IGBO WOMEN'S WAR .............

IGBO WOMEN'S WAR (Western Colonialism)

The 1929 Igbo Women’s War, referred to as Ogu Umunwanyi in Igbo or the Aba Women’s Riot by the British colonial authority in Nigeria, was one of the most significant protest movements in the former British Empire. The protest was organized and led by rural women, and once the war started, it spread like wildfire in southeastern Nigeria among the Igbo and Ibibio of Owerri and Calabar provinces, covering a total area of over 15,550 square kilometers (about 6,000 square miles) and involving a population of two million people.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

By the mid-nineteenth century, formal British policy in what later became Nigeria was designed to protect British interests in the expanding trade activity in the Nigerian hinterland. By 1861, British administration was formally established in the colony of Lagos and the Niger Delta region. Through a series of treaties and military expeditions designed to end internal slavery and facilitate trade in such commodities as palm oil and kernel (palm produce), present-day Nigeria came under effective British control by the beginning of the twentieth century.

The women’s protest arose in the palm-oil belt of Southern Nigeria. The Igbo and Ibibio lived largely in mini-states where men and women exercised varying degrees of political power. Meetings of the village council involved adult males and were held in the common cultural center and the abode of the community’s earth-goddess. Important laws of the village council were ritualized with the earth-goddess and given a sacerdotal sanction. Their violation was seen as an act of sacrilege that needed ritual purification to restore the moral equilibrium of the society and save humans from infertility, famine, and other calamities.

Women had their own sociopolitical organization. They held weekly meetings on the market day of their community, and made and enforced laws that were of common interest to them. But British colonialism brought fundamental changes that eliminated women’s political roles in precolonial Igbo and Ibibio societies. Women, however, saw themselves as the moral guardians and defenders of the taboos of the earth-goddess, believing that they naturally embodied its productive forces. The cosmology of the women, and the moral outrage they expressed over the intense economic and social changes that occurred during colonialism, are helpful in understanding not only the roots of the Igbo Women’s War, but the unusual solidarity and frenzy the women displayed during the crisis.

The initial protest was sparked off in Oloko in Bende Division of Owerri province, where in 1926 the colonial government had counted the number of men without indicating that the figures would be used in taxing them in 1928. Thus, when on November 18, 1929, the British-appointed Warrant Chief Okugo asked a teacher to count his people in keeping with the directive of the British district officer, women who feared that they would be taxed began to protest against the census.

The women dispatched palm fronds to other women in Bende Division, summoning them to Oloko. The meaning of the palm fronds vary according to circumstances, but in this case palm fronds signified a call to an emergency meeting, and people were forbidden to harm those who bore the fronds. Within a short period, thousands of them had assembled in the compound of Okugo, ”sitting on him” (Warrant Chief Okugo), a traditional practice involving chanting war songs and dancing around a man, making life miserable for him until the women’s demands were met, and demanding his resignation and imprisonment for allegedly assaulting some of them.

Fearing that the situation might get out of hand, especially as the protests spread to Umuahia, where factories and government offices were located, the British district officer acceded to the women’s demands, and jailed Okugo for two years. Generally, the protest in Bende Division ended peacefully, and the district officer effectively used the leaders of the women to contain the protests.

The Women’s War, however, took on a more violent form in Aba Division of Owerri province, and it was from there that the protests spread to parts of Owerri, Ikot Ekpene, and Abak divisions. The protest began in Owerrinta after the enumerator (census taker) of Warrant Chief Njoku Alaribe knocked down a pregnant woman during a scuffle, leading to the eventual termination of her pregnancy. The news of her assault shocked local women, who on December 9, 1929, protested against what they regarded as an ”act of abomination.” The women massed in Njoku’s compound, and during an encounter with armed police, two women were killed and many others were wounded. Their leader was whisked off to the city of Aba, where she was detained in prison.

Owerrinta women then summoned a general assembly of all Ngwa women at Eke Akpara on December 11, 1929, to recount their sad experiences. The meeting attracted about ten thousand women, including those from neighboring Igbo areas. They resolved to carry their protests to Aba.

As the women arrived on Factory Road in Aba, a British medical officer driving the same accidentally injured two of the women, who eventually died. The other women, in anger, raided the nearby Barclays Bank and the prison to release their leader. They also destroyed the native court building, European factories, and other establishments. No one knows how many women died in Aba, but according to T. Obinkaram Echewa’s compilation of oral accounts of women participating in the war, about one hundred women were killed by soldiers and policemen.

The Women’s War then spread to Ikot Ekpene and Abak divisions in Calabar province, taking a violent and deadly turn at Utu-Etim-Ekpo, where government buildings were burned on December 14 and a factory was looted, leaving some eighteen women dead and nineteen wounded. More casualties were recorded at Ikot Abasi near Opobo, also in Calabar province, where on December 16 thirty-one women and one man were reportedly killed, and thirty-one others wounded.

CAUSES

Diverse views have been offered to explain the causes of the Women’s War. Some colonial apologists described the war as ”riots” carried out by African women who failed to appreciate the ”blessings” of British rule. Colonial apologists also forwarded spurious theories of female biopsychology to justify their views, arguing that the ”riots” were rooted in ”irrational mass hysteria” resulting from ”a sudden flow of premenstrual or postpartum hormones”(Echewa 1993, p. 39).

Another school of thought that emerged during the decolonization period of Nigerian history offered a conflicting analysis and blamed the Women’s War on the warrant chief system the British imposed on the peoples of southeastern Nigeria. Although the warrant chief system contributed to the Women’s War, a more holistic analysis of the war’s underlying causes is necessary, and a more fundamental issue must be considered: an economic one.

The imposition of direct taxation and the economic upheaval of the global depression of the 1920s saw a drastic fall in the price of palm produce and a high cost of basic food stuff and imported items. Thus the women’s protest was precipitated, in part, by the global depression. The protests occurred when the income women derived from palm produce dropped, while the costs of the imported goods sold in their local markets rose sharply. For example, from December 28, 1928, to December 29, 1929, the prices of palm oil and kernel in Aba fell by 17 percent and 21 percent, respectively, while duties on imported goods like tobacco, cigarettes, and gray baft, a form of cloth used to make dresses, increased 33 percent, 33 percent, and 100 percent, respectively. The deteriorating terms of trade led to the impoverishment of women, and once the rumor spread that they would be taxed, the Women’s War started.

