Women Authors From Nigeria

"The thing is that any work of art that has something in it will always challenge people: Some, in one respect; the others, in another respect. But you will find out that people keep on going back to that work because there is always something challenging in it."

"It is the poets who tell the stories in a rhythm that forces the masses and the aristocracy to listen."

"Poetry, and art in general, allows us to take what is around us and set it on fire. It is the tool we use to enact and document change."

"Poetry has been an instrument of change and revolution since it existed. It is protest and defiance and celebration and a love anthem. It is how we communicate so of course it is also how we enact change."

"Because thinkers are those people who are able to pierce into the future and catch glimpses of light and bring it down. Many people do not often see what you are seeing until years and years later."

"I don’t profess to be any one religion, I think all religions are flawed because people are flawed. But we have the potential and capacity to be bigger than our flaws."

"When Enebeli Okwara sent his girl out in the world, he did not know what the world did to daughters. He did not know how quickly it would wick the dew off her, how she would be returned to him hollowed out, relieved of her better parts."

"Girls with fire in their bellies will be forced to drink from a well of correction till the flames die out."

"For too long, the voices and visions for our future have been provided, for the most part, by and from a culturally European (if not Eurocentric) perspective. However, there is change afoot. The works of Octavia E. Butler are becoming mainstream, and names like Nnedi Okorafor and Lesley Nneka Arimah are bringing much needed flavor to the narratives that help shape our future."

"So why not be as deliberate in creating myth as those who came before us, so that those who come after us can better understand our concerns and our cultural obsessions"

"So it’s not motivation to continue, but reward for work already completed. That’s the most important thing to keep in mind, that the work comes first."

"There is this thing that distance does where it subtracts warm and context and history and each finds that they are arguing with a stranger."

"There is nothing inherently wrong with not knowing as much as people think you should or not knowing everything. There is no need to feel any sort of shame."

"There needs to be something that matters to you, even if you’re inventing this impossible world filled with raffia babies."

"A reader comes to the page and essentially learns the rules of this world, not because the rules are being told to them but because the rules are being broken. Via the consequences of the rules being broken, the reader comes to understand what the rules are."

"I would never ask a person who hasn’t tasted a dish whether it needs more salt."

"When I think of what literature can do, and I think of the ways that literature has changed minds and opened imaginations, I want to say that we African writers must centre the African gaze."

"A world where women must remain naked until they are married; there are complications."

"....The talent is here. The opportunities aren't. And it is the opportunities that foster growth."

"Being a mom, I can say is my greatest achievement. I love being a mommy. Never take any moment for granted."

"It has been great so far, God has been great. I have been able to overcome my fears and I have discovered my abilities."

"My husband is my biggest obsession. I’m just so obsessed with him and I can’t help it. He inspires me a lot and I love him more than any other thing in the world."

"Incomplete as the name implies is a Cologne which makes your fashion statement complete. You can’t be complete without my Incomplete. It was born out of the need to always smell good."

"I plan to own the biggest fashion store in Africa, to empower the youth by creating different life changing opportunities for them. I also plan to create a shelter to care for the old in the future. I am planning on introducing my Jeans line, Laura Ikeji Jeans and 2018 is not over yet."

"I have always held the firm conviction that Africans has the most generous communities in the world, and our culture of local philanthropy is very strong. It is not what we acquire a result of influences from elsewhere.The very rich tradition of indigenous philanthropy therefore should be nurtured to enable us create lasting Institutions and structure for the sustainable growth and development of our communities."

"To some women, marriage is an achievement, to me Laura, it isn’t. Life isn’t that serious. I wanna achieve so much in my life, to be a Nigerian Zara, with stores all over the country and across Africa. Be a household name in fashion, have my own reality shows, so much to achieve."

"All of us here have a sphere of influence we can operate from. Let us use our spaces wisely and purposefully. Let us all rise and set our sights on all the great things we know we can accomplish. Let us stop being complacent. Let us move out of our comfort zones. Let us stop passing things on to the next person. You are the person. You are the change."

"We need to keep mentoring young women in ways that nurture them and prepare them for the harsh world of business, politics and public life. In doing this, we need to be able to set an example for them because they will practice what they see and not what they hear from us."

