4th Annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair Kids Corner

Recently, the 4th Annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair was held in Leimert Park Village, Los Angeles, with an amazing crowd. Kudos to Nina Womack, one of the event's organizers, who supervised and conducted the children's aisle. It was all fun and games featuring fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children's literature by over a hundred and fifty African American writers. Also included were live perormances by various artists. Among them: A Jimi Hendrix Tribute Band led by Anthony Aquarius Mystery, Wadada and Kelly Love Jones.

Nigerian Jungle Blues: Ghetto Life Images V

Hoha! (Pointblank): Talking Heads on a troubled Nigeria

"I think you can recognise my voice; I am in my office in Agbeloba. I thank you for taking the trouble to find out. Thank you very much. I also heard that I am dead but there is nothing wrong with me; I can assure you of that" “I dey kampe. This morning I went to do community work at Pakoto near Ifo. I have since returned to Abeokuta and have attended a meeting on the (Presidential) library,”


-------Former president Olusegun Obasanjo on circulated text message that said he had been shot dead:

"Breaking News: Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo has been assassinated in his home town in Ogun state by unknown gun men. He was confirmed dead at the General Hospital Ota, Ogun State few hours after his convoy was ambushed".



"I am calling on South-south governors to unite for Goodluck Jonathan since charity begins at home and because their rallying behind Goodluck Jonathan will create the required impetus necessary to strengthen the resolve of Northern governors to also support Goodluck. Such support is bound to reverberate among Eastern and Western governors and by extension, the whole country. Most especially, the PDP need to unite in this purpose so that we can use this party to usher in the wind of change in this country and steer this country towards another direction, a direction that tally with the will of God."

-------Gabriel Pidomson, former member of the Rivers state House of Assembly and Secretary to the Government of Rivers State during the administration of Celestine Omehia, speaking on zoning and the presidency of Nigeria.

Meet Zambia's Maleele Choongo For Miss Teen United Nations International

The Miss Teen United Nations International is calling and sixteen year old Maleele Choongo will be representing her native land, Zambia, for the Miss Teen United Nations International Final Contests scheduled to be held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in September.

At sixteen, it's amazing what Choongo has accomplished. A senior at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS), the state's only public, residential, co-educational high school for academically talented juniors and seniors. There, she takes college credit courses. She belongs to the soccer, Debate, Choir, Interfaith Dialogue Club, Beta Club, National Honor Society and the tennis club.

Choongo plans to be majoring in classical music and psychology before heading to law school. Currently, as Miss Teen Zambia which she credits to "fitness, academic achievements, talent, and interview skills in young ladies, which also offers teenage girls an opportunity to not only display but also positively unleash their potential in a way that benefits their community." Choongo feels she's been blessed with all the outlined celebrated traits seeing it as an opportunity to put them to use.

Very confident and believing whoever is granted the title, Miss Teen United Nations International, should not only possess the traits, but must also be passionate and determined enough to use them in a way that best represents her country, Zambia.

Most importantly, Choonga said "I am eager to work alongside the He Touch Me Ministry on my platform, education for orphans, to ensure every child the opportunity of education regardless of their financial status. I focus most of my community service on programs that are centered around educating them."

On a remarkable volunteer work, she assists kindergarten and preschoolers at the MUW Educational Center. She also spent two summers volunteering at the daycare for the least privileged at Bethlehem Day Care Learning Center. She helped a teacher in tutoring and reading to her students at Magee Elementary School.

On academics and excursions, she participated in her school's science carnival where she had a station in which she conducted science experiments and talked to the children about the significance of science in everyday life. In her volunteering for children, and in her own words: "I have truly become passionate about education for orphans. Most importantly, not only do I strive to be a role model inside the classroom, but also in matters remote from academics. I am in no way perfect, but I feel as if my embracing that and using even my imperfections to work towards my goals set at a very good example."

