My thoughts on emotanafricana’s 1st anniversary

by Ajipeya Afunleyin

Morning supposedly shows the day as childhood shows manhood. From the rich background of Emotan and the varied experiences of the blogger, one cannot expect anything less than what the blog contains.

Furthermore, the output of this blogger shows that she is somebody who does not leave what should be done today till tomorrow. The productivity of the blogger and timeliness of the blogs underscore the importance of being earnest. If there are prayer warriors in churches, it seems there are equally opinion warriors in journalism, and this blogger is one.

When the blog started, there were a lot of politically-inspired write-ups. This is to be expected because the blog started during the last general elections and the blogger is a political animal, having served as student union secretary during her school days at the Ibadan Polytechnic as gathered from the blog.

The blogger’s past in newspaper journalism prepares her well for that period in Nigeria’s political history. In essence, most of what was put out at the time of the birth of the blog are to a great extent offshoots of the blogger’s newspaper articles in the Comet and The Nation. Thus, she remains true to form and only changed the medium through which her message is delivered. It is noteworthy that the blogger does not limit her forays into politics to Nigeria. Essays on US politics seem easy to her and have found place in Emotan blogs.

The Emotan blog does not believe in self-censorship and believes in telling it like it is. This is quite evident in the thrust of the blog which is to serve as a conscience of the nation. This is how she used to write in the Comet and the Nation and long ago, in the Sketch and her magazine for women, Emotan which was popular with both genders in the 70s and 80s.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. The blog mixes it up in a very interesting manner by writing on human-angle issues – the sixteen year old Nigerian girl that was admitted to Harvard which she copied from Sahara Reporters, a source of many of the articles that are not written by her; the passing of the Kenyan marathon runner, etc. It has catered to women issues, especially celebrating high achievers among Nigerian women such as Chief Folake Akintunde-Ighodalo; Mrs. Folake Solanke (Lady SAN), Mrs. Kuforiji Olubi, and among younger generation were Folake Ayoola, a US attorney.

It has also been more of a repository of culture. To most of the young folks the blogger, like a born teacher, has been writing about the Yoruba culture with missionary zeal but for most of us who have read her articles for a long time, before the Yoruba cultural foray was the name Emotan that she chose for her magazine back in the 1970s.  Emotan is Edo.

The blog has continued where the blogger left off in newspapers on the dangers of Yoruba becoming a lost language. The blog has emphasized the need for all of us to speak Yoruba in the home in order to avoid losing this language. Still on culture, the blog has explained in detail what each of the three major aso oke (sanyan, alari and etu) stand for in the Yoruba culture.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this short write-up we are all beneficiaries of the fruits of the varied background and knowledge of this blogger. The blog has served articles on all aspects of sports – football (the British football league), tennis, hockey, field events such as running, etc.