you need to turn-off the WiFi and Bluetooth connections on your smartphone temporarily or when not in use. You could be protected against several malicious attacks by maintaining this checklist from time to time.
In conclusion, as the name implies, smart-phone needs smart and not lazy users too. Privacy and security problems have come to stay with us in this era of Internet but, the good news is that one can mitigate their effects and armed with tools to fighting them.
Written By: Abraham Alfa
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest single-event sporting competition in the world, which is contested by the senior men's national teams from the 208 Member Associations of FIFA. Played every four years since its inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 because of the Second World War, 19 FIFA World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams.
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Here are some cool, fun, interesting and crazy facts about the event and its participants:
3.2 billion people worldwide watched the 2010 World Cup, that’s 46.4 percent of the world.
Bosnia-Herzegovina will be the only nation making a debut in this year’s Worl Cup tournament in Brazil.
No nation from outside South America has ever won the World Cup hosted by a South American nation.
Extend that into North and Central America and the same pattern emerges, with only Brazil and Argentina winning tournaments hosted in Mexico (twice) and the United States.
A host team has never lost an opening match.
Brazil is the only team to qualify for every single World Cup tournament.
The average age of players at the 2010 World Cup at South Africa was 26 years 9 months.
Pele of Brazil is the youngest ever goal scorer at the Fifa World Cup. He scored his first World Cup goal against Wales during the 1958 World Cup at 17 years 239 days.
There are more countries that compete to play in the world Cup than are members of the United Nations.
A few months before the 1966 World Cup, the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen after it went on display at a London stamp exhibition, despite 24-hour surveillance. Six days after it disappeared, a man named David Corbett and his dog, Pickles, were taking a stroll in London’s Beulah Hill district when Pickles began sniffing a newspaper-wrapped parcel – which contained the trophy.
Due to financial concerns and FIFA’s requirement that all players wear shoes during matches, the Indian team, who qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, chose to withdraw from the competition. The Indian footballers were only accustomed to playing barefoot at the time.
One of the greatest Italian footballers of all time, Guseppe “Peppino” Meazza, who played a crucial role in his country’s 1934 World Cup victory; was known to routinely sleep in brothels on nights before matches and would stumble onto the field for practice several hours after the rest of his teammates.
Lev Yashin, the great Soviet goalkeeper, played in three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1966). Known as the “Black Spider” for his signature all-black outfit and ability to block balls as if he had more than two arms, he was voted best goalie of the century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics. When asked about his pre-match routine, he said that the trick was to “have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles.”Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
No country has won the World Cup three times consecutively; Italy (1934, 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962) have both won back-to back championships.
Lucien Laurent of France scored the first goal in World Cup history on July 13, 1930.
The record for most individual goals in a tournament is held by France’s Just Fonatine, with 13. He played in just one World Cup (1958).
Italian goalkeeper, Dino Zoff, became the oldest player to lift the trophy at 40 years and 133 days in 1982.
Italian forward, Gianfranco Zola is the only player to be sent off at the World Cup on his birthday. He received a red in a second round victory against Nigeria on his 28th birthday.
Brazil leads all countries with 40 sparkling clean sheets.
Indonesia has played the least world cup games with only 1 (they lost 6-0). If you’re wondering why they only played one match, it’s because they refused to play Israel in their next game (presumably because they’re Jewish).
The biggest ever attendance for a World Cup match is 200,000 people. They all squeezed into the Maracana Stadium for a match between Brazil and Uruguay during the 1950 World Cup.
The fastest goal ever scored at a World Cup was knocked in by Turkish forward, Hakan Sukur, against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup. It took him just 11 seconds.
Norman Whiteside is the youngest player to ever take the field at a World Cup. He was just 17 years, one month and 10 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. When he got back home, his mother grounded him for a week for not calling her to let him know he’d arrived safely in Madrid.
Mario Zagallo is the only person to have won the World Cup 4 times, as a player for Brazil (Sweden 1958 and Chile 1962), as the Manager of the Brazilian team (Mexico 1970) and Assistant Manager of the Brazilian team (USA 1994).Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
The next three World Cups will be hosted by Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018, and Qatar in 2022.
Written By: Olusola Agbaje
Music channel MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) is celebrating the Oscar success of Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o after she triumphed in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
The talented Kenyan actress, who won her Oscar for her part of Patsey in the celebrated period memoir and Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave”, had her first professional acting role in a HIV and AIDS awareness drama, Shuga. Shot in Kenya by MTV Base and the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Shuga starred Nyong’o in the role of Ayira, a confident and vivacious Nairobi college student who is forced to come to terms with the consequences of her reckless lifestyle.
