Harlem Renaissance: Hughes’ “Harlem” and Claude McKay’s “Harlem Shadows compared

by Chinwuba Iyizoba

By the turn of the twentieth century, African American poets and other Negro artists were met with enormous cultural and racial barriers that threatened to compartmentalize them into an insipid group whose successes were measured by how effectively they could copy white people. Consequentially, James Weldon Johnson noted in 1921 that the Aframerican poets must create a “new and distinct form of expression,” unique to them (Mays 1050), characterized by truthful writing about the Negro life. This paper would argue that a comparison of the historical-cultural background, structure, figurative devices, and imagery of Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” and Claude McKay’s “Harlem Shadows” would reveal that both poets, though differing in style, nevertheless satisfy the need that Johnson expressed in their own unique way.

To begin, the two poems were published at different times. Hughes’ “Harlem” is part of his collection of poems called “Montage of Dream Differed,” published in 1951 (Little), a period marked by civil unrest and activism against racial injustice in America. In line 1, Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” and then suggests a series of possible answers in an attempt to understand the nature of the oppressive racism deferring the legitimate aspirations for freedom and equality of millions of African American Negros. On the other hand, McKay’s “Harlem Shadows” was published in 1922 (Lannamann) during the Harlem Renaissance, when Negro poets and artists migrated to the Harlem area of New York City, fleeing the burden of stifling racism choking them in the rural South.

According to Mars, the two poets were major characters of the Harlem Renaissance, the period between the First World War and the beginning of the Great Depression in America. The author argues that the Harlem Renaissance was a culmination of historical social and cultural factors that converged within 10 years and brought many talented American Negros to Harlem, who, individually, rather than as a group, spurred Negro poetic and artistic growth and stirred up Negro consciousness to become part of the American story, leading to many original Negro works of art (1031).  It is significant to note that the Renaissance was neither planned nor organized but erupted spontaneously, caused by the savage effects of slavery, racism, and oppression and by the migration of sharecropping Negroes from the rural South to the urban North, where the war had created a vacuum and job opportunities in factories for the Negros (Mays 1031). Consequently, some Negros who migrated experienced separation from their place of origin and cultural and religious uprooting. This fragmentation was keenly felt by the more vulnerable groups, such as girls. McKay paints the picture of the broken and hopeless girls, destitute and roaming the streets of Harlem, forced into prostitution by the cruelty of poverty and alienation (Graham 157). 

For Hughes, the cultural uprooting created a shallow and pathetic desire among Negros to imitate white people, while economically prosperous Negros were proposed as cultural models for less developed Negros and White culture as the ultimate aspiration and respectability (Barnett 853). The new Negro Renaissance instead proposes that the Negro should be helped to grow their own distinctive voice. Thus, Hughes created a new voice of poetry by introducing the popular Negro folk blues and spirituals into literature and integrating poetry and jazz (Hughes 00:09:25) and pledged to express this new Negro spirit, beautiful or ugly, without fear or favor, regardless of who disapproves, as the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance (Shawn 89). Amiri Baraka notes that Hughes and McKay’s focus on the everyday, ordinary Negro was irksome to quite a few black critics who would have preferred them to celebrate and write about upwardly mobile Negros and those aspiring to move up the middle-class ladder (Hughes 00:10:55). Hence, while McKay’s poem examines the lives of real Negros, Hughes uses the metaphor (Barnett 845) of “deferred dream” to highlight the bitter frustrations of racism breaking the spirit of Negros. In lines 1–2, he compares a “dream deferred” to a succulent and sweet raisin that dries and shrivels when left out in the sun. It can be argued that for Hughes, the mark of a disenfranchised people is their inability to protect their dreams, but for McKay, it is their inability to protect their girls.

Interestingly, since there is no use of any personal pronoun in the poem, the speaker in Hughes’ “Harlem” is impersonal, thus widening the scope of the poem’s relevancy to all afflicted by oppression, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . would later adopt Hughes’ “Dream” in his address at Lincoln Memorial Park in 1963 to a massive crowd protesting racial injustice (Eschner). Likewise, Lorraine Hansberry would draw the title of her play, “Raisin in the Sun,” about an indigent Negro family, from Hughes (Miller). In contrast, McKay uses the personal pronoun “I” in line 1: “I hear the halting footsteps of a lass,” and identifies with the subject’s black race in line 16, a significant hint that he is the speaker: “The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!”(16) “Ah, little dark girls who have slippery feet” (5).

Essentially, the two poems differ in their poetic form since “Harlem” is a free verse with a unique form, while “Harlem Shadows” is a formal verse with a strict rhyme scheme that is quite predictable (Lannamann).  Structurally, “Harlem” has an unusually irregular line length, with the first stanza having 8 lines, the second 3 lines, and the third 1 line that is italicized. “Harlem Shadows,” on the other hand, has 18 lines and 3 stanzas with ABABCC rhyme schemes. In addition, “Harlem” utilizes assonances and end rhymes, for instance: lines 3/5: “sun/run,” lines 6/8: “meat/sweet,” and lines 10/11: “load/explode.”. Additionally, the poem opens and closes with single-line stanzas that mirror each other: “What happens to a dream differed?” “Or does it explode?” (Sharma 4).

Hence Sharma argues that the complicated structure of “Harlem” reflects the complicated and troubled life of the Negros in 1920 Harlem as well as in 1950 America (4) and that it is conceivable that Hughes is deliberately rebelling against the strict rhyme schemes that dominate White poetry by creating a dissonant theme similar to Negro Jazz and Blues. On the other hand, the regular predictability of McKay’s “Harlem shadows” perhaps suggests that he is familiar with prostitutes and feels comfortable talking about them (Winston 34) in an age (1920) when prostitution and discussion about prostitutes were very much muted in society and the very idea of a girl selling herself in prostitution was an unspeakable topic among polite company. Understanding the social environment at that time makes clear the significant impact and radical nature of Claude’s poetry and his belief that by constantly highlighting prostitution as well as its underlying cause (racism), he would eventually put an end to it.

Further differences between the two poems are in the symbols they employ. In “Harlem Shadows,” the main symbol is the “feet.”. McKay writes that they are “halting” in line 1, “slippered” in line 5, “grey” and “no know rest” in line 8, “weary, weary” in line 17, and “timid” in line 15, yet they go on prowling through the streets by night and never give up. He also declares that they are “sacred” in line 16, hence suggesting that their violation is sacrilegious. His juxtaposition of the mundane and the sacred further highlights the dire circumstances of these young girls. In contrast, the main symbol of Hughes’ “Harlem” is the “Dream,” which can be understood as an aspiration, a goal, or a desire for achievement. The speaker does not specify whose dream it is that is deferred, but it can safely be assumed, judging by the title of the poem, that it is that of the Negros of Harlem, yet it can equally validly represent everyone’s dream, aspirations, or goals.

Similarly, both poets employ different imagery to underscore the Negro quagmire. Sharma argues that the imagery used by Hughes helps readers understand that a deferred dream is an unpleasant and disgusting sight, like a festering sore or the painful sight of a heavy load sagging down a man’s shoulder. He also uses auditory imagery when he compares it to an explosion or a bomb, and he uses nasal imagery when he likens it to the unpleasant smell of rotten meat. In the same way, McKay uses the imagery of the veil in lines 2–3 to describe Harlem nights: “In Negro Harlem, when the night lets fall its veil,”. Just like a veil covers the face from the scrutiny of strangers, night covers the young prostitutes, shielding them from the scrutiny of other individuals or from themselves, and under the veil of the night, they can carry on with their shameful acts. He also describes the night as long and lonely, bringing to the reader’s mind the image of fatigue and exhaustion because “the little gray feet know no rest” (line 8). Furthermore, McKay, wishing to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that men who batter for sex with young girls have lost their humanity and are controlled by lust, employs personifying “desire” in line 4: “To bend and barter at desire’s call.”. He implies that a twofold process is taking place: the lusting men regard the girls as “objects” of pleasure, while the girls are only interested in the men’s money.

