Letter by Titanic Survivor Sparks Interest on Reddit

We’ve had compelling Titanic survivor accounts from the likes of Molly Brown and Elizabeth Shutes and, of course, Kate Winslet’s fictional (though adored) onscreen character. Now comes one from French passenger Rose Amélie Icard, whose letter containing eyewitness details of the disaster has emerged on Reddit, causing a stir among history lovers.

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“I’ve always been fascinated by the Titanic, ever since my dad took me to an exhibit on it when I was 13 years old. It really struck a chord with me,” Mike Delgado, the owner of Icard’s letter, which is penned in French, tells Yahoo Shine. He posted images of the pages on Reddit on March 20 with the request, “I would love to have it translated so I could have them framed.” The post generated more than 44,000 views, hundreds of comments, and a page-by-page translation written out by multiple users.

Delgado, a 29-year-old U.S. Marine based in Florida who also owns Icard’s passport, purchased the letters at a 2012 Titanic online auction. The $6,300 sale was confirmed for Yahoo Shine on Wednesday by RR Auction house spokesperson Bobby Livingston, who says the letters were sold fully translated. However, Delgado explains, when he recently took the pages out of their packaging to finally get them framed and hung, he saw that the auction house neglected to include the English version. “I could have easily called the auction house,” he admits. “But I was on Reddit and decided to just try it that way. I thought other people would appreciate it and enjoy it.”
Source Yahoo!

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Hackers deceive people on Facebook over: 'Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane found in Bermuda Triangle!'

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The posts contain videos that look legitimate and claim the plane has been found in various places, from the Bermuda Triangle to having been spotted at sea

There have been videos and links to fake sites spreading malware that hackers make money from.

They claimed that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane have been found in Bermuda Triangle!

The posts contain videos that look like the plane has been found in various places, from the Bermuda Triangle to having been spotted at sea, with many stating its passengers are “alive” or “saved”.
According to The Independent, many of the links are prefixed with the worlds “Breaking” or “Shocking video” to grab people’s attention.
Chris Boyd, a malware intelligence analyst for Malwarebytes, told Wired.co.uk that his company first saw the links spreading on Twitter, with “a mixture of tweets leading to known sites originally posted to Facebook and a new batch of spamblogs, survey scams [and] imitation news sites”.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Some of the fake video sites ask people to share groups such as “Pray for MH370” on Facebook, while other links take people to realistic looking news sites where users have to click “share” before being able to watch the videos.
The same scams have been seen with previous disaster stories such as the Japanese Tsunami from 2011 and the Philippines earthquake last year. Boyd, who previously tracked scams in relation to these events, said: “They ranged from Malware and 419 scams to fake donation pages and search engine positioning.
“Anything involving a potential disaster is big money for the scammers, as there’s a split between clickers with a penchant for salacious content and those who simply want to know if a relative is OK, or if there’s any more news on a breaking disaster.”
Scammers then profit from the fake surveys that appear when users follow the links in the posts, while users that fill out the surveys will be sharing personal information with third party marketers who have bought the information.
Boyd said popular fake scam pages can be shared “hundreds and thousands of times” and that “there’s big money in it for anybody willing to plumb the depths of human misery.”
Source: The Independent.co.uk

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Catherine Acholonu: Culture ambassador extraodinnaire

By ADA DIKE

Social was agog with the news about the demise of prominent Nigerian female writer, researcher and former Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the Ex-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Catherine Acholonu who died of kidney failure in Imo State on Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

She was 62 years old. The former lecturer on African Cultural and Gender Studies was the author of over 15 books such as: The Gram Code of African Adam: Stone Books and Cave Libraries, Reconstructing 450,000 Years of Africa's Lost Civilizations, which earned her the award of Professor of African History and Philosophy from Pilgrim's University and Theological Seminary, North Carolina; The Earth Unchained - A Quantum Leap in Consciousness, A Reply to Al Gore; Motherism - The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism and The Igbo Roots of Olaudah Equiano.

Daily Newswatch gathered that most of her books are used in secondary schools and universities in Nigeria, and in African Studies Departments in USA and Europe.

