Five books to kickstart 2015
It’s the year of elections in Nigeria. This is when to vote according to your conscience. It is time to have a violence free election and make Nigeria better.It’s a brand new year. It is good to give a thought to families as a foundation for a good nation. Its time to give some thought […]
It’s the year of elections in Nigeria. This is when to vote according to your conscience. It is time to have a violence free election and make Nigeria better.
It’s a brand new year. It is good to give a thought to families as a foundation for a good nation. Its time to give some thought to the Chibok girls and offer prayers for the North East. Its also time to be kinder, to be warmer, to be friendlier, to be more humane. As the world becomes more complicated and planes seem to be disappearing or falling out of the skies while wars and aggressions are escalating, let’s hold our hands and be nicer to those we meet on our life’s journeys.
May your lives in 2015 be better and more meaningful. Happy New Year to all our readers.
The five books today are to help with personal development, understand life’s challenges and see the world better as we set out in 2015.
1. Hope On a Tightrope: Words of Wisdom by Cornel West is a veritable powerhouse of philosophical words by respected African-American Educationer and Philosopher Cornel West. His words and wisdom are even more profound in the face of the 2014 racial unrests in the United States. Racism is one of the biggest issues he tackles in this book, elegantly, truthfully and in words that drive you to high thoughts and tears. Here is a sampler:
“Culture in part, provides people with the tools and resources to steel themselves against adversity and convinces them not to kill themselves or others. This is the reason why I am preoccupied with a sense of the tragicomic. At the moment in which we must look defeat, disillusionment, and discouragement in the face and work through it-a sense of the tragicomic keeps alive some sense of possibility. Some sense of hope. Some sense of agency. Some sense of resistance. We have not been too successful in persuading people not to kill themselves or others: from the police homicide of Sean Bell in New York City to the torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, from street thugs to corporate thugs-people of color, women, youth, the working poor, gays, and lesbians are being targeted. I call it the gangsterization of America.”
As you wade through news of racial killings in America, Cornel West helps you to make sense of it and resist all targeted racial injustice and discrimination in all places.
2. The Art of Prayer: A Handbook on How to Pray by Kenneth Hagin. Everyone must have a prayerful guidebook. Spiritual matters may be personal but it’s important to ensure you have enough prayer books to assist you through this turbulent life. Get a spiritual book, understand God’s plan for you, pray a lot. My Uncle, the late Ahaji Ustaz Abdullah was a Muslim cleric. I admired his prayer life 5 times a day. Christians and Muslims, please try to pray genuinely and honestly in 2015. Don’t pay lip service. Don’t stir religious sentiments. We are all one.
3. Women of Courage edited by Katherine Martin is making its umpteenth appearance in this column. This is because women continued in 2014 to be at the bottom of the economic rung. But more importantly women continue to be discriminated against and continue to face rape, physical abuse and emotional violence the world over. How do you describe the 2014 gang rape of an Indian Medical student in a bus in India. She eventually died from the violent assault she suffered in this incident. Merde! To stand up and be counted always, to have a voice, to defend the defenseless to empathize with a brutalized woman in Africa, Asia, and all parts of the world, Women of Courage gives women and men reason to hope. A book of inspiring stories from women who lived them, its my go to book at the beginning of every year to enable me gather strength from women who have gone through hell and are still standing tall.
4. Read a book in 2015 that gives you an epic leap into a new world. Read several. I have returned to Owen Sheers The Dust Diaries: An African Story to follow him through his relatives’ extraordinary life in pre-colonial Africa specifically Rhodesia. Stumbling on a book in his Father’s study about an obscure relative who was a missionary in Rhodesia, Sheers then visits contemporary Zimbabwe to retrace his relative’s life. Always good to know what the whites are thinking about us, what their perceptions are but this is written in such beautiful language taking in the landscapes and the beauty of Africa. A must read!
5. At the risk of sounding immodest I recommend In the Blink of an Eye, my award-winning book about Nigeria and other matters. As we approach the elections, let’s look back at who we are, who we should be and how soon we can vouch to change Nigeria for the better. In over 70 essays published mostly in newspapers over the years, you can read about fuel scarcity, Nigerians in diaspora, Women in development, politics and health issues in Nigeria dating back to the early 80’s.
Happy New Year to you all!