Moreover, McKay’s use of repetition of “street to street” to end each stanza and repetition of “feet” after every 5 lines of each stanza adds lyrical beauty to the poem but, more importantly, draws attention to the hopelessness and danger that these girls are exposed to wandering dark, cold streets at night. According to Lannamann, the repetition of “weary, weary feet” makes “feet” a symbol of desolation and calls to mind scurrying nocturnal creatures like rats and rodents, images of misery. In lines 13-14 apostrophe, his anguish overflows in a heart-rending cry: “Ah, stern harsh world, which in the wretched way” (13) “of poverty, dishonor, and disgrace.”(14) His diction or register is cleverly chosen to soften the reader’s hearts towards these young girls, as well as evoke a tender feeling usually reserved for children, while at the same time preserving the reader’s anger towards the unjust structures responsible for their plight. 

Finally, McKay’s use of the “feet of clay” in line 15 is a biblical allusion to the Babylonian king who erected a mighty golden image of himself that had feet of clay and hence came crashing down when struck by a small stone pebble (New Jerusalem Bible Daniel 2:41). Perhaps he is warning that these oppressed girls (Negros) are the “feet of clay” that could bring down American society, no matter how powerful and strong it may look unless racism and oppression are rooted out and the Negros restored to full citizenship. Similarly, a shift occurs in line 11 of “Harlem,” as the speaker finally compares a “dream deferred” to a bomb that explodes in violence: Or does it explode? This is the only metaphor in the poem, and by putting this last line in italics, the speaker is perhaps hinting that the conclusion that he has reached is that a deferred dream ends in violence. He may also be alluding to the Harlem race riots that exploded in 1935 and 1943 (Little).

In conclusion, comparing the poems “Harlem” by Langston Hughes and “Harlem Shadows” by Claude McKay reveals that they are two of a kind, and though published nearly 30 years apart, they identify with the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that sought, through art and literature, to bring to light the oppressive and unjust forces bearing down on the broken shoulder and bowed head of the Negro and thus help bring these injustices out from the shadows to the full nakedness of light to end them. Furthermore, a comparison of the historical-cultural background, structure, figurative devices, and imagery of these two great poems reveals that their authors are, as James Weldon Johnson proposed, the voice of the new Negro, unashamed to speak of the everyday life of the ordinary Negros in a manner that truthfully delineates the full racial relations between blacks and whites and thus enables the necessary changes to be made by those who have the power to make them.

Works Cited

Barnett, S., et al., editors. An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 15th ed. Pearson/Longman, 2008.

Christian, Shawn Anthony. “We do not teach literature; we are taught by literature: Building African American literature during the new Negro Renaissance.” 2003. search.proquest.com/docview/287881000?accountid=188730. Accessed November 20, 2020.

Eschner, Kat. “How Langston Hughes’s Dreams Inspired MLK’s.” Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Feb 2017.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-langston-hughess-dreams-inspired-mlks-180961929/. Accessed on December 6, 2020.

Langston, Hughes: The Dream Keeper, in Voices & Visions. Bourne, S. C. (Director). [Video/DVD] search.proquest.com/docview/2062853600?accountid=188730. Accessed November 19, 2020.

Lannamann, Taylor. “Harlem Shadows.” LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, June 12, 2020. litcharts.com/poetry/claude-mckay/harlem-shadows.  Accessed December 2, 2020.

Little, Margaree. “Harlem.” LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 6 Mar 2020. litcharts.com/poetry/langston-hughes/harlem.  Accessed December 3, 2020.

Mays, Kelly J., The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter Twelfth Edition, Norton & Company, pp. 1031–40, 2015.

Miller, Jason, W. “Dream Deferred,” 2015, 10.5744/florida/9780813060446.003.0004.

The New Jerusalem Bible. Edited by Susan Jones, Doubleday, 1985.

Sharma, Lok, Raj. “Stylistic Analysis of Langston Hughes’s Poem ‘Harlem’”. International Journal for Research in Educational Studies (ISSN: 2208-2115), Vol. 4, No. 3, Apr. 2018, pp. 01–10, gnpublication.org/index.php/es/article/view/199. Accessed on November 27, 2020.

Graham, Craig Barnes. (2017). The “New York state of mind” of Claude McKay: A literary biography of a Caribbean writer’s contribution to the Harlem Renaissance and the creation of the New Negro, 2017. proquest.com/dissertations-theses/new-york-state-mind-claude-mckay-literary/docview/2047581111/se-2?accountid=188730. Accessed December 10, 2020.

Winston, James. “Becoming the people’s poet: Claude McKay’s Jamaican years, 1889–1912.” Small Axe, (13), 17, 2003.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/becoming-peoples-poet-claude-mckays-jamaican/docview/195797764/se-2?accountid=188730. Accessed December 9, 2020.

19 yro Coco Gauff Prays After Winning US Open

Coco Gauff, the 19-year-old tennis player, knelt down in her corner and prayed moments after winning her first grand slam title, the US Open, against world no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday, September 9, 2023. The crowds wildly cheered her throughout the game.

During the awards ceremony, the presenter said to her, “We saw you say a prayer, get on your knees, you have a lot of faith. How significant has that been for you on this journey?”

She said, “It’s been so important, I don’t pray for results, I just pray for the strength to give it my all, and whatever happens happens.” It means a lot to me. That French Open defeat was heartbreaking, but I realized that God puts you through tribulations and trials, which makes this moment even sweeter than I could have imagined.”

“I’m so blessed in this life, so I’m just so thankful for this moment, and to be honest, I don’t have any words for it,” she added.

In fact, after becoming the youngest person ever to win the Cincinnati Open in August 2023, she openly declared, “I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Indeed, she said, “Before every match since I was eight, my father and I have said a prayer together.” She explained that the prayer is not for victory, but rather an expression of gratitude and reliance on God.

Coco Gauff Expresses Her Appreciation; Cincinnati Champion Speech

Coco claims that her faith helps her cope with the pressures of being a young tennis prodigy. She stated in an interview with Stylist that her faith helps her stay positive and focused on her goals.

“I try to stay positive and not let the negative things affect me too much,” she explained. “My faith helps me to stay focused on my goals and what I want to achieve.”

She adds that her faith also helps her to remain grounded and humble.

“I try to stay humble and remember that I’m just a girl from Florida who loves to play tennis,” she explained. “My faith helps me to stay grounded and remember what’s important.”

Coco is, indeed, revealing the secret to her success, and young people would do well to pick up on that. There is ample evidence that those who pray and rely on the protection of a higher power often outperform those who are completely on their own. According to Ryan Bremner, an associate professor of psychology, prayer can foster a sense of connection, whether to a higher power, what a person finds important in life, or their values.

In addition to her devotion to God, Coco has an intense devotion to her family. During the awards, when the reporter asked her if she had anything to say about her family, overwhelmed, Coco, asked for the microphone, and as the reporter handed it to her, she began by telling the crowd of her teeming supporters that this was the first time she had seen her father cry, and turning to her father, she said, “I love you, Dad.”

Her father resigned from his job as a football coach to become her manager, and her mother resigned from her job to homeschool her, and now they are reaping the benefits of their efforts, which is fortunate because the Gauffs have managed to remain a close-knit family and a great source of emotional support for Coco, and have played a significant role in her recent successes. According to studies, athletes with stable families are better able to maintain their sense of balance and stability, which are critical to success.

Popstar, Pink pays for Women Who Refuse to Wear Bikini-Bottoms

US pop star Pink has offered to pay the fines given to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team back in 2021. The team was fined for wearing shorts like the men’s team instead of bikini bottoms. The Norwegian women’s beach handball team was given a fine of 1,500 euros for “improper clothing” at the European Beach Handball Championships last week. The women’s team wore shorts like their male counterparts, rather than bikini bottoms. In response, US singer Pink took to Twitter to say: “I’m very proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team for protesting sexist rules about their uniform” and also added “I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.”

The European Handball Federation fined the Norway team for its choice of kit in a match against Spain in Bulgaria. They said the fine was issued because the players’ shorts were “not according to the athlete uniform regulations”.

