Serendipity

Image source:punchng.com Stumbling on a news snippet of the most recent interaction between Israel Adesanya and defending UFC middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis, at a pre-fight press conference, it cast my mind back to an earlier  take   on identity. Du Plessis became champion by defeating Sean Strickland whom Adesanya had lost the belt to in 2023. Du Plessis has described himself as the first African UFC champion, side stepping Israel Adesanya, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, other previous UFC champions whom he says are only of African decent. Du Plessis, for explication is caucasian South African while the others mentioned are black with Nigerian and Cameroonian heritages. He backs up his claim with the explanation that not only is he born and raised in Africa but he also trains with his team in Africa and has always lived and still lives in Africa. This is in contrast with the others, Israel Adesanya for instance who fights as a New Zealander in the UFC. The t...

Image source: khalilcenter.com I have come to view life from the lens of it being a series of interactions with varying individuals at different stages in our lives. From childhood to adulthood, our exposure, knowledge and experiences are shaped by our various interactions with the world around us and other people across time and location. Usually starting within our families, our sphere of interactive influence grows as we advance and move through the different phases of our lives. This line of thought came to me as I pondered on my apprehension when encountering new people generally and particularly in a work based environment. This unease becomes more apparent in situations where I have to depend on or rely on these other people for any number of outcomes; otherwise it’s usually fun meeting new folks. At the root of this anxiety I believe is a fear of judgement and an unwillingness to relinquish total control over the outcomes of my life and work. That feeling of dependency on o...

Photo:fahrenheitmagazine.com   I once opined that Africans should be careful seeking validation from foreign standard keepers; I argued that we should develop our own high value reward systems instead. I also do remember quite vividly in 2008, during the first ever MTV Africa Music Awards –aka the MAMAs – as Trevor Nelson unveiled Fela as the recipient of the ‘Legend Award’. In his remarks, Trevor had said something along the lines of it practically being a given that this honour for the inaugural edition should go to Fela; arguably the biggest artistic legend to come out of Africa. I hadn’t given the matter any much thought since then until I came across Seth Godin’s take on Fela’s nomination and possible induction into the Rock and Roll hall of fame. Perhaps because of my disposition, I had not been that excited about the prospect of Fela’s inclusion. Fela was to me and I want to believe for many Africans, the greatest musical legend ever. Seth argued for greater diversit...

Image: Fair observer I recently came across an article on Anthony Ekundayo Lennon, a middle aged Irish Caucasian accused of cultural misappropriation and profiting from passing himself off as a mixed race person. The Guardian article offered me a fresh perspective on his story. He had before now seemed to me to be just another ‘Rachel Dolezal’, who was also white but presented herself as a black person. And if you’re wondering how this is even possible, it actually isn’t that difficult to achieve. I’ve always found this concept of what makes a person black or white to be quite interesting. So, on the one end you have white individuals with white parents and white ancestry as far back as they know, identifying and presenting as black people. Rachel was president of a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the most regarded bodies for civil rights in the US for African Americans. You don’t get to such a position by not being black,...