Africa’s Largest Carnival Rocks Nigeria

The city of Port Harcourt in the Rivers State of Nigeria once again celebrated its annual carnival this December. CARNIRIV is Nigeria’s longest-standing carnival and is the largest festivity of its type in the whole of Africa. The 2014 edition of the arts and culture festival was held between December 12th and December 20th and featured a diverse range of attractions and activities.

One of the centrepieces of the week-long festivities was the International Heritage Parade. This hugely colourful procession wound its way through more than eight miles of the city’s streets, with thousands of revellers on hand to cheer on proceedings. A mix of African culture and Caribbean influences, participants in the parade celebrate their national identity by dressing in colourful costumes and engaging in exciting dances and masquerade displays. This year’s Heritage Parade included floats from both Malaysia and South Africa to give the event a truly international flavour. Amongst the many spectators were a number of local dignitaries, including the Governor of Rivers State, who acted as the main host of the proceedings and the Rivers State Commissioner for Information.

Beauty Queen is Crowned

This year’s festival saw the very first Miss CARNIRIV beauty contest held, with the winner being Stephaine Chinda. The pageant was held at the Presidential Hotel in Port Harcourt, with contestants representing each of the 23 local governments which make up Rivers State. The triumphant Miss Chinda was presented with a brand new Hyundai Grand car and a foreign scholarship. The scholarship is part of the Rivers State government’s initiative to promote foreign studies and scholarship. Miss CARNIRIV was crowned on December 12th and was on hand for the rest of the festival to lend a hand with various other events.

Amongst the plethora of other events and activities taking place during CARNIRIV 2014 were a number of music concerts. These included the Black African Music Festival, the World Peace Concert and Reggae 360. The Reggae 360 show saw a number of popular artists take to the main stage, such as Ras Kimono and Majek Fashek. The headline act who brought Reggae 360, and indeed CARNIRIV itself, to a stirring conclusion was Port Harcourt native Timaya. Home-town hero Timaya, who has released a number of highly popular albums in Nigeria, wowed the crowd with an exceptionally well-received performance.

One People One Love

Add in even more exciting events, such as Dance of the Fireflies, Praise Jam, HOSH Jam and the International Aquatic Fiesta, and it is easy to see why CARNIRIV is regarded as one of the premier arts and culture festivals in the whole of Africa. Each year the people of Port Harcourt are given the opportunity to celebrate their own culture, in addition to that of other states from across Nigeria. The tagline for the 2014 festivities, One People One Love Edition, was certainly an apt name for this most friendly and colourful of events, which showed the city of Port Harcourt at its very best.

Nigerian Recycling Company Wins 2014 Sustainability Award

Climate change has been a much-discussed topic around the world for a number of years now. In recent times, it seems there has been a concerted effort by the majority of nations to lessen the negative impact made on the planet’s natural resources. Recycling is now an everyday part of life for many citizens around the globe. There are many hi-tech innovations in place in terms of recycling solutions. However, it is often the simplest ideas which turn out to be the most successful.

The city of Lagos in Nigeria has never been traditionally thought of as a major recycler. Indeed, until recently the city was undergoing problems in other related areas too, namely in the collection of household waste. It has been estimated that, of all of the cumulated household waste in Lagos, only 40% is ever collected. The remainder is left to pile up in the streets.

An Innovative Solution to the Problem of Waste

The solution to this major problem has been refreshingly simple and, so far, exceedingly successful. Recycling company Wecyclers gives families living in the low-income communities of Lagos the opportunity of earning from their household waste collections. The company sends out a fleet of cargo bicycles into the communities to collect waste, which is then sent for recycling. By using a points-based system, Lagos households can exchange their household waste, such as plastic bottles, plastic bags and food cans, for various consumer goods. The use of bicycles to collect the waste also ensures that the air is not further polluted by vehicle exhaust fumes.

After sorting through the collections, Wecyclers then sell the waste on to companies who recycle it into various products such as bin bags, mattresses and pillows. Up to October 2014, over 5,000 households in Lagos had signed up to the Wecyclers collection program. The undoubted success has led to plans to expand the scheme to other cities in Nigeria.

Rewarded for Efforts in Sustainability

On November 10th 2014, Wecyclers were rewarded for their efforts when they were named as the winners of the Sustainia Award. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sustainia is a consultancy which champions sustainability around the world. Chaired by film legend Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 2014 Sustainia Awards celebrated ten innovative sustainable solutions employed in nations across the globe. However, after learning of the simple but effective solution employed by Wecyclers to the very real problems of waste management in Lagos, the committee were unanimous in choosing the Nigerian company as their main award winner.

With their innovative waste collection scheme in Lagos, Wecyclers have shown that sustainability solutions do not necessarily have to be hi-tech to prove successful. By involving the local community in the scheme. Wecyclers have also given a sense of purpose to the poorer citizens of the city, in addition to offering them the chance of earning from their efforts. It is a winning situation for all concerned and a much-needed boost for the environment.

Nigerian City of Port Harcourt Celebrates Literary Recognition

Organised by the Rainbow Book Club, the annual Port Harcourt Book Festival is one of the most important events of its type in Africa. First held back in 2008, the 2014 festival had extra significance attached to it; not only was the nation of Nigeria celebrating its 100th birthday in 2014, but the city of Port Harcourt was also chosen as the year’s UNESCO World Book Capital.