The Norwegian Handball Federation announced last week that it was prepared to pay the fines. They also went on to say that it should be “a free choice within a standardized framework”. As for Pink’s offer to pay the fine, the team expressed their gratitude towards the singer saying “Wow! Thank you so much for the support,” in an Instagram story.

Pink is a singer from the US famous for hits such as Get the Party Started and Cover Me In Sunshine.

Former tennis champion Billie Jean King was among those noting how the men’s teams wear shorts. “The sexualization of women athletes must stop,” she stated on Twitter.

Bath University handball club said the fines were “absolutely outrageous”. They also went on to note how the rules around bikinis could be putting off women from taking up the sport.

Source BBC

[Video] The story of Nigerian born adult actress, Afrocandy by Chinwuba Iyizoba

According to an old Cherokee legend, a grandfather once said to his grandson, “My son, there are two wolves fighting inside us all. One is the devil. It is a combination of rage, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is good; it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth.” After some thought, the boy asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man replied quietly, “The one you feed.” The story shows that depending on which wolf you feed, you can go from being a good person to a bad person; thus, in order to do good and avoid evil, you must feed the right wolf.

This Cherokee adage applies to the story of Afrocandy, a Nigerian-born porn actress, who recently revealed that she was once a good homely wife. She shared photos of herself from 2001, dressed in traditional Igbo Christian mother attire complete with scarf and wrapper, and revealed that she was a regular churchgoer and parishioner at St. Leos Catholic Church.

So, what exactly happened? How did a Christian mother become a pornstar? How did a well-groomed Nigerian woman become a notorious Afrocandy seductress now poring over the internet in her underwear? Her real name is Judith Chichi Opara Mazagwu. She is an Imo State native, a wife, and a mother of two children, and she has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in business management.

In 2005, she traveled to the United States to meet her husband, with whom she had two children. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in an explosion of infidelity accusations, leaving her stranded in the United States with two children at the age of 36. Desperate Judith first tried acting and modeling, but lacking the skill or talent to make big money, she devolved into racy porn under the alias Afrocandy, something so out of character and shocking to ordinary Nigerians.

Today, her Afrocandy Production Company is the arrowhead pushing Nigerian pornography into mainstream Nollywood, and while she is currently meeting some resistance in the industry because most actors and actresses still have enough self-respect for themselves and their families to avoid crossing the thin red line between the innocuous nudity already present in Hollywood and outright pornography, she must sense that it is only a matter of time before they cave, and she is optimistic.

Hence, some argue that what caused the unassuming Judith to take such a drastic turn was the pain and betrayal of her broken marriage. In an interview with the Daily Sun published on September 3, 2010, she said she tried to save her marriage, but he wouldn’t take her back:

“There have been a lot of rumors going around about my marriage, and only a few people know the truth. The truth is that I did not leave my husband; rather, he left because of some gossip he heard about something that happened in Nigeria before I joined him in the US.

I begged him, and he returned. When he left the second time, I felt compelled to issue him a restraining order. I really don’t want to go into details because I see that as the past, and I want the past to stay in the past because I’ve moved on; talking about it takes me backward.”

Furthermore, her rumored marriage to an Ibadan millionaire, Chief Kamoru Okiki, did not appear to have materialized in 2011, adding fuel to her downward spiral into the porn abyss. No doubt, all of her setbacks and doubles should be considered when judging this woman; however, with her level of education, she bears significant blame for allowing herself to be manipulated and induced by an excessive ambition and love for glamour. She appears to be someone who is willing to do anything for fame and fortune, including abandoning all decorum and modesty.

As previously stated, everyone has two wolves fighting within them: the wolf of wantonness that we all carry within us, which we must refuse to feed or it will lead us to dark places. Judith, aka Afrocandy, appears to have fed the wrong wolf her entire life, and it has grown into a werewolf devouring that part of her that was once a good homely Nigerian Christian woman full of decorum and good sense. Nonetheless, she should be aware that this wolf will devour her and everything associated with her. Furthermore, given that she was once a Christian and a Catholic, she should remember that pornography has been linked to harming children and young people. The widespread availability of pornographic media has been linked to unwanted pregnancies in young people, as well as the spread of STDs such as HIV/AIDS among single adolescents (Ojo and Fasuuba, 2005). According to Nwankwo, about a third of adolescent pregnancies are terminated due to complications such as bleeding, anemia, and exhaustion (1983). And, as a mother, I am sure she understands the grave responsibility that those who create or market pornographic materials bear.

It is a pity that she has allowed herself to be used as an agent and purveyor of a foreign malicious culture alien to Nigerians in order to pollute and corrupt the minds of young people in a country already plagued by poverty, a lack of clean water, a hospital, and food scarcity. It’s a shame that all she has to offer our youth is a bad example. Longe et al. (2007) argue that. In a country where poverty is on the rise, children who sell their wares to help their families make ends meet are constantly exposed to situations that can jeopardize healthy sexual behaviors.

Unfortunately, the Internet, more than any other agent of social change, has contributed in no small measure to the removal of guilt, fear, and shame associated with unconventional sexual activities, and thus these poor Nigerian children have already been swamped and robbed of their peace of mind and African decency by the foreign crude bestial images emerging from dark taverns or Eastern Europe and sordid porn from America one click away on the internet, which they aspire to. Afrocandy has now deprived them of their last line of defense with her Nigerian porn. However, she should remember that those who throw stones should not live in a glass house. If she succeeds in corrupting our youths for profit, she may not like what she sees when the results come in, and the Holy Book says that it is better to tie a stone around their neck and throw them into the sea than to lead children to sin.

In conclusion, the breakdown of her marriage and being abandoned to fend for herself transformed a once homely Nigerian woman into a porn star, proving that everyone has both good and bad passions and must struggle despite the odds to feed the good side of ourselves. Nothing justifies turning to the dark path of pornography, so she must turn and feed the good things in her life, transforming herself into a force for good.

by

Chinwuba Iyizoba

Editor of Authorschoice

BBNaija’s Phyna and her abortions

In an online spat with some critics, the winner of Season 7 of BBNaija, Ijeoma Josephina Otabor, also known as Phyna, revealed that she has had two abortions despite being only 25 years old. This young lady won the hearts of BBNaija fans with her open and easy manner in which she spoke her mind while pulling no punches. But behind those brilliant facades and quick smiles are pain, anguish, and broken hearts that drove her to terminate the two pregnancies. She stated that the first time she had an abortion; she was 19 years old and a student at Auchi Polytechnic, where she was studying Agricultural and Bio Environmental Engineering Technology. In an attempt to explain her reason for choosing to abort her baby, she said, “I knew am from a very poor background, we used to eat once a day, especially in the afternoon, and then carry it till the next day. So keeping the baby was out of the question.”

Though she did not say who the father was, it is reasonable to assume that it was someone who was supporting her, paying for her education, and taking advantage of her poverty. She was 24, had just finished school, and was possibly looking for marriage when she had her second abortion. She claimed she was ready to keep the child, but it was clear that the father of the child had no intention of marrying her and was abusive, so she chose to free herself from his clutches by having an abortion and ending the relationship.

Furthermore, Phyna believes that abortion is common among girls, and she claims that 98 of a hundred girls have had abortions, though many of them would not be so open about it. She is also quick to point out that having those abortions was a mistake, especially since she is Catholic; the Catholic faith views abortion as nothing less than the murder of an innocent child and thus imposes a strict penalty of excommunication on anyone who has done it or even assisted in procuring an abortion. The beauty of it is that, while the church is very strict, it is also very concerned with bringing healing and reconciliation with God for those who have fallen into this grave sin, which is why Pope Francis recently empowered parish priests with the power to lift the penalty of ex-communication and absolve the sin of abortion, which was previously only the prerogative of the bishop. As a result, Phyna went to confession and asked for forgiveness.