Another important cause of the protest was rooted in the political transformation resulting from the British indirect-rule policy. According to some historians, the Women’s War stems from the military occupation of the Igbo area by the British in the early 1900s and the ”warrant chiefs” they appointed to administer the various communities. The society’s traditional authority holders, who feared that they would be punished for resisting the invaders, did not come forward to receive the “certificates” or “warrants” the British issued to appointed chiefs. As a result, the majority of warrant chiefs were young men who were not the legitimate authority-holders in the indigenous political system. The appointment of warrant chiefs as representatives of the local people was contrary to the political ideology and republican ethos of the Igbo people.

The appointment of warrant chiefs intensified conflicts in the society, as evidenced by the Native Courts Proclamation of 1901, which conferred exclusive judicial functions on the new chiefs in their communities. The village councils were denied their traditional functions, and worse still, cases involving abominations were punished without the ritual propitiations and sacrifices necessary for ”cleansing the earth” and restoring moral equilibrium. Women were particularly upset by the desacralization of laws, and during the protests they called for the restoration of the old order.

The British-appointed warrant chiefs also abused their offices to enrich themselves, in part because they were paid meager allowances that could not sustain their newly acquired prestige and lifestyle. Virtually all of them established private courts in their compounds, where they settled disputes. They also used their headman to collect fines and levies, thus alienating members of their community.

Similarly, the executive functions the warrant chiefs performed for the British government, including the recruitment of men for forced labor to build railways, roads, and government guest houses, heightened their unpopularity. During the protests, women complained about forced labor, claiming that it increased their workload by depriving them of the services they received from their husbands in farming and the production of palm produce. Women were also concerned about the emerging urban centers, which had become hubs for those engaged in prostitution and other vices that the women believed polluted the land.

CONSEQUENCES

The British government authorized civil and military officers to suppress the disturbances, and district officers were granted the right to impose fines in the disaffected areas as compensation for damages to property and as a deterrent against future riots. On January 2, 1930, the government also appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the roots of the disturbances in Calabar province.

The commission submitted a short report on January 27, 1930, but due to the report’s limited scope, the government appointed a second commission on February 7, 1930, to cover Owerri and Calabar provinces. The commission began its work at Aba on March 10, 1930, and submitted its report on July 21. The report convinced the government to carry out many administrative reforms, including the abolition of the warrant chief system, a reorganization of the native courts to include women members, and the creation of village-group councils whose decisions were enforced by group courts.

The achievements of the Women’s War are remarkable, and an analysis of the roots of the protests indicate that the women were concerned about the abuses of the warrant chief system, the rapid pace of social change, and the fear that they would be taxed. Their solidarity was reinforced by their common religious ideas and values and the moral revulsion they expressed over acts of sacrilege.

Although the government suppressed the protests ruthlessly to avoid future disturbances, Igbo women mounted similar protests during the 1930s and 1940s against the introduction of oil mills and the mechanization of palm production, which undermined their economic interests. A discussion of the Igbo Women’s War provides a broad picture of British colonialism in Africa, the difficulties involved in imposing a foreign administration on indigenous peoples, and the crucial role women played in a primary resistance movement before the emergence of modern Nigerian

http://what-when-how.com/western-colonialism/igbo-womens-war-western-colonialism/

EMPOWERING AFGHAN WOMEN

Q&A: Al Jazeera meets photojournalist Reza
After witnessing inequality, veteran photojournalist Reza started Aina, a media training NGO to empower Afghan women. D. Parvaz Last Modified: 04 Nov 2011 18:39 inShare2
One of Aina's students, Mehria Aziz, co-directed the Emmy nominated Afghanistan Unveiled [Reza Deghati] Reza, who goes only by his first name, has spent 25 of his 30-year career as a photojournalist in war zones. In that time, he noticed the real cost of war - the destruction of cultures and of human relations. He then noticed that in Afghanistan - where he's spent a lot of time since the early 1980s - most NGOs tend to focus on rebuilding the things that have been physically destroyed by bombs. In other words, schools were built, but little attention was paid to where the education provided in those buildings would come from. Motivated by a heady mixture of frustration and hope, in 2001 Reza - a celebrated Paris-based photojournalist and documentarian for National Geographic - sold off some of his own prints and equipment to kick off Aina (Farsi for "mirror"), a program aimed at providing media media training to women (whose stories he said male foreign correspondents could not tell) and educational material to children. In the decade that has past, Aina has trained at least 500 Afghan women in audio and video techniques, teaching them how to report, photograph and document their own lives. Aina has also produced an educational magazine, Parvaz (pronounced Par-vaaz and no relation to this writer) and completed pilot projects in Sri Lanka, Uganda and more. Reza, who had started informal photography training in Pakistani refugee camps in 1983, spoke to Al Jazeera when he was at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, participating on the "Learning from Game Changers" panel. Parvaz: Tell us about your first trip to Afghanistan - what was the situation like then? Reza: The fist time was in 1983, when Afghanistan was occupied by the Russian army. I was working for Time magazine at the time ... During the Russian invasion, Afghanistan was still a really old, traditional country, and the Russians were really trying to emancipate Afghan women, and this was the biggest mistakes the Russians made. They tried to push women to the front too fast, and it created a lot of reactions [among] the people. Parvaz: Then you kept going back. Reza: I kept going back. I was there for the collapse of the Russians and the pro-Russian government, and I went there many times during the time of the Taliban, all during times of war. And this was not only a photographer, In 1990, I worked as the director of operations for the United Nations in Afghanistan, so I was very engaged with the condition of women there. Parvaz: Does what's being reported about the state of Afghan women comport with what you're observing on the ground? Reza: First of all, even the female journalists coming from the outside and trying to work with Afghan women, they are not really allowed to enter the intimate lives of the women because they are somehow always surrounded by male drivers, male interpreters, male security - that's whey even foreign women don't have a chance to intimately understand Afghan women. The only way to have the stories told was to train Afghan women themselves. And through their eyes, we were able to hear and see much deeper stories. Parvaz: So there's no reluctance for these women to tell their stories, they just need the right way to tell it. Reza: They need to be able to really work with people who they trust. When we train women there, they work with other Afghan women. And they have all suffered the same things. Parvaz: The US invaded/occupies Afghanistan for a number of stated reasons, one of them to improve the state of human rights in the country, especially for women. Have things improved for women there? Reza: The way that foreign countries came and started to emancipate women was wrong. For them it was "Hey, everybody, let's take off the burqas and go out onto the street. Even better with a miniskirt." This is the concept of freedom that was shown to them by international organisations, while we know how many generations it takes to bring cultural change to a country. They don't want miniskirts, but they want rights - they want to be educated, they want access to jobs, they want equality. But all this, when you look at the Afghan culture, it takes time ... When Afghans see women in Bermuda shorts, wearing sleeveless shirts and no bra, talking to men on American military bases, they ask me: "Is this democracy?" Parvaz: Has the situation for women improved, and how, specifically? Reza: Yes.They're not living under the Taliban now and they have more economic comforts. There are more women getting educated, and what my organisation is doing is training as many women as possible to enter communication and information centres.The effects of this will show in two or three generations, when more and more women will be running media organisations. And what they are writing, producing and broadcasting now comes from Afghan women, and they know how to spread their words and their education ...even if the Taliban come back into power, these women are there as the seeds of the resistance. Parvaz: What is the future for women in Afghanistan? Reza: It will be very tough. They were given false signals by the coalition forces that they would get freedom - [the] same for Afghan men, but women suffered more. Aina will stay there after US forces leave - I've been there for 30 years. I've seen Russians coming and leaving; I've seen Taliban coming and leaving, I've seen al-Qaeda coming and leaving, I've seen Pakistan's army coming and leavin http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/11/201111425558372171.html