Choongo's other haul of accomplishments and doing stuff for worthy causes:

Murrah High School Counselor's Award; Highest Mathematics Average, National Honor Society; First Place, Jackson Library System Summer Reading Program; First Place, Jackson Heart Study Research Summer Science Program; First Place, JPS Double Tennis; Jckson Ctholic Forensic League Top Five Declamation Speaker; Miss MSMS 2009 -- Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science; National Honors Society Inductee; National Forensic League; Open Doors Gifted Students Award; Open Doors Gifted Students Chess Tournament; Outstanding Mathematics Achievement, Tougaloo Jackson Heart Study Summer Science Program; and the list goes on and on.

In addition, School Recognition Duke Talent Identification Program For Mathematically And Verbally Talented Students, Declamation State Representative National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament and Murrah High School Top 25 PSAT Scores.

While we spoke on the phone in several occasions as outlined above, I popped up some questions she diligently answered without qualms:

So how do you see yourself?

I think I'm a well rounded person; I think I am smart but I am also a hard worker.

What kind of association do you keep to be who you are?

I have always associated myself with like-minded peers meaning people who like doing things I like to do. I have always had decent grades and I akways have kept myself involved in things like Habitat for Humanity, volunteering in after school tutoring and also volunteering at the day care for the least privileged at Bethlehem Day Care Learning Center.

Summer Jam Afternoon Jump In 'Black Township'

Michael Sessions and trombonist Carl do their thing on the playgrounds as visitors and tourists watch.


Ray Straughter of Cosmic View rehearses at the World Stage Performance Art Gallery for the upcoming opening for the Michael McDonal's Hollywood Bowl Concert.


Folks in the village playing chess and the knockout game.


Dancing to the Najite Agindotan led Drum Church Circle beat, like in a spiritual revival.


The Learning Academy...Kids learn the art trade as part of 'incubating' the village.


Multi-instrumentalist, Wadada sets up his promotional CD and rehearses for the Labor Day Weekend jam.


The game begins -- the Drum Church Circle beats -- and Najite leads.



Tourist possessed by the powerful spirits of the Drum Church Circle beats.

Afrobeat Now Presents Fela Kuti at the Dragon Fly

A summer blast coming down in da hood and all da folks in Hollywood be crawling, dawg!

Yes, on August 27, ace talking drummer and Baba's boy, Najite Agindotan and his Olokun Prophesy Afro Beat Band will be slamming it real hard at Dragon Fly which sits on 8510 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. The gig will be featuring the Queen of Afro Beat, Sandra Isadore whose sensational vocal on Baba's smash hit "Upside Down" exploded at the Chief Priest's shrine. Also on the line-up are Jerri Jheto, Remi Kabaka, DJ Nnamdi Moweta and others.

It's gonna be a lotta fun with more side attractions; so come on down and be part of the experience!

Death of an Igbo Club in Greater Los Angeles

Once upon a time, in what had been presumed as Greater Los Angeles area resident's "VIP" of Igbo stock at a hangout of champaign and isi ewu, goat head meal, a club was born. The club was called members of the house or something like that in the founders native tongue. The club had been tailored to be guiding light by way of tackling problems, grand and small, with regards to Igbo worthy causes within the Los Angeles area; in order to effect change in Igbo Diaspora, and be able to influence decisions in homeland to a calling for profound leadership.

These "Igbo elites" met on every Friday evening and "dialogued" into the wee hours of the night at this particular joint in the South Bay area of Greater Los Angeles, to prove why they have been unique in getting things done, and from around their surroundings which speaks volumes -- their outrageous color riot outfits and the kinda exotic fast machines that sits on the lots.

But as it eventually happened, the Friday event of "Igbo elites" at this particular joint then known for its flamboyant fanfare, became the forum where these "energetic" folks decided to negate the old guards they accused all along of not having a sense of purpose to get things done for Nd'Igbo, in which they desperately wanted some action relative to being practical and showing.

