let the year begin

electric cherry blossoms on New Year's eve

New Year's Eve at Bar Beach

On Dec31st,14, Bar Beach, the place where meagre horses can be hired to carry beach goers to the sea side on the south of Victoria Island, was busy with preparation for a big concert hosting several of the many nigerian celebrities like P-Square or D'banj, etc… The New Year's Eve concert would grace the ears of walkers-by going along Bar beach, made pedestrian area on the occasion. But obviously, a VIP area with a dedicated entrance next to the Eko Atlantic office needed to be there so that everyone could belong where one belonged.

shaking it on the asphalt

The good surprise was the happy mood of people coming to enjoy the music, shaking it on the asphalt and watching the firework fired from afar, somewhere on the edge on the upcoming Eko Atlantic city.

Bar Beach fireworks better watched on smartphones

fireworks are best watched on smartphones

the firework closing

stars, ladies and electric cherry blossoms

fireworks for everyone

Eko Atlantic

Eko Altantic, a future development of Lagos

Eko Atlantic, Nigeria's (future) new global city

Eko Atlantic is a project of a modern city due to rise above a vast area of reclaimed land, as the brochure explains, which a technical prowess because unlike the calm waters of Singapore where reclaiming land on the sea is a commonplace, the Atlantic ocean is fierce with strong waves eroding the coast of west Africa in many places. Therefore a giant 5km protection dubbed "the Great Wall of Lagos" had to be built.

For now the construction work is a vast area of sand but presales are well underway as the "grand vision is fast becoming a reality" for what will a new part of Lagos.

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The Ogiamien family in Benin City: about wood and history

Roland Ogiamien in his wood-carving workshop Wood Roland Ogiamien is a renown wood carver. He is now retired in his home town of Benin City and is now in his 80s. We met him in his simple workshop, a barn opened on the surrounding greenery. A part of the studio is used to store wood pieces and make sure they are well dried. He is using a collection of german ustensils to carve and polish the wood. He spent most of his career working out of Lagos before relocating to Benin. Roland was explaining that the wood he uses today is different that the one he worked on in his early days. Ebony has become rare and wood carvers have had to switch to other types of wood. Traditional heritage is a large part of his inspiration which he translates on wood with his own particular style, exploring various techniques for the finish of his pieces. Roland Ogiamien and two of his favourite masks History Ogiamien is the name of an important royal family in Benin Kingdom. Towards the end of the ...

The mysterious stones images of Esie

turned into Stones Chief J. Agbo Ooye had been waiting in the shade of a large tree, in front of the National Museum of Esie, dressed in ceremonial costume with a velvet hat incrusted with crystal beads sown in the shape of his title and his name. He was sitting next to his wife on a bench, expecting our arrival. His wife, he would tell us later, was his best friend and she was actually demonstrating it by guiding his frail body from one place to another and guiding his hand when it came to sign autographs of his books. Chief Agbo Ooye is the author of two booklets on the Esie Stones. The first one, called A Personal Account of the Esie Stones is giving an overview of the differences between the scientific and the traditional interpretation of the Esie Stones. The second one is called the History of Esie and gives a brief account of Esie's history from the early settlement of Yorubas in various groups (Esie, Oro, Eku Apa, Igbonla, Edidi, Igbesi, etc...) to the present...

Iragbiji, the town of Chief Muraina Oyelami

running up the hill Iragbiji is a small but lively town, in Osun state, surrounded by hills made of curvy rocks emerging from the plain and partly patched with green. It is part of Yorubaland, about sixty kilometres East of Osogbo . The heart of the town is the palace of the Oba (King of the area) next to a yellow multi-storeyed central mosque. The Oba is a muslim. the Oba of Iragbiji Chief Muraina Oyelami , a versatile artist born in 1940, is residing in Iragbiji. He is both a talented talking-drum player and a painter. He welcomed us in his house for a talk on Yoruba culture especially about the talking drums which evolved in shape overtime to the modern form of goat skin cylinder whose sound can be altered by squeezing the ropes that are tied along the circumference of the drum to produce tons and therefore allows to emulate the Yoruba language through rhythm and tonality. three sets of Yoruba drums There are actually three types of drums each playing a specific ro...

Nigeria, the land of plenty

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