Friday, June 17, 2011

#122: Fashion faves - Hats

Lately I don't know, but I've had a fascination with hats. So in order to make my hat fantasies come true, I am going to keep my education going, so I can get a good job after graduating university and use some of my money for hats. So my want for hat will be another motivation for me to remain in school and continue my journey in becoming an engineer. I think my love for hats also comes from my (paternal) grandmother because she absolutely loves hat and has so many in her collection; she has hats with all shapes, sizes, and colors. However when I was younger, I was not very interested in it because I thought of hats as an adult and boring thing, but my thoughts on that have changed nowadays. Here are some pictures below that I took with my friend, when we visited a fashion boutique. The boutique had so many beautiful hats, but they were all VERY expensive, especially for a student's budget. I absolutely fell in love with that hat, and had a difficult time letting go.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

#121: SLSC - Day 27

Day 27: Day of the African Child

In 1976, thousands of black school children took to the streets of Soweto, South Africa. In a march more than half a mile long, they protested the inferior quality of their education and demanded their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down by security forces. In the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union). To know more about this day, read this.

My memories of this day in Sierra Leone as a student are so great, and I really miss those days. On this day, we would all wear Africanas (word for African outfit in krio) to school rather than our school uniforms. In addition, we bring in several African meals to share with our classmates and teachers. Several cultural performances are done also during the school day, and it's pretty much a big African cultural party. During the commemoration of this day, the national television channel at that time, Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS), always played Sarafina! at night.

The movie, Sarafina!, chronicles the life of students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The character Sarafina (Leleti Kumalo) feels shame at her mother's (Miriam Makeba) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (Whoopi Goldberg) is imprisoned. This is a great movie, and I highly recommend Africans and people of the world to watch it because it has a great message and also really good music.

As an African child and a Sierra Leonean woman, I am very grateful for this day because it reminds me of the struggles that my fellow African children have endured. Commemorations like this embody the strength, drive, and beauty of children, and shows that when great and powerful minds come together, regardless of age, they can achieve great things and make positive changes. When I think about this day and its meaning, it makes me more proud of my heritage and its our past, but also hope for Africa's future.

Scenes from the movie, Sarafina!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

#120: Fashion Raises Awareness

Saturday, June 18, 2011 - Fashion Raising Awareness
Time: 7-10pm; show starts at 7:45pm
Location: The Shadow Room [2131 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20037]
For tickets, visit: http://dvwmt-ruby.eventbrite.com/

"FASHION RAISES AWARENESS TO THE MANY TAGS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE"  is a benefit launch event for the organization, Domestic Violence Wears Many Tags. This Fashion Show will showcase local stylists, artists and designers from the Washington DC Metro Area.

This event is co-sponsored by When You Believe Foundation. The mission of When You Believe Foundation is to do outreach, raise awareness, provide assistance, enhance the lifestyle, promote self-sufficiency, and empower girls and women in all communities.

Please come out that evening to support, raise awareness, and raise money for an important cause. Hope to see you there.

For more information about Domestic Violence Wears Many Tags, visit: http://www.dvwmt.org/
For more information about When You Believe Foundation, visit: http://www.whenyoubelievefoundation.webs.com/

Saturday, June 4, 2011

#119: Importance of reading and writing

I came across this amazing video of award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie and wanted to share it with you all. ENJOY!


Friday, June 3, 2011

#118: SLSC - Day 26

Day 26: Rujizzle reflects

The past couple of weeks have been very intense yet interesting for me. I've been working with the amazing team of Sierra Theatre Productions for the play, "Let Me Die Alone: The Life and Times of Madam Yoko," which was performed tonight. I had a blast at the show tonight and I did my best, which the entire cast did as well. I am very grateful for this opportunity to get back into theater acting, because it's been a long time since I did something like this and I had a blast. Preparing for this event was a lot of fun, and getting to work with so many wonderful people from my country, Sierra Leone.

Yes, I am a Sierra Leonean and I do mingle with Sierra Leoneans in several ocassions. However, my interaction is quite limited due to several factors such as my location and interests. I really liked working with the cast because I sometimes felt that I took mini-trips to Sierra Leone and back in their presence. Some of the cast members even told me that I laugh a lot, but what they did not know is that my laughters were sometimes derived from hearing certain krio words or stories which I haven't heard in a long time and they brought great memories.

Indeed rehearsals were intense several times, but the environment and mood of the cast and crew made it a pleasurable experience for me. Everyone was very respectful, sweet, caring, fun, and overall we were like a family. It made me fall in love more with my country, my culture, and my Sierra Leonean people. Being part of this play tonight also brought back wonderful memories of when I used to do theater performances in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and my passions for theater arts.

