About Me
- Funmi Iyanda
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Funmi Iyanda is a multi award-winning producer and broadcast journalist. She is the CEO of Ignite Media and Executive Director of Creation Television
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
A year gone
I clutch my survival basket (meals, drinks, books, ipod, mobile toilet) in one hand and my bag, shoes and phone in the other as I ran barefoot into the lemon, deftly dropping the basket on the floor to free one hand and fasten the clasp of my impractically high platforms. I swing the car out unto the devastated Ikorodu road to a deafening protest from the horn of the oncoming molue and join the inevitable traffic. Faintly l heard the sickening, familiar music and steel myself for what is to come. As traffic moves along in the fits and jerks of a convulsing snake, the music gets louder, a dirge every commuter in Lagos is familiar with. It's a charismas carol played year round by a group of people who stand to formation in the middle of the road straddling a cancer patient with an advanced, often decaying growth on the scrotum, breast, mouth, eye, head or any other part of his or her dying body. The music somehow has changed character from a merry melody to a snarl from the open mouth of hell to which the commuters respond in disdain, denial, disinterest and the occasional resigned outstretched hand into the droopy bags of the chief mourners in this pre funereal procession. I saw two of these within the hour.Top of the hour and at a certain point the traffic just melts away like a phantom. As l drove up the Eko bridge, my eyes note the decapitated human limb to my right, plumb with air and glowing darkly in the sun, no sign of the rest of the body, my mind does not process. I finish my meetings early and hot pedal the lemon off Ikoyi before the madness begins, l get unto the 3rd mainland at its best when the waters are calm, the skies clear and beautiful, the air warm with possibilities, l turn off the air conditioning, shut off the caramelised fake American accents on radio and connect my ipod to the low tech converter in the lemon. The pure sounds of Asa's ojumo ti mo fills the car and the throbs with the air swirling around as I sped down the bridge, my heart filled with the irrational hope that this land so cursed but yet so beautiful, so tragic but yet spawning random acts of heroism can be helped and perchance it might even happen in my time and most significantly that my own efforts do count. I have to hang on to that fragile thread of hope or l might just as well step hard on the pedal and drive off that bridge into that sun filtered waters below.
I started this blog exactly a year ago today to tell the stories of Lagos and Nigeria without the censorship of television and the politics of print. It was mainly a way of exorcising my soul because in this as in all else that I do, I just seek my own truth and leave others to make what they will of it. This is sometimes painful but ultimately rewarding and fuels the daily battle that maintaining this blog is. Didn't even realize that this blog was started on the 3rd of October, yet another sign of my destiny being tied to my Nigerian identity.
Happy Birthday Nigeria.
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21 comments:
happy anniversary. Keep up the good work. I saw your show on Monday. Well done.
wao!! seemed like its been longer than a year, well done sisi mi, love ur blog!!! u inspire me!!
happy anniversary. love ur blog Funmi. I think you are an excellent writer. Well done..
sis funmi,i think u should write a book sometimes when i read ur blog i feel like am reading one,hope is all we have got for nigeria someday things will change ,someday people wont have to go on air to plead for funds to sort medical bills ,someday we wont have abandoned babies,someday we wont have to be ashamed of where we come from,but i must say more grease to ur elbow.if nothing counts am sure u will be written in history for touching lives pls keep it up and ur blog helps me touch up my english cos i dey look online dictionary sometimes when i read it.ur a source of motivation and it took me a long time to figure out what u always meant by shrimp
I congratulate you because you have achieved what you set out to do, speaking the truth.
You truly are an inspiration to young ladies like me
Happy anniversary, it’s been a delight reading your posts.
happy blogday!!!
Well done. Thank you for being so honest on your blog, and thanks for your good work on the show.
well said...HAPPY BLOGHDAY TO U AND HAPPYBIRTHDAY TO NIGERIA
Funmi,
Happy blogversary!
your poignant reflections are inspiring.u show the likes of me the possibilities despite the odds.
for that, i thank u
i now realize that the principle is the same regardless of where one finds oneself, "sink or swim"
low tide, high tide.
Your blog is one of the few that mix entertainment, education and enlightenment, it's so refreshing to read, congrats on the one year mark.
Happy one year anniversary Funmi...Hope we will be saying this again same time next year.Pls never stop blogging, you can't begin to imagine how many lives you touch with your words. May God continue to give you strenght and wisdom.Cheers.Linda
this is from today's vanguard editorial.
is this true?
THE sordid details of the defilement of a 17-year-old Osun State student in Osogbo are too degrading to bear further repetition here. Suffice to recount that she was repeatedly raped, tortured, fed with her shaved pubic hair,.....
happy anniversary...
love ur blog
Happy Anniversary Funmi. You will always remain an inspiration to many!
Happy Blogiversary (there should be an official word) Here is to many more years of hearing a clear and distinctive voice amidst the babble
Congrats, ur blog is a must read for me. Many more years of work ahead. And with a country like ours, materials to write on can never be an issue. But you do a fine job putting them together.
3 gbosa for you !!!!
Enjoying sharing your world. More grease.
Yours, Logosian
ex JJC Girl
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Cant believe its been a year...but honestly your blog has made a difference so you should be proud!
@ sherri, painfully, the story is true, my friend at KIND, Amy told me about, she meet with the girl yesterday and his compiling a report about it. l will post details as l get it. When l go on about the continued devaluation of the Nigerian female such that she can then be abused with impunity employing means such as rape which is tactly accepted in today's Nigeria, l am accused of being strident. All forms of subjugation and refusal of self expression of the female perpetuate her exploitation and abuse. The stor is worse thatn you can imagine and better still than countless other untold.
@all, e seun, mo dupe o. l humbly thank you all for allowing me the experience of sharing your space.
Funmi,
I'm ready.
by any means necessary!!
that's unbelievable!