'WORKERS'.....OUR SISTERS

...PHOTO THOUGHTS...: 'WORKERS'.....OUR SISTERS

NIGERIA@48

Cosa tocca fare per poter mettere il velo!

Francia, le musulmane nelle scuole cattoliche per indossare il velo
Migliaia i giovani di fede islamica che frequentano istituti cattolici per aggirare la legge sulla laicità
Le ragazze nel collegio di St. Mauront, a Marsiglia (foto dal New York Times) MARSIGLIA (Francia) – Frequentare una scuola cattolica per indossare il velo islamico. In Francia sono ormai decine di migliaia le ragazze musulmane che studiano in istituti cattolici privati per aggirare la legge sulla laicità dello Stato che vieta di ostentare simboli religiosi nelle scuole pubbliche francesi. Il New York Times dedica un ampio reportage a questo crescente fenomeno e sottolinea che le giovani musulmane scelgono gli istituti cattolici proprio perché qui sono tollerati tutti i simboli religiosi, anche quelli appartenenti a religioni diverse da quella cattolica romana.
CIFRE - La maggior parte degli studenti, in alcuni istituti privati cattolici, è di religione musulmana. Addirittura nel collegio di St. Mauront, a Marsiglia, la presenza di alunni di fede islamica raggiunge la percentuale record dell'80%. Gli istituti musulmani in Francia sono solo quattro e per questo le 8.847 scuole cattoliche sono diventate l'ultimo rifugio per quei tanti musulmani che considerano la legge sulla laicità dello Stato qualcosa di ingiusto e liberticida. Secondo le statistiche diffuse dagli insegnanti francesi oggi le scuole cattoliche transalpine sono frequentate da circa due milioni di ragazzi: oltre il 10% degli studenti sono di religione musulmana.
TOLLERANZA - Gli alunni di origine musulmana che frequentano la scuola cattolica di St. Mauront si dichiarano felici di non studiare in un istituto pubblico: «Qui almeno c'è rispetto per la nostra religione» taglia corto Nadia, studentessa di 14 anni di origine algerina. «Nelle scuole pubbliche non potrei mai indossare il velo». Anche gli esponenti del mondo religioso musulmano fanno notare le contraddizioni insite nella scuola francese. «La laicità è diventata la religione di Stato e la scuola repubblicana il suo tempio» afferma Imam Soheib Bencheikh, ex Gran Muftì di Marsiglia e oggi fondatore dell'Istituto di Alti Studi Islamici. «È ironico, ma oggi la Chiesa Cattolica è molto più tollerante dello Stato francese quando si parla di Islam» conclude Bencheikh che ha una figlia che frequenta una scuola cattolica. Gli istituti cattolici in Francia hanno un costo relativamente basso rispetto ai collegi privati delle altre nazioni: in media i genitori spendono 1400 euro per le scuole medie inferiori e 1800 euro per quelle superiori.
LIBERTÀ RELIGIOSA - Jean Chamoux, direttore dell'istituto di St. Mauront, lavora in questa scuola da circa 20 anni: «A differenza della scuola pubblica noi crediamo nella libertà religiosa» afferma il preside. «Se proibissi alle ragazze di portare il velo, la metà degli studenti che oggi sono in queste classi non andrebbe a scuola. Preferisco averli qui, parlare con loro e spiegare che esse sono ragazze fortunate perché possono scegliere». Naturalmente anche nel collegio di St. Mauront non regna sempre l'armonia. È lo stesso preside Chamoux a confessare che probabilmente una minoranza delle studentesse è costretta dai genitori a portare il velo. Inoltre quando vi sono le lezioni di nuoto, tanti familiari fanno rimanere a casa le proprie figlie per evitare che mostrino parti del corpo o che nuotino in piscina con dei ragazzi. Infine Chamoux sottolinea che anche le libertà religiose hanno un limite: quando gli studenti musulmani gli hanno chiesto di togliere dalla classe il crocifisso per poter pregare «liberamente» durante i giorni del Ramadan, egli non ha voluto sentire ragioni e non ha mosso dalla parete il simbolo cristiano.
CRITICHE – Le considerazioni dei fautori del secolarismo sono totalmente diverse da quelle del preside Chamoux. Secondo costoro bisognerebbe rafforzare ulteriormente lo spirito laico dello Stato affinché alcuni dei valori occidentali quali il rispetto della donna e le libertà personali continuino ad essere principi inviolabili: «Il velo è un simbolo sessista e attesta la sottomissione della donna all'uomo» afferma Xavier Darcos, ministro dell'educazione francese. «Nella nostra scuola repubblicana non vi può essere posto per la discriminazione sessuale».
Francesco Tortora
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GENITAL MUTILATION & IMMIGRATION

AG: Don't deport genital mutilation victim

From Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey ordered an immigration court to reconsider an African woman's case.

In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled "because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country."

Calling the rationale "flawed," Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider.

The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe.

The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home.

Mukasey cited what he concluded were two significant factual errors in the court's rejection of her appeal.

Don't Miss

• Read Mukasey's full letter to the court

"Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event," Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose "vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth."

He also concluded that the Board of Immigration Appeals was wrong to assume that the woman "must fear persecution in exactly the same form [namely, repeat female genital mutilation] to qualify for relief."

