Welcome to Okafor Uzoamaka's blog.

   Stephen Hawking was deeply concerned about two things: Artificial Intelligence or AI for short, and human population. Both disturb me, but I am more concerned about the latter, without undermining the relationship which exists between both. Stephen Hawking was not the only person concerned about the exponential increase in human population. Remember Thomas Malthus in our secondary school economics? As far back as 1798, he too was concerned. He voiced his concern about the steady increase in human population, explaining that at a stage, the world will be unable to feed itself. This is captured in what is referred to as T he Malthusian Theory of Population . This theory explains that the rate of increase in human population is geometric, while that of food production is arithmetic, and without conscious appropriate measures, human population will be threatened to extinction because of hunger. The Malthusian Theory of Population is a theory of exponential population grow...

"All powerful and merciful father, you are the God of justice love and peace. You rule over all the Nations of Earth. Power and Might are in your hands and no one can withstand you. We present our country Nigeria before you ."   These are the first few words from the 'Prayer for Nigeria in Distress'. It's been prayed by millions of Catholics in Nigeria for over twenty-five years. And it's recited after the reception of the Holy Communion- which is believed to be the Body and Blood of Christ. In otherwords, it's recited at about the time one is in his/her highest state of grace. There are hundreds of other prayers recited for Nigeria, both composed and spontaneous, by different churches, and maybe mosques. But has Nigeria been saved from distress? The problem with this country isn't religion. Because when one understands what religion is really all about we know that we're not a religious people. Rather we're people who like to erect struc...

I saw the signs. From your actions and inactions. Words- spoken and unspoken. I felt it too. Those times I held my breath because something as simple as breath could trigger you. I felt it in every insult I received from you. Every punch. I saw the signs, but I didn't leave. You were perfect to be left and I was deformed. You made me feel less. I actually was less. I was less pretty. Less intelligent. Less human. This was why I felt honoured to be called yours. Because you chose me even  in my deformed state. Like Christ chose us, though we're unworthy. Those advising me to leave you wouldn't understand. Or perhaps they envied me and wanted to have you. They wouldn't understand how much you loved me. For how often does a man as busy as you make out time to hit someone into becoming better? I understood that you needed me to be better those times you hit me. For like clay, I had to be melted before moulded. You are my potter and I, your clay. You assured me you loved...

                               Photography by Kray AUTHORS: UZOAMAKA OKAFOR, CHIOMA ABIAKAM (talkingpapers.blogspot.com) You see, this man Etiosa has been my friend for some years. Eight years to be precise. We met at the clinic my wife delivered of our first child. "Be a man," he told me when he noticed how troubled I was as I waited for my wife to put to bed. “What does it mean to be a man? I asked "I'm not even sure I know. I'm Etiosa." He said introducing himself. I just nodded as I was in no mood for a conversation. “Are you waiting for your wife too?  I asked after a while. "Yes." “How have you managed to maintain such serenity?" “Oh, she just had another miscarriage so we came to see the doctor. She's not in the labor room. I was short of the right words. "That's very sad. Be a man. I said." “What does it mean to be a man?" He asked. "I'm not even sure I know." I reply, and ...

There are two things that can neither be created nor destroyed- God and energy. I'll be discussing the latter. Not really though, but just to aid in teaching against engaging in 'incessant' sex. I'll be elucidating us, as best as I can on Sex transmutation. That's what this article is mainly about. Ever noticed how tired you feel after having sex? Mostly mind blowing sex. Oppss..I'm sorry, you're still a fargin. But either ways, you've seen it in movies. Well, that sigh given off is not just caused by tiredness, but is a result of emission. No, not of the cum but of 'energy'. Energy which is not measured in Joules. Before I continue, let me clarify us on the meaning of Sex Transmutation. According to Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich, "Sex transmutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expression, to thoughts of some other nature." Since energy can neither...