She certainly left indelible footprints in the annals of humanity. Prof. Acholonu's works and projects have enjoyed the collaboration and the support of United States Information Service (USIA), the British Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft World and the World Monument Fund.

In his statement, poet, literary essayist, culture technocrat and National Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Denja Abdullahi, said Prof Catherine Acholonu was renowned to be more of a critic and scholar of Pan African ideals in the areas of showcasing the contributions of African culture. “Her theory of motherism against western feminism and excursion into scholarly dimension of ancient Africa speak of her accomplishments,” Abdullahi said.

Born in Orlu, Imo State to the family of Chief Lazarus Olumba on October 26, 1951, she attended secondary schools in Orlu, before going abroad for her university education. She was at the University of Düsseldorf, in Germany, where she became the first African woman to gain a master’s degree in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1987. She started working at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, Imo State as a teacher in 1978, She was married into the Acholonu royal family of Orlu.

In 1990, Catherine Acholonu was honoured with the Fulbright Scholar in Residency award by the US government, during which she lectured at four colleges of the Westchester Consortium for International Studies, NY, USA.

Acholonu was the founder of Afa Publications, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Corporate Administration, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Administrators and a Fellow of the Whelan Research Institute, Owerri. She was also the founder of the Let’s Help Humanitarian Project, a charity-based NGO. She was also the Director of the Catherine Acholonu Research Centre (CARC), Abuja, and the Nigeria Country Ambassador of the United Nations Forum of Arts and Culture for the Implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNFAC). One of her titles — They Lived before Adam,   won the USA-based International Book Awards in 2009 in the multi-cultural non-fiction category.

Prof. Acholonu holds several awards from home and abroad.

From 1999 to 2002, she was the Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR). A post she resigned from to seek election.

It is believed that The Grave of Sargon The Great. The ancient buried sumerian city of Akkad found was discovered by Professor Catherine Acholonu. Adieu, great matriarch who had special interest in cultural history.

Cambridge University Press releases book on Awo’s political movement

News reaching Daily Newswatch has it that Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK and New York, USA) is set to release a new book on the political movement led by premier of the old Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

 The book titled ‘The Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency’ is written by Dr. Wale Adebanwi, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, USA.

The definitive book on the political movement and parties led by the late sage investigates the dynamics and challenges of ethnicity and elite politics in Nigeria, Africa's largest democracy. The author also demonstrates in the work how the corporate agency of Chief Awolọwọ transformed the modern history and politics of one of Africa's largest ethnic groups, the Yorùbá, and Nigeria.

Daily Newswatch gathered that the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) and the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation will jointly host the presentation of the book in Lagos after its release.

Members of the progressive, political, traditional, business and academic elite across Nigeria and the popular masses whose cause the sage championed throughout his life are expected to grace the book presentation.

 The book’s author, Adebanwi, is a scholar, writer, author, journalist and public intellectual. He holds two doctorates, one in political science from the University of Ibadan and another from the University of Cambridge in social anthropology.

 He is the author of ‘Authority Stealing: Anti-Corruption War and Democratic Politics in Post-Military Nigeria’ (CAP, 2012; published in Nigeria as ‘A Paradise for Maggots: The Story of a Nigerian Anti-Corruption Cza’r, 2011), and co-editor of ‘Encountering the Nigerian State (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), ‘Nigeria at Fifty: The Nation in Narration’ (Routledge, 2011) and ‘Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical Interpretations’ (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013).

  

Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 timetable out

Mrs Kalango, CEO with Chinedu Amah,  Head of Communication PHWBC

Few days to the commencement of Port Harcourt’s tenure as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Book Capital 2014, its hosts have been working tirelessly and have completed pilot programmes.

At an interactive session with the media at Freedom Park in Lagos recently, the President of the Rainbow Book Club, Mrs. Koko Kalango revealed that the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 year-long programme would kick off with a week-long of activities lasting from Tuesday, April 22 to Saturday 26 April 2014, but the main opening ceremony would take place on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, which is the United Nations (UN) World Book and Copyright Day.

Similarly, a statement made available to Daily Newswatch, hinted that all hands are on deck to deliver the programmes in the bid that was submitted to UNESCO.

