Crowds gathered in Lafia town in central Nigeria to celebrate the Durbar Festival, a colorful religious and traditional fete that features performances from horse-riding men in robes and turbans. The event is one of the ways locals mark the Eid-al Fitr Islamic festivities celebrated after the end of Ramadan.
Related story: Video - Eid celebrations in Nigeria: Centuries-old traditions mark festivities
Eid festivities have reached a climax in Nigeria with colourful events. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from northern Kano state.
The ancient town of Badagry in Nigeria's commercial city of Lagos is home to several remarkable heritage sites dating back to the 17th century. The town is a magnet for Black History buffs, due to its central role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade era, and its early contact with European missionaries.
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Video - Nigeria hosts festival to reconnect African diaspora to their roots
Curators at Nigeria's Badagry Heritage Museum are concerned about the apparent lack of interest among Nigerians in marking Black History Month. They say the attendance is low at a time when it should be quite high.
Related story: Video - Nigeria hosts festival to reconnect African diaspora to their roots
A harmful practice called breast ironing or flattening affects about 3.8 million women in Africa, including some parts of Nigeria. The practice aims to delay development in adolescent girls. Gibson Emeka has this story, narrated by Salem Solomon.
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The 2023 African Hair Summit seeks to encourage more African women to embrace their natural hair. Experts say doing that is not only the healthier alternative but will also spur the growth of Africa's natural hair care sector, strengthen economies on the continent, and create jobs.
A three-day festival, commemorating the shipment of people captured from West Africa hundreds of years ago and forced to work as slaves in America and the Caribbean, came to a close in Nigeria over the weekend. The fourth edition of the Door of Return festival is a symbolic event that reconnects people of African descent living overseas to their roots in Africa.
Her Royal Majesty Obi Martha Dunkwu is the reigning omu of the Anioma people of Nigeria’s Delta State. An omu, or queen mother, is a leader of women, custodian of the market, a spiritual guide to the community and the traditional ruler – a role that goes back more than 820 years and one that was greatly reduced by colonial rule. This important institution, with its ceremonial practices, comes with its own challenges but remains a significant part of holding communities together. Chisom Ifeakandu is a Nigerian filmmaker who has worked on several film and TV productions. In 2016, she was one of 20 young African filmmakers to be sponsored by the Africa International Film Festival and the Ford Foundation to study at the Cinefabrique Film School in Lyon, France. She convened The African Way event to showcase young African theatre talent.
This Nigerian all-female security crew, known as the Dragon Squad, is breaking stereotypes in a male-dominated industry.
Related story: Female bouncers in Nigeria show their strength fighting stereotypes
For years, Emem Thomas' body drew snarky remarks from slimmer classmates in southern Nigeria that shattered her confidence and natural affability.
As teasing and taunts marred her teenage years, she gave up on dreams like competing in a local beauty pageant.
Then she found a niche that values what Thomas now proudly describes as her "plus-sized" body type: the "Dragon Squad Limited", a team of female bouncers.
"I love what I see dragons do in movies," she said. "They are also a symbol of power and protection."
Founded in 2018, Thomas only employs women of a certain weight and shape, creating a safe space for plus-size women to excel in a field that is traditionally male-dominated.
"My team is all about plus-size ladies," she explained. "If you have the plus-size body then that is cool for me, before I now talk about your passion and other qualifications."
The Dragon Squad's 43 recruits have worked security at about 2,000 events including house parties, funerals, political rallies and club nights.
"People expect us to be in the kitchen or probably doing make-up and other feminine roles, but joining this squad has really enlightened me," said 23-year-old bouncer Peace Vigorous, the youngest of the crew.
In addition to walkie-talkies, boots and dark glasses, the bouncers carry pepper spray.
The risk of being molested on the job is "always something we have in mind", said Thomas.
"We always prep ourselves for that" and for "men looking down on us."
'FACE THE CROWD'
On an early overcast morning, Thomas led bouncers through a sweaty fitness session on a parking lot.
The women have acquired skills, strength, and most importantly for Thomas, confidence.
"Most of them... were always shy. They couldn't talk," she said, noting that she too became introverted because of her weight.
Behaviour that draws attention such as standing in front of a crowd and giving orders can be particularly challenging for women used to avoiding the public eye.
"Face the crowd and be yourself," Thomas tells them when they falter. "You are supposed to be seen and known."
Thomas's newfound confidence has transformed her social and family life in the city of Uyo, where the 37-year-old lives with her two children.
She no longer considers herself and introvert or shies away from events.
The Dragon Squad has also led her to advocate for the rights of girls and women.
Gender violence is rife in Nigeria, which has one of the world's highest rates of sexual assault. Jihadist groups in the north are renown for kidnapping girls and women and trafficking them into sex work and forced labour.