The lesson here is that every woman’s decision to have an abortion has a story, and understanding and compassion must come first before anyone casts a stone. In addition to the mistaken belief that abortion is the only way out of a toxic relationship, the main lesson here for young girls is that sex before marriage no matter how rosy the promises made to them by their boyfriends, is ultimately the leading cause of abortion, and abstinence until marriage remains the only truly effective remedy. Understandably, this is a difficult sell for impoverished girls looking for money to pay for school, and thus an easy pawn for men with money and power. Nonetheless, any truly determined girl would be able to abstain from sex before marriage, even if it meant cutting her coat to her size and foregoing the nice toys that her rich girlfriends or rich boyfriends have. It is difficult, but it is possible with a spirit of humility and Godliness.

Even though Phyna now claims that she has repented and would never abort another child now that she has enough money to feed ten children, it is difficult to believe her because abortion is a moral choice to accept what is inconvenient, to shoulder responsibility, and to be willing to forego the easy way out and take the long and difficult path, and all of these are characters that require self-sacrifice, characters that cannot be bought with money. Furthermore, a key component of repentance is the willingness to avoid future opportunities that could lead to sin, which in Phyna’s case is not so obvious given that she recently participated in the infamous BBNiaja, a show that is reputed to encourage sexual immorality and provide an opportunity for sin not only for the participants but also for those who watch and enjoy such shows.

Furthermore, repentance and willingness to make amends must go hand in hand, and hopefully, now that she is rich with a 100 million naira prize, she can begin to make amends and lead a clean life worthy of a Catholic Christian girl and role models for the young. As the winner of season 7 of this last show, she has inadvertently taken the role of a model for many young girls who would wish to be like her, and thus she carries an even greater moral obligation

It would be nice if she thought about donating some of her money to help less fortunate girls who, like her, were forced to have sex to pay their school fees. Phyna could consider establishing a trust fund to provide scholarships to young girls who lack financial resources, so they don’t have to rely on men who will exploit them. Finally, those who would judge and condemn Phyna for her previous abortions should learn to suspend judgment and temper justice with mercy, knowing that love and understanding are far more effective than judgmental condemnation in providing lasting healing to women who have had the misfortune of having abortions. Indeed, Phyna should be commended for her bravery in speaking out about her grave guilt, and her remorse and true repentance would be evident in how she organizes her life and atones for past sins. Every saint, as the saying goes, has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Article was written by Tony Mobinayo

A Mother and a pornstar? The Story of Judith a.k.a Afrocandy

by Chinwuba Iyizoba

According to an old Cherokee legend, a grandfather told his grandson, “My son, there are two wolves fighting inside us all. One is the devil. It is a combination of rage, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is good; it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth.” After some thought, the boy asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man replied quietly, “the one you feed.” The story shows that depending on which wolf you feed, you can go from being a good person to a bad person; thus, in order to do good and avoid evil, you must feed the right wolf.

This appears t to be the story of Afrocandy, a Nigerian-born porn actress, who recently revealed that she was once a good homely wife. She shared photos of herself from 2001, dressed in traditional Igbo Christian mother attire complete with scarf and wrapper, and revealed that she was a regular churchgoer and parishioner at St. Leos Catholic Church.

Judith Mazagwu 2001

Judith Mazagwu

So, what exactly happened? How did a Christian mother become a pornstar? How did a well-groomed Nigerian woman become a notorious Afrocandy seductress now poring over the internet in her underwear? Her real name is Judith Chichi Opara Mazagwu, she is an Imo state native, a wife, and a mother of two children, and she has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in business management.

In 2005, she traveled to the United States to meet her husband, with whom she had two children. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in an explosion of infidelity accusations, leaving her stranded in the United States with two children at the age of 36. Desperate Judith first tried acting and modeling, but lacking the skill or talent to make big money, she devolved into racy porn under the alias Afrocandy, something so out of character and shocking to ordinary Nigerians.

Judith aka Afrocandy pornstar (2012)

Today, her Afrocandy production company is the arrowhead pushing Nigerian pornography into mainstream Nollywood, and while she is currently meeting some resistance in the industry because most actors and actresses still have enough self-respect for themselves and their families to avoid crossing the thin red line between the innocuous nudity already present in Hollywood and outright pornography, she must sense that it is only a matter of time before they cave, and she is optimistic.

Hence, some argue that what caused the unassuming Judith to take such a drastic turn was the pain and betrayal of her broken marriage. According to an online magazine, in an interview with the Daily Sun published on September 3, 2010, she said she tried to save her marriage but he wouldn’t take her back:

“There have been a lot of rumors going around about my marriage and only a few people know the truth. The truth is that I did not leave my husband; rather, he left because of some gossip he heard about something that happened in Nigeria before I joined him in the US.

I begged him, and he returned. When he left the second time, I felt compelled to issue him with a restraining order. I really don’t want to go into details because I see that as the past, and I want the past to stay in the past because I’ve moved on; talking about it takes me backward.”

Furthermore, her rumored marriage to an Ibadan millionaire, Chief Kamoru Okiki, did not appear to have materialized in 2011, adding fuel to her downward spiral into the porn abyss. No doubt, all of her setbacks and doubles should be considered when judging this woman; however, with her level of education, she bears significant blame responsibility for allowing herself to be thus manipulated and induced by an excessive ambition and love for glamour. She appears to be someone who is willing to do anything for fame and fortune, including abandoning all decorum and modesty.

As previously stated, everyone has two wolves fighting within them: the wolf of wantonness that we all carry within us, which we must refuse to feed or it will lead us to dark places. Judith aka Afrocandy appears to have fed the wrong wolf her entire life, and it has grown into a werewolf devouring that part of her that was once a good homely Nigerian Christian woman full of decorum and good sense. Nonetheless, she should be aware that this wolf will devour her and everything associated with her. Furthermore, given that she was once a Christian and a Catholic, she should remember that pornography has been linked to harm to children and young people. The widespread availability of pornographic media has been linked to unwanted pregnancies in young people, as well as the spread of STDs such as HIV/AIDS among single adolescents (Ojo and Fasuuba, 2005). According to Nwankwo, about a third of adolescent pregnancies are terminated due to complications such as bleeding, anemia, and exhaustion (1983). And, as a mother, I am sure she understands the grave responsibility that those who create or market pornographic materials bear.

It is a pity that she has allowed herself to be used as an agent and purveyor of a foreign malicious culture alien to Nigerians in order to pollute and corrupt the minds of young people in a country already plagued by poverty, a lack of clean water, a hospital, and food scarcity. It’s a shame that all she has to offer our youth is a bad example. Longe et al. (2007) argue that. In a country where poverty is on the rise, children who sell their wares to help their families make ends meet are constantly exposed to situations that can jeopardize healthy sexual behaviors.

Unfortunately, the Internet, more than any other agent of social change, has contributed in no small measure to the removal of guilt, fear, and shame associated with unconventional sexual activities, and thus these poor Nigerian children have already been swamped and robbed of their peace of mind and African decency by the foreign crude bestial images emerging from dark taverns or Eastern Europe and sordid porn from America one click away on the internet, which they aspire to. Afrocandy has now deprived them of their last line of defense with her Nigerian porn. However, she should remember that those who throw stones should not live in a glass house. If she succeeds in corrupting our youths for profit, she may not like what she sees when the results come in, and the Holy Book says that it is better to tie a stone around their neck and throw them into the sea than to lead children to sin.

In conclusion, the breakdown of her marriage and being abandoned to fend for herself transformed a once homely Nigerian woman into a porn star, proving that everyone has both good and bad passions and must struggle despite the odds to feed the good side of ourselves. Nothing justifies turning to the dark path of pornography, so she must turn and feed the good things in her life, transforming herself into a force for good.

Judith in the USA

Works Cited

Longe, Olumide & Chiemeke, Stella & Onifade, Olufade & Scientifique, Laboratorie & Balogun, France & Longe, Folake & Otti, Victor Uzoma. (2007). Exposure of Children and Teenagers to Internet Pornography in South Western Nigeria: Concerns, Trends & Implications. JITI Journal of Information Technology Impact. 7. 195-212. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228636199_Exposure_of_Children_and_Teenagers_to_Internet_Pornography_in_South_Western_Nigeria_Concerns_Trends_Implications/citation/download. Accessed January 2023

Nwankwo, J. Teenagers Need Protection from Unwanted Pregnancies. The  Guardian,  (1983, October 6), p.5

Ojo, O., & Fasubaa, O. . Adolescent Sexualityand Family Life Education in Southwestern Nigeria: Responses From Focus Group Discussion. Journal of Social Science,(2005) 10(2), 111-118.