The pilot phase of the programme, according to the statement, included the test run of book clubs and reading tree as well as the Walking Book in Rivers State. “A book donation drive and participation in CARNIVRIV (the annual Rivers State Carnival) were part of the effort to sensitize resident of the city to the World Book Capital project.”

The statement further stated that on the day of opening ceremony, when Bangkok hands over to Port Harcourt, the keynote address would be delivered by Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

“The opening ceremonies would include celebrities reading to children, interactive sessions with some of Nigeria’s most important author, a dance-drama directed by award winning playright Bikiya Graham-Douglas. Bikiya, a Port Harcourt girl, is currently in the city scouting local talent to participate in this drama titled “Along Came the Book,” which traces the role of information sharing from our oral tradition to the written word, culminating in the Port Harcourt World Book Capital. There would also be the public presentation of “The Walking Book,” a communal story on the Sights and Sounds of Rivers State written by children from across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state. Finally, visitors to Port Harcourt would be treated to the warm Rivers hospitality which includes the display of a boat regatta and excursion to Songhai Farms,” the statement revealed.

The statement also highlighted key components of the opening ceremonies, such as international literature exhibition from Tuesday, April  22 to Thursday, April 24, 2014. “Embassies and foreign missions in Nigeria, local and international book festivals, literary awards bodies, as well as key partners and stakeholders in the book chain industry have been invited to participate in this three- day exhibition which will showcase literature and literary efforts from around the world. Visitors would enrich their global perspective by a visit to this exhibition tagged “It’s a Small World After all”.”

 In the same vein, a Hay Festival initiative which it carries out with World Book Capitals - with Bogota in 2007 and Beirut in 2010, titled:  “Africa 39,” features writers from Africa, South of the Sahara. “This project comprises the selection and celebration of 39 writers under the age of 40 who have the potential to define the literature of an area or language. The research to arrive at the names of the authors was carried out by Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainana. A long list of about 100 names emerged from screening of the over 200 entries from Africa and the diaspora responded to a call that drew participation from authors, publishers, academics, libraries, readers and so on, around Africa and the diaspora. The panel of judges, who selected the final 39 where Elechi Amadi, Margaret Busby and Tess Onwueme.

“The 39 writers would be commissioned to write for an anthology to be published by Bloomsbury with foreword by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. Ellah Allfree will edit the Africa 39 anthology. The list of the 39 would be unveiled on the first day of the London Book Fair on April 8, 2014 and announced at during the opening ceremonies of the Port Harcourt World Book Capital programme.

“The 39 authors have been invited to the Port Harcourt Book Festival 2014 which would be mainly dedicated to the ‘Africa 39’ project. At this year’s festival the authors would converge in PH for a week of reading, debates and discourse around the city. Thereafter, they would participate in Hay festivals around the World.”

About 12 books have been carefully selected to feature in each of the months of the year. “Based on our general theme of possibilities, these books will be the subject of discussions on partner electronic and print platforms. A play based on each book would be staged through the year. Books for the first six months are: Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe in April, The Great Ponds by Elechi Amadi in May, This Child Shall be Great by Ellen Shirleaf Johnson in June, Ake by Wole Soyinka in                             July, Tomorrow Died Yesterday by Chimeka Garricks in August and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie in September.

In continuation, the statement revealed that 300 teachers have been trained to run book clubs and reading tree programme. “In preparation for the PH WBC programme, over 300 teachers from public and private primary and secondary schools around Port Harcourt are attending training sessions to equip them to run Reading Tree and book clubs over the WBC year. The Reading Tree is a graded reading scheme that requires participants (senior secondary school students) to read a book a week. Weekly book clubs are held where the children, with the guidance of a facilitator, discuss the book they have read and fill it in work books that have been prepared for this purpose.

“Having successfully completed the pilot Walking Book, in Rivers State, the National Walking book programme has kicked off. The Walking book involves writing on the Sights and Sounds of a particular region by children who live there. The World Book Capital is working with Unity Colleges around Nigeria on this project. 10 students from the Junior Secondary School section of each of the participating schools would work with their teachers to write about their states. The stories would be collated, published and presented at the annual Port Harcourt Book Festival in October. The national Walking Book began its journey from Port Harcourt, the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 around the South South States (February, 17-21), then the South East States (February, 24-28) followed by the South West States (March, 3-7). Also, the Walking Book has toured the North West (March, 10-14), the North East (March, 17-21), then the North Central States (24-28 March) and finally it would journey back to Port Harcourt, World Book Capital, at the end of March.”

