Academically and in my legal practice, I started out as a human rights lawyer. Firmly of the belief that equality and human rights were the solutions to the world’s problems. Stepping further into dark jurisprudential waters, I began to question the nature of law and human rights and equality. So, I have ended up being a decolonial teacher.
What do you see when I say the word ‘Africa’?
Close your eyes…
Visualise….
What do you see when I say the word, ‘Africa.’?
Open your ears…
Silence declared…
What do you hear in the presence of the sound…. ‘Africa’?
Articulating the ‘right’ to democracy in Africa
2019 is going to be a big year in elections for Africa.
The Movie ‘Detroit’: Tales of a Wretched Night
I had been waiting for an opportunity to watch Detroit since it came out in 2017. Finally, during the Christmas break of 2018/19, I got a second to breathe… and watch it. I was all sorts of emotions. It is a hard watch and I was thoroughly moved – as I had expected to be – till 10 minutes to the end when I started crying. Properly crying, mind you. I then proceeded to cry for 3 days straight. I have since watched various parts of it over and over. This is not really a review but a commentary, but please be aware, there will be spoilers after this point.
We Dream, We Write, We Change the World
I have always wanted to be a writer. If I had been born in a different place, in a different time, a different world, I may have become one. But who knows? We can only play the hand that we are dealt. But I have always written. Though, I have mostly written for myself. I have tried writing everything – fiction, non-fiction (academic work), poetry, prose, music and spoken word. But the question I have to answer for myself, each time I begin a new attempt is: ‘why?’ Why am I writing? What do I hope to achieve?
2018: It Was a Year…
2018 has been such a year for the world. We seem to be moving ever closer to the edge of disaster. Nevertheless, I have always found that taking the opportunity afforded by the demarcations of time that we fashion permit us to look back at what has been good. Such that our focus is not only on the bad stuff that has happened. So I take this opportunity to recap the main themes of Foluke’s African Skies in 2018.
Acceptable Traumas or How We Measure (A) Violence
Preface: As part of Epigram’s (University of Bristol, student newspaper) campaign to raise awareness about micro-agressions, I submitted the following sort-of-poem. Everything I have included is informed by talking with students, research and personal experience. Which is why there is a reference list at the end. As Audre Lorde says, ‘Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.’ Please read, think on it, and share. Mille grazie.
My Interview on R.I.S.E Women, Ujima Radio
On the 22nd of January, 2018 I was Sandra Gordon’s guest on her radio program, R.I.S.E Women [Which she usually hosts with Lynn Mareno] on Ujima radio, Bristol.
African Queens Medley
Black women who overcome draw a line in the sand,
for the next generation to step over, over, over,
till we get to the Promised Land…
The Law and Race Film Club
Everyone who knows me (not that many people really) is probably completely fed up with me talking their ears off about the new unit we are teaching called Law and Race.(No, I haven’t heard of it either…) Because, I think all visual media makes significant contributions to knowledge, I have included several films in the reading. In this I have been inspired by one of my own lecturers, Dr Agata Fijalkowski whose lectures included 3 films. I have never forgotten that experience. Thank you Agata!