[b][/b][color=#770077][/color]THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who post such wonderful Naija recipes! Just got back to the US from Lagos and my heart (and stomach!) were breaking for good African food. I know how to make a few things, but this thread will greatly expand my cookbook! Thank you especially to whoever posted the egg roll recipe, I had never had them until this time and whew they are sooooooooooooo good! I am also now an egusi soup addict, now all I hope is I can find a good source in the US to get all the ingredients I need to make it properly. Keep the recipes coming, abeg!

[b][/b][color=#770077][/color] I think it is a crying shame no matter what the person's culture, African or otherwise. Why bother getting married & promising fidelity when you have no intention of keeping that promise? Why not just stay single? Am I the only person on Earth who still believes in fidelity & faithfulness? What is it about guys that makes them feel the need to seek other than their wives? Even pornography is still adultery cuz you have looked lustfully upon another & Jesus said you have therefore already committed adultery with her in your heart. Yes, I admit there are plenty of women out there, married themselves too or single who make it altogether too easy for a man to succumb to his lusts. But if he really loves his wife, can't he be content with just HER??  What a double standard! A man commits adultery & it's not only OK and accepted, he actually will be congratulated by anyone who hears of it (except possibly his wife).  But let a WOMAN seek out another man's attention outside her marriage? Whew, she is branded a LovePeddler and risks being stoned to death just like in Biblical times.  It really IS a man's world. I pity the women married to men who think regularly violating their wife's trust and throwing another spear into her heart is fine, or is it just fine so far she never finds out about it?  A wife can meet her husband's needs in the bedroom. So why should he HAVE to feel he has to look elsewhere? WE sleep with the same man every night, make love to the same man. It only gets boring if you LET it get boring. Variety IS the spice of life, but spice up the dish you are cooking in your OWN kitchen!

[b][/b][color=#770077][/color] I think it is a crying shame no matter what the person's culture, African or otherwise. Why bother getting married & promising fidelity when you have no intention of keeping that promise? Why not just stay single? Am I the only person on Earth who still believes in fidelity & faithfulness? What is it about guys that makes them feel the need to seek other than their wives? Even pornography is still adultery cuz you have looked lustfully upon another & Jesus said you have therefore already committed adultery with her in your heart. Yes, I admit there are plenty of women out there, married themselves too or single who make it altogether too easy for a man to succumb to his lusts. But if he really loves his wife, can't he be content with just HER?? What a double standard! A man commits adultery & it's not only OK and accepted, he actually will be congratulated by anyone who hears of it (except possibly his wife). But let a WOMAN seek out another man's attention outside her marriage? Whew, she is branded a LovePeddler and risks being stoned to death just like in Biblical times. It really IS a man's world. I pity the women married to men who think regularly violating their wife's trust and throwing another spear into her heart is fine, or is it just fine so far she never finds out about it?

[b][/b][color=#770077][/color] @ yvskc:

I am a white American woman very happily married to a Yoruba man. Like you I plan retirement with my husband in Naija, I have discovered a love for Africa almost as great as that for my husband ([/i]almost[i]). I am trying to learn Yoruba as well since he already speaks my language. I know how you feel when you can't be part of the conversation, though my last visit home to Lagos I DID find myself understanding & following the conversation, and surprised a good many of his family & friends by adding to the conversation ON topic, albeit in English. LOL the first time I did it you could have heard a pin drop. But like you I also wish to please my husband and learn well to make his favourite foods and have adopted traditional dress. He DOES treat me like a queen, and I am happy to do such small things to show him how much I love him. Plus, I have learnt over time that the few arguments we HAVE had were all cultural misunderstanding, every last one of them. So the better I learn his culture and what my role and his expectations of me are, the happier our home shall be. I love this man with all my heart, there is nothing I would not do to please him, or he to please me. We have a traditional marriage in that I am happy to acknowledge him as head of household, but he also accords me the respect of valuing my opinions and hearing me out, rather than just "laying down the law." By nature a multicultural relationship requires a willingness to embrace that which made us each who we are, the people we fell in love with. We are working toward establishing a blend of our cultures and traditions for our children to get the best of "both worlds" so to speak. The fact that I am part Native American is a big help, it's amazing how very similar our tribal traditions and taboos are. For our next anniversary we plan to renew our vows. We were married in Lagos in traditional Nigerian dress, which I was proud to wear for my husband -- the love shining in his eyes that day will always be in my memory. We will probably wear tradtional Nigerian wears for our renewal too (they are just too beautiful!) but we will be incorporating the traditional marriage binding cord from my tribal Nation, lovingly applied by our children. Embrace your diversity, it's part of what attracted you to each other in the first place. If he had wanted a woman who was culturally identical, he'd have married one. I wish you happiness and blessings in your life together.
A blessing from my tribe" O-owa Yeha-Noha!" (Blessings of Joy & Prosperity) from the Mohawk Nation Wolf Clan