The cast of characters in this elite club had included "high profile" lawyers who'd never won a case in the law courts other than plea bargains, businessmen, cooks, dishwashers, nouveau riche, professional laymen, doctors, acclaimed local politicians, acclaimed historians who knew every damn thing about the pogrom and civil war but have not written a line of sentence to tell their stories, acclaimed thinkers whose thoughts stinks to the high heavens, acclaimed prophets who ends up in the alley soliciting prostitutes, pastors akin to Jimmy Swaggart, propagandists (the Otimkpus), alarmists, folks in a variety of academic disciplines, lavishing Diaspora chiefs, big game hunters, musicians who can't read notes, wanna belong fellas, area boys and things like that.

I, for one, checked out this hangout numerous times and it was nothing really to brag about, or take to the bank. It was a total mess considering people of high places that had gathered to form a powerful union with the ideal of doing good things.

As it also happened, there was a problem. The bunch of these "elites" of Igbo stock, had begun their meetings with suspicion, blackmail, sabotage, betrayal, wife swapping, homo sexuality, whiskey and whore stories, behind closed door gossips, and all kinds of crazy stuff; not trusting one another in what supposedly should have meant well from the perspective of its guidelines.

Ironically, these "elites" had a plan. Instead of such an infallible, confused, efulefu, worthless bunch to rethink their strategies by coming up with troubling isues of the day which destroyed a cultural heritage; cases of failing marriage institution in Ala-Igbo, the disappearance of the Igbo language and what should be done, integration, building community and the painful loss of leadership from the days of the Igbo union; the talk big, walk big "comrades" abandoned what they had spent time and money putting together, to material rivalry -- on who owns what, and who is individually accomplished when collectivity which ultimately leads to utopia should have been the goal.

The late Stephen Osita Osadebe produced a praise singing CD in their name when that miscalculating and senseless endeavor could have initiated a resource center, cultural center, research centers and things of that nature.

A mentally, impotent and unchallenging bunch could not come up with anything other than picnic in its engagement. Things like providing employment opportunities and having economic impact within its community, as in all communities in Diaspora who are doing stuff. From Pico Blvd. and Fairfax Ave. to Olympic Blvd. and Fairfax toward the Miracle Mile on the Wilshire Corridor, sits Little Ethiopia and all Ethiopian owned businesses. On the Westside, is the Armenian community whose history of genocide is, today, in the books, from mounted pressure groups. On the Eastside lies China Town, Little Tokyo, the Hispanics and series of communities dwelling together spreading all down the San Gabriel Valley. And, of course, there is Little Vietnam in Westminster and other Asian communities in and around the Long Beach areas.

I remember when Jimmie Asiegbu and I had stopped by former LAPD Chief and Councilman Bernard Parks' office for some concerns regarding our own very community as in concentration, while Parks was seeking reelection in the 8th District, and for our votes to count, Parks' first question was where he could identify an Igbo or Nigerian community in Greater Los Angeles. Apparently, we had none, not even in the near future for a bunch full of drama in its dealings.

A bunch who were suppose to come to the fore as molders and shapers but caught up haggling. A bunch who were suppose to give form and content to mass liberation movements but not surprisingly caught up quarelling over little things not relevant to societal well-being. A bunch which should be seeing objectively and clearly which way class forces are actually moving or aspiring to move, or which classes are advancing or retarding the advance, but caught up being blind followers. A bunch that would not table an intellectual discourse on the most blood soaked event in its history but would rather join the bandwagon designed to destroy its own.

Not even a discourse on a case of the Yoruba nation cooperating with the Hausa-Fulani murderous gang during the pogrom which was a mutual calculation of interest or in recent times measures to transform or eradicate toxic leaders who destroyed in its entirety Igbo related states, rather than be passive in order to be considered for their crumbs and left overs.

Well, the party is definitely over, and for sure, these easy going fellows could not do jack in their over a decade of consuming isi ewu. And what that entails is, like Bob Dylan, worried about failed states and American power, "it's not dark yet, but we are getting there."