The Martyrdom of Deborah Samuel

Deborah Samuel

Many Nigerians are understandably shocked by the death last week of Deborah Samuel, a beautiful 25-year-old female student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto., who was mobbed by her classmates for alleged blasphemy against Islam. However, instead of mourning, Christians should rejoice because Deborah has given her life for her faith, the surest proof that she possesses the truth, and that her love for God is mightier than the power of darkness and terror, for greater love than this no man has that he lays down his life for his friends(John 5:13). Furthermore, from ancient times to the present, it is the blood of Christians that waters the seed of the faith ( LaBanca, 2018). This is our faith and the law that our founder, Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for us, established, and Deborah conquered death by dying.

According to reports, the trouble started in a class WhatsApp group when Deborah was asked how she passed an exam, and she replied that it was because of Jesus. Her response irritated some male Muslim students, who mocked her Christian faith and advised her to remove that statement. In a knee-jerk reaction to the attack on her freedom, she refused and went on to remind them that the class WhatsApp group was created to discuss class assignments and tests, not all the “religious nonsense” they had been posting here.

The Muslim students, enraged by her dismissal of the Islamic articles they had been posting, demanded that she apologize for insulting Islam and, specifically, the Prophet Mohammed (AWS) by calling the Islamic articles “nonsense.” Deborah refused, claiming she had said nothing wrong and had insulted no one. When the Muslim student insisted, they threatened to deal with her if she didn’t. Deborah responded to their threats by leaving a voice message that said, “Holy Ghost fire, nothing will happen to me,” and reiterated that the WhatsApp group was created for class assignments, tests, and academic pursuits, not for religious purposes. However, she had unknowingly signed her death warrant as the Muslim student went outside the school grounds to hire some Islamic executioners and led the men into the school grounds looking for her. Pandemonium erupted, and her classmates fled to the school security room to hide her, but the men arrived armed and ready to deal with anyone who stood in their way, and they overpowered the guards and dragged Deborah out. “What do you hope to accomplish with this?”  She asked the killers, and those were her last words, according to her classmates, as the men and several Muslim students beat, stoned, and clobbered her to death, and the video of them setting her corpse on fire has long gone viral on the internet, shocking not only millions of Nigerians but people all over the world.

The acts have been condemned by Muslims and Christians alike, and no one can think of a justification for such behavior. Who appointed those Muslim classmates to the positions of judge, jury, and executioner? According to Nigeria’s current Chief Justice, Justice Tanko Ibrahim Mohammed, “Islam is not a primitive religion in which followers can take the law into their own hands and commit jungle justice.” Rather, there is a judicial system in Islam that hears and decides cases, including criminal trials, and anyone accused of committing an offense against the religion or a fellow citizen should be brought before a court (either a Sharia or a secular/common law court) for adjudication” (Shuaib, 2022).

Furthermore, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, a respected and learned Islamic cleric, offers a powerful refutation of those who believe that Islamic tenets call for bloodshed when he says that even the Prophet Movement (Peace be upon him) was insulted while he was alive and he did not kill anyone (Alamu, 2022). According to Bello Shagari, a Muslim business consultant, the mob killing of Deborah is un-Islamic and repugnant and would end up giving Islam a bad name. This was posted on his Twitter feed:

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar, condemned the killing in its entirety on Thursday in a message from the Sultanate Council, urging Sokoto state authorities to bring the killers to justice. The message is displayed below.

( Courtesy of Sahara reporters, 2022)  

On Friday, President Buhari reacted to the incident, calling the killing illegal. He stated that, while Muslims all over the world demand that the Prophet be respected, no one in this country has the authority to break the law. The President offered his condolences to the deceased’s family and demanded an impartial investigation into the incident (Ailemen, 2022). According to critics, the President’s tardy response came only after the British High Commissioner demanded justice and the arrest of Deborah’s murderers. However, the point has been made. Surprisingly, some critics argue that Deborah had crossed an Islamic red line and thus deserved what she got. Shehu Shagari, on the other hand, condemned such clerics and urged them to wake up and educate the public about the truth(Orupe, 2022).

Furthermore, Shiekh Gumi contends that mob actions tarnish Islam’s white sultan’s reputation as the religion of peace, and he urges those who stain their hands with blood by engaging in extrajudicial killings to repent because they were perverting the name of Islam by using it to justify their bloody deeds. Furthermore, he reminded everyone that Nigeria is a secular state and that when Muslims and non-Muslims coexist through mutual agreements, they must be respected, and anyone who harms them is breaking Islamic law and will be unable to smell the fragrance of paradise for 40 years, according to the Quran.(Alamu, 2022). In addition, he argues that if Muslims want all men, particularly non-religious people in this country, to convert to Islam, then they must shun mob action and violence which will only alienate people from Islam by portraying Muslims as killers. Furthermore, the cleric claims that such mob actions contribute to an increase in insults and not less (Odunsi, 2022).

Adewale Martin, the Archbishop of Lagos, condemned the killing as barbaric, diabolic, and satanic, and urged authorities to find and punish the perpetrators (Eyoboka, 2022) while urging Christians to remain calm. Similarly, the youth wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the murder and petitioned the Inspector General of Police to leave no stone unturned until the killers are apprehended. The Christian Journalist Association of Nigeria, as well as Catholic communicators and Christian groups from across the country, have also condemned the killing (Jannamike, 2022).

Regardless, Deborah may have erred and should have apologized for disrespecting the Islamic faith, but none of her actions justified the brutality of the death meted out to her, and what is clear is that the people who carried out this dastardly act acted wantonly and do not have the support of Islamic scholars or law enforcement, as Sokoto police have arrested some of them while the rest remain at large. The subsequent mayhem that ensued following their arrest is further evidence that these are the works of thugs who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

However, Christians must understand that it is not uncommon for them to perish at the hands of those who despise them. Those Muslim students despised her for being a Christian and wished to teach her a lesson to show her that her Christianity cannot protect her against their power. However, they are mistaken because a Christian lives through death. We Christians are not only anti-violence; we are a religion of love, and our founder, Jesus Christ, teaches us to love our enemies and do good to them.

Instead of mourning, which is understandable, Christians rejoice when they give their lives for their faith because that is the surest proof that we love God, for greater love than this no man has that he lays down his life for his friends, and additionally, from ancient times to the present, it is the blood of Christians that waters the seed of the faith, and Christianity has always grown deep roots and wider spread as long as it is persecuted. This is our faith and the law established for us by our founder, Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross.

Deborah’s assassins have only her body and can do nothing else because she is now immortal and with God, and everything, as Deborah’s parents stated, is in God’s hands. And, while pleading with the authorities to do everything in their power to bring justice and bring the perpetrator to justice, let it be known to them that Deborah has conquered death and defeated them precisely by dying at their hands, just as Christ her savior conquered death and the devil by dying on the cross, and similarly, Deborah will rise again seated with Christ.

by Chinwuba Iyizoba

Editor, Authorchioce.