A Stellar Panel of Guest Writers

When it was first held in 2008, the Port Harcourt Book Festival was known as the Garden City Literary Festival. The name was recently changed to further promote the city of Port Harcourt as one of the world’s premier destinations for all things literary. Although it may have changed its name, the Port Harcourt Book Festival remains one of the most significant on the African literary calendar. The guest list at previous events has included a veritable treasure trove of important figures in Nigerian and African literature. These include such luminaries as the Nobel Laureate Wole Siyinka from Nigeria, Ghana’s Kofi Awonoor and the American writer Petrina Crockford. Siyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the very first African writer to ever be awarded this prestigious honour. International dignitaries who have graced past events include the Reverend Jesse Jackson from the United States. With the 2014 edition of the event coinciding with Port Harcourt being chosen as the World Book Capital, organisers were intent on producing a stellar line-up of guests to befit such an important occasion.

Writers in attendance at the 2014 Port Harcourt Book Festival, which ran from October 20th to October 25th, included renowned Jamaican journalist Lindsay Barrett, playwright and television producer Adiela Onyediba and Nigerian poet Dr. Obari Gomba. Although born in Jamaica, journalist, poet and essayist Barrett has lived in Nigeria for almost forty years. He, along with the other writers mentioned here, was a speaker and mentor at the festival’s residency programme. The three-week writers' residency programme was held on the outskirts of Port Harcourt at Songhai Farms. Although a huge number of aspiring writers applied to be a part of the residency, due to the high regard that the Port Harcourt Book Festival is held in, only twelve were eventually chosen. It is hoped that the work produced by these writers at the residency, based on the aspiring theme of Books: Windows to Our World of Possibilities, will be published in a special anthology.

Port Harcourt - World Book Capital 2014

 
The success of the annual Port Harcourt Book Festival, since the very first event in 2008, has certainly been a major factor in the Nigerian city being bestowed with the great honour of World Book Capital for 2014. Each year since 2001, UNESCO have chosen a different city from around the globe as the World Book Capital. To be nominated for the honour, each city has to meet certain criteria, including overall levels of reading participation, promotion of books and reading and freedom of literary expression. Port Harcourt is only the second African city, after Alexandria in Egypt, to be chosen as a World Book Capital. In April 2015, Port Harcourt will hand over the baton to the city of Incheon in South Korea. The Nigerian city will certainly be looking to sustain the momentum gained by its year as World Book Capital and continue to be recognised as one of the premier destinations for literature not just in Africa but across the globe.

Planning for the Future

Despite the Book Festival helping Port Harcourt’s cause immensely, it was not the only reason that UNESCO deciding to bestow the 2014 honour on the Rivers State city. Port Harcourt has a long-standing commitment to promoting literary culture amongst the city’s youth. By focusing a fair proportion of their efforts on the younger inhabitants of Port Harcourt, officials are hoping to raise literacy rates not just in the city itself but across Nigeria too. The culture of books in Port Harcourt has always been an important part of life. By continuing to promote this culture amongst the city’s youth, the future of Nigeria’s literary art looks assured.

Glory for Nigeria at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games

As the twentieth instalment of the Commonwealth Games came to a stirring conclusion in Glasgow on August 3rd 2014, the nation of Nigeria could happily reflect on a job well done. Winning a total of 36 medals, 11 of them gold, this was the African nation’s best performance at the Games since Victoria in 1994. Of the many African nations competing, only South Africa finished above Nigeria on the final medal table.

Nigeria sent a squad of 127 athletes to Glasgow, the team mainly comprising of competitors in shooting, wrestling, weightlifting and athletics. In recent years, Nigerian athletes have performed extremely well in the weightlifting events at the Commonwealth level and the 2014 Games saw that success continue unabated. Of the 11 gold medals won by Nigeria in Glasgow, an astonishing six came courtesy of the nation’s weightlifting squad. The African nation comfortably topped the weightlifting medal table, winning three more gold medals than their nearest rivals India. Nigerian athletes managed to sweep the board in the powerlifting categories, winning gold in all four events, both for men and women.

A Sprint Star is Born

For many people through, the undoubted star of the Nigerian team was sprinter Blessing Okagbare. The incredibly talented athlete managed a historic double, winning gold in both the Women’s 100 metre and 200 metre sprints. To go with her gold collection, Okagbare also picked up a silver medal, as Nigeria finished second in the 4x100 metre relay behind the dominant Jamaican team.

Blessing Okagbare triumphed in the 100 metre sprint for her first gold of the games, setting a new Commonwealth record in the process. Just three days later, the Nigerian superstar was top of the rostrum once more after dominating the 200 metre final. After winning a silver medal in the long jump at the 2013 World Athletics Championship, Okagbare would have been a strong favourite to triumph in the same event at the Commonwealth Games. However, the long jump was scheduled too close to the 200 metre event, meaning Okagbare was unable to compete in both.

Wrestling with Triumph

Other sports in which Nigeria performed well at the Glasgow Games included wrestling and boxing. Second only to weightlifting, the wrestling events saw a lot of success for Team Nigeria, with a final medal haul of two golds, two silver and eight bronze. Both of Nigeria’s gold medals came courtesy of the women’s wrestling squad. Of the total wrestling medals up for grabs, only Canada and India managed to win more than Nigeria. Although the noble art of boxing was not quite so successful as wrestling for the Nigerian squad, they did still manage to win three bronze medals.

After his nation’s commendable showing in Glasgow, the President of Nigeria assured the Nigerian athletes of a warm welcome on their return to the country. President Goodluck Jonathan is well known for his love of sport and is sure to have been pleased with the excellent performance of the Nigerian team.