Tag: Nigerians in America

Communities

How New Orleans celebrated Nigeria’s Independence Day

By C.C. Campbell-Rock

Nigerians, Nigerian-Americans, and African Americans gathered on the steps of New Orleans’ City Hall to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence Day and watch the Nigeria flag being hoisted and fly over the entrance of City Hall on October 4.

For more than 20 years, the Nigerian community in New Orleans has kept its African traditions alive, while forging alliances, in the tradition of an African village, among New Orleanians’ and others of African ancestry.

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Music

The Lijadu Sisters: the Nigerian twins who fought the elite with funk
  • The death of Kehinde Lijadu marks the end of a wonderfully idiosyncratic partnership, where warped pop met fierce politics

By Kate Hutchinson 

One joyful evening at the Barbican, London, in April 2014, identical Nigerian twins, then aged 65, appeared on stage in matching sparkly red dresses alongside musicians including Damon Albarn, Sinkane, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and Beastie Boys collaborator Money Mark. They were there to sing the music of William Onyeabor, an elusive synth-pop oddball whose music had been rediscovered by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and was being toured by this unlikely supergroup. But the twins were also making their return to the spotlight following their own lost years, having languished in obscurity for decades.

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Opinion

The Misperception Of A People.

Most Nigerians are over-achievers in foreign lands and that should be highlighted much more than the bad apples that are spoiling the bunch. It is dangerous and anemic to the progress of all hardworking Nigerians by painting everyone with the same brush.

By Uju Obii-Obioha


Nigerians are a strong people with so much vibrancy and excitement about life. We are very driven, passionate, resilient and pretty much have a desire to achieve and enjoy life. As a result of the myriad of challenges we have had as a nation, the country’s economy has not been vibrant enough to sustain its nearly 200 million citizens and as a people that are driven we naturally migrate to other countries in search of greener pastures. After all, one of the primary reasons for immigration for people all over the world is the search for better economic opportunities.

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Opinion

An Oscars ban for a Nigerian film shows the Academy still doesn’t get it on race

By Afua Hirsch

The penny about the US’s worldview dropped for me when I recently interviewed a highly educated, accomplished, politically and racially literate American. I mentioned something about the British empire and he looked at me blankly. “What is that exactly?” he asked.#OscarsSoWhite: a 10-point plan for change by the hashtag’s creator

Excluding Lionheart for using English shows Africans are still expected to satisfy American ideas of authenticity.

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Entertainment

Academy Disqualifies Nigeria’s Oscar Entry ‘Lionheart’

Nigeria’s first-ever submission in the Best International Feature Film category, is largely in English, which makes it ineligible to compete

By Steve Pond 

The Academy has disqualified Nigeria’s “Lionheart” from the Oscar race in the Best International Feature Film category, dropping the number of films competing for the award to 92 from what had been a record 93 entries.

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People

ADEBAYO OGUNLESI: The Nigerian-American Lawyer And Global Investment Banker

Adebayo O Ogunlesi born December 20, 1953 is a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker. Ogunlesi is currently Chairman and Managing Partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ogunlesi was the former head of Global Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston before being promoted to Chief Client Officer and Executive Vice Chairman. Ogunlesi is from Makun, Sagamu, Ogun State in Nigeria.

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People

Student who starred on Nigerian TV follows his passions at RIT

Dewé lives a double life with his interests of music and engineering

by Greg Livadas

Adesola Adedewe may be thousands of miles from his native Nigeria while attending Rochester Institute of Technology, but that doesn’t stop him from being recognized by other international students who watched him as a contestant on The Voice: Nigeria, which aired throughout the African continent in 2016.

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Entertainment

CBS’s ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’ Rings True To These Nigerian Viewers

By ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO

“There’s a white man at the door.”

In the new CBS comedy Bob Hearts Abishola, those words cause a flurry of concern for an immigrant Nigerian family living in Detroit.

“Tell me, when has that ever been good?” demands Auntie Olu, played by Shola Adewusi.

The white man she’s referring to is Bob — a stocky, 50-year-old guy played by Mike & Molly actor Billy Gardell. He’s come to Olu’s house in search of her niece Abishola, portrayed by Nigerian actress Folake Olowofoyeku. At first, Olu and her husband assume something has gone terribly wrong. But their worries are soothed when they realize Bob is interested in asking Abishola out.

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Features

The Nigerian-American Nightmare: The remarkable story of Kamaru Usman’s father

BY JOSEPH MAYALL

Kamaru Usman inside the UFC Octagon
No stranger to variety, the podcast of UFC commentator Joe Rogan, The Joe Rogan Experience, has been the launchpad for countless remarkable stories that span a gamut of topics from bowhunting, to artificial intelligence, to zany conspiracy theories, and everything in between.

One of the podcast’s more fascinating discussions was provided by UFC welterweight champion Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman: during his appearance on the show, Usman made it known that his father, Muhammed Usman, was serving a 15-year sentence in a federal penitentiary for crimes Kamaru believes his father didn’t commit.

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News

New York Consulate begs Nigerians to claim over 1,000 uncollected E-Passports

By Victoria Ojeme

The Consulate General of Nigeria in New York, has said that over 1,000 E-Passports produced within this period are under its possession, noting that the owners should come and claim them.

A statement by the Consul General, Benaoyagha Okoyen said backlogs of Passport and Visa applications are constantly being cleared in line with government operational guidelines.

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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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