For Thomas, change comes with "breaking the barrier" to show what women bring to all sectors of society.
She believes female bouncers "have a way of taking off danger" by listening to troublemakers and victims in a way that most men do not have patience for.
"I see no reason why women (should not be) given a chance."
By Seun Sanni and Temilade Adelaja, Reuters
Language has always served as a strong bridge between cultures. The diplomatic ties between China and Nigeria have been boosted over the years by Chinese language teaching programs. The Chinese Confucius Institute based in Lagos has been educating thousands of Nigerians on the Chinese language and culture.
The Confucius Institute in Nigeria commemorated the 2022 Dragon Boat Festival. Chinese cultural enthusiasts gathered to witness the event which celebrates patriotism and classical poetry. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam reports.
Three years after taking in 2-year-old Inimffon Uwamobong and her younger brother, Sister Matylda Iyang finally heard from the mother who had abandoned them.
"Their mother came back and told me that she (Inimffon) and her younger sibling are witches, asking me to throw them out of the convent," said Sister Iyang, who oversees the Mother Charles Walker Children Home at the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus convent.
Such an accusation is not new to Sister Iyang.
Since opening the home in 2007, Sister Iyang has cared for dozens of malnourished and homeless children from the streets of Uyo; many of them had family who believed they were witches.
The Uwamobong siblings became well and were able to enroll in school, but Sister Iyang and other social service providers are faced with similar needs.
Health care and social workers say parents, guardians and religious leaders brand children as witches for different reasons. Children subject to such accusations are often abused, abandoned, trafficked or even murdered, according to UNICEF and Human Rights Watch.
Throughout Africa, a witch is culturally understood to be the epitome of evil and the cause of misfortune, disease and death. Consequently, the witch is the most hated person in African society and subject to punishment, torture and even death.
There have been reports of children -- labeled as witches -- having had nails driven into their heads and being forced to drink cement, set on fire, scarred by acid, poisoned and even buried alive.
In Nigeria, some Christian pastors have incorporated African witchcraft beliefs into their brand of Christianity, resulting in a campaign of violence against young people in some locales.
Residents of the state Akwa Ibom -- including members of the Ibibio, Annang and the Oro ethnic groups -- believe in the religious existence of spirits and witches.
Father Dominic Akpankpa, executive director of the Catholic Institute of Justice and Peace in the Diocese of Uyo, said the existence of witchcraft is a metaphysical phenomenon from those who do not know anything about theology.
"If you claim that somebody is a witch, you would have to prove it," he said. He added that most of those accused of being witches could be suffering from psychological complications and "it is our duty to help these people with counseling to come out of that situation."
Witch profiling and abandonment of children are common on the streets of Akwa Ibom.
If a man remarries, Sister Iyang said, the new wife may be intolerant of the child's attitude after being married to the widower, and as such, will throw the child out of the house.
"To achieve this, she would accuse him or her of being a witch," Sister Iyang said. "That's why you'd find many children in the streets and when you ask them, they will say it's their stepmother who drove them out of the house."
She said poverty and teenage pregnancy also can force children into the street as well.
Nigeria's criminal code prohibits accusing, or even threatening to accuse, someone of being a witch. The Child Rights Act of 2003 makes it a criminal offense to subject any child to physical or emotional torture or submit them to any inhuman or degrading treatment.
Akwa Ibom officials have incorporated the Child Rights Act in an attempt to reduce child abuse. In addition, the state adopted a law in 2008 that makes witch profiling punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years.
Father Akpankpa said criminalizing injustices toward children was a step in the right direction.
"A lot of children were labeled witches and victimized. We used to have baby factories where young women are kept; they give birth and their babies are taken and sold out for monetary gains," he told CNS.
"Human trafficking was very alarming. A lot of baby factories were discovered, and the babies and their mothers were saved while the perpetrators were brought to justice," he added.
At the Mother Charles Walker Children Home, where most of the children are sheltered and sent to school on scholarship, Sister Iyang demonstrates the Catholic Church's commitment to protecting child rights. She said most of the malnourished youngsters the order receives are those who lost their mother during childbirth "and their families bring them to us for care."
For contact tracing and reunification, Sister Iyang formed a partnership with Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare. The process begins with parental verification by gathering information about each child and their location prior to separation. With the information in hand, an investigator drives to the child's home village to verify what has been learned.
The process involves community chiefs, elders and religious and traditional leaders to ensure that each child is properly integrated and accepted in the community. When that fails, a child will placed into the adoption protocol under government supervision.
Since opening the Mother Charles Walker Children Home in 2007, Sister Iyang and the staff have cared for about 120 children. About 74 have been reunited with their families, she said.
"We have 46 now left with us," she said, "hoping that their families will one day pick them up or they will have foster parents."
By Valentine Iwenwanne
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