Hey I'm baccckk!

Hey I'm back and I just wanna wish everyone Naija and Non Naija alike a happy holidays!

My Girl Sade with the Neptunes.

Excuse my brief pause in typing...

But i am taking a week off for some personal reasons.

i love u guys and wish u a happy holidays!

Sade...a Nigerian legend.

Everyone knows about Sade. Songs like "No Ordinary Love" or "Stronger than Pride" are what your parents call the good stuff. Its true when you listen to her smooth voice enunciate every word you get a sense of her profound talent and crafty story telling. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria raised in Colchester, Essex, Helen Folasade Adu listened to alot of Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfiled. I really like Sade.


Sade was never overly raunchy or too sexual...but sensual. You knew that when she sang about a song it was love driven with a bit of innuendo but still innocent to kids under the age of ten. Sade is talented and beautiful, she never felt the need to flaunt her body excessively but only when appropriate. Yes of course she has some rather risque photos out there but what gets me is the fact that she always holds her stature so high. Its her poise and lady like etiquette that really gets me the most about her. She isnt loud or in your face but very quiet and chill.I guess for her its about the art of making music not the money or fame. I admire her a lot and honestly would like to be like her . Check her out:

Lagos is bacccckkkk!

the new Lagos is coming and i want to see it. Last time i was home it was during the Abacha drama:

CNN International:Uwem Akpan

An amazing writer.

Pics of me just being Fly!

Who says African women aren't beautiful?
man i have been trying to lose some weight i think its working! You decide:

Me before at a size 12-14:


me now, yes I know my camera's time is wrong:
yea thats me...but seriously I'm now a 10 and I'm going to keep on moving....I'm going to be the biggest loser!

man i'm so sorry that i haven't been on my job

so heres whats happening now:

my life has been pretty regular i have been working and studying and cooking and sleeping very little.
just getting ready for the holidays. Being super bad, this year so i know i'm getting coal from Santa but its ok cus i am going to make grilled chicken and spicy tofu with it! yea! But Seriously, tis the season to give and to eat so i am trying to decide what food and i gonna make for the thanksgiving season. I want it to be West African. Check it out some pics of dishes i have made:

barbeq chicken...yes i can still cook meat although i think its nasty.

okra soup....yummy its a west African thang.

thats me right here: stewed rice with curry tofu...yea!

Also to come: fried plantains, jollof rice, Flat bread pizza, Not Cho Nachos and egusi soup with fufu pics and recipes

Hafsat Abiola and women in power

This is a women who I had the fortune to call Aunty. (my dad knows her). Hafsat Abiola the founder of KIND. The daughter of Abiola.

Chiamanda preach girl friend!

An bright young African who speaks my dialect...litterally. lol.

omigod i hate spell check!! ggggrrr...

Sorry if my post are a bit confusing at times. I use spell check and it sometimes changes things.
Here are some corrections:

• I dont have kids. I meant IF I had kids.
• I meant "Yem Sprite, biko) which means give me the Sprite please.

So there you have it.

African Fashion Week, Dahling!

Grace Jones in New York and I missed it.

Yup Fashion Week in Africa has just passed and I have been working and missed it completely. Oh, you didn't know that Africans have a fashion week, eh? Well we do just like our sisters from the Northern hemisphere, Africa has its own vibrant taste in fashion,. Generally, Africans are known to wear really bright colors. Like neon green bright, or blind you into submission yellow and very confusing patterns.

I have alot of African colors back home and I can get some from my Aunties relatively cheaply. So need less to say I will never buy African clothes in the United States...there is really little to no point unless I desperately needed them for some cultural event (which because I work and am trying to get my dumb butt back to school) I rarely attend.

Really the only thing I really enjoyed other than weddings and yam festivals were African Fashion Weeks. Its like a lady family reunion. All of my cousins or my Aunts would call and ask if I wanted to go. It was super fly cus it gave me a concept of fashion. Now I was not a sleek dresser but I tried to look somewhat decent when hanging out with my larger then life cousins in their Fendi, Gucci or Baby Phat. Sometimes we would buy tees from the designers just to show our support. The shows were local but it was just funny to see.

I noticed that African fashion week is taking mainstream some of my Aunts called me and asked if I wanted to go to New York. I respectably declined cus I had a busy work schedule and it wasn't practical since I am planning a wedding. Trying to save not spend. Shit, right now if I had a life saber I would cut a penny in half. But I was intrigued: "what else is going on that I don't know about?" "Its been a few years since I have been home (aka Nigeria)"

So I googled African Fashion week and behold the Mecca of all things Girly and African! The new African magazine, Arise had a big colorful fashion week and critics say it was amazing. So here I am now wanted to be a part of the whole scene. I missed Grace Jones and Alex Wek. How do you miss Grace Jones? Any who its ok my reason (my bills) is a righteous one. On the bright side there will be others and when (if God willing) I am more fiscally stable I will begin to go again.

Alex Wek leading the pack. A beautiful colorful bevy of cool dresses and people.

However, I think I will take baby steps. Finish school, get married, get out of debt, get my first hybrid and/or house. Stuff like that. I may never be a fancy leggy model but I can still go to the African Fashion Weeks or at least rock the latest African gear.

cHECK OuT aRISE MAGAzine:

http://www.arisemagazine.net/

Funny songs from Naija !

