LOUD WHISPERS: The Speech Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi Should Have Given In The United States
Towards the end of last week, Ope Oriniowo, our Content Editor at Above Whispers rushed over to me with his phone. He wanted to show me a recording of Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi, the wife of His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, making remarks at an Emerging Women’s Forum in Maryland, United States. I listened […]
LOUD WHISPERS: As We Begin The Ramadan Season
Two years ago I was at a traditional engagement ceremony in Lagos. The couple were from Yoruba families, so I could simply have said it was a Yoruba engagement ceremony. However, since a lot has been changed and modified over the years, what passes for an engagement ceremony according to Yoruba tradition is now a […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Amina and A Story Of Survival
In December 2008, I attended a forum in Nairobi, Kenya, which had been convened to discuss appropriate support programs for survivors of violent conflict. The participants were mostly women’s rights activists and gender specialists from post/current conflict countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Burundi and Zimbabwe. On the delegations from each […]
LOUD WHISPERS: ‘How Can I Be A Good Husband?’: Ten Suggestions
I did not want to write about marriage this week. In light of the fact that International Day of Families falls on May 15th, and the day will be marked throughout the week, I have decided to address an email from a young man who read my last article on Loud Whispers, ‘Then and Now’. […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Tempus Horribilis
Queen Elizabeth II gave her famous ‘Annus Horribilis’ speech on November 24th 1992 to mark the 40th anniversary of her ascension to the throne of England . Before then, people were familiar with the more traditional use of the term ‘Annus Mirabilis’– wonderful year. The introduction of the phrase ‘Annus Horribilis’ fascinated British people and […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Thirty Of My Favourite Books
‘A reader lives a thousand lives before s/he dies, the one who never reads lives only one’ George R.R. Martin I won a prize when I was eight years old for being ‘the best read student in the school’, going by the number of books I took out of the library, so this means […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Mother Of The Year – The Angelina Option
A few days ago, I was in a conversation with a friend about the frightening levels of violence against women and girls across Africa. In Nigeria, the levels of abuse have reached such an unprecedented high that we should be clamouring for a state of emergency on the issue. Many times, people say that since […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Adults And Good Manners
Recently, I was in a cosmetics shop to buy some items. As I was browsing through the merchandise, I could hear a woman talking on her cell phone. It took me approximately twenty minutes to make up my mind about what to put into my shopping cart. All this time, the woman was still on […]
LOUD WHISPERS: All Humans Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others
In last week’s article about the ‘Foot in Mouth’ Senators in Nigeria for abovewhispers.com, I wrote about the patronizing attitude of some of our male Senators towards Nigerian women. I did not expect that the distinguished gentlemen would take up more time and space this week, with the dismissal of the Gender and Equal Opportunities […]
LOUD WHISPERS: Women Are Not Beasts
‘We have too many women reading too much meaning into everything and agitating about anything, like the television commercial in which a joyous father of a newborn yells into his mobile phone’s mouthpiece; ‘Mama na boy o’. To them, such an advert constitutes an offensive patriarchal mindset’. ‘To be a feminist, if not a […]
Ibukunoluwa: 
Iyanuoluwa Isinkaye: 
Rachael: 
Maryam: 