₦airaland Forum

[b]"A drop-dead beautiful Ghanaian actress is yelling at the director. Her voice — with that slightly British Ghanaian accent — echoes across the polished marble floors and bounces off the baby grand inside a Montgomery County mansion that has been turned into a movie set.

Cameras have stopped rolling. Actors lean against the bay windows overlooking the swimming pool.

“I’m human!” shouts the movie star, Yvonne Nelson. “I can complain if I want to complain. I am not a robot.”

“No one can tell me what to do on my set!” warns the director, John Uche, a Ni­ger­ian who lives in Upper Marlboro. “I’ve directed bigger actors than you.”

The actress spins and storms up a circular staircase, retreating to her

bedroom lair and halting production.

This could be a disaster for this “Nollywood” movie. Filming has to be completed in three weeks.If the star quits, thousands of dollars are down the tube. The other actors — some of the biggest names in Africahave flown in from Nigeria and Ghana — will have wasted a trip. And the producer, Koby Maxwell, an award-winning Ghanaian musician turned moviemaker, will lose investors’ money.

Maxwell eyes the scene from the mansion’s kitchen, where he is peeling green plantains to boil for the cast’s dinner. Besides obtaining investors, writing the story, locking down actors and locations, and working with crew members on a major Nollywood production, he also has to cook supper.

As he rinses and slices, he tries not to show his worry. He has slept only two hours at a time in the past few weeks, worried about production, worried about accommodating actors, worried about filming on a shoestring budget. He cannot afford to lose this actress or this director. Everything is riding on “One Night in Vegas,” a movie Maxwell hopes will raise the bar on Nollywood production values.

The next three weeks will test his dream. While Hollywood dreamers wait to be discovered, Nollywood waits for no one.

Nollywood, the colloquial name used to describe the Nigerian film industry, is the second-biggest movie industry in the world in terms of number of movies made. The $500 million business churns out hundreds a year, second in film production behind India’s Bollywood. Hollywood comes in third.

According to a 2012 UNESCO survey, India produced 1,255 feature-length movies in 2011. Nigeria produced 997 movies in video format; and Hollywood produced 819films.

The hottest Nollywood actors earn as much as $10,000 per movie. Some earn $4,000 or $5,000. Some make more than 50 movies a year, rolling out productions one week after the next with a swiftness that would make a Hollywood actor’s head spin.

Nollywood has swept into Cameroon, the Caribbean and Ghana, which calls its industry Ghollywood. Now Nollywood actors and filmmakers have started making movies here. They call it Nollywood USA."[/b] read the rest of the article by clicking the link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/nollywood-usa-african-movie-makers-expand-filming-to-dc-area/2013/05/22/c132bae6-b107-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_story_4.html

Nomski0: I cant believe i read every single word......I'm in complete awe.
You captured the shallow attitude of the black race.....the need to play safe and easy.
Most hollywood blockbuster movies are all novel adaptation. The said novel must have topped the list on new york times/usa today bestselling list.
Put such novels on screen and you've got a major motion picture. Nigeria has writers winning prices within and outside the continet but they still stick to evil stepmother/village fairy tale romance story line.
Little or no creativity runs in the black race and its something we have to overcome.

Do you have any website i can read some of your work?

It depends to a extent on whether it is the English Nollywood industry vs. the yoruba industry for example and whether it is a ancient nigerian or west african film or not, examples:

Yemoja(yoruba film about ancient yoruba goddess)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq74SyE8rsE

I sing of a well(ancient Ghanian movie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67eVQijlbx4

well when it comes to Hollywood, the number one film industry in the world they only cater to movies that the majority of americans will watch since they are a American film industry, and the majority are white americans and the reality is many white americans like ancient or middle age European history. Also Hollywood is run by white americans for the most part, so I wouldn't blame african americans per say but I feel the only way Blacks from each culture can showcase their own movies of their culture is by doing their own movie industries. The Indians, Hispanics and Asians have their own industries. However when it comes to african americans, it is not their duty to talk about non-African american cultures in their movies because that is no longer their culture any more, and so they don't feel entitled to even venture into that, I feel it is up to foreign blacks to mobilize and start thinking about that. Those movies you posted(ex. precious, Tyler Perry) are the realities or issues that is in the african american community. To me ancient african history will be shown on the big screen in the near future by black africans themselves, examples:

Hamza(ancient Hausa times)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As6VHmlvCME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0rtN6puC78

thank you for the videos

I'm suspecting the Iphone will be the number one in the future

IFE head mini documentary:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/b/brass_head_with_a_crown.aspx

lol

[quote author=babe_online]Hello all,
I have been on Nairaland for quite sometime now and to tell you the truth I am not happy with what I am seeing in some areas. While some people are given freedom to say what they like on this site some are not given. I tried to voice out my opinion on how I felt about non-Nigerians coming on this site to insult Nigerians and others(who really are of no concern to me) and I also tried to use sarcasm/mimicry to talk on some issues that are true about Nigeria, and guess what? I WAS BANNED from a section on Nairaland!!!!. Please, is this not hypocrisy?...Please you all should express how you feel on they hypocrisy going on on Nairaland, thanks.[/quote]wow that is sad because I agree with you, I don't blame you for complaining. I think these people need to start being ignored in order for them to leave the forum in my opinion

yorubaamerican: Did you not understand the story of the prodigal son? You need to reclaim your kidnapped (and betrayed) brethren because WE HOLD THE KEY to your salvation

The story of the prodigal son has nothing to do with this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son

Nobody needs to reclaim anybody; africans hold the key to their own salvation, african americans hold the key to their own salvation, and the same goes with black Caribbeans.

Is it wrong to put creams and lotions on your body

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI8-ccl4Enw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06c_CJCW0Tw

May she rest in peace

[b]"Kerry Washington definitely knows how to keep a secret.

The "Scandal" star, 36, quietly married San Francisco 49ers cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on June 24 in Blaine County, Idaho. While the remote location was sure to keep the paparazzi away, was it really necessary when no one even knew they were a couple in the first place?
According to TerezOwens.com, who first reported the nuptial news on Tuesday, Asomugha and Washington have been dating since last summer.
A 2003 graduate of UC Berkeley, Asomugha, 31, played for the Oakland Raiders for eight seasons and the Philadelphia Eagles for two before signing with the 49ers in April. (Though he's bounced around a bit when it comes to committing to a football team, it seems he wasn't afraid to commit to Kerry!) He's also dabbled in acting, with guest-starring gigs on "Friday Night Lights," "The Game," "Leverage," and "Kroll Show."

Another thing Asomugha and the stylish "Django Unchained" actress have in common? Giving back. The political activists are both involved in various philanthropic efforts. Asomugha has participated in the Clinton Global Initiative every year since 2009, while Washington addressed the crowd at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

This marks the first marriage for both. Washington was previously engaged to longtime boyfriend David Moscow (better known as the kid who turns into Tom Hanks in the 1988 flick "Big", but called the wedding off in 2007. Since then, she's kept everyone in the dark about her personal life — but gave a little clue on Twitter Tuesday that she could be headed off on a honeymoon."[/b]
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/kerry-washington-secretly-weds-nfl-star-nnamdi-asomugha-222725948.html

https://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/files/2013/07/Kerry-2.jpg

was there a Nigerian culture in the first place, Nigeria has it's national pride but Nigerian culture maybe with food I guess but besides that it is complex. There is tribal culture in Nigeria, You can't compare Hausa culture with Igbo culture, it is impossible. I think some tribes favor foreign culture over their own while other favor their own culture over foreign, while respecting the foreign culture. So When it comes to declining culture it depends on what tribe you speak to because it is different from one tribe compared to the next.

As for me I appreciate my culture more for the fact I was born in the western world, so I grew to respecting and cherishing it more. I feel some youths in Nigeria are taking it for granted in Nigeria, if they know how black diasporians are treated in the western world and stripped of their identity, wishing they had a portion of what they had they would appreciate it more.

