Tuesday, November 23, 2010

laBAF 2010: From The Media (V)

(234NEXT November 20, 2010)

Children and the Environment (CATE), a non-governmental organisation focused on grooming children on the value of taking care of their environment, in collaboration with the 2010 Lagos Book and Art Festival held its ‘The Green Festival 5 at ‘LABAF 2010'.

The event, themed ‘Greening our creativity at 50', consisted of a number of workshops and discussion sessions for the benefit of Children and Teens. The exhibition hall of the National Theatre was filled with a colourful array of pupils from various secondary schools in Lagos State.
  The first session, ‘My Encounter With the Book', featured Olaboludele Simoyan, author of ‘The 8th Wonder of the World: Made in Nigeria'. She spoke about her experiences with reading and then consequently writing.

"As you write, you get better at it," said Simoyan. Sola Alamutu, executive director of CATE and a writer, was the moderator at the session and encouraged the students to put questions to the writer.
One of the students expressed that sometimes books could be boring and one would end up falling asleep while reading. Simoyan advised that they start with the books that interest them. She later gathered some of the secondary school children outside for some practical motivational talk, making use of the approach she had used in her book.
Lead Image


Ruby igwe, Writer of ‘The Land of Kalamandahoo


Performances
There were performances from the crown troupe of Africa who rendered Herbert Ogunde's classic song ‘Yoruba Ronu'; and two pupils from Liam High School who did an Efik dance. Three students from Greenspring School rendered an impressive version of African American filmmaker Tyler Perry's ‘Diary of a Mad Black woman', a movie about a woman who had to pick up the pieces of her life after her husband left her for another woman.
  The rendition of the hilarious ‘Madea', the family watchdog was commendable. A few students from Alakoto Senior Model High School confessed that they enjoyed the energetic and captivating performance by the Crown Troupe of Africa. One of the students, Judith Nwabia said she enjoyed reading and that her favourite books were any motivational book by Myles Munroe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's ‘Purple Hibiscus'.

Students during the mentoring session
More book talk
The book talk continued into the second day of the event with ‘Talking Book with Cate and Friends'. Sola Alamutu or Aunty Sola as the Children called her , introduced a teenage writer, Ruby Igwe, to the audience.
Ruby Igwe, daughter of filmmaker Amaka Igwe who produced the popular 90s Soap ‘Checkmate', currently in her final year at secondary school, wrote her first book ‘The Land of Kalamandahoo' at age twelve.
Ruby, who also used the opportunity of the festival to promote her book, came up to speak about her craft. Aunty sola also spoke about her book ‘The African Grey Parrot'. According to her, the book draws attention to the importance of taking care of our environments. She is also the author of ‘Cate saves the Ikopi Rainforest', another children's book advocating the protection of the environment.
In an articulate and self assured manner, young Ruby Igwe said ‘The land of Kalamandahoo was a place where everyone played all the day long. She read an excerpt from the book, about a naughty little boy who would rather play than do anything else and how he found himself in the land of Kalamandahoo.
Children performing during the session
Not wanting to give everything away, she wisely encouraged the children to get their copies from the stand after the session. Ruby also mentioned that the book was based on a script which her mother wrote. She added that her latest work ‘Crappy Nnenna' would be out in due course.
From all indication, Ruby and Alamutu have written books that are enlightening, educating and morally enriching too. CATE and LABAF should be commended for their own efforts to enrich and impact the lives of the Nigeria youth.