Tag: Nigerians in America

People

Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu gives back to Nigeria, where his grandfather was a king

By STEPHEN RUIZ

Chris Kaman started it.

When Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu entered the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2010, he stood in front of the team and talked about himself as part of his indoctrination into the league. One of the factoids that Aminu mentioned was that his surname, Oloyede, means “Chief has arrived” in his family’s native Nigeria.

Thus, a nickname was born.

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Communities

African languages are the fastest growing in the United States

By Chidinma Irene Nwoye

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau spotlights African languages among the top ten fastest growing languages spoken at home in the U.S. The list featured three groups of African languages: Swahili and other Central/Eastern/Southern African languages; Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, and other Western African languages; and Amharic/Somali.

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Communities

Nigerians hold street parades across America to commemorate independence anniversary

Nigeria celebrated its 59th Independence anniversary on October 1 and all across the America’s Nigerians held various activities to commemorate the day. In American cities like Houston and New York, with large Nigerian population Nigerians held street parades.

In New York, thousands of Nigerians and well-wishers hit the streets of Manhattan in New York on Saturday to participate in the 2019 Independence Day Parade.

Video of Nigerian independence day parade in Houston by Zainab and Mathew Create
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Sports

Israel Adesanya: ‘Once the Nigerians pull up … it’s gonna be over for a lot of years in the MMA world’

Inside the strong and growing bond between the top Nigerian fighters in UFC

BY DORIC SAM

Israel Adesanya had never met Sodiq Yusuff despite the fact that both fighters hail from Lagos, Nigeria. But Adesanya, who has lived in New Zealand since he was 11, had the good fortune of making the four-hour trip to Australia in December to watch Fight Night 142: Adelaide, where Yusuff would be making his UFC debut.

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Appointments

Nigerian-American Remi Duyile sworn in as first African-born commissioner in Prince George’s County

After recently inaugurating a Diaspora Advisory Board , a Nigerian Remi Duyile, has been sworn-in as the first Africa-born commissioner in Prince George County .

With Nigeria’s flag flying alongside other countries’, Duyile was sworn-in as one of the commissioners on the county’s Multicultural Affairs Commission on Monday, September 23 . A delighted Duyile took to her Instagram page to share the news of her swearing-in.

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Fashion

The Nigerian-American Siblings Using Traditional Family Portraiture to Celebrate Their Heritage

Tolu Oye as told to Claudia Owusu and Kanyinsola Oye

Photographs have always been a way for my family to hold on to our past—no matter how far we moved, or how complicated the idea of “home” became for us. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, I keenly remember my mother dragging me and my siblings every year to the JCPenney Portraits studio for our family picture.

What made the ritual so uncomfortable was that we were not dressed like other Midwestern families at the mall. My mother had us all in matching golden-brown-and-beige traditional ankara, an African wax-print fabric with vibrant patterns.

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Education

One Third of Africans Studying in U.S. Are Nigerians

By Azeezat Adedigba

About one-third of African students studying in the U.S. are Nigerians.

The Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, Malia Heroux, made this known during an education fair for Nigerian students seeking admission into American universities for undergraduate and graduate studies.

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Entertainment

Nigerian superstar, Davido to make Hollywood debut in Coming To America 2

Nigerian international music superstar, Davido, is set to make acting debut in Hollywood, with a performance role in the sequel of the 1988 romantic comedy classic, “Coming To America”.

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Entertainment

A Nigerian-American Family Tells Its Story in Runboyrun and In Old Age

New York Theatre Workshop mounts two new installments of Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Cycle.

By Zachary Stewart

Don’t leave after the first half! Audiences at New York Theatre Workshop might be tempted to bail after the first of two new installments of Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-part Ufot Cycle, chronicling four generations of a Nigerian-American family. And admittedly, runboyrun(so styled) is a slog of a family drama, but it builds essential foundation for the second show of the night, In Old Age, which proves to be one of the most spiritually satisfying plays I’ve ever witnessed.

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People

Bill Gates and Africa’s Richest man, Aliko Dangote, express admiration for each other at New York event

By Mayowa Tijani

Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has revealed what is most surprising to him about Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group.

At the Goalkeepers Summit in New York on Wednesday, Gates and Dangote were asked what they have found to be most surprising about each other.

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Entertainment, News

Comedy in Houston increasingly has a Nigerian accent

By Camilo Hannibal Smith

Chinedu Ogu, 33, has spent the past seven years making comedy videos imbued with his Nigerian roots and his Houston upbringing. At the urging of a comedy mentor, he began uploading videos to social media around 2012. Five years later, after posting nearly 1,000 scripted videos, Ogu scored a viral hit with his hilarious “I’m from Houston”.

Ogu, born in Houston to a Nigerian father and an African-American mother, says he’s hardly alone.

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News

The Aliko Dangote Foundation donates $20 million to the Africa Center in New York

Bill and Melinda Gates supports with $5 million donation.

The Africa Center, a leading non-profit institution focused on the intersection of African policy, business, and culture, today announced a transformative $20 million donation by the Aliko Dangote Foundation to advance and accelerate the Center’s capital campaign, further activate its public spaces and programming, and support ongoing operations. 

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People

Folake Olowofoyeku hearts life in the television comedy lane

By LEANNE ITALIE

A funny thing happened to Folake Olowofoyeku on the way to a career in law: She became a theater major against her parents’ wishes and headed straight into the business after earning her undergraduate degree.
Her Nigerian parents were so hell-bent on launching her into the family profession of law that they named her after the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a title conferred on legal practitioners who have distinguished themselves.

A similar scenario is present for Olowofoyeku in “Bob Hearts Abishola,” her CBS comedy series.

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Opinion

Hating Immigrants: America’s self-destructive tradition

By Osa Fasehun

I was a sophomore at Bowdoin when Donald Trump was gaining momentum in the presidential election in spite of his xenophobic rhetoric. Anxiously dreading a near-fascist regime in the event of a Trump presidency, I talked with my mother about getting reacquainted with Nigeria, my mother’s native country.

The talk did not go well and after debating the idea for an hour, my mother finally admitted, “We have no place to go! The Nigeria I knew in childhood doesn’t exist anymore. I would be a foreigner in my own country.”

What I initially took for exasperation in her tone was actually broken-heartedness. She had fond childhood memories of Nigeria as a beautiful and safe black country, so it pained her to know that I did not feel at home in America—my country—and that she could not provide me with an alternative.

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People

Classic man, Jidenna, reiterates that even though he is American, he was first African

“My first seven years [developmental years] were spent in Enugu, Nigeria before I moved to the United States so that means I learned all the primary things here first. It means I learned how to speak English here first, I learned to walk here, my facial expressions come from here, I gained wisdom from Aunties and Uncles here so by the time I got to the U.S everything I saw was from a Nigerian perspective or a wider African lens.” —Jidenna

The highly regarded musician was in Nigeria to promote his new album 85 to Africa He spoke to CHISOM NJOKU while there

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