[b]"Pierce Brosnan has suffered another tremendous personal loss. His 41-year-old daughter, Charlotte, has died after a three-year battle against ovarian cancer ― the same disease that caused the death of her mother.

"On June 28 at 2 p.m., my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer," the 60-year-old Irish actor and one-time James Bond star said in a statement to omg!. "She was surrounded by her husband Alex, children Isabella, [15], and Lucas, [8], and brothers Christopher and Sean.

"Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity," the statement continued. "Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl. We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon. We thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences."

Charlotte, who appeared in a handful of movies and TV shows, lived in London with her family.

Her death mirrors another tragic loss in the Brosnan family. In 1991, the actor's first wife and Charlotte's mother, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 39. (Charlotte and her brother Chris, who were from Harris's first marriage, were adopted by Brosnan after their father died in 1986.)
Harris's own mother died of the disease as well.

Generations of women being plagued with the same disease brings to mind Angelina Jolie's recent headline-making news that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she carried the faulty BRCA1 gene, which increased her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, the latter of which killed her mother, Marcheline Betrand. Jolie's maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer.

The 38-year-old, who is engaged to Brad Pitt, plans to have another operation to remove her ovaries."[/b]
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/pierce-brosnan-daughter-dies-ovarian-cancer-125318041.html

[b]" DAKAR, 30 May 2013 (IRIN) - As violence rages in northern Nigeria, and international peacekeepers gear up to keep the peace in northern Mali, fears abound that Islamist movements will spread across borders, stoking instability elsewhere in the region, including Senegal which is not immune to the spread of extremist rhetoric, argues a just-published report by the Institute of Security Studies (ISS).

Four Islamic brotherhoods dominate religious and political life in Senegal: the Qadiri, the Tijani, the Mouride, and the Layenne, each of them made up of leaders (or shaykhs) and followers (murids). In general, they are perceived as providing a barrier against the spread of fundamentalist dogma in the country, but the report says growing radical rhetoric is creeping in.

In the past, fundamentalists seeking to wield power in Senegal’s mosques pitted themselves against the brotherhoods, saying they needed to reform their form of Islam, said report author Bakary Sambe of the Centre of Religious Studies at the Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis. But they soon realized this strategy would not work, and instead went for a strategic truce, he said, focusing on common causes such as a call to stamp out what they call "bad values" such as homosexulaity and the secular state.

Brotherhood imams are increasingly asserting how “clean” and pure the form of Islam that they preach is, and thus they have taken on this reformist discourse, said Sambe.

According to the report/study, which involved researchers interviewing 400 Senegalese in the capital Dakar, its suburbs, and the towns and surrounding areas of Thiès, Mbour and Saint Louis, some 30 percent of interviewees said they had encountered the argument that they were not practising a true form of Islam.

Wahhabists (a conservative form of Sunni Islam) have allegedly criticized the brotherhoods for promoting the worship of individual imams - known in Senegal as marabouts - over worship of the Prophet Mohammed, said Sambe. In Thiès, for instance, many interviewees spoke of a mosque that did not support the right kind of Islam, and that worshipped men, over the faith.

“More and more, fundamentalist groups, such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM], are tapping into national causes and giving them a religious spin, to create national ideologies - that is part of their new strategy,” said an imam in the Dakar neighbourhood of SICAP Baobab, who preferred anonymity.

While the majority of mosques shy away from fundamentalist preaching, the rhetoric has become more extreme in a significant minority, he said.

Crossroads

Senegal sits at a sometimes uncomfortable crossroads: It is both an important African member of Islamic networks, and at the same time a traditional ally of the West.

According to the report, Senegal has inherited its former colonizer France’s secular governance structure, yet 95 percent of its inhabitants are Muslims, and they are increasingly voicing concerns about the way the country is being run. While the brotherhoods have great influence in determining who gets into power in Senegal, their impact is often greater in other areas. For instance, while 90 percent of Senegalese children attend non-religious state-run or private schools, many thousands attend Koranic schools, run by marabouts, with an unregulated curriculum, and in many cases unknown funders.