References

 Ailemen, A.(2022) Buhari condemns killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto. Businessday.ng Retrieved from https://businessday.ng/news/article/buhari-condemns-killing-of-deborah-samuel-in-sokoto/

Alamu, T.(2022).Blasphemy: Deborah Parents Breaks Silence Over Death Of Their Daughter And More .Ngnews247. Retrieved from https://www.ngnews247.com/blasphemy-deborah-parents-breaks-silence-over-death-of-their-daughter-and-more/

Eyoboka, S. (2022). Archbishop Martins wants perpetrators punished. Vanguardngr. Retrieved from https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/murder-of-deborah-yakubu-archbishop-martins-wants-perpetrators-punished/

Eyoboka, S. (2022, May 13). Catholic Communicators Condemn the Killing of Deborah.  Vanguardngr. Retrieved from https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/catholic-communicators-condemn-killing-of-deborah-yakubu/

 Jannamike, L. (2022). Sokoto blasphemy: CAN’s youth wing petitions IGP over Deborah Yakubu’s murder.Vanguardngr. Retrieved from https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/sokoto-blasphemy-cans-youth-wing-petitions-igp-over-deborah-yakubus-murder/

LaBanca, N. (2018). Blood of the Martyrs Is Still Seed for the Church. Ascensionpress. Retrieved from https://media.ascensionpress.com/2018/09/17/blood-of-the-martyrs-is-still-seed-for-the-church/

Odunsi, W. (2022). Deborah Samuel: Prophet Muhammad never killed despite insults – Sheikh Gumi condemns murder.  dailypost.ng. Retrieved from https://dailypost.ng/2022/05/15/deborah-samuel-prophet-muhammad-never-killed-despite-insults-sheikh-gumi-condemns-murder/

Orupe, T. (2022, May 13).Deborah crossed Islamic red line; her killers were right- Imam of National Mosque. Idomavoice. Retrieved from  https://www.idomavoice.com/2022/05/deborah-crossed-islamic-red-line-her-killers-were-right-imam-of-national-mosque.html

Sahara reporter (2022). Sultan Of Sokoto Condemns Killing Of Female College Student For Alleged Blasphemy. Retrieved from https://www.ngnews247.com/blasphemy-deborah-parents-breaks-silence-over-death-of-their-daughter-and-more/

Shuaib, Y. (2022).Blasphemy: Positions of Justice System and the Holy Quran. Theworldnews.net. Retrieved from https://theworldnews.net/mw-news/blasphemy-positions-of-justice-system-and-the-holy-quran-by-yushau-shuaib

Mothers: Creative Women

After International Women’s Day, we celebrate women and all they do for society. But unfortunately, many people still haven’t figured out what a woman is.

Modern cultures view women as equal to men, and it is not uncommon to find groups or societies that regard women as superior to men. Whereas previous cultures viewed women as inferior to men, having only the role of cooking, fetching, and carrying for the men.

Some people view women as wild temptresses and seducers of men on a personal level. While others see women as loving and kind comforters full of warmth and gentleness, they are mothers and housewives.

I believe that a society’s goodness can be gauged in part by the way it treats its female citizens. According to The economist, societies that mistreat women are more likely to live in poverty^(1). Sadly, the brutal and repressive treatment of women is often standard in many communities and repeatedly documented. Yet to be a truly civilized society, men are expected to treat women with respect and deference, especially their wives and mothers.

Indeed, being a mother is one of the most awe-inspiring attributes of a woman, as she is the primary caregiver and nurturer of a new life from conception to death. As a result, mothers possess a wide range of virtues and skills comparable to those of the most accomplished athletes.

Studies found a link between women’s hard work and their success as mothers in a study of women in the United States. ⁽²⁾ Motherhood gives these women a reason to work hard because it allows them to provide for their families, whom they adore. Put another way, the love they have for their children and grandchildren drives them to put in the long hours needed to succeed. There is an inverse correlation between motherhood value and time spent on leisure pursuits. Motherhood is not a stumbling block for successful women but rather a stumbling block for pleasure-centered women, according to the modern feminist talking points. Nonetheless, it serves as a further incentive for most hard-working women to work hard and achieve their goals and dreams. Serena Williams won a grand slam just nine months after giving birth to her first child, and Adele, one of the most successful women in the music industry, credits the birth of her son for her return to music after a period of discouragement. ⁽³⁾

Even in today’s developed countries, where it appears that the distinction between man and woman is being deliberately obfuscated, that distinction is not only present but glaring. In many cases, the woman complements the man physically and spiritually, but that’s another story. Mary, the Mother of God, is the best example of a woman to look up to to understand what it means to be a woman. She is a mother, the mother of Jesus, the son of God; she is also a woman. So she was uniquely blessed and became the ancestor of everyone, especially Christians.

Works Cited

1. The London Economist, Societies that treat women baldly are poorer and ess stable, 2021, https://www.economist.com/international/2021/09/11/societies-that-treat-women-badly-are-poorer-and-less-stable. Accessed March 3
2. J. McQuillan, A. L. Greil, K. M. Scheffler, and V. Tichenor. Motherhood in the United States in the 21st Century. Official publication of Sociologists for Women in Society, 22(4), 2008,  477–496. Gender & society: official publication https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208319359
3. Independent, Adele reveals she was motivated to return to music for her son in heartwarming interview, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/adele-reveals-she-was-motivated-to-return-to-music-for-her-son-in-heartwarming-interview-a6735131.html

Still a Virgin and not ready for sex but boyfriend is asking? How not to lose your Virginity before marriage.

In today’s sexually permissive world, hardly any people meet, but they are already thinking of having sex. Yet there are people who sincerely value sex, know that it is best within a lifelong commitment of marriage, and would like to keep their virginity till their wedding night as a special gift to their husbands and future fathers of their children, but they find themselves pressured, seduced, tempted, and literally forced to give it. This is the case of 21-year-old Caroline, a tall, good-looking girl with large dark eyes and full lips. She is madly in love with Mike, who is athletic intelligent, and handsome in mischievous ways, but Mike wants sex. She puts it this way:

How do I make my boyfriend understand that I love him so much but I’m just not ready for sex yet?

I’m 21 and a virgin. I’ve known him for about two months but we’ve been dating for about a month. He’s really nice, really sweet, He’s basically everything I want and I really love him. He’s more experienced than I am socially, sexually and so on. I’m ridiculously quiet, shy and reserved. The first time I visited him, we kissed and got all romantic but I told him that I’m a virgin and I’m not ready yet. He said I should let someone who loves me disvirgin me (meaning I should let him do it). But I insisted and he stopped.

I was supposed to meet him the next day, He texted me and told me he wants us to make love. I told him I’m not yet ready. I’ve been able to resist his requests for sex. Every time we meet he asks for it. Every single time.

He told me one time that we are not kids, we are adults that we should behave like adults……I should behave like an adult. That he can’t keep doing this. That he has emotions and he doesn’t want to cheat on me but if I keep refusing he might be tempted to cheat.

I feel so pressured. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose him. But i want my first time to happen when I’m ready and without one single doubt. I don’t want to regret the day i lost my virginity. I think he’s gradually pulling away from me because of this. Because I can’t give him what he wants so badly. I don’t know how long I will be able to resist the requests.

I fear =>
I might end up having sex with him just to make him happy,
or I might loose him because I couldn’t have sex with him

I don’t know what to do. I love to do. I love him so much. I’ve never felt this way about anyone

Any advice?

My advice to Carol is to think about the other girls who were part of Mike’s past sexual experiences. what happened to them? Why did he ditch them? Perhaps they gave him sex, which made him happy and now he has left them. The same would happen to her if he gets the sex he wants from her. Furthermore, Mike is sweet and charming because that is how he attracts girls, and she is attracted to him because he is sweet and nice, but she better beware, for it soon wears thin.

Similarly, Carol thinks that she really loves him, but the question is, does he really love her? If he does, then what is he waiting for? Why does he not propose to her and let them get married? If he does not, then they are both wasting each other’s time and worse, she could get hurt.

In addition, when she tells him that she is not ready for sex, he says “She should let someone who loves her disvirgin her”, meaning that she should let him do it. So Mike here isn’t proposing, but he wants her virginity. Rob Kowalski in his blog on “10 reasons not to have sex before marriage,” says that people find it difficult to understand “no sex before marriage,” but when you say no “sex before love,” they get it, but then how do people know they love each other? The answer would be if they wanted to marry each other. If Mike truly loves Carol, the only proof of that is that he would want to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her; if he does not, then he is simply lusting after her body, and he would be done with her as soon as he had his satisfaction, and that is the truth; any other way you look at it is a lie. Now the funny thing is that we humans have a high tendency to deceive ourselves, to believe even lies so that we get what we want. It is easy to believe or make ourselves believe that someone loves us, but the only way to find out if what we believe is true is to test it. Thus, if Mike says to Carol, “Because I love you, let’s have sex,” Carol should say to him, “If you love me, prove it, marry me, and then you can have all the sex you want.” Let’s see how that works out. My guess is that Mike would probably run away and never come back. Thus, marriage is the real test of love; talk is cheap; marriage is action, and that is hard. No one marries someone just to have sex, but people marry because they love.