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To mark Nyong’o’s achievement as the first ever black African woman to win an Oscar, MTV Base is running news items across all its media platforms, while the Shuga TV series will be available to view on the MTV Base website.
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Commented Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa, “As a brand that has dedicated itself to promoting and pushing African talent both in Africa and internationally, MTV Base is delighted that Lupita is enjoying such success and critical acclaim. Her win provides young Africans with an inspiring role model who shows them that anything and everything is possible.”
Since the continent of Africa started paying more attention to documentation which had before now been a major problem in the preservation of her history and philosophy, several authors have emerged, others have died while more have been born. Some have also been forgotten even while still alive and such is the tale of the writer below.
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Born on August 22, 1940 at Bandiagary, Mopti region, French Sudan [now Mali], Yambo Ouologuem is a Malian writer whose first novel, Le Devoir de Violence (Bound to Violence) in 1968 won the Prix Renaudot and with it, he became the first African writer to receive a major French literary award. He later published Lettre à la France nègre (1969), and Les mille et une bibles du sexe (1969) under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph. Le Devoir de Violence was initially well-received, but critics later charged that Ouologuem had plagiarized passages from Graham Greene and other established authors which resulted in controversy and a continuing academic debate over charges of plagiarism. Ouologuem turned away from the Western press as a result of the matter, and even today remains reclusive.
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Ouologuem was born to a ruling-class family and attended local schools in addition to a lycée in Bamako, Mali; he received degrees in philosophy, literature, and English in Paris in 1962. He also studied for his doctorate in sociology in Paris.
His best-known work, Le Devoir de violence, is an epic about a fictitious Sudanese empire, in which hundreds of years of African history are unfolded and in which three forces down through the centuries are responsible for the black man’s “slave mentality”—the ancient African emperors, the Arabs, and finally, since the mid-1800s, the European colonial administrators—reducing the black man to “négraille” (a word coined by Ouologuem, which Ralph Manheim rendered as “nigger-trash” in his 1971 translation of the novel). The work was highly controversial, some critics claiming it to be a new form of African literature, others maintaining that it was highly derivative of Graham Greene’s It’s a Battlefield (1934) and of a work by André Schwarz-Bart, Le Dernier des Justes (1959; The Last of the Just). Ouologuem viewed the African’s lot as a legacy of violence and, in modern times, as a duty of violence toward white misconceptions of blacks that impose on him a slave mentality and character.
Ouologuem’s bitterness about white attitudes also appears in some of his poems, and his Lettre à la France nègre (1969) attacks the “noble” sentiments that have been expressed by paternalistic French liberals about Africa.
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Other works include Les Milles et un bibles du sexe (1969; “The Thousand and One Bibles of Sex”), published under his pseudonym, Utto Rodolph. Ouologuem also coauthored French-language textbooks for foreigners under the title Terres du Soleil (1971; “Lands of the Sun”).
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Yambo Ouloguem was born an only son in an aristocratic Malian family in 1940 in Bandiagara, the main city in the Dogon region of Mali (then a part of French Soudan). His father was a prominent landowner and school inspector. He learned several African languages and gained fluency in French, English, and Spanish. After matriculating at a Lycée in the capital city of Bamako, he went to Paris in 1960, where he studied sociology, philosophy and English at Lycée Henry IV and from 1964 to 1966 he taught at the Lycée de Clarenton in suburban Paris, while studying for a doctorate in sociology at the École Normale Supérieure.
In 1969, he published out a volume of biting essays, Lettre à la France nègre as well as an erotic novel, Les Milles et un bibles du sexe, published under the pseudonym of Utto Rodolph. After the plagiarism controversy over Le Devoir de violence, Ouloguem returned to Mali in the late seventies. Until 1984, he was the director of a Youth centre near Mopti in central Mali, where he wrote and edited a series of children's textbooks. He is reputed to have been leading a secluded Islamic life as a Marabout since then.
Written by: Azeez Sanusi
“I enjoy myself a lot but I derive more joy in working. I believe in hard work and one of my business success secrets is hard work. I don’t rest until I achieve something.” – Aliko Dangote
Business tycoon, Nigeria and Africa’s first billionaire, Alhaji Aliko Mohammad Dangote is currently the world’s wealthiest black man. Currently the 23rd richest person in the world, Dangote is the founder, Chairman and CEO of the Dangote Group – the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa (and one of the largest in Africa) with interests in commodities such as cement, sugar, salt, flour, rice, spaghetti, fabric etc and operations in several countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia.
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courtesy: abiyamo
Diversification has been a key ingredient in the success of Dangote, as the focuses of his investments have been food, clothing and shelter… and then some. His companies (under the Dangote Group) have grown to dominate the Nigerian economy in a large number of sectors, like sugar – where he is the major supplier (70% of the market) to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners (candy/sweets) with the Dangote Sugar Refinery, the largest of its kind in Africa and third largest in the world.