“The idea of strict secularism in a 95 percent Muslim country does not necessarily fit comfortably,” said Sambe. “Many see the French-educated elites who have led the country, as having failed… They want an Islamic alternative.”

Many youths - at least 40 percent of whom are estimated to be unemployed - feel they have been failed by a political system that cannot provide jobs, yet they are also disappointed with the brotherhoods, and thus seek a more modern version of Islam.

“We met youths who were determined; who were prepared to plant bombs if they were asked to… This is new here, and it’s serious,” said Sambe, adding: “The brotherhoods must adapt to attract more youths.”

Radical discourse can appeal to a minority of these youths, who want to join a cause and feel they have few alternatives, said the Dakar imam.

Of course, there is a big difference between pushing for a more fundamental form of Islam, and a moving towards practising violent Jihad: the two should not be conflated, said participants at an Open Society of West Africa (OSIWA)-hosted seminar to launch the ISS report.

Mali spillover?

Nevertheless, given Senegal is a neighbour of Mali, and given it has “structural, institutional and geopolitical vulnerabilities, it could become a target of reprisals by radical Islamists who have occupied northern Mali,” said Col Djibril Ba, ex-second-in-command at the National Gendarmerie, at the seminar. Since the start of the Mali crisis, Senegal’s security and defence forces have been running a security early warning system to avert any instability, he said.

The detonation of two car bombs on 23 May in Niger - one near a military barracks in Agadez, the other in Arlit, the site of a French-run uranium mine, reportedly instigated by militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar - has rattled security forces across the region. Senegal, like Niger, plays host to France’s economic, military and diplomatic interests, and is contributing troops to the International Support Mission to Mali (MISMA), which could make it vulnerable as a target, said Col Ba.

Senegal’s porous borders with its neighbours - Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia - and insufficient capacity and resources to sufficiently control these borders, create the conditions for trafficking and criminality of all sorts, including weapons, said Ba. “Even the USA, with countless highly sophisticated techniques and a newly erected border wall, cannot control its southern borders,” he said.

But not all are too concerned. Idrissa Diop, a researcher at the Ecole Normale in Dakar, reflected the views of many others IRIN spoke to. He is a Muslim and was seated beside his Christian friend and colleague from Kolda Region: “We live together here - he is my big brother, we share all our religious festivities. Religion should bring people together. The moment it starts separating people, there is something wrong. The kind of fundamentalism we see among certain groups in Mali could never be replicated here,” he told IRIN. “We wouldn’t tolerate it.”

ISS recommendations

ISS says more needs to be done to avert any trouble. It calls for an early warning security alert system to be set up, with religious groups, government ministries, security personnel and others involved to track and analyse incidents that occur.

It also calls on leaders to start a dialogue with religious leaders in Senegal to try to jointly limit the spread of extremist discourse in mosques and elsewhere.

The long-debated problem of how to better regulate what goes on in Koranic schools was debated at a Dakar seminar discussing the report’s findings.

Senegal’s police, military police (gendarmes) and army should work very closely together, exchanging information and intelligence on any security concerns, said Ba. The synergy between them needs to be improved both in Senegal, and among regional allies’ security and defence forces, he said. "[/b]
http://www.irinnews.org/report/98122/senegal-looking-more-vulnerable-to-extremism-instability

braine: it must really pain them. Lol. I think they're the only ones who are agitating.

yup, they need to realize whether he went to Kenya or not, he is for America(since he is president of the USA) not Africa and will not change anything in Kenya only they can, so his importance shouldn't be put on a pedestal.

when it comes to the directly statement, well I know culturally obama is not connected to kenya at all but Kenyans claim him as their own because his father is Kenyan, to them Obama is connected to them.

braine: They're loosing sleep over it already. They should have ignored it since its not a big deal to them na.

exactly, why talk about it if it isn't a issue that will make you not to sleep, However I understand their sentiments about the whole thing though since Obama is directly conected to Kenya.