Angela Ukomadu's Blog

If you are an 80's child like me and grew up watching Tales by Moonlight on NTA (Nigeria Television Authority) then you will understand why this story struck a chord when I first saw it.      As usual I was strolling on the streets of Instagram when I saw a post by @Lagoshousewife about this bear that tells African folk tales. Immediately, my child hood flashed before me.     You see, folk tales were traditionally an important learning tool before the introduction of formal education. Children will sit on the floor, surrounding either a parent or grand parent who told them stories about the tortoise or the dog, and these stories always ended with a moral lesson. Folk tales were used to pass knowledge from generation to generation.      However, even after formal education took the fore front, folk tales were still told to children but this is gradually waning and Nigerian entrepreneur Tola Akanbi decided to do something to help, he created Tiwa The Talking Bear, something

 I spent the first 21 years of my life in Port Harcourt, Rivers state...I mean "RIVERS" state, so you would think I should know how to swim with all of that water body surrounding me? Naaaaa, I cannot even stand in a gutter.    Then I had my son, he is all daring and ready to go. At 7 or 8, he said he wanted to join the swimming class in his school. Trust me to say a big NO. But hubby felt and my sister Ruth said if he really wanted to do it, I should let him and not use my own fears to overshadow him. Reluctantly, I agreed.      So when I came across this Kayak story via the #NothingToDoInLagos Instagram handle, I temporarily forgot my fears and could not wait to tell the story. Hahahahha, your guess is as good as mine. I flopped big time. Now, the plan was to use the double kayak. That way I will do the paddling while my colleague films the other kayakers. I spent less than 20 seconds in the water and I was screaming to leave. The kind-hearted Kayak owner had to help pa

This was the first story I covered this year and it was a really fun one for me as I had to be a model for the one and only Laolu Sebanjo, the Afromysterics artist who came to limelight after working with  Beyonce on the Lemonade video. How cool is that? LOL    So earlier this year, pictures and talks of Laolu was all over my Instagram timeline. He was in Nigeria and was planning for a meet and greet at Bogobiri. I checked out his profile, saw pictures of body paints that wowed me. Now, I totally forgot my team had planned to profile him and was waiting for a chance visit to Nigeria. Well, to cut a long story short, my TV head made some calls and voila, he agreed to see us on same day he was traveling back to the United States.    Laolu is a 37 year old Nigerian from Kwara state. He is a visual artist, musician, and an attorney. Art, whether painting or singing is what he has always wanted to do because growing up, his grandmother shaped his love for art by always telling him

 There is this joke that most Nigerians do not know how to "mind their business." From the body movement, the very sly cough that suddenly manifests, the side eye they give you, the look, to the " un-looking " game, they are bound to make you understand that they know what you are doing or about to do.    While this may have its positive sides of making one always cautious of never going wrong, the negative sides cannot be overlooked too. Have you seen TV adverts of condom and how the buyer suddenly starts asking for biscuits even when they came to buy condoms? Just because they saw one nosy auntie or uncle at the pharmacy! I also remember the one of Lolo1 acting as a nurse and how she reacted when two teenagers came in to the hospital to find out more about safe sex.    Well, before we continue, I am 100 percent all for zipping up until the wedding night but we cannot ignore the fact that our youths are hitting it everyday. Yes it happens. While we preach for