@ Kemji,
At the risk of being fried the moment I arrive on scene I have to add my two cents worth. Your character isn't all that flawed. First, in almost EVERY MANGA in Asia, there is at least one "gender-challenged" character, so the lipstick is an option. Yes there are both Chinese and Japanese elements in his sword and clothing (and for those of you who don't think a woman can know about samurai weapons guess again, I am a student of Kendo, "The way of the Sword", that's SAMURAI swordplay the OLD FASHIONED WAY, plus I collect swords, knives, and just about anything sharp that can be thrown, LOL). But that dichotomy of style is cool too, the lead character in Samurai Champloo is a scruffy samurai that looks more like he's break dancing or doing caporeira than traditional swordplay, and his clothes are whatever he happened across that was clean. So while some valid criticisms were made, you don't necessarily have to change your character. Oddballs work, especially in manga. As for his name, well, you have a LOT going on there meaning-wise. "hei" in Japanese means "army", but yoshi, that's just a turtle from the Mario Bros. games. If it had been Heihachi, then it would either mean "adopted child of the army" or "army of chopsticks" depending which you want to go with (my guess would be the adopted child thing, though if you are keeping the oddball aspect, the chopsticks could work too, lol). Mitserugi is a sword STYLE (as per Kenshin), Ken literally means sword, mitserugi means pretty close to abandoning or forsaking (as in Kenshin's forsaking the style that kills and embracing the reverse-blade sword) Lou is def a Chinese surname. If you want to be consistant in the Japanese vein, at least with your name, my advice is google a Japanese dictionary that gives both English and Roman-ji (that's phonetic spelling of what the Japanese characters say, how to say the word). Then you get both the sound you want AND the meaning too.
Anata wa shukufuku o inoru desu, (that's "I ask Divine Blessings for you")

whew how sweet! A manga thread on nairaland! Whew, so much nice work here. Thank you Gamine for statting the thread (AND FOR BREAKING THE BARRIER, NOT ALL GOOD MANGA ARTISTS ARE GUYS!) In fact MOST successful manga artists are women! (at least in Asia, ) Ever hear of CLAMP Studios, all women!. But I stray from da topic,
want to congratulate so many nice works I see here (love Naija Boy). There is a nice free drawing and animation prog you can d/l at serif, search serif/DrawPlus. There are two, the 6.0 costs about $10 but the 4.0 is free and has plenty to work with. Those of you who are serious about your manga also check out newtype.com. That's the manga/animation industry's world's largest magazine (and they DO publish unknowns and you can submit by email so you don't lose your original. I had the good fortune to get published in April 2006 issue, I will upload the scan soon as my scanner speaks to me again so you can see it.) And yeah, I'm not only female, I'm over 40 and still drawing manga like a maniac. CHEERS!

@ mekistein,
If you google search just on nairaland you will find a thread that asks for help making comics. Click on that and at the top you can d/l a really nice comp drawing and animation prog that might get you started. If you can't find it that way, search serif/DrawPlus. There are 2, the 6.0 is more recent and only costs about $10, but the 4.0 is still pretty sweet and it's free. As I said on that thread too, you might also look at newtype.com. That is the world's largest industry animation magazine, and there are a LOT of "how-to's" in every issue (eye candy aside, lol). I think you will really enjoy the drawing prog though cuz you can not only draw with it but can ANIMATE what you draw, so you can prob at least build a demo to show to a prospective sponsor that way. Best of luck to you! It would be nice to see some indiginous cartoons! Jah Bless,

@ salsera, thanks! Made the suya over the weekend, OMG I miss LAGOS! WHEW! With God I should be home again soon to get hubby then we both come back to the US for awhile. Praying in time for Christmas, but will be celebrating no matter WHEN! Can't wait to try some of the other recipes I got here. Now I have two Nigerian foods I can make, LOL, suya and eja aro (both of which are MY favourites, so I am not complaining!) As for my husband he is an awesome good cook too (addin to the Naija men CAN cook bit of the thread)
God Bless all,

[b][/b]Amaka1 I confess myself greatly in your debt! As a newlywed US woman married to a Yoruba man, it is my earnest desire to please my husband by learning to cook his favourite naija dishes (and some of my own!). I learnt how to make eja aro from my sister-in-law (whew my very best favourite!) but am indebted to you eternally for your recipe for suya. I tried to bring some back to the US with me when I was last home, but ended up leaving it last minute with my sister-in-law at the airport as I was afraid they would confiscate it. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I SO MISSED THAT WONDERFUL TASTE! Now am turning on my family here in the US to the joys of naija cooking and all the wonderful flavours! (and am I reading that right that you are in CT? me too, almost finished with my husband's immigration visa, then we go back & forth!)

[b][/b]I usually do the preliminary pencil sketch by hand, scan it and then colour it with Paint, though that can be really tedious, whew all that pixel by pixel fixing!  I have found there are some nice applications in Adobe Photoshop that can be used to both draw and colour with, as well as working up to animations even.  If you aren't familiar with it, Newtype magazine is the largest animation magazine in the world, every month they spotlight a new artist and show their step by step techniques and also what prog they used. They also print pix done by unknown artists if you send them in. (I had the good fortune to be published in their April 2006 issue  )  I'm not sure what style of comics you are doing, but you can give them a look online at www.newtype.com. The featured artist stuff is really helpful cuz they show you more than just characters, but cover the actual layering and development of backgrounds as well.  Hope this is helpful. Cheers!