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AFRIMA Celebrates International Women’s Day

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AFRIMA Celebrates International Women's Day

In solidarity with the United Nations International Women’s Day 2021 (IWD 2021) themed as “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World” and the offshoot #ChooseToChallenge campaign, the All African Music Awards, AFRIMA, on Monday, March 8, is joining the rest of the world to honour the strength of women, celebrate their diverse social, economic, cultural and political achievements and call for accelerated gender parity in general and better remuneration for women in the culture industry in Africa.

IWD 2021 turns the spotlight on the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in creating and sustaining the fight against
COVID-19, their roles in shaping an equal future in the recovery from the pandemic, while highlighting the underlying structural gender gaps
that still exist.

COVID-19 struck the world in December 2019 and distorted the dynamics of human relations. The pandemic revealed the institutional gaps in society and amplified the need to create systems, safe spaces and opportunities for women, and also brought to the fore the increasing importance of women representation in decision-making processes across all levels.

In her remarks, Music Executive and Member of the International Jury of AFRIMA for the Diaspora in North Africa, Ms. Hadja Kobele Keita, gave credit to women entrepreneurs shattering the glass ceiling in the music industry.

“At the very inception of the African music industry culture, women had always been at the forefront. However, we are grossly underpaid and underrepresented. In order to break barriers, women are creating their own path in the industry by starting their own companies and taking on more executive roles. It’s delicate but, for us to be heard in an industry overpowered by traditional norms, it is a significant step
forward.

What gives me hope for the future of women, particularly in the African music industry, is the fact that we have organizations like AFRIMA that are committed to pushing the agenda of empowering women in a society that tries to suppress our creativity”, Ms. Keita stated.

Similarly, the President & Executive Producer, AFRIMA, Mr. Mike Dada reaffirmed the commitment of the awards to being a contributor to
sustainable and impactful conversations that push for an integrated and a peaceful continent as well as for socio-economic growth for all Africans, equality for women and ending the violence against women.

“The IWD 2021 #ChoosetoChallenge campaign is complementary to one of our awards objectives of retelling the story of Africa from the perspective of our unique cultural heritage and creativity. AFRIMA emphasizes the importance of fair representation and women constitute an integral and important part of that. The fight for equality is our fight, and everyone’s fight.”

AFRIMA understands the importance of representation in the music and culture industry of Africa and remains committed to using its platform and network to promote gender balance, women empowerment and inclusiveness. Part of the awards’ Corporate Social Responsibility initiative campaigns geared towards promoting girl child empowerment for leadership roles through education have held in countries such as The Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria. The continental awards project has also partnered with global advocacy institutions such as the ONE Campaign to promote and support female empowerment efforts.

READ ALSO: POEM IN HONOUR OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY-8TH MARCH 2021

“We welcome opportunities to lend our voice to conversations that inspire change as well as collaborations with the private and public sector in pushing these conversations to mainstream discussions among the youth generation who constitute the largest population in Africa and who will carry on the legacy of an equitable world”, Dada added.

The All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, in partnership with the African Union Commission, AUC, is an innovative awards platform that rewards excellence in the African music industry and showcases the cultural and entertainment uniqueness of Africa to the rest of the world.

The 2021 edition of the awards will not only celebrate the diverse talents and rich culture that is unique to Africa, but likewise honour the victims and survivors of the pandemic era currently facing the world.

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Ghana University Holds Art Talk With Toyin Falola

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Prof. Falola’s Art Talk is part of the project ‘Back to the Small Stage’, a journey conceived by Rebecca De Marchi to meet thinkers and reflect on how the production of knowledge starting from the Earth generates a variety of worlds and ways of inhabiting and using them. The project’s title takes inspiration from ‘The Monadology’ by Leibniz and refers to the immanent life after death. Using the fold metaphor, Deleuze suggests the discovery of connections between incompossible worlds.

In the Art Talk, Prof. Falola will reflect on the worlds shaped by ritual archives, organic libraries and African science and technology and their contemporary potentiality in a post-colonial and post-human scenario.

Toyin Falola, Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, the University of Texas at Austin. He is an Honorary Professor, University of Cape Town, and Extraordinary Professor of Human Rights, University of the Free State. He had served as the General Secretary of the Historical Society of Nigeria, the President of the African Studies Association, Vice-President of UNESCO Slave Route Project, and the Kluge Chair of the Countries of the South, Library of Congress. He is a member of the Scholars’ Council, Kluge Center, the Library of Congress. He has received over thirty lifetime career awards and fourteen honorary doctorates. He has written extensively on the humanities, including The Humanities in Africa: Knowledge Production, Universities, and the Production of Knowledge, and a forthcoming book by Rochester University Press, Decolonizing African Studies: Knowledge Production, Agency, and Voices. Professor Toyin Falola is a celebrated author, editor, writer, poet, academic leader, organizer, teacher, Pan-Africanist, and a visionary of extraordinary grace, talent, and accomplishments. An author and editor of over one hundred and fifty books on Africa and the African Diaspora, he has been invited to speak in all continents, and in over sixty countries, and widely proclaimed as Africa’s preeminent historian and one of the major intellectuals of our time. Many of his books have received awards, defined various fields, and inspired the writings of various critical works. He manages five distinguished scholarly monograph series, and serves on the board of over twenty journals. Being a global icon in African Studies, Toyin Falola has received several honorary doctorates across the globe.

