Nov 14, 2021
“There are two worlds,…ours is a world of respect and mystery and magic. Their world brings everything into the daylight, even the things that weren’t meant to be…” The novella, Houseboy, by Ferdinand Oyono is an amusing, sarcastic and...
Nov 14, 2021
“Peace to our neighbours. But anathema to the French name. Hatred eternal to France. This is our cry.” – from the Haitian proclamation of independence from France. The Black Jacobins is an enlightening and thought-provoking tome which is a must-read...
Nov 8, 2021
This week I want to share a deeply emotional and spiritual experience I had during my visit to Ghana on a business trip. While in Cape Coast, I went to the Elmina Slave Castle, the oldest and largest slave trading post in Ghana. Built originally by the Portuguese in...
Nov 2, 2021
In today’s blogpost I want to shine a spotlight on an ancient ritual, still practiced by the Black Caribs (Garifuna) to this very day, which has been integral to their way of life since long before the Second Carib War – the ‘Dugu ceremony.’ In...
Oct 17, 2021
Earlier this week I had a very thought-provoking conversation with my older brother, Chike, which formed the inspiration for this blogpost. He told me about a very intriguing Japanese concept related to finding meaning in life. According to him there is a Japanese...
Oct 9, 2021
This week l finished watching the series The Get Down on Netflix (which I highly recommend by the way). The lead character, Ezekiel Figuero a.k.a. ‘Books,’ struck a chord with me because of his eloquent, poetic articulation style. With every word he...
Sep 30, 2021
A few weeks back I had a very stimulating chat at a workshop that I attended in Antwerp, Belgium. One of my fellow participants and I struck up a conversation about our goals in life and the legacy we would like to leave behind. To my surprise the interlocutor...
Sep 28, 2021
Habari yako? (That’s Kiswahili for How are you?) I am sorry for the long hiatus from this blog. For the past two weeks I have been away on a business trip to Kenya and unfortunately had very little time to dedicate to blogging. It was an intense period with many...
Sep 5, 2021
In a recent blogpost about authenticity in writing historical fiction I mentioned that I would elaborate more about how the Garifuna language has evolved since the 1790s. It has indeed been quite a dramatic transformation which has its roots in the tragic deportation...
Aug 28, 2021
Recently I had a very insightful, spontaneus interaction with a history professor from the Caribbean (who I will keep anonymous out of respect for his privacy) about my upcoming historical fiction novel, Children of the Ocean God. He gave me some very constructive...