The ‘Golden Child’ of Nigerian business was born 10th, April 1957 in Kano State (northern Nigeria) into a wealthy Muslim family. He studied business at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. Upon the completion of his studies, he returned to Nigeria when he ventured into business in 1977 at the age of 21 years, starting with a capital (N500,000) loaned to him by his grandfather, Alhaji Sanusi Dantata. He was involved in trading in local commodities and building materials. Around June 1977, he moved into Lagos and continued his trade in cement and commodities. After his business began to experience tremendous success and increase, he was encouraged to incorporate two companies in 1981.
Today, the Dangote brand has grown into other sectors of the economy as well - exporting, importing, manufacturing, real-estate, philanthropy etc. His company, Dangote Textile (and the Nigeria Textiles Mills Plc, which it acquired), with a ginnery in Katsina State, produces 120,000 meters of finished textiles daily.
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courtesy: erp-dca
Sugar refineries in Lagos and Jigawa State add up to produce 800,000 tonnes of refined sugar annually. With a significant investment in the National Salt Company of Nigeria at Ogun State, the group has salt factories at Apapa (Lagos) and Calabar (Cross River); a bagging factory which produces the essential packaging for its products and over 600 trucks for effective distribution network. The Dangote Group is also dominating in the production of cement (Dangote Cement, which Forbes Africa named in 2012 one of the top 5 listed companies in West Africa) with an $800 million cement factory at Obajana, Kogi State (the largest in sub-Saharan Africa) and a $1 billion cement plant at Ibese, Ogun State.
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courtesy: forbes africa
A major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertilizer, the company imports 200,000 metric tonnes of rice annually and also imports fish with three chartered big fishing trawlers with a 5,000 MT capacity. The group exports cotton, cocoa, cashew nuts, sesame seed and ginger to several countries globally.
In telecommunications, the building of 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply Nigeria has commenced. And in transportation, is a vehicle leasing unit with over 100 fully air-conditioned commuter buses. In the 1990s, his transport company was approved to manage the Central Bank of Nigeria’s fleet of staff buses. The real estate arm boasts of luxury flats and high rise complexes in high-class environments such as Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Abuja and Kano.
The Dangote Foundation, set up 20 years ago, is the philanthropic arm of the group who yearly spends millions for worthy causes such as contributions to education, health care and youth empowerment across the world. The Foundation disburses small grants usually within the range of $50 – $80 to very poor rural women and youths who want to start small businesses. The Foundation also funds the construction of University libraries and hospitals across Nigeria. Dangote recently announced on 4th March, 2014, that he would be donating N200 billion ($1.25 billion) to the foundation.
With a nationwide staff strength of 12,000, the Dangote Group which comprises of more than 18 different subsidiary companies employs over 21,000 people across Africa.
Dangote, who has been married to 4 women and is father to 16 children, ousted Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world’s richest black man, and he was recently ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 23rd richest person in the world.
Courtesy:Wikipedia
The Brazil centre back is regarded as one of the best in Europe and has earned rave reviews after helping Bayern to the Champions League final at Wembley.
But it wasn’t always such plain sailing for the curly-haired defender, who had failed several trials at clubs as a youngster and was told by his parents they wouldn’t be wasting money by taking him to anymore try-outs.
Dante, though, was having none of it and made the ultimate sacrifice for a kid – parting with his beloved games console in order to fund his own trips to different clubs.
‘Like every Brazilian boy, my dream was to be a footballer,’ he said.
‘I played on the streets in my neighbourhood, but my family didn’t believe I was going to be a footballer as I hadn’t succeeded in trials at local clubs.
They told me I should do something else. But there was something inside me that said I should continue pursuing this dream.
‘My parents said they weren’t going to support me so I decided to sell my games console to buy the bus ticket so I could go and do trials.’
Dante flogged his prized PlayStation and used the money to buy a bus ticket to Parana – 1600 miles away – and was eventually snapped up by a local team before getting his big break with a transfer to Juventude in 2002.
He moved on to France with Lille, and then to Belgium before moving to Germany and ending up at Bayern, who splashed out £5million to sign him.
The road to success is actually filled with stumbling blocks, it is pertinent to note that at sometimes the ultimate sacrifice is actually needed from us. Dante made the ultimate sacrifice and has achieved his objectives. The ultimate sacrifice for Dante is definitely not the same for others. First of all determine what is standing between you and your objectives and identify ways to removing the stumbling blocks. Be aware that achieving this might require extra work from your, therefore give it you best. Remember no venture no success!