Mukasey had been urged to look into the matter by angered members of Congress in the wake of the January decision.

"This recent action taken by the Board of Immigration Appeals is a step backward for the rights of women worldwide," declared Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, in a January letter.

"Female genital mutilation is a gross violation of a woman's human rights and has traditionally been grounds for the granting of an asylum claim," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, said in the letter.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued a statement applauding Mukasey's action, and declaring female genital mutilation a "barbaric practice widely regarded as a human rights abuse."

The Justice Department acknowledged it is extraordinarily rare for an attorney general to jump into a relatively low-level immigration case. The immigration courts decide about 40,000 cases a year, and an attorney general has issued an opinion on a case only three times in the past three years.

Female genital mutilation is common in parts of Africa, Asia and in some Arab countries, according to the United Nations. The operation is viewed by some ethnic groups as a means to control a woman's sexuality and is sometimes a prerequisite for marriage or the right to inherit.

The procedure can cause tissue injury, severe infection and fever, among other complications. The U.N. has recorded cases in which hemorrhaging and infection lead to death.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/09/22/genital.mutiliation.immigrant/index.html?eref=edition

AFRICAN WOMEN

Women to rule Rwanda parliament Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show. Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females. Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament. The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote. Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days. 80-SEAT PARLIAMENT Elected seats: 53 * RPF: 42 seats, 78.76% of the vote * Social Democratic Party: 7 seats, 13.12% of the vote * Liberal Party: 4 seats, 7.5% of the vote Quota seats: 27 (women 24, youth 2, disabled 1) Women total: 44 seats, 55% of parliament Preliminary results Rwanda National Electoral Commission President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide. The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat. In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%. Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party. "The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa. "You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7620816.stm

Quote rosa in Rwanda

In Rwanda il parlamento è donna
di Umberto Martini



In Rwanda il parlamento è donna. La commissione elettorale dello stato centroafricano ha reso noti oggi i risultati delle elezioni politiche terminate il 18 settembre. La notizia è che per la prima volta al mondo, in un parlamento democraticamente eletto, il numero delle donne supera quello degli uomini: su 80 seggi infatti, 44 si declinano al femminile. Il Rwanda – alla sua seconda elezione politica all'indomani del tragico genocidio del 1994 che causò la morte di più di 800 mila persone – supera così la Svezia dove le donne sono il 47% dei parlamentari e Cuba, dove si fermano al 43,2%. La forte presenza femminile in politica rispecchia la composizione della società che è costituita per il 54,9% da donne. Per molti versi, questa è una conseguenza delle persecuzioni razziali tra hutu e tutsi che hanno caratterizzato l'intera storia del Rwanda dal giorno della sua indipendenza dal Belgio nel 1962.La notizia storica del primo parlamento rosa ha fatto passare in secondo piano la vittoria, ampiamente prevista alla vigilia, del partito del presidente della Repubblica Paul Kagame. Il Fronte patriottico rwandese ha infatti conquistato 42 dei 53 seggi disponibili nelle elezioni dirette. In tutto sono 8 le forze politiche del paese, ma soltanto tre sono rappresentate in Parlamento. Oltre al già menzionato Fpr, dei restanti 11 seggi, 7 sono stati assegnati al Partito social-democratico e 4 al Partito liberale.Paul Kagame, eletto presidente nel 2003 con il 95,05% delle preferenze, è stato spesso criticato dalle forze dell'opposizione per non rispettare i principi democratici, ma secondo gli osservatori della Comunità europea, che hanno controllato lo svolgimento della consultazione, le elezioni si sono svolte in un "clima di libertà di espressione e partecipazione al dibattito politico". Il capo degli osservatori, Michael Cashman, si è complimentato con il Comitato elettorale nazionale (NEC) per l'ordine nei seggi e per la trasparenza nello spoglio delle schede sottolineando che "in confronto alle elezioni del 2003, si sono visti molti miglioramenti anche dal punto di vista dell'informazione".In questo campo, però, il Rwanda ha compiuto pochi progressi rispetto al passato. Al momento, esistono soltanto un quotidiano e un canale televisivo a diffusione nazionale ed entrambi sono di proprietà dello stato. Pochi i media privati ed indipendenti. Uno di questi, Umuseso (in italiano "L'alba"), denuncia di frequente pressioni e minacce da parte di uomini dell'esercito e della polizia. Mentre nella classifica sulla libertà di stampa di Reporter senza frontiere, il Rwanda occupa un poco onorevole 147 posto dietro a Russia, Egitto e Tunisia.Ma in molti settori di questo paese, che ha la più alta densità di popolazione in tutto il continente africano (281 abitanti per km²), si respira un'aria di ottimismo. Da quando Kagame è al potere, gli investimenti stranieri sono aumentati vertiginosamente, mentre sanità ed istruzione iniziano finalmente ad avere a disposizione delle strutture adeguate, malgrado l'aspettativa di vita non arrivi ai 50 anni e oltre il 60 % della popolazione viva sotto la soglia di povertà.Di fatto l'esito scontato di queste elezioni non cambia nulla a livello politico. Paul Kagame, già molto potente, ne esce ancora più rafforzato. Il voto, probabilmente, è stato influenzato anche dal clima di tensione che si respira al confine con il Congo. Secondo il presidente Joseph Kabila, il governo ruandese "non è innocente" nella ripresa dei combattimenti lungo la frontiera del Nord-Kivu tra l'esercito congolese e le armate di ribelli tutsi guidate Laurent Nkundae. Questa delicata situazione, che molte volte ha già rischiato di trasformarsi in una vera e propria guerra tra vicini di casa, può aver spinto i ruandesi a scegliere un leader autorevole e carismatico, capace, come già fece nella guerra di liberazione del 1994, di imbracciare il kalshnikov e guidare l'esercito. Le prossime elezioni saranno nel 2010 quando si eleggerà il presidente della repubblica. Kagame, senza ombra di dubbio, punta ad un secondo settennato e in questo momento nessuno sembra in grado di proporsi come una valida alternativa. Per le vie di Kigali, come per quelle di Butare o Nyanza quando si parla di politica e potere si pensa subito a "mister Paul"!
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SEX IN TRAINITALIA

For those who  do not speak Italian the summary  of the story below is:

A 27   year old Nigerian lady resident in Italy was travelling in an EuroStar  train   without  a valid  ticket. The train  controller  a 53 years old Italian gave  her the option of having sex with him  for the  ticket. Sex took place in one of the cabins and after the abuse  the  lady  reported to her partner who was travelling in another  wagon, The partner called 113 (the police) on his phone. At the  bologna  station the train  controller was arrested by the police . he denied all  the  Nigerian lady accused her of ,however, Trainitalia  Spa has suspended him  for 60 day  awaiting more investigations  before other actions may be taken.

http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/notizie/rubriche/inbreve/visualizza_new.html_759745637.html

 

CAPOTRENO PRETENDE SESSO DA DONNA SENZA BIGLIETTO

BOLOGNA  - Un capotreno di 53 anni, di origine campana ma residente a Milano, è stato denunciato dalla Polfer per aver preteso una prestazione sessuale da una passeggera scoperta a viaggiare su un treno senza biglietto. L'uomo è stato sospeso in via cautelativa da Trenitalia. Il fatto è successo lo scorso 21 agosto. La donna, una ragazza nigeriana di 27 anni regolare in Italia, stava viaggiando sul convoglio 9417, un Eurostar Milano-Lecce, quando nella tarda mattinata - transitando nella zona di Reggio Emilia - è incappata nel controllo del biglietto. Il dipendente di Trenitalia, quando ha capito che la giovane non aveva il tagliando, ha spiegato alla donna che se voleva evitare le conseguenze del mancato pagamento del biglietto poteva appartarsi con lui per una prestazione sessuale. Prestazione effettivamente consumata poco dopo - sempre stando al racconto della donna - in un locale appartato in uno scomparto nella parte posteriore del convoglio.  Dopo aver subito l'abuso però la donna ha subito avvisato il compagno (che viaggiava sullo stesso treno, ma separato da lei) che a sua volta ha chiamato con il telefono cellulare il 113. A quel punto - il treno era già a ridosso della stazione ferroviaria di Bologna - sono intervenuti gli uomini della Polfer del capoluogo emiliano. I poliziotti hanno raccolto i racconti di entrambi.  Lui ha negato ogni addebito, lei invece ha fornito particolari precisi della vicenda. Alla fine la polizia ferroviaria ha denunciato l'uomo all'autorità giudiziaria per concussione sessuale. Sulla vicenda erano subito intervenute, il giorno dopo, le Ferrovie dello Stato, con una nota in cui spiegavano che il Gruppo, informato dell'episodio di "presunto tentativo di molestie sessuali" aveva "immediatamente avviato i necessari accertamenti per chiarire la dinamica dei fatti. Qualora fosse accertata la responsabilità del dipendente saranno adottati i provvedimenti disciplinari previsti". L'uomo è stato effettivamente sospeso in via cautelare per 60 giorni. In attesa che si completi l'accertamento dei fatti Trenitalia, alla luce degli elementi acquisiti, ha ritenuto opportuno applicare il provvedimento.

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Ladies and gentlemen;

The story as  told in the Italian dailies has a lot of omissions  which anyone  in the community or some of us working with  the immigration  and immigrants will easily notice. However, the investigations are for the police ,who  are  believed to be  better prepared for the job.

I explain in brief  just only two   major dynamics in this sort of case (if we  may call it a case).

 

1.First; some of the immigrant girls especially Nigerians, Rumanians, Ukraine  and south American who are clandestine  or not regular with immigration  documents caught without a valid travelling ticket by the TRAIN ITALIA CONTROLLERS   are often  threatened  and intimidated  with  handing them over to the police  at the next stop if the they do not have sex in the train with the train  operators and sometimes with their  friends also. I have over heard at my desk or during colloquium   some people who painfully accepted to 'play the game' instead of finding themselves in their countries just for an unpaid  train ticket!!!!!

 

2.Second; there are many girls  still from most of the countries  I named above  who deliberately  travel without tickets  because they have their TRAINITALIA men on board. These  ladies are mostly prostitutes going or returning  from  'work' (I dare not say it is not  work or I might run the risk of loosing any election in the community even to a Russian), These train men give them the correct time  they have to take the train and find them. I have also learnt of the train men organizing their friends to  board the train for a 'discounted show' and in turn these girls also indicate  as many people as they like that may not pay the train  fare for that trip…............'flying  (travelling) to her patronage'; I do not mean to blaspheme.

 

You can see it  is a business or game some  train  operators and some  hustlers (prostitutes)  play.

My brother  me I dey pay my ticket every time ooo.

Chukwubike Okey Charles

(Cultural Mediator)

 

TURISTA CON VELO LASCIATA FUORI DA MUSEO A VENEZIA

di Luciana Borsatti

ROMA - Velata fino agli occhi. E anche sconcertata. Così deve essere rimasta la turista musulmana che prima si è vista regolarmente rilasciare un biglietto di ingresso ad un museo, e poi è stata invitata a togliersi il niqab o ad uscire, per motivi di sicurezza, da un guardiasala.

Nei cui confronti il responsabile del museo ha annunciato provvedimenti. E' accaduto a Venezia nelle sale di Cà Rezzonico, il palazzo sul Canal Grande che ospita il museo del Settecento veneziano. La donna voleva visitarlo con la figlia e il marito, e alle casse dove ha pagato il biglietto non vi è stata alcuna obiezione. Ma quando è salita ai piani superiori ha trovato la resistenza di un guardiano, che l'ha invitata a togliersi il velo oppure ad uscire. E lei è uscita. Il conservatore del museo Filippo Pedrocco ha preso le distanze dall'episodio e si é scusato: "E stata la libera iniziativa di un guardiano, che ha commesso un grave errore - ha dichiarato - prenderemo provvedimenti". Per questioni di sicurezza a Carnevale, per esempio, le persone che entrano mascherate vengono invitate a scoprirsi il volto, ma la regola va interpretata e in questo caso, dice, "la signora aveva tutto il diritto di visitare il museo".

Non la pensa così la deputata del Pdl Suad Sbai, che è anche presidente delle donne marocchine e ha lavorato alla Federazione dei musulmani moderati nell'ambito della Consulta per l'Islam. "In Italia esiste dal 1975 una legge che vieta di girare con il volto coperto - sottolinea, in merito all'art.5 della legge Reale sull'ordine pubblico - e bene ha fatto quel guardiano a farla rispettare". "Ho letto che prenderanno provvedimenti contro il sorvegliante - prosegue - ma ha la mia solidarietà. E' il responsabile del museo che sbaglia, e che è meno informato. Se una regola vale per le maschere a Carnevale, deve valere sempre. E le regole vanno fatte conoscere".

