Monday, February 19, 2018

BBC launches services in Igbo and Yoruba

Two new language services have been launched by the BBC World Service for Igbo and Yoruba speakers in Nigeria and West and Central Africa.

Their digital content is mainly aimed at audiences who use mobile phones.

Igbo is primarily spoken in south-east Nigeria and Yoruba in the south-west, as well as in Benin and Togo.

The new services are part of the World Service's biggest expansion since the 1940s, following a government-funding boost announced in 2016.

In total, 12 services are being launched by the BBC in Africa and Asia.

Igbo - seven things

. Best-known Igbo speaker was Chinua Achebe, regarded as the founding father of African literature
. Estimated to have more than 30 million speakers, mainly in south-eastern Nigeria
. A word with the same spelling can have different meanings, for example "akwa" is bed, egg, cloth or burial rights - depending on its tone
. An Igbo secessionist movement sparked a brutal civil war in 1967
. The caffeine-rich kola nut is all important in Igbo culture - always offered to welcome guests
. A famous proverb: "Onye wetara ọjị, wetara ndụ" meaning: "He who brings kola, brings life"
bbc.com/igbo is also on Facebook and Instagram

The BBC's expansion in Nigeria - Africa's most populous country where more than 200 languages are spoken - began last year with BBC Pidgin, which targets those who use the regional English-based lingua franca.

It is primarily an oral language, without a standard agreed written form.

The BBC Igbo and Yoruba teams have also faced challenges to standardise their written languages for modern audiences - and have sought advice from academics.

"Yoruba can be very confusing for younger readers because it has so many inflections, so we using a less complex system to appeal to them," says Yoruba service editor Temidayo Olofinsawo.

Yoruba - seven things

. Best-known Yoruba speaker is Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning playwright and poet
. More than 40 million speakers, mainly in south-western Nigeria
. A word with the same spelling can have different meanings, for example "owo" is money, honour, hand or broom - depending on the tone
. More people practise the traditional Yoruba religion in South America and the Caribbean than in 

. Nigeria - as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
. A thriving Yoruba film and music industry powers Nollywood
. A famous proverb: "Ile laawo k'a to s'ọmọ lorukọ" meaning: "You should name your child to reflect your family background".
bbc.com/yoruba is also on Facebook and Instagram

There are very few news publications in Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria, so it is hoped the new BBC services will be popular with Nigerians at home - and in the diaspora.

"This is the first time the Igbo language will be written and broadcast for international consumption," says Adline Okere, editor of the Igbo service.

"Igbos are known for their entrepreneurial spirit - and they are spread all over the world," she says.
What is on offer?

The teams will produce a twice daily bulletin of BBC Minute - an audio round-up of stories as well as news, analysis, explainers and features on the web and social media.

The BBC's head of West Africa, Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, says the focus will be on original journalism.

"Delivering content and engaging with the Igbo and Yoruba audiences in their mother tongues is authentic, exciting and refreshing," she says.

"We have had BBC Hausa [mainly spoken in northern Nigeria] for decades and we've seen the impact it had with its audience.

"When we look at Nigeria we have a multicultural society and the BBC felt that it was very important to give all the cultures a platform to communicate, a platform to interact."

Nigerian court frees 475 Boko Haram suspects

When mechanics Taye and Kehinde Hamza agreed to service a vehicle at their workshop in Nigeria's Bauchi State in 2010, they could never have imagined the years of hell which would follow.

The car, it turned out, belonged to a Boko Haram fighter, and the job was enough to get the twins arrested.

It would be another eight years until they were free again, cleared along with 473 others of terrorism charges.

Theirs is one tale among many emerging from a mass trial currently under way.

Four judges have been hearing cases since last Monday in the town of Kainji, in the central Niger State. So far, those released for lack of evidence far outweigh those convicted of being members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Married to a militant at 11

Among those cleared of all charges last week were children and the elderly. Some, like the Hamza twins, had been detained since 2010.

Mariam Mohammed, a Shua Arab from Borno State, was caught by soldiers as she tried to flee the Sambisa Forest - Boko Haram's base - back in 2014.

She had been lured into the forest and married off to a fighter at the age of 11, an official statement from the Nigerian Justice Ministry said.

Last week, she turned up in court cradling a three-month-old baby.

The long term impact of their imprisonment is not yet known. According to the Justice Ministry, some are suffering from mental illnesses - although whether the conditions existed before their arrests was unclear.

At a previous mass trial, held in October, more than 400 suspects were released, with just 45 jailed for their roles in the Boko Haram insurgency which has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced millions of others.

Chibok 'mastermind'

Justice Minister Abubakar Malami told the BBC that the released suspects would be rehabilitated before being allowed to return to their families.

But while these judges are making headway into the backlog of people awaiting trial, there are still another 5,000 people are still waiting for their own dates to be set.

The judges have found 205 people guilty of terror-related offences - including the "mastermind" behind the abduction of the Chibok girls.

Judges had originally found Haruna Yahaya, 35, guilty of taking part in the 2014 kidnapping - despite his arguments he was an unwilling participant. On Friday, they handed him an additional sentence for planning the mass kidnapping.

In total, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

But while convictions like this offer the hope of justice for Boko Haram's many victims, campaign group Amnesty International has questioned the method of the trial.

"Mass trials of this nature provide insufficient guarantees for fair trial and risk failing to realize justice," Amnesty's Nigeria's director, Osai Ojigho, said.

"This is particularly so in this case, given that Amnesty International has previously documented how the security forces routinely rounded up and detained hundreds of young men as 'Boko Haram suspects' with no evidence."

The Nigerian authorities always insist that the suspects are being given fair hearing at the trials with lawyers provided to defend them through the Nigeria Legal Aid Council, according to the Justice Ministry.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Video - Man involved in 2014 Chibok kidnappings in Nigeria jailed for 15 years



A senior member of Boko Haram has been convicted in connection with the abduction of hundreds of girls from Chibok. The young women were kidnapped back in 2014 and many are still missing.

Video - Nigerians closely watching political events in South Africa



People around the world but especially in Africa are watching the political developments in South Africa closely. One of the country's biggest allies is Nigeria. And the two economies are the strongest in Africa.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Video - Nigerian visual artist wins international acclaim



Nigerian artist, Laolu Senbanjo, has won international acclaim by turning the human body into a canvas. Just a few years ago, he was working as a lawyer but he can now add music star Beyoncé to a list of people who have commissioned his work. Now he's set to open his first major exhibition in New York.