Set- football as we play it

Kids thrilling themselves to a game of neigbourhood football. Match ups like this are called "set" as you have another set of players waiting in the wings to play once one team has racked up a certain number of goals against the other.

The goal posts used for games like this one are small, about half a metre wide, and are usually called "monkey posts".

Notice that they play bare footed, that's how many African football stars began, by kicking around in the dust and then becoming household names worldwide through determination and hard work.

The African Nations Cup is taking place in Angola at the moment, it's Africa's own World Cup and many of these kids will like to be in the shoes of their heroes one day.

Makeshift bells

These old rims are used as bells by security guards in the estate where my parents live. Usually at night, the security guards hit on them to announce their presence and to warn off any marauder who might be planning mischief.

Frances Ademola - Ghana's pioneer art gallery owner

Breaking the silence I bring to you Ghana's pioneer art seller Frances Ademola. The 81 year-old lady has been running The Loom, Ghana's first private art gallery, since she returned home in 1969 after a 12 year sojourn in Nigeria. Being in Ghana these days, I have come to know her and enjoy the weekly visits to her gallery on Kwame Nkrumah Street in Accra where she shares a lot of insight with me on her life, work and Ghana and Nigeria of the past. It's always great learning for me.

Wondering why the site has not been updated? It's because I have had to move to work in Ghana. You can find my Ghana work on accracityphotos.blogspot.com

Barcelos

Inside the Galleria is Barcelos, a Portuguese-themed South African restaurant/snack bar that specialises in flame grilled chicken. Shot this image last Saturday as a couple leave holding hands. I just might have something for couples. I need to get married, maybe.

Inside the Silverbird Galleria

This is the Silverbird Galleria's atrium. Most weekends there's a beehive of activity inside. People generally come to see recent Hollywood blockbuster movies as well as shop and have fun. There's an earlier post from last year showing it from the outside. Not a fantastic shot by the way.

For MJ

The Silverbird Galleria has been putting up a show for MJ since his passing with this image of the legend beamed by I-know-not-what-kind-of-technology-and-didn't-bother-asking. Maybe I should have tried to find out. All I know is when one walks on it you have this vision of the image melting/shifting around you. Simple, it's a projection! I knew it.

To MJ who gave us a great time and who we grossly misunderstood. We Love You!

Chimamanda, the Beautyful

Nigeria's most celebrated young writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie was in town last Saturday to read from her new book of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck. It was at the noisy Silverbird Galleria that she read to a teeming audience some like me who were seeing her for the first time.

Not many writers get to be celebrated like she has been, deservedly so. Hence, my title for this post which is taken from Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah's novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Certainly, Nigeria has a beauty-ful one in Chima. She's inspiring a new generation of young Nigerians to aim for the sky in whatever they find their hands to do.

I certainly do love the thing around her neck.

Goodbye!!!

My final image from Akure is this beautiful wave goobye from a lady I shared a taxi ride with.

Gas attendants

Attendants at a gas service station. It was a Sunday afternoon so they had run out of petroleum was why they could afford to relax on duty.

Ball juggler

Another of the moments that was fun for me in Akure was when this guy juggled the soccer ball in the marketplace and I just clicked away.

Fingernails

It is the little things that take your breath away. This lady spreads her newly done fingernails for me to photograph at the Oja Oba in Akure.

Great pose

Still in Akure, this guy decides to give me the most interesting pose I've ever photographed. That's why I enjoyed taking photos in Akure, there was a certain kind of innocence in everybody I came across.

Gold sellers

In the market place in Akure I found these two men who pawn gold ornaments. They also deal in black market foreign exchange transactions.

Yam market

I was in Akure, Ondo state where I grew up, recently and had the opportunity of experiencing the vibe of the market place. Oja Oba, the king's market is the biggest shopping place in town and it was where I took this photo of women haggling over yam tubers. Pounded yam is a delicacy in many Nigerian homes.

If you're interested in archaelogy, the entry on Akure on Wikipedia should interest you. It says "Rock engravings dating back to the Mesolithic period, have been discovered on the outskirts of Akure, as has the oldest Homo Sapiens fossil to have been found in West Africa thus far, dating back to around 11,000 years ago."

I can tell you that the people are very warm and I was allowed to take photos freely unlike what happens most times in a big city like Lagos.

Inside out

Picture taken from the inside looking out on Billingsway Road, Ikeja.

Nnena Okore's Of Earth...barks and topography

Artist and art teacher Nnena Okore opened her solo exhibition Of Earth...barks and topography at the Goethe Institut,

Victoria Island on Saturday. It explores the link between the earth and environment, a call to examining how humans treat the environment. Using a technique derived from the traditional papier mache, Okore weaves newspapers, starch, glue, twigs, ropes and clay to create "biomorphic forms" which leave some curiousity in me. I think I need to go back and see again to make better sense of it.

Warming up 2

Like the advert for the World Cup says: We can't wait!

Warming up

The World Cup comes up in Africa next year and many young footballers would be hoping to be part of the various African national teams to participate at the fiesta. I have been chosen among a select group of African journalists called the All Stars that will be trained by World Press Photo and Freevovice.nl to cover the tournament in South Africa next June.

Skater boy

I tried to capture his face in this shot.

Street skating

Zigzag skating on busy roads is not a common sight in Lagos. But this guy really had great confidence going as he moved without fear in traffic on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, one evening recently.