Sometimes, the act or significance of something is made graver by being labelled.   Label: a classifying phrase or name applied to a person or thing, especially one that is inaccurate or restrictive. (According to google.) The power of labels is not to be undermined. A married woman who seeks a child may not be so bothered by the fact that she has no offspring borne of her as she would be when she remembers she would be called 'barren' or 'childless'. So while praying she asks God to save her from the shame of being called barren. She is more concerned by the label her 'condition' has brought upon her, than the condition itself. Let me give another example- a woman who has lost her husband is labelled a widow. This connotation evokes pity, it reminds the bearer that she's unfortunate. Don't get me wrong. It's a great misfortune to lose one's husband, and it's unfortunate enough. Giving the 'condition' a label makes it more unfor...

Every night we die For 't's then our sorrows come alive We recount the day's sour tale Even stories we thought stale Every night we die For 't's then incubus comes alive Whispering distasteful nonsenses We can't recount with our senses Every night we die For 't's then our debts come alive Debts owed both in cash and kind In times we wish we could unwind Every night we die For 't's then the dead come alive Spirits haunted into leaving Spirits haunting the living Every night we die For while asleep We do not know if we'll slip Into the land of no return Every night we die.                                    Okafor Uzoamaka

We have been here before. Those times we argued till we had our backs up against the wall. We've been here, together but alone. Speaking in loud silence, till our unspoken words made the other fade; then vanish. Vanish gradually, like lead being erased from paper, as if to effect less shade before being erased. Totally. We've been here those mornings I confronted you about the condoms I saw all around the room. Used. They were just two or three and carefully tucked in the corners of the visitors room by a careless person. That was initially. You got bold and littered them all around the parlour, as if telling me: see where all the sperm we would have used in trying harder to get a child went to. I shouted, cried and begged till I was tired. Then, suddenly I stopped. I stopped begging. I stopped crying. I refused to get mad or ask you anything about it. You knew I knew you were still having affairs. You just didn't know why I refused to ask you anything about it again. T...

The aloe vera plant on our balcony refused to grow. It preferred to remain stagnant, until it started to shrink. It was no fault of ours. It was a personal choice of its, for it had a mind of its own. We watered it daily, made it accessible to adequate sunlight, put it in good soil. What else did it need? So when my mother compared my sister to the aloe vera plant, I knew she was one step from giving up on her, just as we were from giving up on the aloe vera plant. "At least if we throw away the aloe vera, it could be manure." My mother said. "You'll have no use even if you're thrown away." On a lighter note, I would have shouted: one-zero, indicating that my mother just scored a savage point against my sister. But this wasn't a lighter note, and since I wasn't interested in having my previous misdeeds exhumed like my sister's, I kept quiet. I couldn't quite get the reason for all the shouting initially, but I knew it had to do with our...

Whenever Tecno and Wizkid's Mama comes on, I replace 'money' with 'bae', praying my hustle for one pays off. 'Who did I offend?' Has been the constant question on my mind. It wasn't easy to be single at this age, and of all places in Lagos! Lagos where all assortment of men existed. Orishirishi. Gbogbo ti gbo. Yet I could not lay claim to one, at least. I didn't come to Lagos to find love. I came for money, but no matter how much I tried, I could not pretend that my relationship status wasn't affecting my psyche. Motivational speakers could not even help in this case. "Build a good relationship with God and a stable career, men will come in droves." I was tired of hearing that line or anything similar to it. "Ada guess what!" Said Folake, my colleague, snapping me out of my thoughts. She didn't even wait for me to guess. "Lanre is planning a surprise trip for us to La Campagne Tropicana for Valentine. I...

AUTHOR: DIANA NWAOKOLO There are days I love him, and there are days I just hate him with my whole being. I put my heart on my fingertips and pour emotions from my ink pen to paper, but this one man... This one sensual being makes it hard for me to write coherent sentences. I had poems about all of them,that I wrote at the height of my feelings for them. But this one man . Oh, just this numero uno makes words that fall so easily from my tongue, stick to the up of my mouth!! I want to write about him, but then he leaves me breathless without even trying. This is the love spin, and there are days- like today, where he just makes me see trolls and monsters and say things I can't believe and not be there when he's supposed to. So I sit to think with a glass of milk of all the times he's done me bad and I've just been going along with it and I say to myself, "Girl, he gon get it today!" He drives over right about then and his hands and lips tell me tales ...