Port Harcourt was announced as the World Book capital by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last year after it defeated Oxford in the United Kingdom and Moscow in Russia amongst others.

According to the UNESCO panel that made the final decision, "The City of Port Harcourt was nominated World Book Capital 2014 on account of the quality of its programme, in particular its focus on youth and the impact it would have on improving Nigeria's culture of books, reading, writing and publishing to improve literacy rates" says the panel of judges who reviewed all the nominations.”

Veteran sculptor El: Anatsui celebrates 70th birthday, exhibit works at CCA, Lagos

El Anatsui

By ADA DIKE

Artists, art gallery owners, students, family and friends of veteran Ghanaian sculptor, Prof. El Anatsui, converged at the Centre for Contemporary Art , (CCA), at No. 9 Mc Ewen Street, Sabo, Lagos, last week Friday, March 14, 2014, to celebrate his 70th birthday and witness the opening of an art exhibition organised in his honour.

Tagged: “El: Anatsui: Playing with Chance,” the exhibition which showcased his works and that of some of his mentees will end on April 12, 2014.

Known in art circles as a unique sculptor, for over 40 years, El Anatsui according to the founder and director of CCA, Ms. Bisi Silva has expanded the language of contemporary sculpture not only in Nigeria but also internationally.

“Since the beginning of his career, he has sought to challenge the boundaries of artistic practice as well as overcome the constraints of materials available to him locally. In so doing, some of his earliest works started with amassing discarded wood to create the wall hanging trays characteristic of his first wood pieces. His move to Nigeria in the 1970s led to a sustained period of work in clay resulting in the critical acclaimed works such as Broken Pots Series. But by 1980s, he returned to wood after a workshop in America and began his chainsaw wood sculptures for which he became known and celebrated across Nigeria. Grace Stanislaus of the Studio Museum in Harlem showed these sculptures for the first time internationally in 1990 during the Venice Biennale in the seminal exhibition Contemporary African Artists: Changing Tradition. However, the widespread international acclaim that he has received in the last decade have been reserved for his scintillating monumental bottle top sculptural hangings,” Silva said.

She further said that: “Over 40-year-period, Anatsui has used his work to engage with and comment on African history, colonialism, the post-colonial condition as well as the daily realities and experiences on the content. As Nigerian artist and art historian, Olu Oguibe states “from the very beginning, Anatsui’s art has focused on and found its core meaning in Africa: the continent, its people, its history and cultural heritage, its predicament.” In addition, he sought meaning and communication through African signs and symbols such as Adinkra as well in Uli and Nsibidi writing system.

“The Centre for Contemporary Art presents with pleasure El Anatsui, Playing with Chance to mark the 70th birthday anniversary of one of African’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. The exhibition is shaped primarily through archival material in an attempt to present an alternative insight into the work and career of the artist. Through this presentation, an array of disparate materials are brought together from his studio, his study and his library including sketchbooks, drawings, letters, key exhibition, planning and instruction documents, books he reads, books he features in and brochures and exhibition publications he has written in. Also included are photographs, videos about him, fragments of the bottle top works ‘salvaged’ from his studio, his chainsaw wood sculptures and his early tray hangings and even a selection of his payslips from the University of Nigeria over a 36-year-period. El Anatsui was a consummate teacher who made an indelible mark on his students, many of whom are now enjoying increasing national and international visibility. His commitment to encourage the development of female artists is highlighted by inviting three of his former students Nnenna Okore, Lucy Azubuike and Amarachi Okafor to participate in the exhibition.

“El Anatsui, Playing with Chance celebrates a creative spirit, a sincere person, a generous man and a quiet leader. CCA, Lagos acknowledges his encouragement from conception and his continuous support throughout our existence, especially as a trustee. As I have stated before, I believe that He has engaged profoundly with his cultural, political and social history. He has imbued the spirituality of his forefathers. In the final analysis, Anatsui stands tall before the ancestors,” she added.