Although I write poetry and monologues, it was quite a challenge for me to memorize lines in the script. Honestly, the last time I did live theater was in 2007, when I wrote a play for my High School African Club, and it was not very intimidating to do that because I was the writer, so I already had ideas and sequences in my head from memory of what my scenes were. What was a bit nervewracking with this play today was that this performance was no longer a solo performance as I have doing over the past couple of years, but my scenes were dependent on other cast members that I interact with, so there was definitely no room for mess-ups. In addition, I needed to be on my best behavior because this play was one of the events that commemorated Sierra Leone's 50th Independence celebrations, and Mammy Yoko is one of Sierra Leone's greatest women!

Like I always say, I had BLASTY BLAST and by the grace of God I hope to work more with Sierra Theatre Productions and many more theater performances.

P.S.: Acting was my first love, but I am and will remain passionate about dance as well, so don't think I'll slow down on that. Now all I need to do is create paths for myself whereby I can incorporate theater, dance, and writing into my performances, and then I'll be golden!

Here's a picture I took backstage before tonight's event.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

#117: SLSC - Day 25

Day 25: Madam Ella Koblo Gulama


Madam Ella Koblo Gulama (26 January 1921 - 10 September 2006) was a Sierra Leonean paramount chief and politician. In 1957, she became the first elected female Member of Parliament in Sierra Leone and all of sub-Saharan Africa. She was re-elected in 1962. During the government of Milton Margai, Gulama became Sierra Leone and sub-Saharan Africa's first female Cabinet Minister. Gulama was represented Sierra Leone abroad and her travels took her all over Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East. In 1957 as a guest of the State Department, she toured the United States for 4 months during which met with Vice President Richard Nixon.

Gulama had a distinguished career in politics and was a pioneering female leader. Her life was defined by service. She was a member of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), which her father helped establish. In 1957 Gulama embarked on a political career and became a Member of the Moyamba District Council. She was the first woman to be elected to Sierra Leone's House of Representatives as Paramount Chief Member for Moyamba District. In 1962 she was re-elected and Prime Minister Milton Margai made her a Cabinet Minister. From 1960 to 1967 Gulama was President of the Federation of Women's Organisations in Sierra Leone.


One of Gulama's passions was the promotion of education for girls and the improvement of the female condition in Sierra Leone. She served at her alma mater, Harford School for Girls as a member of the Board of Governors. Gulama was also a member of the Sierra Leone government Scholarship Advisory Board and the Bursary Committee of Fourah Bay College.


She was the recipient of several awards including the MBE in 1959, the OBE in 1966 from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Order of the Rokel Award from former President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

#116: SLSC - Day 24

Day 24: Krio


Sierra Leone Krio is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population and unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people or Krios, (a community of about 300,000 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, United States and United Kingdom), but it is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, while Krio, despite its common use throughout the country, has no official status.


The Krio language is an offshoot of the language brought by the Nova Scotian Settlers from North America, Maroons from Jamaica, and the numerous liberated African slaves who settled in Sierra Leone.
The vocabulary of Krio is derived primarily from English, while its sound system, grammar and sentence structure are heavily influenced by at least 12 African languages, including aspects of the Yoruba language of Nigeria. Krio's standard greeting, kushe, for instance, is derived from the Yoruba greeting è kú işé ("greetings on your work"); the krio word "pan", meaning (on top of/doing something), descends directly from the Jamaican patois word "pon", meaning the same thing; the krio expression "chaka-chaka", meaning (messy/untidy), also descends from Jamaican patois. This is because some of the freed slaves were from the West Indies, and in particular Jamaica (Jamaican Maroons).


All freed slaves—the Jamaican Maroons, African Americans, Nova Scotian Settlers, Sierra Leone Liberated Africans—influenced Krio, but the Jamaican Maroons, Nova Scotian Settlers, and Yoruba Liberated Africans were the most influential. The basic English structure of Krio is an offshoot of the English spoken by the Nova Scotians, while some of the African words in Krio come from the Yoruba language spoken by liberated Yorubas.


Krio is distinct from Pidgin English as it is an English-based creole language but more of a language in its own right, with fixed grammatical structures and rules. Krio also draws extensively from other European languages, namely Portuguese and French, e.g. the krio word "gentri/gentree", which means wealth or to acquire wealth is derived from the Old French word "gentry".


P.S.: The information provided above was derived from Wikipedia.
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