religion

When Religious People Need Alcohol (Goscolene)

An Unconscious glass of brandy.

Religious Desire of Alcohol (Goscolene)

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:March 14, 2022
Post category:Culture as Institution Musings Niger Delta Crisis Social Crisis
Post comments:1 Comment
Reading time:6 mins read

Religious Desire of Alcohol (Goscolene)

Goscolene makes us lapotidunious. Some guys I used to roll with, when saying something cryptic in public, would conclude “If you know, you know.” Anyone can listen to certain public utterances, but few may decipher them. The good thing is nothing you read here qualifies as cryptic. Yet, we need not define or explain what lapotidunious means for now. This word wears the coat of mufugbeneity, another adjective which elsewhere is yet without definition, but we will define it. That is what we do. Just a little trust is all we need to assure each other when the means of persuasion are shy.

Shynes! Goscolene refuses to be shy, especially when there is a religious desire for it. How can the most popular alcoholic drink in the Niger Delta be shy? If oil, the reason for Nigeria’s neo-colonisation, and palm oil the incentive for Nigeria’s colonisation, both products of the Niger Delta, are not shy, why will goscolene be shy? (more…)

The Igbe Religion – A Faith

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:July 25, 2020
Post category:Culture as Institution Social Relations
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Reading time:6 mins read

The Igbe Religion – A Faith

Igbe is neither my personal nor family religion. Stiil, I lived in Urhoboland, where it originated and people still practise it, long enough to observe the faith with considerable detachment. I have also seen its practice in the United Kingdom. It is an Urhobo religion but may not be only so. In this brief article, I intend to look at the more gnostic and historical perspective of Igbe than its practices. Igbe in the Urhobo language means “Dance” or “Joy.” Igbe worship is also an act of gratitude to God for life itself and comprises celebratory devotion. (more…)

The Art Ensemble of Chicago_

Jazz Music & the Influence of Yoruba Culture

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:June 30, 2020
Post category:Culture as Institution Social Relations
Post comments:2 Comments
Reading time:5 mins read

Jazz Music & the Influence of Yoruba Culture

There was a time in the ’60s and ’70s when several jazz musicians of repute had to visit Brazil for a new spark of inspiration. It was almost a “rite of passage” for many jazz musicians. Classics like ‘Song for My Father’ by Horace Silver; ‘Brazilian Love Affair’ by George Duke; ‘Jive Samba’ by Cannonball Adderley Sextet; ‘Sidewinder’ by Lee Morgan; ‘Big Band Bossa Nova’ by Quincy Jones were born of rips and sounds of trips to and sounds of Brazil. These are a few of the Jazz Giants that had made their most successful albums through the Brazilian inspiration. Grover Washington Jr, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Bob James, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Kenny Dorham and many others also had big lifts in their music by way of the Brazilian inspiration. The most Yoruba-influenced jazz group is apparently the Art Ensemble of Chicago (see picture above).

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Is the Expected Revolution in Nigeria Possible?

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:August 4, 2017
Post category:Governance Institutions
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Reading time:6 mins read

Is the Expected Revolution in Nigeria Possible?

Many talking points in Nigeria and diaspora focus ever more on the undeniable necessity for a ‘proper revolution’ to happen. Revolution seems to be necessary to with decisiveness sort out the poly-faceted corruption and misgovernance entrenched in it. Such is withering away the country beyond recognition. Otherwise, talk of revolution is good for expressing various dimensions of despair. Notwithstanding, they do not represent the realities of revolution in the everyday chatter. The truth of it appears to be tacit and hiding in several brains. A thoroughgoing political revolution has a high cost that involves mass coordination, mass murder, mass destruction and mass deception [propaganda]; are Nigerians ready for that? How possible is it?

Lest we forget, younger people take revolution in any sphere of activity as a workable challenge. Accordingly, young people change the world every day. (more…)

Why is Anyone Surprised at the #SouthernKadunaGenocide?

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:January 16, 2017
Post category:Elections Governance
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Reading time:6 mins read

Southern Kaduna Massacres are the stuff Nigeria is made of. Before anyone dismisses such a claim, we have to examine the pervasive ‘value of life’ in Nigeria to both ordinary citizens and the government as well as the cost of ‘taking life’ in Nigeria; ‘life’ here mainly refers to that of the ‘underdog’ [the weaker Nigerian by dichotomy]. Religion and oil politics have led to the biggest massacres in Nigeria’s history, including the Civil War, but life is taken daily with sudden and unexpected spontaneity everywhere in the country for innumerable reasons, some totally inane. Tragically, unless the United Nations, Amnesty International or some heavyweight foreign NGO takes interest in the matter, Nigeria’s leaders, politicians and intellectuals simply ignore the problem. The White Man’s Burden all over again, in another dimension?

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The Leadership of a Bad Brother – Angle 4

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:August 13, 2016
Post category:Musings Social Crisis UCGFs
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Reading time:6 mins read

The Leadership of a Bad Brother – Angle 4

Everyday people in this everyday world of ours bear witness to everyday evil and wickedness. Every single day, direct or indirect. To be consistent and confident in nefarious acts, one has to have some sort of power and loads of impunity to float it. Spectacular evil in the name of power is something we see on television. It is carried out by large organisations and many rich countries of the world with thoughts of empire in question. Or do extremists exact it? How about the non-spectacular evils of the power-seeking bullies that affect us in insidious ways every day? The fourth instalment of The Leadership of a Bad Brother is further emphatic witness; (more…)

President Jonathan, What Are Your Spin Doctors Doing?

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:September 12, 2014
Post category:Social Relations
Post comments:0 Comments
Reading time:3 mins read

Hashtag disaster has hit the Nigerian President and it because someone created the unfortunate and ill-advised #BringBackJonathan2015 hashtag as a campaign device. But it is not the end of the world for President Jonathan by any means. Sometimes the greatest of presidents make or associated with blunders and as long as they handle wisely it becomes a forgivable memory or a forgotten altogether; apologies, instant rectifications, silence till it blows over and substitution with other news is how it is done. The President has acted responsibly about that affair, but his spin-doctors have not. (more…)