‘Back to the Small Stage’ project is supported by the Italian Council, having as cultural partners SCCA Tamale and KNUST Kumasi (in Ghana), Leibniz Archive Hannover and M. Bassy Hamburg (Germany), and Associazione Isole Palermo and IUNO Roma (Italy).

The Art Talk is made in collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The University of Texas, and the Pan-African University Press.

Date: Monday, Jun 12, 2023 ⋅ 3pm Ghana / 10am Austin / 4pm Nigeria
Venue: blaxTARLINES, KNUST, Kumasi (and live on blaxTARLINES’ Facebook and Instagram)
Join Live: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84277805325?pwd=bGJxanMrTzN1L0I4WHl4cEdjeEtMdz09

ID meeting: 842 7780 5325
Passcode: 049252

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Toyin Falola, Citizenship And The Diaspora In The Digital Age: Farooq Kperogi And The Virtual Community

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Citizenship and the Diaspora in the Digital Age: Farooq Kperogi and the Virtual Community (Africa: Past, Present, and Prospects) | © May 2023 | ISBN: 9781666933413 | By Toyin Falola

Book Details

Publisher‏: ‎ Lexington Books (May 2023)

Language‏: ‎ English

Paperback: ‎ 384 pages

ISBN: ‎ 9781666933413

CONTENTS

• Acknowledgment

• Preface And Prologue

• Table of Contents

• Introduction

• PART A: CONTEXT AND CULTURE

Chapter 1: Building an Online Audience

Chapter 2: Philosophical Foundations

Chapter 3: Black Cultures

• PART B: CRITICAL ISSUES

Chapter 4: The Decay in Pre-Tertiary Education in Nigeria

Chapter 5: ASUU and the Decay in Tertiary Education

Chapter 6: Comparing Higher Education in Nigeria and America

Chapter 7: Politicizing: Media Communications in A Democracy

Chapter 8: The English of the Nation

Chapter 9: Comparative “Englishes”

Chapter 10: Societal Decadence

Chapter 11: A Nation on the Boil

• PART C: CONCLUSION

Chapter 12: Assessment, Expansion and Evaluation

In Citizenship and the Diaspora in the Digital Age: Farooq Kperogi and the Virtual Community, Toyin Falola examines how the members of the Nigerian diaspora create a virtual community and instrumentalize the digital age to speak about the nation and its failures, possibilities, and promises. This book depicts individuals’ relationships with society and how the world’s progressive shift toward technology and globalization does not disregard the concept of society and its members. As a result of this shift, people have been migrating to new places without giving up their citizenship in their home countries. This book explores how migrants are focused on the idea of a virtual community, examines how citizens’ roles have evolved through time, and displays society’s essential principles in this light.

Furthermore, it evaluates social commentaries enhanced by the dynamics of the digital age, such as societal issues like education in Nigeria, the question of democracy, challenges facing the country, and the development of a national language. Many of these societal challenges are examined in this book from the perspective of Farooq Kperogi, who has conducted extensive studies and published on the above themes. This is balanced against emerging facts, Nigerians’ positions, and disregarded realities. Kperogi’s relentless writings on Nigeria make him a preeminent figure whose positions are valuable to the understanding of modern Nigeria.

Toyin Falola is a Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has received over thirty lifetime career awards and sixteen honorary doctorates. He has written extensively on the African Diaspora, including The African Diaspora: Slavery, Modernity, and Globalization.

Find More: https://www.amazon.com/Citizenship-Diaspora-Digital-Age-Community/dp/1666933414

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BREAKING: After Subsidy Removal, NNPC Increases Petrol Price To Over N500

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Senator Withdraws Support For Tinubu Over Choice Of Muslim Running Mate
President Tinubu

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) on Wednesday adjusted the pump price of petrol by over 100% to between N488 and N557.

The development followed the announcement by President Bola Tinubu during his inaugural address on Monday that fuel subsidy was ‘gone’.

However, it was learnt that the president will meet with organised labour from 2pm Thursday (today) afternoon.

The prices have now been adjusted upward from between N189 to N194 to N537 per litre in Abuja and other North-central States.

For Lagos and other South-west states, a litre of fuel now sells for between N488 and N500 per litre.

In the South-east, the price will range from N515 to N520, while in the North-west, the price of the product was raised to N540. In the North-east, it moved from N199 to N557 per litre.

For the South-south, it is now from N511 to N525 per litre. Nigeria’s subsidy budget of N3.6 trillion for this year, expires in June, 2023.

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