Romantic Names in Nigerian Languages - Please Translate

Some of you may remember this post on Nigerian love and romantic names that I did sometime ago. It remains quite popular through search and I get regular emails or comments on it. Once came in recently and she needs our help. I am out of my depth in Yoruba and even my Igbo has its limits. I know my treasure in Igbo is akum and my peace is udom, white flower would be ododo ocha. Over to you language experts :)

So We Do Not Forget - Final Boarding Call

Final Boarding Call by Walter Uchenna Ede

“This is the final boarding call for all passengers going to Lagos!” the voice of the female automaton blared from the loudspeakers of the public address system. I looked grudgingly up from the page of my Vince Flynn novel, dragging my attention from the point where Mitch Rapp had been about to blast yet another Middle Eastern terrorist to hell where there won’t be any fifty virgins waiting to receive him. I glanced round as the line shuffling past the check-in counter trudged on faster than it had been before. That was the final boarding call for my flight and these people are still crawling forward as though they had all the time in the world, I thought with some asperity.

Right in front of me was a young boy, roughly my age, clad in the de rigueur low-slung jeans over his nonexistent buttocks, his boxers peeking out from beneath his slim-fitting T-Shirt. With his Mohawk haircut and earphones strapped over his ears, he completed the image of nearly every youngster in Nigeria – an image I didn’t particularly like. I don’t know why this male fashion sense was so in vogue, but I wasn’t impressed by it at all.

Yejide Kilanko's Daughters Who Walk This Path - Author Interview

Yejide Kilanko was born October 1975 in Ibadan and says one of her fondest childhood memories was staring at the projector screen as her father showed slides from his travels across Australia and New Zealand. She desperately wanted to travel the world, and then discovered faraway places by immersing herself in books. Her love for reading just about anything she could lay her hands on, led to writing her first poetry when she was twelve. Enjoy our chat below, and my review of her first novel, Daughters who Walk this Path.

The Theory of Wedding Potential by Adeshina ‘Tunde

The theory of Wedding Potential began with my personal experience and tries to explain this unspoken criterion many single women use when selecting who to date and have a relationship with. Some ladies I asked out in the past told me they liked me but couldn't date me. It wasn’t that they lied in order not to make me feel bad for rejecting me. I believe they genuinely did like me. I ended up making out with few of them yet they insisted they could not have a relationship with me. I had sex with one and as she was about to leave she said, “Hope you remember we are not in a relationship?”

Feed Your Reader Giveaway Hop!

I have a Kindle that has almost 500 books, most of them I got free from Amazon. When I travelled to Nigeria, I did not bother to carry any paperbacks, I simply took my kindle. So for those of you with ereaders, including your laptops, I will help you feed your Reader. Three winners will get one eBook of their choice of my two books A Love Rekindled or A Heart to Mend(pdf or ePub).

Here are the books the winners can choose from:

Re - Cynthia Osokogu - Safety Tips for Social Media

I read this report of the murdered Cynthia Osokogu, may her soul rest in peace, and chills went over me. She went missing in July and her body was found last week in a Festac Morgue after she had been strangled to death by her Facebook friends and abandoned in a hotel. Several people, including those who may have killed her, have been arrested. Hopefully, they will reveal details of their methods so others can beware of criminals who utilize internet anonymity to perpetuate atrocities on innocent people.

Some things are too Serious to be Forgiven

I was discussing the Evelyn Lozada and Ochocinco divorce [resulting from infidelity and domestic violence] as well this recent Rihanna revelations about her love for Chris Brown with Atala and he decided to write down his thoughts and share with us. Read and chip into the discussion...

Why Does Rihanna Still Love Chris Brown?

Sometime in June, Fred Igbeare, the editor of Cloudblazer News [a website that syndicates some of my articles] sent me a note asking, "Could you do a blog on 'Rihanna: Why Abused Women Go Back'? Considering reports she and Chris Brown are sneaking back together again.... and given also the brutal brawl over her between Brown and Drake... Would love to read your thoughts on the issue."

Dear Myne - My Wife's Stubbornness is Killing my Love

Dear Myne, I read the story below in a newspaper which is just like mine and wanted to hear your reader's responses. I don't want to share my exact details since I don't want to be recognized, but the summary like in the story below is that my wife cannot cook, she doesn't want to learn, and in addition to refusing to start a family after what we agreed before marriage, I am almost fed up. While I don't want to divorce, how can we get over her stubbornness?

So We Do Not Forget - Laugh Lines

Laugh Lines by Kiah

He went missing on a cold Sunday morning; as if to remind the world that he was warmth itself.

I did not need reminding.

He left, and no matter the many layers of clothing that shield me against the cold harmattan wind that blows from the North, warmth has failed to return to the part of my heart that was his.

The night before that cold Sunday morning, he called me on the shiny new cellphone he had bought me on his last business trip. I had not needed a new phone. My old one was barely a year old, another souvenir from one of the many far away lands my lover often visited. Odinaka loved giving presents and I loved seeing his face light up in anticipation as I opened the numerous parcels he always brought back.

‘Ezinne.’ He said that night.

‘Odinaka.’ I had answered with a smile on my face.

‘How many more hours till I get to see your beautiful face? How many more minutes till I can hold you in my arms, eh? Time spent away from you always seems so much longer that it really is. You have really bewitched me, Ifunanya. It is about time I made you my wife and carried you along on all these trips.’