Nigeria

Latest Articles

Live! — sort of

Fela! on screen
The success of the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" experiment augurs well for dance on the big screen. Simulcast at select theaters, with tickets priced higher than for a movie but much cheaper than for a live opera, these events generate a sense of anticipation.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | January 14, 2011

Fou fou is hard work

Getting pounded by flour while making an African staple
The cassava flour was light beige, slightly more fine than corn meal. I'd bought it by mistake. Three pounds of it. I had no idea what to do with it.
By LINDSAY STERLING | January 12, 2011

Interview: Sebastian Junger

Getting up close and personal with Restrepo
Not even being held captive by armed militants in Nigeria satisfied The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger's need for dangerous assignments.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 30, 2010

Stark reality

Your indispensable World Cup update
Steven Stark is known to Phoenix readers for his "Presidential Tote Board" odds-making feature, but it turns out that he and his son, Harrison, are also soccer aficionados, having become fans of London side Fulham FC during stays in the British capital.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 14, 2010

Messi situations

A giant tampon for BP; plus, the World Cup, and a big bash in Pawtuxet
Can’t you just imagine the high-level meetings taking place daily in the British Petroleum war room these days, full of top execs and engineers, neither of whom speak the others’ language, or have even close to the same concerns?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 02, 2010

Balls of fire

Porn stars, witch doctors, elephant farts, and the worst soccer team on the planet take center stage at this summer’s World Cup
For one month every four years, the United States — try as it might — can’t impose its vacuous culture on the rest of the planet. The World Cup arrives and the Americans are, at best, an afterthought.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG AND LANCE GOULD | June 01, 2010

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Nature studies

New works by Catherine Hamilton and Susan Twaddell
“A bird feeder,” Hamilton writes in her artist statement, “creates an intensified microcosm of the trials and hardships of avian existence.”
By GREG COOK | May 05, 2010

Words around town

Our fair city is chock full of people who write well and are willing to teach you their trade.
“Every writer I know has trouble writing,” said Joseph Heller. Let that serve as comfort.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | April 30, 2010

Don't make promises

Paul LePage's disastrous mistake
In writing a weekly political column, you learn not to use the first paragraph to make extravagant claims you can't possibly deliver on.
By AL DIAMON | February 24, 2010

Fela Kuti | The ’69 L.A. Sessions

Knitting Factory (2010)
Amiri Baraka put it best in his poem "In the Funk World": "If Elvis Presley is King/Who is James Brown, God?" So, by that logic, is Fela Anikulapo Kuti higher than or equal to God?
By ZETH LUNDY | February 09, 2010

Delta blues

Nneka brings Nigeria's plight to light
Nneka, who comes to the Middle East next Thursday, sounds a lot different on the phone from what you hear in her songs. She speaks softly, allowing stretches of silence to throw her thoughts into harsh relief. On record, she's all business.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 27, 2010

Good Fela! beats Nigerian drum

Boston and Broadway
Riddle this: what's more unlikely than the fact that the current toast of Broadway is a musical about a Nigerian agitprop pop singer, or that it owes its existence to a Caucasian commodities trader from New England?
By CHRIS FARAONE | December 09, 2009

Crossword: ''Initial reaction''

Letters, not words
Letters, not words
By MATT JONES | November 25, 2009

The Village Restaurant

Savoring the taste of Nigeria
I remember my click of recognition when I first saw a West African recipe for black-eyed-pea fritters with hot sauce, since my family in the South had always doused black-eyed peas with hot pepper sauce.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 23, 2009

Joy, not jamming

King Sunny Adé and his African Beats, live at the Courtyard at the Museum of Fine Arts, July 15, 2009
In 1992, Nigerian juju master King Sunny Adé and his African Beats played the Park Plaza Hotel ballroom as part of the Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival. What I remember most vividly is the hypnotic overlap of undulating guitar lines.
By JON GARELICK | July 17, 2009

Pleasure principles

King Sunny Adé still brings the beats
King Sunny Adé's music is bubbly as a tonic — a percolating, pop-infused update of the traditional Yoruba sound. "My songs are made to lift worries, so people can be happy and dance their troubles away," declares the 62-year-old Nigerian world-music star.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | July 10, 2009

Full shelf

The best in summer reading
Hot town, summer in the city. . . . or in the country. . . . or at the beach. Wherever you are, don't forget your books.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | June 08, 2009

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Review: Nollywood Babylon

Covering vast territory at breakneck speed
You may have never heard of Living in Bondage , Desperate Billionaire , or any other works coming out of Nigeria's exploding homegrown film scene, but Nollywood has become the world's third-largest movie industry.
By SHAULA CLARK | April 15, 2009

Black power

Trinity Rep's powerful Raisin In the Sun
The centerpiece of George C. Wolfe's 1986 satire The Colored Museum is a scathing sketch called The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play . A Raisin in the Sun is the über-mama-on-the-couch play
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 12, 2009

A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity, Bad Jazz at Zeitgeist

Reviews of two plays
The centerpiece of George C. Wolfe's 1986 satire The Colored Museum is a scathing sketch called The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play . A Raisin in the Sun is the über-mama-on-the-couch play.
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 12, 2009

The making of the Roots-versus-Antibalas Sound Clash

How ?uest got his groove back
We're not previewing the Red Bull Sound Clash just because the buzz-beverage overlords supply Phoenix headquarters with enough voltage to paralyze a petting zoo.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2009

Politics and other mistakes: Sweet electricity

Annexed electricity
Harley Lee has a lot to learn about running a scam.
By AL DIAMON | January 14, 2009

Universal tales

Diane Macklin makes a difference at FUNDA
For the 11th consecutive year, the Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS) are bringing stories and tellers from near and far for the eight-day FUNDA Fest (January 18-25).
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | January 15, 2009

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

A moving historical documentary
Remember the old "essentialist" argument that women are by nature pacifist and nurturing whereas men are aggressive and warlike?
By GERALD PEARY | December 05, 2008

Separate Cultures

The cultural divide between African-American and immigrant Muslims
In the late 1980s, when the plans for the mosque were first taking shape, it was intended to be developed by and for a primarily black Muslim population in Greater Roxbury.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 19, 2008

Under African Skies

Awesome Tapes from Africa
“Awesome Tapes from Africa” — the name says it all.
By SUSANNA BOLLE | October 27, 2008

World party

Fresh fare at the FirstWorks Festival
In its fifth year, FirstWorks Festival 2008 has grown to be a culturally diverse showcase, distinctly international in flavor, with an array of theater and family entertainment.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 01, 2008

Dance in fall

Must-see moves
This fall’s offerings of dance performances have an international flavor, as well as featuring the talents of Rhody-grown dance groups.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 10, 2008

Various Artists | Jump Back

LSD
Crammed with tracks guaranteed to make your chit-chatting friends go quiet for a few seconds and ask, “Isn’t that ‘Sex Machine’ in Spanish?”
By GUSTAVO TURNER | September 10, 2008