Africa was home and Ahmed recently returned but encountering multiple difficulties was determined he would not be a foreigner in Africa. He was tired of the tag of foreigner that abroad trailed him like an evil shadow

I was filled with so much anticipation when I booked the tickets. It was slowly dawning on me that this was real. I was going back to the country of my birth, to the place that my mother and father was born, and their mother and father before them, and so on

Early this year with great fanfare President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law an anti-gay bill that stipulated the following: 14 years imprisonment for anyone entering same-sex marriage; 10 years for any organization or people supporting gay rights; 10 years for anyone displaying same-sex affection in public

In many African countries, homosexuals are demonized by such words as unnatural, sinful, unproductive, sexual deviants, sexual mercenaries, sex-starved people, prostitutes, un-African, etc. In Nigeria and Uganda, such words were carefully crafted to prepare the public for the passing of laws to criminalize homosexual acts.

India has a new leader: Narendra Modi the stocky 63 year old chief minister of Gujarat and leader of the nationalist rightwing Bharatiya Janata party has won a historic landslide! The self-made son of a station tea vendor has decimated the left of centre secular Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi, a prince of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled India for most of its 65 years of independence.

At a corner of the Ahmadu Bello University in northern Nigeria a mud structure crafted in the traditional style of the Hausas encloses a modest open air stage and auditorium. This is the home of theater and the performing arts that campus students playfully call the Mud Theater. Deceitfully simple the place has witnessed many thrilling moments of drama, dance, and music.

With African and Diaspora actors taking on prestigious roles in award winning mainstream films, the premiere of Nigerian high budget production Half of a Yellow Sun, and Nigeria’s new GDP base valuing the indigenous Nollywood film industry at over $3bn, the continent’s industry looks set to break out of its niche.

Oil revenue provides 70 % of Nigeria's booming economy. Tax collection being notoriously poor, without oil Nigeria would be a country without much in the way of education, health services, infrastructures and urban renewal.