Giudizio meno netto dal presidente degli Intellettuali Musulmani Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, già direttore del Dipartimento Dialogo Interreligioso presso il Gruppo Misto al Senato. "Un tipico pasticciaccio all'italiana", commmenta, sottolineando che le contraddizioni dell'episodio derivano dal fatto che non c'é chiarezza sulle norme né sulla loro applicazione, e lamentando "il clima di islamofobia" in cui si inserisce. Se vi sono leggi che impediscono di tenere coperto il volto in pubblico, secondo Vincenzo, bisogna distinguere caso per caso.

Ma la stessa flessibilità la chiede anche al mondo musulmano: "La religione non impone alcun obbligo sul velo ". Piuttosto, evidenzia, quello che manca è un quadro normativo generale che, attuando per l'Islam il principio costituzionale dell'intesa dello Stato con le diverse religioni, fornisca anche il contesto per un mutuo accordo sulle regole. "E in questo quadro normativo - osserva - potremmo anche metterci d'accordo sul velo".

http://temporeale.libero.it/libero/fdg/2114279.html

NIGERIAN MEN & THEIR WIVES....USA

Dear All,

People who read the journalist's reports on these killings will discover that in some areas--the writer sounds as if though he is blaming the women; in some areas the writer sounds as if though he was blaming the men. In general the writer appears to be more explicit on the names he was calling the actors.

My position is that the phenomenon is despicable-- no human being will accept that killing someone can be condoned in any way except when someone is physically or obviously on his/her way to kill someone else---in that respect--the case of self-defense may apply.

But we all must agree that sometimes in life, people do things that indeed kill other people directly or indirectly. As such, some times human beings--men or women launch a first strike if they feel that someone else is already on his/her way to kill the person one way or the other. An example will be the killing of the Supper-Star, Malvin Gay by his father--and other examples like that. But let it be clear, I do not give prescriptions for how to kill people--I do not kill people and do not intend to kill anyone or suggest that anyone should kill anyone for any reason whatsoever.

What I was alluding to is that: as a community, Nigerians in America should no longer just be wondering, name-calling, when these killings occur: people must dig deeper than that to seek solutions. In the ancient times--when certain bad things began to happen, the ancients make special journeys to visit supper Oracles for solutions. In this modern time, as well, communities consult experts for solutions. The occurrence should be researched in order to get scientific data that will help our communities to device ways for solutions.

Even just publicizing those gruesome pictures can make people to think twice when they are embarking on criminal schemes--both the men and the women. For quite some time now--most people who came from Africa have the feeling and belief that people from Africa cannot be as deadly as some Americans: they want to use American laws the ways it fits them, but pretend that they do not also know that Americans also, when people do them things that defy morality/humanity/ and rationality- -they some times as well snap and do strange things. For example, a woman who shot the man who raped her very young boy and the courts seemed to be handling the man in a softer way; we have seen lovers shoot people who seemed to put their hands in the mouth of the person they violated.

Some Nigerian men who know clearly that our Nigerian laws forbid men going around (f----king/screwing ) peoples' wives, do it anyways simply because they factor that Nigerian people do not shoot. When you go to parties in this America--and in the party there are Americans and Nigerians in the party--the people Nigerian Coward men would openly be chasing are women with other Nigerians. It is not that they think that they are physically stronger than the Nigerian men who may be there with the women; it is simply because the bad Nigerian men are so cowardly that they just cannot dare mess with women with Americans openly.

They know that Americans of all types will waste no minute in executing them, if the felt insulted by the Nigerian or any man in that matter. I have observed this in many states and places I have been. The same is the case with some of our women--some (bullshits they feed Nigerian men--are sometimes because they felt that Nigerian men are not violent--that they do not kill. While I will like an immediate stoppage to these senseless killings--I also hope that people who are still alive can take some lessens from what have happened so far. Do not dare anyone so badly! If you are a woman--once you know that you are doing certain things you would not have been doing ordinarily in our cultures to a man--do not be too sure of his resolve to endure; if you are a man--and doing bad things with the belief that American laws are on your side or easy on those things--do not be too sure about that. The man you are messing with his wife or the woman you are messing with could also possibly act like American-borns.

One time in California, one woman whom people say was a pauper in Nigeria--but when one guy from her area went home, married and brought her here, trained her in nursing school; after she started making money she filed for divorce and took the houses, the children and so on. Although in a court of law--the system made the woman to be paying the guy back some money; but that woman had the habit of every place there is a party where she knows that the guy will be there--she goes there and be doing all sorts of things she could do to provoke the guy. We have not heard that anything happened, but I felt that the woman should have been more careful and take precaution than that. At least, try to avoid contacts with the guy to give the devil no chance. To prove that the woman may be the offender there--we have learned that she went home and remarried and brought a guy from Nigeria here--and the same thing that happened with her and the first guy happened again--and the newest guy fled off from her.

I have criticized bad Nigerian men: I supported none of them. I am simply saying that--sometimes our people overdrive this their understanding of American ways of living--and it have been showing.

There is one altruism, once there is a conflict--the parties to the conflict all have a share in the causes of that conflict one way or the other. The idea of blaming one party is absolutely wrong. For that reason, we need to research the phenomenon so that we can use the scientific finding to educate our people--both from home and those who are already here.

IF NIGERIAN WOMEN IN NIGERIAN AND OUR MEN ARE SEEING THOSE PICTURES--THEY MUST HAVE LEARNED FEW THINGS FROM THERE. WHEN SOMEONE STAYS HERE AND KEEPS TELLING A WOMEN WHO IS STILL AT HOME THAT AMERICAN LAWS FAVOR WOMEN OR A NIGERIAN MAN WHO IS BEING UNDER ILLUSIONS OF WHAT THIS COUNTRY IS ABOUT, OR IS NOT, THE FATE OF THE MEN IN THE PICTURES MUST HAVE TOLD THEM ONE THING OR ANOTHER. THAT SOMETIMES--A NIGERIAN COULD ALSO ACT LIKE AMERICANS. IF SOMETHING IS NOT DONE--SOON, THE WOMEN WILL ALSO BEGIN TO DO WHAT AMERICAN WOMEN DO AS WELL. SWINDLING A MAN OR WOMAN WITH THE HOPE THAT ONE WILL GET WAY WITH IT--MAY BE BECOMING A THING OF THE PAST. LET US LEAVE ALL CHEATING; DUPING; SWINDLING; AND BE GOOD LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS OF AMERICA AND NIGERIA.