While humming Enya's Oiche Chiun Chorale, you tucked your hair behind your ear once more as you tried to avoid the sun rays that sneaked into the room through the curtain. "Why do you keep dodging the sun rays?" I asked.  "I do not want to admit it's morning yet," you said. "We decide when it's morning in this world of ours, not the sun." I said.  You smiled. This year, we decided not to prepare the conventional Christmas meal of rice and chicken for ourselves. We decided not to do anything 'normal' that year. So instead of having rice and chicken, we went for yam and egg sauce and shared rice and chicken for the children. We decided not to take any fancy trip or decorate our house. We called all the roaming children on our street and had them sit under the canopy we erected the previous day. Initially, we were torn between going to visit the less privileged and calling the ones we saw on our streets- we opted for the later. ...

You looked at me with eyes that spoke. "I love you," you said, "but cannot be with you." That wasn't what I heard when I listened to your eyes. I heard, "I'd love to be with you forever." I heard only the 'I love you', without the 'but'. "Why?" I asked. "I can't actually say," you started, then went on to ramble about being from an endogamous people. It wasn't enough to be an Igbo, I had to be from your village too. "It's not you Kosarachi,' you said, 'it's me. It's my village people. I cannot marry a girl that's not from my village." "Really?" "Really. I swear it." "What are the consequences?" I asked. "I don't know, but I know it will give my father a heart attack." "The same father that didn't have a heart attack when you got a Yoruba girl pregnant." "Pregnancy is different from marriage. It...

One night while I was awake listening to the tales of the mosquitoes and the wooing of the female frogs by the male frogs while the crickets chirped, I realized that I was sick. I have known this since, but  tonight's  re-realization seemed like an annunciation. I felt, perhaps how Mary felt when the Angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to bear the savior of the world. She, just as I now, knew without doubt that the message wasn't fallacious.  "I'll make sweet love to you" I heard one of the male frogs say. "I'll give you greener and bigger children", said the other.  I didn't take my time to know what lines the other male frogs dropped as my attention was diverted to the mosquitoes.  "Let's go over to that room, they don't have nets there. We'll be sure to suck to our satisfaction."  "Ahhh. You don't know what you're saying o. My cousin's nephew's step sister died there yesterday. They no...

Because of the other woman. You pulled the curtains down, The moon suddenly seemed too bright for you, The stars too curious And the breeze too occupying Because of the other woman, You forget those days you waited eagerly for night, now you pray for dawn always so you can take your flight through crowded highways Because of the other woman, I have become to you, an unripe udara , lacking in taste and brightness, as ugly as the ‘ ajagara-igwe’ your grandfather left you. as ice without cream. Because of you, The fire which burned within me, Now burns by the end of my cigarette. but this I promise, I shall pick myself up and I shall rise.

This is, perhaps, my favorite poem of all time so I thought to share. If you savor each sentence while reading, you may know why. Desiderata BY MAX EHRMAN Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of...

“We look good together." I wanted to ask if f**k boys have a school they all attend, or if, as a matter of convenience, a 'words-to-say-to-get-the-jar- open' manual was in circulation. But I didn't. "You're the prettiest girl I know." You continued. "Eziokwu." I said to myself.  "I could be doing something totally unrelated to you and you pop into my head. "Osheyyy pin-pop" (within me). "I'm serious. I know you think I'm prevaricating. Ask Philip, my neighbour. Just the other day..." "It's ok. I believe you." I said with a tagged smile to cut you short, and at the same time wondering how I got myself in this mess. Which one is pre-whatever again! Williams was better. Although he was a f**k boy, he didn't speak too much English.  Where did I install this problem from? I asked myself. O! Pekas. *sighs* So one  Friday  my friends and I wanted to hangout (TGIF).  We decided to go to Pe...