Yet according to Carol, when they meet, Mike asks for sex every single time, and not once has he asked her to marry him. This guy is probably a sex addict. You see, that is the thing: people think they can satisfy the urge for sex by having sex; rather, the urge for sex only grows fiercer the more sex they have. Mike has had plenty of sex with girls he never would marry, so he only sees sex when he sees a woman, and Carol is no different to him than the other girls he has used and moved on. All that sweet talk and nicety is to attract girls like sugar attracts ants and he is unrelenting in his demand for sex, gradually wearing Carol down, the only goal, the main aim is her body—to have sex with her and nothing more. His urge is growing with each conquest and he is not going to stop with Carol. Furthermore, multiple sex partners increase Mike’s chance of having a sexually transmitted disease (STD) which he would soon transmit to Carol. Furthermore, men don’t get pregnant, and that’s why sex is risk-free for them, but not for girls. There is a good possibility that Carol could get pregnant, and since Mike does not love her enough to marry her, she could find herself having a baby with someone who doesn’t want her around him forever, and that is bad; this could get her into having an abortion (which is killing off a human being, by the way) or having to be an unwed mother.

Again, Carol should know that “easy come, easy go; what comes easy is often not cherished. I think it was Mohammed Ali who said that diamonds are buried deep underground, so the efforts it takes to get them are often very expensive and hence very much treasured. if they were easy to get, then they would not be so valuable. Furthermore, as Rob Kowalski puts it rather simplistically, in a relationship, a man says to a woman, “I will give you security (marriage) if you give me sex.” Thus, a woman who gives sex without receiving security is often regarded as a hoe, while a man who gets sex without giving security is often praised as a stud. But in reality, it is much more than that, since sex has a much deeper meaning, especially in a Christian context. Sex is the consummation or fulfillment of the covenantal self-exchange between a man and woman; as the Holy Book says, “By this, a man would leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Sex is the physical expression of the self-donation between the man and woman when they exchange the marital vows, “I am yours and you are mine,” which, by its very nature, is meant to last till death. So it makes little sense to have sex with someone who has not made a prior commitment to become yours forever, and if you think about it, your future husband would be very happy that you did not sleep with all those men.  Finally, physical attraction diminishes and wears off with time, and if there is nothing connecting two people together other than physical sex attraction, then they are treading on very thin ice. This is again where marriage plays a significant role because two people who are married are admitting that their relationship goes way beyond the physical; they want to remain with each other come what may and are willing to face the odds of life together; in other words, it is a clear demonstration of their firm love and lasting friendship, which nothing can stand in the way.

Below are interesting videos on strategies to use if you have a boyfriend and wish to keep your virginity till marriage

Amy Corney Barrett is good for America and the World

Justice Amy Corney Barret.

The recent confirmation and swearing-in of Amy Barrett to the US Supreme Court is something very significant and disruptive to the false feminist theory that motherhood and family shackle women down, preventing them from reaching heights attained by their male counterparts. For far too long, the image of the successful woman has been the movie star, single, or divorced but usually always childless, perhaps having had multiple abortions. This message has been devastating to adolescent girls who really wish to marry and have families, as well as reach the peak of their chosen careers. Now they know it is possible. A woman can be the best, even with children strapped to her apron.  Amy Corney Barrett has revealed to these young teens an alternative path to the same goal, but this time, family and children can come along. Amy is living proof that nothing holds a woman back except her own fears. Yes, a woman can have it all and more. Rarely have we seen a beautiful woman with seven beautiful children, most of whom are school-aged, shatter the highest glass ceiling in the philosophy, science, and study of law.

Her judicial philosophy of originalism, simply put, is the philosophy that proposes to interpret the law as it is, not as she would wish it to be. It is speaking the truth, it is the progressivism of truthfulness, of striving to decipher what the authors of the law had in mind when they wrote the law,  rather than imposing her own meaning, which unfortunately is all the vogue in a postmodernist America and indeed the world.  We see it today in mainstream media, journalism, and even the highest citadel of learning, the universities. In the humanities, subjective postmodernist textual interpretations are now institutionalized. Amy’s originalism seeks to confirm that reality is objective and not subjective. The law is what it is, not whatever she wishes it to be and more importantly, she wishes to respect the integrity of the authors of the American Constitution who wished to communicate something, Amy pledges to try to hear or understand what they is trying to say is to respect and recognize them as individuals, capable of making statements.

Those who attack her originalism argue that the US Constitution is a text written two centuries ago, and many of its provisions apply to today’s people. Though this argument, on the surface, seems logical, its underlying assumptions are that the social and civil ills that beset people two hundred years ago are fundamentally different from today. This is clearly false. Though we are technologically more advanced, the fundamental human problems of justice, equity, and fairness are much the same today as they were two hundred years ago, and will likely remain so till the end of time. Thus laws moderating life in society today should not be fundamentally different from yesteryears.

Amy Corney Barrett is an originalist because she loves the truth and believes that age-old maxim that says that the truth will set you free. In addition, she is a woman of faith, during the confirmation hearings, she caught the world’s attention when she said that she believes in the power of prayer and that she knows that many people are praying for her. With this, she shared the secret of her strength with the world. Her faith in God! She is a shining example of how faith should be lived. Some Christians wait for pies from the skies. Amy works hard, like anybody else; in fact, she works better than the best because she is not just working for money but for God.  This is how a Christian should work, says Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, as people who participate in the creative work of God, and since God’s works are always perfect, a Christian has to strive for perfection in his work because it is also something that has to be offered to God. Working like this and living like this, turning work into an occasion to serve God through her neighbors was something that Amy Barrett was very good at. Her work as a university professor brought her in contact with many people who she was able to help in one way or another. As a large-hearted Judge, asks herself before passing judgment, what she would do if she was passing the same judgment on her own child. This is how she feels and senses the pains of others.

In summary, Amy Corney Barrett’s love for the truth, her in-depth knowledge of law and jurisprudence, her philosophy of originalism, her human and spiritual empathy with others, and her strong love and faith in God are overwhelming evidence that she is an immense contribution to the Supreme Court of America and that her sterling qualities would have a great and positive impact on American lives and indeed the world for years to come.

Why Amy Barrett Matters

amy-coney-barrett-1

Just this week, Stevie, a female member of a British rock band called, Fleetwood Mac,   told the world that, thanks to her abortion, she was able to make a success out of her musical career, “If I had not had that abortion, I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac”. Incidentally, this same week, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a beautiful woman of 48, is set to be confirmed as the ninth Justice of US Supreme Court, having climbed to the highest peak of a career in the legal profession that few women can dream of, while being a wife and a mother of 7 teenage children, which includes two adopted children from Haiti and one child with down syndrome. As the world stands in awe of this great woman, perhaps it is a time to take a few moments to reflect on this two very different world views.

The first world view, the world view of Ms Stevie, propagated by the ideologues of a postmodern world, is the world view  that motherhood, family and children are oppressive forces, holding women back from real progress, and ensure that they never actualize their potencies. They sell this notion by celebrating the likes of Ms Stevie, flooding the front cover of their media tabloids with selfies she took in her underwears with Hollywood super star status pinned to her backside like a medal of honor, a media anointed queen of impressionable young girls.

Yet, the same devious ideologues are bending over backwards to gloss over or at best pay only grudging acknowledgment to a better and a more shining world view, that of Amy Coney Barrett, an intelligent, articulate and astonishingly brilliant woman who had faced the odds like other millions of hard working women all over the world, hard at work, while raising children, (future citizens of the world), and yet emerged brilliantly at the very top of their profession. Thus, the false narrative pushed by those who control the media has been deeply debunked by the tremendous success of Amy Barrett. She hurts their narrative, and the narrative of the abortion industry that claims that the only way a modern woman can stride to the top is if she has unrestricted access to abortion. Barrett confirmation ensures that women are deceived no longer.  Women do not necessarily have to choose their careers over family, love of children. It is actually the other way round for it can be argued that Justice Barrett may not have been where she is today but for her family.

