Vitabu Books

Vitabu Books : Last June you wrote on ColourBlind 's Facebook page that you had written the book for many reasons: Tell an inspirational, faith-building story, shine Godly light on the social ills in African society, showcase the richness and fun of African culture, and challenge readers to hope and trust in God's love. You also said it was your prayer that every one who reads ColourBlind will be inspired and strengthened in their faith as you were in writing it. In a recent interview with Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald you said you were also interested in writing a book about Africa that didn't get overly sidelined by politics and poverty. What has the response been to your book since its release? Were you surprised that roughly 30 agents and publishing houses suggested it was too much of a religious book for mainstream tastes? Uzoma Uponi : Response to the book since its release has been very, very encouraging. I didn't consider myself a writer when I wrot

Happy birthday, Ama Ata Aidoo I'm one of your many fans across the world. The first time I came across your name was probably in 1969, reading an editorial in the now defunct Sierra Leone Daily Mail to my grandfather. I don't recall what it was all about, but I do remember stumbling over your name as I read and Grandpa righting me ever so gently as he often did. I must confess I promptly forgot all about you. Until I got to my 1974-75 school year, and there you were at the top of my Literature in English book list. Those days, the best place for used books was what we called the gron bukshop . I don't know if you've ever been to Freetown, but back then book hawkers were a block or two down from the old C.M.S. Diocesan Bookstore, opposite the famous City Hotel that once stood at the corner of Gloucester and Lightfoot-Boston Street. Inside the old split-level bookstore, price tags were a little steep, so friends pointed you a few blocks down market. There, dog-e

Dress coincidence , as Yahoo! Shine's Joanne Douglas calls it, is old news. Nowadays, Paparazzi routinely make the same dress on celebrities hall-of-cringe moments on Celebitchy , (complete with comparison dates), or light-hearted funnies to vote on in snap who-wore-it-best polls. More recently, models wearing the same dress on magazine covers have been grabbing headlines. Here's what Douglas writes in in her article, "Same Dolce & Gabbana dress appears on three Vogue covers," posted on Monday, March 14, 2011: With so many fabulous wardrobe options to choose from, it always feels like a bizarre coincidence when women wear the same exact dress to the same event. An even stranger fate in the fashion world: when the same dress appears on multiple magazine covers. One must wonder if the international Vogue editors are in cahoots or if they really just love Dolce & Gabbana, because the same white eyelet dress appeared in three of their recent cover shots.

NPR's award-winning Lourdes Garcia-Navarro left Libya this week and crossed back into Egypt. She reports that as the tide turns, the rebels' dream of a 'Free Libya' dims. As a Sierra Leonean, who would have loved to see a new dawn, my dream for a Ghadaffi-free Libya , tomorrow, dims too. Yesterday, I listened to Eleanor Beardsley's NPR report from Algeria's capital . And as one does, intuitively, I track the backstory in a rollover guide beside it. Beardsley's report from Algiers was sobering. She called Algeria "a police state"; with its people frustrated and discouraged and corruption endemic. The head of the country's main opposition party said simply the regime cannot go on--the nation has been run by the same forces since indepencence in 1962, and invisible KGB-like political police continue to decide elections and manipulate justice. Yet a father of three quoted in the story countered that Algeria is not like Tunisia and Egypt. &

A Box of Chocolates: A Collection of Short Stories By Jude Idada Pages: 234 Format: Paperback ISBN: 141201026-8 Publisher: Trafford Publishing Jude Idada's got stories to tell . His box of creamy chocolates, dark chocolates and truffles makes this treat ideal for those who like to indulge. In "A Will is a Will," Jude explores how a patriarch—a senior advocate of Nigeria, knight of the British Empire and the Order of St. John, and a world-renowned philanthropist—neatly arranges a sucession plan (or a fight) in his last will and testament. The haunting story "The Dilemma of a Coach" has a young footballer locked in an old curse that he can't escape. If you're a soccer fan like me, be sure to enjoy the euphoria of him bringing the World Cup to Mama Africa before it turns tragic. Martin Inyang's mother in "Eve Was a Man" cuts a manipulative figure in the burnt-brick house surrounded by bougainvillea he shares with his wife, Folake. J