According to Bisi, she went through Anatsui’s letters and saw three or four pages of an exhibition he was preparing and found out that he itemised in details things he needed to do – from transportation to insurance. “I was surprised to know that artists are actually as careful in planning as the curators, if not more. It is important for young artists to know that planning, documentation and archive are quite important. Nothing should be torn away because we hope in 20 or 30 years’ time, museums will want to exhibit their works from the beginning of their career. In Prof’s pay slip displayed in the gallery, he received N200.00 as monthly salary, by time they deducted tax, he was left with N173.00 per month.

“Today, we have young artists who want to earn from N200,000.00 per month upward, without knowing that they have to start from somewhere.”

Shortly after saying an opening prayer, the director of Mydrim gallery, Lagos, Mrs. Simidele Ogunsanya, briefly told the audience about her encounter with Anatsui. “I met Anatsui in 2000 when we went to Nsukka. Since then, it has been a wonderful relationship. He has so much works and has mentored many students. He has taken sculpture way beyond the boundary we know. He takes a mortar, roll it down a hill, pick the pieces and do an artwork. After our event in 2001and he wanted to hold an exhibition, when comments were poured, I was so glad that 14 years later, Prof’s mentees are doing well. He has even young people to go beyond boundaries. I am so proud of him.”

One of Anatsui mentees who is currently participating in the exhibition said she felt honoured to be part of the exhibition, Amarachi Okafor because she has known Anatsui and has worked with him for many years. “I know that Prof EL Anatsui is a great teacher, a mentor and a father figure. As an artist I strongly believe that you have to find your feet while learning from your mentor. If you are doing the same thing somebody else has done, it means that you are copying that person as a follower and not an artist. At the onset of my studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the university assigned me an academic adviser – El Anatsui. Quite some good luck to my path with art!”

Her work, “Latest bag, waxing old,” was on display which attracted a lot of guests. Okafor graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2002 and has been practicing art since then. She also has a Master’s of Arts degree (Curatorial Practice) from Falmouth University, Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Just like in other professions, Okafor admitted that she’s facing a lot of challenges in finding her feet in art world to the extent that she sometimes assess herself to know how far she has gone in doing what she loves doing.

She revealed that Anatsui’s comments on her work as a student in school did re-route her thinking to develop her mind further. “This pattern led me to working as an assistant at his studio during the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike in 1999/2000. ...His advices were always practical and constructive. Studying under him for my MFA in Sculpture, he continued to push us in his calm but relentless methods. Even today, at 70, outside regular classrooms, Prof. El Anatsui still teaches anyone who would pay attention.”

Anatsui was born on February 4, 1944 in Anyako, Ghana and was trained at the College of Art, University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, but he spent his active career period as a lecturer in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from 1975.

Daily Newswatch gathered that he lives in Nigeria and Ghana since his retirement in 2011. He has participated in over 100 exhibitions, both solo and group exhibitions around the world and some of them include:  Gawu, Hayward Gallery (2005), Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2010), Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. (2008) and Gravity & Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui," had its New York premier at the Brooklyn Museum in February 2013. Organized by the Akron Art Museum (exhibition: 2012), the exhibition later travelled to the Des Moines Art Center (2013–14) and the Bass Museum of Art in Miami (2014).

The celebrant shared the essence of the exhibition and stressed that the whole idea about art is to be able to review past works by bringing new ideas to the old things. “At 70, there were more ups than downs. It is based on consistency by consistently working with ideas. When I started, for well over five years, I did some traditional symbols and changed of course because I move from where I was to Nigeria so I looked for a new medium and worked with clay because clay is everywhere. Then something else happened, I discovered invocative quality of tools that have been used in the past. At a particular time I worked with wood with well over 17 years. Somewhere along the line, some metals came in and I kept working with metal around late 1990s. The most important thing is persistence, you just pick an idea and work on it.

As a contemporary artist whose works speaks volume, he reiterated that doing work and promoting African history and culture arise as one is working.  

On challenges he faces in sculpting, he said there are no challenges but imagination. “I haven’t seen life that way in my practice so I like moving from one positive note to another.”

In a nutshell, he maintained that art in Africa has drawn attention globally and added that not only art in Africa but also art in other climes except Europe.