True, her record breaking achievement is not a recent thing, having been practically a pace setter all her life. She graduated in English and literature with great honors and went on to study law at Notre Dame, graduating top of her class, a keen intellect, a scholar with formidable capacity, nevertheless evidence shows that having children only makes a sharp intellect keener. This second world view has been confirmed to be a better fulfilling world view, one that leads to even more enduring success by the testimony of so many women who have gone on to achieve surpassing greatness precisely because of their love for family and children. Singer and superstar Adele said that she overcome discouragement and the urge to give up singing when she had her child because she wanted her child to know “what his mother does”. Serena William won top world tennis championship after having a baby.

 At 48, Amy has shattered the entire glass ceiling in the legal and academic citadels and poised to become member of the US Supreme Court all the while juggling children, a husband and a child with special needs, in dramatic refutation of postmodernist feminist claims that family and children are obstacle to a woman’s dream. It would be inexcusable for anyone to believe these falsehoods from now on.

Furthermore, Amy’s nomination has put her in the spot light, bringing to lime light all good she has been doing secretly. She and her husband could have closed themselves up from the troubles of the world, enjoying their sheltered, blessed life of high success all by themselves. Yet they reached out to lend a hand to the less privileged, to the poor and made the decision to adopt two children from one of the most destitute countries in the world, Haiti. They lifted out those children, a boy and a girl, and brought them out of misery and into their own home, into their own lives, thus giving hope and a future to those who could not have dreamed off it.

The Barretts demonstrate that Christianity is not a theory to be espoused and not practiced, but a real dynamics that demands a radical commitment in those who choose to be called by that name. As Pope Francis says in his latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, “The “gospel” of save yourself is not the Gospel of salvation. It is the falsest of the apocryphal gospels, making others carry the cross. Whereas the true Gospel bids us take up the cross of others.” This action of the Barretts restores faith in humanity. Further evidence of Amy’s goodness came from a blind student who testified at the hearing saying that Amy Coney Barrett is the kindest and most generous professor she had ever had at the university and went on to narrate her story of arriving at Notre Dame as a blind student only to find out that the school did not have facilities for the blind, the type of laptop /brail she needed and finally finding herself flunking her grades went to Amy Barrett for help. After she had finished speaking, Amy told her, “Laura, this is no longer your problem it is my problem now,” and went on to solve all her problems.   

Finally, according to three presently serving female Governors in the US, Kay Ivey, Kristi Noem, & Kim Reynolds, “Should Judge Barrett be confirmed, “it will be a win-win for every female—young and old alike during the past 100 years—who has dreamed of seeing women advance to the top positions of our government.”

by Chinwuba Iyizoba

“Cuties” is generating a lot of fury

The Netflix movie “Cuties” is generating a lot of fury, and rightly so.  Every sane person would agree that something is disturbing about watching a movie where minors are dancing seductively and sexually suggestively. It makes one feel uncomfortable. Even the name “Cutie” is resoundingly deceptive and is a reflection of dishonestly misappropriated language that has a clear meaning and attributes to something else. The word “cute,” according to the dictionary, is defined as something attractive or pleasing in a youthful, dainty, quaint, or fun-spirited way.  This is not what sexually suggestive twerks by 10-year-old girls are, and people who think otherwise may rightly be suspected of harboring deviant desires, on the contrary, they are disturbing and offensive, and since they involve minors, they are criminal.

Why would a minor dance in a sexually provocative way? Is it to attract a mate? Minors aren’t legally permitted to mate, marry, or give birth. Why, then, would a minor be directed in a movie to perform sexually seductive acts? Is it to attract men?  It’s a crime for a man to be sexually involved with a minor. People who denounce this movie for preparing the ground for criminal acts are on track.

Perhaps, Netflix, together with those who produced the movie, is aware of the hypocrisy that led to the success of Playboy magazine back in the 1950s. When Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in 1953, there was certainly a loud public outcry, and people lashed out against Playboy. Many families avoided going to a cinema advertising pornography, Yet astonishingly, even as protests were ongoing, private purchases of pornographic VCR tapes were skyrocketing, and thus Hefner, who was making big bucks, couldn’t care less about public protest. He saw the protest for what it was worth, worthless hypocrisy.

Perhaps, Netflix, like Hefner, is determined to ride out the storm, stay the course, and, in the end, make a lot of money. By being innovators of child pornography, they are rest assured that there will be plenty of bucks at the end of the tunnel. It may even be that Cuties is experiencing a windfall despite the pretense of protest. Thus, those of us who wish to resist the Cuties’ “new normal” must guard against curiosity, and hypocrisy and stop privately funding Cuties by watching it in private, or else we would be hypocritically cooperating in the triumph of sexual objectification of minors and would be no different from pedophiles for whom Netflix made this movie.

Furthermore, this is not an isolated incident. There is far worse content that we should all stand up against. The Internet is brimming with pornography websites, the chief of which is Porn Hub, a publicly listed company in the USA, with more than 40 billion visitors a year, where anyone can upload pornographic content, no matter how deviant.  Research confirms that much of the content on these sites involves minors, and kidnapped or trafficked women and children. Society cannot afford to turn a blind eye to these extremely hardcore sites while fretting over Cuties because, again, that would be hypocrisy. Sadly, studies have it that pornography addiction is very high among Christians who attend church regularly, people who should be at the vanguard of the fight against pornography. Little wonder then that pornographers are getting richer by the hour. We all need to join hands together to fight this or else Netflix’s persistence will eventually lead to the normalization of films like Cuties.

What a woman can do: Nigerian woman fabricates motorcycles parts

It is hard to find good things to write about Nigeria that is why I never let an opportunity pass if one ever presents itself. Scrolling through twitter this morning, I came across a clip from Reuters about Ukamaka Okoye, a Nigerian woman who fabricates parts for motorcycles using smelted aluminum vehicle parts from the scrap yard.

According to her, she used to work as someone’s secretary in a computer firm, but one day, an opportunity came for training as an auto part fabricator at Nnewi, and she volunteered to attend and instantly fell in love with the auto fabrication technique. Wasting no time, she set up a small factory run entirely by hand, and together with her husband, they began manufacturing, and today they have employed some more women to help them churn out about 1000 motorcycle clutch pads and disks a day.

Her office is no air-conditioned, rose-smelling upscale flat, but a rented shack, hot and smoky, with a blasting furnace adding to the sweltering heat of the sun blazing down her back as she works, yet she is working and working very hard, bearing witness to the truth contained in the time-worn refrain that when the going gets tough, only the tough get going.

In a time when countless young people are falling into hopeless despondency, Ukamaka Okoye shines the light of hope, and providing an example that if you are ready to work hard, there is no obstacle you cannot overcome and nobody has any reason to give up hope or worse fall into the temptation of engaging in crime like many young people are doing. Here is the spirit of initiative and industriousness that Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africa need to lift her from the putrid gutters of poverty.

Ukamaka and her husband have triumphed over lack of electricity Power, pipe borne water and every possible amenity that any one can imagine, and built a manufacturing firm, creating wealth and contributing their fair share in developing their country. I hope that this exposure and recognition she received from Reuters and the rest of the world would encourage investor to come forward and give her help to expand her business into a modern industry, as I know would be the case where she living in any other country other than Africa.

Yes, what a man can do, a woman can do even better. Ukamaka is a good model for many indigent young girls, often tempted into prostitution and selling their bodies to survive. Ukamaka’s story shows that there is another way, a better way. Honest and dignified work is always available to those willing to find it and who courageously embark on their dreams, no matter the odds. Lastly, the Nigerian government would do well to recognize and support Ukamaka, and, more importantly, study her method of enterprise so that they can guide the team of mass unemployed young people roaming streets without direction, and emulate Ukamaka’s enterprise to carve a better future for themselves and the nation.