This isn't that funny its just very old school. Its an igbo song about a gal. Yes guys like gals in Africa, its all the same.

ITS THE IGBO DMX LOL...LOL.

Igbo Language 101: This our alphabet

Repeat after me: Aaah, Bi, Chi, Dee, F,Ge, Gbe...yes you are saying the Igbo Alphabet. Its ok if you cant say it all either can I. I know its sad but its true, in fact there are tons of words that have to be said in English cause our langaue is so ancient. So a typical sentence may be like this:

Yem Sprite, biko.

Sort of like that. I dont know everything in Igbo but IF I do have kids I would want to teach them so I guess I will have to start to refresh myself again since I am so used to spaking english. My oyinbo boyfriend jokes with me alot but he is staring to slowly understand some of the words I use. (I can't call him a stupid foreigner any more behind his back...lol) Its cute to actually see him repond to simple things like water. Its exciting to slowly integrate him into Igbo customs.

Wanna learn to check out this site:

• http://ilc.igbonet.com/

• http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/3629/igbo.html

missing home

I was really missing the homeland last week so I decided to buy a $5 phone card and phone home.
So I called my grand ma and my folks in Nigeria and just told them that I was getting married. Of course my grandma was thrilled! Its like the second best thing for a young lady. The first is finishing college and the third is having a son. I told her that he was "Oyinbo Black nwoke" (which means A foreign black man) I tried explaining that he had a fair complexion similar to my aunt Helen that he wasn't "Ocha" (white...even though there is nothing wrong with white guys) She understood and she was excited.

Its kind of hard when half of your family is in a different country, you kind of feel alone especially when you are closer to that half. In Nigeria most women have like seven to ten kids so some of my Aunts are like around my age or a tad bit older and while I respect them as my seniors in my family around elders we gossip and shop in the streets.

I remember being like 12 and staying in the dorms at Enugu University with my aunt and her friends. Or going to the market early in the morning to buy stockfish, beans, bread and canned tomatoes then going to get my hair cornrowed with my aunts.

Needless to say I miss them alot. I wish I could go back and eat some of my grandma's cooking. You can smell her stews up the street. Or going to church early Sunday morning in my grandpa's old yellow car, driving on dirt roads makes you appreciate American pot holes.

I miss my grandfather the most. I have not been to his grave and I feel really shitty about it...I miss having talks with him. His proverbs about life and trying to do the right thing even with folks you don't really like. "You enemy should not know that he or she is your enemy because the rain falls on your door and his alike"

this was going to be a post about weddings but I guess it became a glimpse in to the Africa I know and miss.

Down grade of the party

So my Aunt and Uncle fly from their side of the pond, Lagos Nigeria to visit me ( and alot of my family) here is the US of A. Its not there first time but I am happy like a kid in a candy store with no adults. I'm listening to Fela Kuti and telling folks about Seal "Did you know that Seal isn't British, he's Nigerian!" and basically being overly Afro happy ( yes its a new term, don't hate). My man who is American has never been to an African party. FYI, African parties are legendary. Its the one time when some of the cheapest Africans wear Gucci eyeglasses. Wedding receptions (cus most Africans skip the ceremony), Birthdays, Yam festivals (yes this is a real African holiday sort of) you name it, we love to party. So I'm super excited to take his butt to my uncle's house to meet the folks. We are in the car and I cant stop talking about how big this is. One he will finally met my folks and he will get a feel for my culture.So we pull up and there are no cars. In fact, there is no music not even a flute. So I'm a bit confused but still excited. Then we get to the down and every one is watching TV, eating jollof rice and there are only two balloons.My Aunt downgraded her party!...I'm a little upset but in the end it turned out alright.

Welcome to all things young, real and Nigerian!

Welcome to Fufu Is Meant To Be Swallowed!

Its a blog about being a young Nigerian lady in America. The sites, the sounds, the culture, the funny, the good, the bad and the weird.
Obviously I'm Nigerian or of Nigerian descent. Actually, I'm half Nigerian ( my other parent isn't... yeah, yeah sort of like Obama) and I'm Igbo by tribe.

What does that mean? Nothing and everything. You see Igbo is to me a lost and hidden language. Its like Latin, there is little to no practical application for the tongue internationally yet its fun to use it when you are talking about people with your cousins.

seriously, Igbo or Ibo same thing is more then just a complex tongue its a culture a way of life which I will write more about later.

I want to dispel the myths about Africa and Nigeria. Such as "Nigerians are all scammers!" Not True, some Nigerians are scammers just like some people (Enron Corp, weird late night commercial people) who live in America are scammers. Needless to say, If you get an email from some distant Nigerian dude who is rich and wants to give you his hard earned money cus you live on the other side of the pond...its bull.

If you get an email from some beautiful African lady who wants to marry you only because you live on the other side of the pond ( not because you are wealthy, handsome, funny, extremely smart, talented or tall...its true all women like these things) then its some bull.

I'm just being honest. so whether you like it or hate her it is cus contrary to popular belief Nigerians are just like you and no matter what anyone says fufu is meant to be swallowed not chewed