As to Yoruba men--one of the men is a Yoruba man--this ugly event touched on all the major peoples of Nigeria--look at the names well. We may give the credit of not being among this evil by Hausa people to their women's culture. As you know that--the Hausas and Muslims maintain zero tolerance when it comes to a woman going "wild" if you like. Perhaps the answer to that question is that the people adhere to their culture even while here. If the Southerners and their Christian beliefs are too easy to transgress-- the Muslims and Hausas are not that way yet. I do not see Hausa men in this America their wives would prepare and head to parties alone as some Southerns wives do and many other things they know they could not do in Nigeria. The two most obvious bones of contention-- center on fidelity issues and money. We shall be saying more on this.

Jerry Stephens

(USA)

NIGERIAN MEN WIFE-KILLERS IN AMERICA !

Have you ever seen the face of a wife killer? Have you ever met anyone who took the life of the mother of his children? Have you ever seen or met such a person who is a Nigerian? How spooky it is indeed that such a person has the blood of another human being and a Nigerian for that matter, drooling over his hands! Such a hallowing experience becomes much creepier, when that monster who took the life of a Nigerian is also a fellow Nigerian whom you may have interacted with somehow. somewhat! Now buckle up your belt as Icheoku takes you on a harried excursion through the faces, names and somewhat biographies of some of these denigrate of society! They are painting the average Joe-Nigerian man in American as a domestic violent person; a potential wife killer! A bad name indeed, really? They are the worst of the Nigerian male society in America : the dregs of the society! They are the fabled black-sheep who have defiled and violated the sanctity of the Nigerian family cohesiveness. These men killed their WIVES! They made their children motherless! It is abominable! Brace yourself! Now, meet denigrate person wife-killer number one, Mr. Kelechi Charles Emeruwa:- A Nigerian Mr. Kelechi Charles Emeruwa, (pictured here right) 41 of Old Umuahia, Abia State was charged and convicted with first degree murder of his estranged wife, 36 year old Registered Nurse, Chidiebere Omenihu Ochulo. Kelechi finally lost it and stabbed his wife, with her own kitchen knife, several times that the fountain left on Julius Ceaser fades in comparison, until she gave up the ghost. "According to the account, Chidiebere had just returned from Nigeria where she bolted away for three weeks to give her late father a lavish burial despite protestations of Mr. Kelechi of the bills that are accruing and payable here in America . She wouldn't hear any of it, after-all she makes the money; only to return to an angry frustrated maniacal husband who took her kitchen knife and carved her up. It was on New Year's Day, in her townhouse in the 4200 block of Dunwood Terrace, in the Washington DC suburb of Burtonsville in Montgomery County , Maryland . For a l ittle biography, Chidiebere was born on June 1, 1970 and attended schools in Umuahia and Yola before proceeding to University of Nigeria Nsukka where she bagged a degree in Microbiology. She then got married to Kelechi in 1996 and left for the US the same year, having won the American Visa lottery. In an effort to really settle down in the US and get a respectable job, she took a second degree in Nursing and began a career at Washington Hospital Centre. As a result of her hard work, she got to the peak of the administrative cadre as a Deputy Director, Clinical Services, at the Centre where she remained until her death in the cold hands of the man she once loved - the father of her three children. In Tennessee, a Nigerian man after taking it for so long, lost his cool and shot his Registered Nurse wife as well as his hitherto mother in-law to death with a shot gun. According to the account this RN wife was married from Nigeria a pauper and brought to the United States by this m an, who trained her in school as a registered nurse. Soon after her qualification, the demon in her was let loose and it became one torment after another, with one police call after another followed by sleep-over in police cells and it went on and on ad infinitum. After a protracted battle with the authorities at the wife's instigation, this man lost his almost nearly paid-off home to his wife, including the custody of his three kids by her. He sees these kids just periodically according to court's order and at the discretionary behest of the wife who sometimes comes to the appointed custody visitation ground at a time of her choosing; just to punish and suffer this man. He could not take it any longer and now the rest is history with two women shot dead and the killer in death row awaiting the electric chair. Another lunatic fringed monster, Mr. Theophilus Ojukwu has equally entered the annals of Nigerian men wife-killers in the United States of America ! This cancer of wife killing by Nigerian husbands is fast spreading that the Nigerian society is getting numb and used to it, as one of the social maladies of our times. A heinous act which hitherto would be very abominable that people are shocked to their bone marrows is today seen as a possibility. In Garland, Texas on Saturday, March 25, 2007 Mr.Theophilus Ojukwu, (pictured right in his orange prison jumpsuit) 46, of Enugwu-Agu, Ihe in Awgu LGA, Enugu State used a mattock (hammer) to bludgeon his deeply asleep RN wife, Melvina Ojukwu, 36, of Umuanebe, also of Ihe, Awgu LGA, Enugu State to a very painful agonizing death. Sources close to the family said that about two years ago, Melvina's mother and mother in-law of Theophilus, who was visiting from Nigeria tragically died in a mysterious circumstance, in a bathtub in their house at 5400 block of Barcelona Drive , Garland Texas ; this is where Melvina also met her untimely and heartbreaking death. Whether this is a chain of events is inconclusive but both situations were very tragic! Mr Theophilus Ojukwu has since been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole; that one w ould ask, is the craze to control the RN's "legendary money- faucet" enough for this tragedy and the life imprisonment consequence thereof? In another family-related violent incident involving a Nigerian, it was reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitutio n of March 8, 2006 that a Registered Nurse Roseline Unachukwu, 34, and her six children were taken to the family violence shelter, Northwest YWCA in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, as a result of physical violence. According to people with knowledge of the incident, the poor lady escaped with her life from her husband's maniacal rage with very severe cuts in her arms which she received while fending off her husband's killer-rage. Her husband, Benjamin Unachukwu from Nnewi, Anambra State , was taken to jail to face two criminal charges with the kitchen-knife weapon of choice as evidence exhibit! In Los Angeles California it was reported that a Nigerian RN wife was brutally murdered by her husband. The viciousness of the attack was such that the man eventually tied the dead body of his wife to his truck and dragged her dead body through the roads and streets of Southern California until=2 0her skull gave up its cranial contents. He was eventually arrested, charged, tried and convicted for first degree murder with special circumstance which carries the death penalty! He is presently awaiting a date with the lethal