"From knowing that you are alive and that you can see tomorrow as you are seeing today. Knowing that you are alive is a privilege. To be alive is a huge privilege."

"Ekiti State became the first State in the country to domesticate the National Gender Policy."

"It is about squandering the commonwealth of the people, ostensibly for the benefit of the people but ultimately for the good of only a select few."

"As women, regardless of our class, geographical location or educational status, we should be aware that we do not operate in a vacuum. We function within a context of patriarchal norms and values, which have been firmly entrenched over time, and which continue to be validated through culture, traditions and religious beliefs."

"Sadly, the combination of poverty and ignorance is toxic and deadly."

"Ultimately, it is the fabric that binds us together as a community of people that will unravel, when we can no longer talk to one another in civility, when young people can abuse their elders at will in the anonymity of cyber space, and when reputations built over years of hard work and service get tarnished with one stroke of the keys."

"When I submitted my film to the Afrika Film Festival, all I wanted was my film to be seen by a wider audience it was amazing being nominated and ultimately winning the UNESCO prize."

"Trying To Be Like Someone Else Betrays Who You Are"

"Try and be the best version of yourself. Work hard and never stop learning."

"No matter how ambitious or intelligent you are, your plans may not turn out exactly as you’ve envisioned."

"It is always very easy hide with poetry. The bones of some of the poems were written as part of a month-long challenge that I was part of in a closed Facebook group. Everyday we got a prompt and had to produce a poem before midnight. It was quite grueling, and I don’t think any of us finished the thirty days but it really opened me up emotionally. I also wrote many of the poems traveling."

"There are a lot of incredible artists doing amazing work. Unfortunately, there aren’t many spaces for them to showcase the incredible work they do.I wanted to create something that would illuminate the works of these individuals and their creative process. So as a lover of all things art and culture, I thought it was time to have a go at a video interview series and thus Culture Diaries was born."

"I don’t do macho, hard man, inexpressive, or dictatorial. Partnership is important to me."

"In all the challenges women face in this environment, feminism means way too many things to me, but two words that encapsulate all those things would be freedom and choice."

"I worry about myself because I have too many dreams and ambitions. The future includes writing and creating plays, films and documentaries, touring the world as a performance poet, curating contemporary art, hopefully presenting more television and more journalistic work as well. I hope to continue supporting the work of the Mirabel center and hopefully start my mentorship workshops for teenage girls."

"My work is also very minimalist aesthetically, which is an extension of me. I think as an individual I am constantly living and dealing with a myriad of complexities, so I crave and need simplicity to function and I think those same principles drive my work."

"Getting to host the Airtel Touching Lives television show has to be one of my high points. I can’t really think of any low points because I tend to just see every experience as something to grow from. I am also a person that rolls with the punches so I don’t have very much time to notice low points as I just keep it moving."

"Today as the social call mounts on the development of Africa, sustainability is key and requires deliberate actions such as this passion, fairness and dexterity will be my guiding charge towards ensuring the gap for women’s role is brought to the fore and activate innovations and policies that mainstream women across all sectors."

"The records show that hitherto illicit drug consumption used to be among the male youth population though expanding to now include teenage girls, young women and older married women. But to intentionally segregate the consideration to just single women even when the higher percentage of consumption is amongst men and boys shows a complete lack of appropriate gender mapping on this issue across the states in Nigeria."

"The Women and Gender Affairs Cluster committee is tasked with the responsiibility of leading, guiding, defending and coordinating the AU Ecosoc efforts on gender equality and development and promoting women’s empowerment by ensuring that African countries comply with the AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality."

"Getting into the field was a totally different experience and ball game. And I am like, ‘Ah ha, we have come here now, what do we do? How do we re-engage?’ Trust me, the more you look when you get into politics, the less you see, because the narratives you thought were shaping or were supposed to shape those who are in power was not the case scenario in real time."

"I believe and understand that there is misogyny in the system, a lot of women want to be part of it, but there is stereotype and so there is a lacking principal of inclusion of women at the grassroots. For me, it is grassroots first because if we can bond from bottom to top what we can deliver is the fact that more women will be included, more voices will be heard and then the role play will slowly begin to change."