Najite Agindotan, King of the African Drums

He was the Chief Priest, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's boy, back in the day, when Afro Beat, coined by Kuti, was the bomb at Baba's African Shrine where all kinds of rituals took place to reinvent a culture that was disappearing within its landscape. He speaks well of Baba who inspired him in what he now does very well, playing the adudu, African drums and percussions.

But Najite, as he is called by his admirers all around Greater Los Angeles, did take his hand-drumming craft to another level; initiating the Drum Church Circle to the City of Angels, inspiring others to follow, and the rest is now history.

On a normal Sunday afternoon, Najite pops up and walks around the village to survey which way the familiar rumble of his drum circle should spill in the park with a cast of vendors and tourists who'd shown up to make brisk business and stomp to the vibes as his entourage strikes rhythms together. Dressed in all white African outfits, his beads jingling around his neck and wrist band well-fit for the occasion, Najite peppers the Leimert Park Drum Church Circle beats with songs and yelps, echoeing as in African masquerade dance.

Master of his art, Najite, in 2000, was awarded the Congressional Award for Excellence by Representative Diane Watson. He has also received grants from the California Arts Council, the National Endownment for the Arts, and in filmmaker Ben Caldwell's own words, promoting and "incubating" the cultural arts in a multicultural Greater Los Angeles.

Also, Najite has been recognized by the University of California; Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, and Riverside campuses for his thoroughness and persistence in the arts.

Now that Leimert Park Art Walk is born, expect more with the best yet to come!

Images of the 7th Annual June'Teenth Heritage Festival: Celebrating Black Freedom

June'Teenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, two months more than President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, General Granger of the Union Army landed in Galveston, Texas, and issued Order No.3: All Slaves Are Free!


Ndugu, Wadada and Kelly Love Jones performs at the back lot of The Vision Theater in Leimert Park Village.


Anthony Aquarius Mystery and the Jimi Hendrix Tribute Band performs live on stage as part of festivities celebrating the 7th Annual June'Teenth Heritage Festival.


The groove and the jam sessions.


The twist dance at the exclusive Barbara Morrison's Show.


Anthony Aquarius Mystery of A Jimi Hendrix Tribute Band and Cynthia Exum, the executive producer of the Leimert Park Village Book Fair share a moment...


The audience watches A Jimi Hendrix Tribute Band perform live on stage.


Vendors make brisk business hawking Los Angeles Dynasty t shirts.


Leon Mobley and Wadada entertains at the back lot of The Vision Theater.


Oran Z, founder of The Oran Z Pan African Black Facts and Wax Museum, which presents wax figures of African American personalities chats with a guest at his museum booth during the festival.


Afro Cuban Jazz Ensemble entertaning at the jam-packed Leimert Park.

Remembering Michael Jackson One Year Later

A classic of its own...Richard Pryor mceed Motown 25th Anniversary, an-all star cast...Unbelievable, Michael is gone, man!!

I Remember Ugo Anakwenze

Ugo Anakwenze lived an amazing life even though his untimely death came to all of his friends and colleagues, including his family members, as a shock. God's power and wisdom is beyond our reasoning and it's only the Almighty that knoweth why your life was all of a sudden cut short.

My first encounter with Ugo was at my brother's wedding, and my brother had introduced me to Ugo as his kid brother. I had been kind of elevated from my rookie status arriving the shores of America. Ugo mceed my brother's wedding reception and he did it with style and mutual interest on many grounds: Ugo and my brother had been very close following the "push factor", the post-civil war era, when academic pursuits were the key to becoming conducts. Ugo was caring and stood up in all occasions, being good at his craft -- beloving, generous and passionate.

I had discovered how brilliant Ugo was when cultural and political discourses popped up on Igbo-related forums at the eruption of Nigeria's Fourth Republic, after years of misrule by the military juntas. He was solidly engaged as part of his commitment to get things done for Nd'Igbo, home and abroad, in the public square. Ugo was a true motivator and he inspired me to keep up with my deep, insightful, writing and critical analysis of Igbo Diaspora, and he never stopped getting me involved regarding Igbo matters, grand and small. Ugo would call me and ask, nwokem, kee kwa nu, how are you doing, man!? He did care.