injection in a cold segregated death-row prison cell! Only recently, one Nigeria RN woman living in Dallas Texas had this to write on the Internet about her fellow estranged Nigerian husband:- "I have been married to Mr. X (real name excluded by Icheoku as we do not want to be a purveyor of this domestic madness) for 20years, and had five children for him. I was married to him at the age of 18years, and joined him in Dallas from Nigeria after my high school. For those 20years of marriage which can pass for 20years of bondage and slavery, I have had to endure constant physical abuse, verbal abuse, and emotional abuse and mental torture in the hands of Mr. X. I am asking whosoever that=2 0reads my story to please send it out to as many forums as they have access to. Silence they say is golden. But if you are dealing with a mad, sad, disgruntled man like Benjamin X, silence will no longer be golden". And what could have driven a Nigerian wife to write such an unflattering "oration" about her husband, one would ask? The answer depends on who you ask. Is this couple close to the finish line? Similarly, in Grand Prairie , Dallas , Texas , Mrs. Monireti Abeni Akeredolu, (pictured below in her wedding with her killer-husband) a 46-year old Registered Nurse from Ondo State Nigeria met her untimely death in the hands of her estranged husband, Mr. Ebenezer Akeredolu, Sr., 48. According to the story, Mr. Akeredolu drove several hundred miles from Georgia (where he had moved to nurse his pains at loosing everything he had worked so hard for since coming to the United States several decades ago) to Dallas and pumped several bullet s into his ex-wife in day light, with so many people watching the macabre spectacle. Mrs. Monireti died slumped in the wheels of her SUV enroute to a birthday party in her honor – she had just turned 46 a day before on September 7, 2005. Not too long ago, also, on August 10, 2005 in Euless, a suburb of Dallas, another frustrated Nigerian husband, 45-year old Johnny Omorogieva from Edo State, Nigeria murdered his RN wife, Mrs. Isatu Omorogieva, 35, also of Edo State by savagely striking her on the head numerous times with a hammer in the full view of their 7-year old screaming daughter. In Tulsa, Oklahoma a yet to be fully authenticated report has it that another Nigerian man recently bludgeoned his RN wife to death while she was fast asleep; following a traumatic life which she has subjected him to since turning into the majority bread winner of the family following her graduating from a nursing program. Another Nigerian nut-case, Mr. John Onwuka (pictured here right in his orange prison jumpsuit) 49, from Akwete community of Ohafia Bende Local Government Area of Abia State was charged with one count each of homicide and use of a knife in the commission of a felony. He stabbed his RN wife of twenty five years, Mrs Gloria Uchechi Anya Onwuka age 42, fourteen times in her bedroom while she was getting ready to go to work. She was a nurse manager. Mr. John Onwuka committed this crime on the night of Saturday August 19, 2006 at the home of his wife in Estate Drive , Farmington , Hampton , Virginia with her children watching him act out his gory insanity. "Yes I have killed the woman that messed my life up! A woman that had destroyed me. I am at Shalom West, my name is Michael and am all yours". With those words - a 911 call placed to the authorities, another Nigeria man has joined the infamous heinous club of Nigerian Men Wife Killers. Fifty year old Mr. Michael Collins Iheme (pictured here left) of Hennepin Minnesota placed the call above few minutes after shooting his twenty eight year old wife, Mrs. Anthonia Eberechi iheme, the mother of his 4 year old boy and 3 year old girl, to death. What is wrong with this crazed out Nigeria man was that he lacked the stomach to take all the bullshit he was forced to take by a typical Nigerian "Nurse" wife. However in as much as Icheoku does not condone such misbehaviour of taking the life of another, these Nigeria men who marry "fedexed" wives should better watch it as what they bargained for might not necessarily always come to fruition. There is no need travelling to Africa to find a wife - if it is akaata, filpino. latina mamacita, oke-bekee or even chinese that loves you, please settle down with such a person. Your love for foofoo and egusi soup is not enough to trade your happiness and possibly freedom when they make you do the unthinkable like our Mr. Micahel Collins Iheme and crew. For the records, it would appear that majority of these uxoricides occ urred in Dallas , Texas ! Leading to the question, whuz up Dallas ? Is there any maniacal peculiarity with Nigerian men living in Dallas ? Further, most of the victims were Registered Nurses which forces one to ask is the "war over the purse" of who controls this their "legendary treasure trove" enough reason to commit the most heinous of all crimes? Also the number of such homicides is rather astronomical judging the sanctity of life-environment from which majority of these homicidal maniacs come from back in Nigeria . Admitted, that it is dreadfully wrong and also a sacrilege for anyone to take the life of another, especially if that other was a spouse; but what could be the driving factor of this senseless exhibition of ravenous rage by some frustrated Nigerian men in the United States of America ? This question is imperative because there are other more acceptable options available for getting out of a hellish marriage including just getting up and leaving; mutual separation; taking a second wife just like the Mormons of Texas, Utah and Nevada; becoming a bachelor once again; keeping a girl friend outside your so called matrimonial home or the penultimate divorce instead of committing the mother of all crimes - taking the life of another! Nothing is worth it! Does the underlying problem defy every solution imaginable? NO!=2 0Take a deep breath and consider other options including the almighty walking-out! Nothing is worth the trouble! Not all the diamonds in South Africa and/or gold in Fort Knox ! The "mansion" which you are fighting for, you did not bring it with you to America ? The SUV or Mercedes car that is making you to loose your head, the manufacturing plant in Stuttgart Germany has not yet closed shop! In your convoluted suspicion that your wife is sleeping around because she dresses well, ask yourself, where is the foundational trust of your relationship and at worst, were you the first man in her life? Did you break her virginity and why do you think it is either you with her or nobody at all, that you will rather have her dead than loose her to someone else? Have you also tried getting professional counseling or earnestly engaging your wife in an open discussion to find out what you may be doing wrong and make amends where necessary. Have you tried temporary separation for a cool-off period? At worst get an amicable divorce so that you guys can remain friends for the benefit of the children! Before you write that check which you cannot cash, please stop and ask yourself, before you met her did you not have any life? It is not worth it! Learn to move on; as around the next corner may be lurking your real wife of "Christian marriage" who will really cherish and love you for who you are! Your wife's leaving you is not the end of the world as we know it! As the popular aphorism goes, "when one door closes another one is open down the road". Nothing is worth the taking of life and not that of a spouse who also is a Nigerian! PLEASE GET A LIFE! Ezeamii, Hyacinth