The days of fine Igbo politics and how to get things done at Igbo forums was very remarkable, thinking of Ugo and his contributions. The engagements: Okenwa Nwosu, Kevin Ani, M.O. Ene, the late Egbebelu Ugobelu, Ejike Okpa, Acho Orabuchi, Paul "Akeedy" Ezeji, Uju Afulezi, Ibe Asonye, Iselle Obikpani, Charles Maduka, Cornelius Akubueze, Simon Iberosi, Obinna Duruji, Francis Elekwachi, Oguchi Nkwocha, Obi Nwakanma, Nnamdi Nwuda, never-minding the handles and several others before its hijack by a gang of folks seeking relevance that turned many off.

I still remember and in one of my thought provoking articles "Igbo Political Errors and the Leadership Debates," followed by a coherent symposium with regards to the subject matter, Ugo, in response, wrote:

"Nd'Igbo, history has followed real patriotic leaders and I don't need to recite Igbo history to prove my point. As loyal and dedicated followers, Nd'Igbo must always defend the basic interest of the community and not the personal interest of any individual who calls himself/herself a leader. When individuals provide good, unselfish and true leadership, our people have always responded with full support.

Therefore, if and when Alaoma Alaigbo finds a new crop of identifiable Igbo patriots to provide true leadership, please rest assured that our people would provide full and commited followership to such patriots.

Mazi Ehirim's wonderful article should be considered a call to Igbo return to the great days of unselfish leaders with total commitment to the welfare of the Alaigbo."

And I remember the significant role Ugo played when in August 2002, Chekwas Okorie and his entourage had arrived the shores of this land to launch an independently Igbo political party -- All Progressives Grand Alliance -- in order to face the challenges of an uncertain Nigeria. I do remember when we met at Jimmy Asiegbu's office on La Cienega and Saturn Ave in a meeting on how to mobilize Nd'Igbo to rise up to the occasion, and I had gotten into a heated argument with his brother, Nwachukwu Anakwenze, regarding Mbadinuju and all the doublespeak in an inept, corrupt administration. Ugo brokered the peace and demanded decorum, one of his marks of profound leadership.

Whenever my article was out and I bump into Ugo, he would applaud my thoughts on paper, encouraging me to keep it up for Igbo national interest. And moving beyond ethnic lines, Ugo backed Igbo worthy causes in all aspects of Nigeria political landscape. He had championed dialogue to get things done in the interest of the Igbo nation. He never gave up his quest for the plight of the Igbo in today's Nigeria. He was a lion that fought tirelessly despite the battle wounds, until something was done by way of building community and organizational effectiveness -- appearing in every function to show his support.

And on that note, in what he opined in August of 2008, the convention of Hausa-Fulani umbrella, Zumunta, on Diasporan shores titled "Zumunta, Sultan, Archbishop, CISA, IWA, Ohanaeze" emphasizing on his unconditional support for a workable Nigeria. Ugo wrote:

"Going forward, I am glad CISA/IWA understand that Ndigbo can only have permanent interests and not permanent enemies. Ndigbo are so vested in Northern Nigeria that it would be a mistake to take the security of Igbo lives and properties in the North for granted. CISA, as I understand it, has also held meetings with Izu Umunna, the umbrella group representing Ndigbo in Northern Nigeria and the meeting with the Sultan is, as I understand it, only just the beginning."

In what should be coming out shortly, "The Ambrose Ehirim Files Interview," I had bumped into Ugo at one of his kinfolk's 80th birthday bash in Los Angeles, and had requested to include the celebrant, Chief Umeadi, among my list of notable interviews on Igbo powerhouse; he welcomed my gesture without obligation and had asked for me to call or send him an email in that regard. That interview, if it happens, will never take place in his presence. Ugo left us, and that's sad.

Ugo, wherever you are, we remember your works, commitments and how to effect change in Igboland.

I salute your courage and adios, my friend!

Rest In Peace!