Admin - The Custodians of African Literature (COAL)

Gender Balance: a needless competition

The quest for gender parity all over the world is beyond just a campaign, it is a reflection of the inner yearning for societal balance driven by social justice for all. The 2019 International Women’s Day is another time to reflect on what gender equality is or should be, and why it is needed for sustainable growth in nations. As the old aphorism goes ‘where the value of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable,’ this has been the case for most women all over the world. A reason for the abuse of women is tied to the underdevelopment of the collective consciousness of humans in what is right and beneficial to the overall existence of all.

As great as the Sustainable Development Goals are towards achieving gender parity, if people do not know why they should respect and take these goals seriously then it is of no use hammering on them. And rather than becoming reactionary to societal problems, we should first seek to know and understand the root causes of these problems to be able to provide any sustainable solutions to them.

Gender balance is a given in nature; animals, plants, the human physiology are palpable proofs of how all things work effectively when in a state of balance. Therefore, the campaign for gender parity should not be competitive in its approach, rather, it should be complementary to the value of balance and necessity for mutual growth and benefit to both genders in all aspects of life. There is no need to persuade people to respect what is naturally of value to them and every human being needs to be given equal respect and value irrespective of what gender they are.

Women and girls represent half of the world’s population, thereby revealing the enormous importance for their development and contributions to the overall development of the world, it will be foolish to discard the smallest fraction of this huge population. However, over the years, the female gender hasn’t been given equal value and respect in the world, this also is evident in some disturbing statistics. In 2015 there were only 21 female Heads of State, over 150 countries have at least one actively sexist law and each minute 28 girls are married before they are ready. 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime, and there are approximately 781 million illiterate adults worldwide- two-thirds are women and about 63 million girls still need to go to school. The staggering statistics is a wake-up call on all humans to embrace their shared humanity in upholding the dignity of life and respect for all people.

‘‘The 2019 International Women’s Day theme Think equal, build smart, innovate for change focuses on innovative ways in which gender equality and the empowerment of women can be advanced, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.’’ Real innovation stems from the love which seeks the good of all. Gender parity shouldn’t be a one-sided struggle of two opposing standards, rather, it should be a complementary struggle upholding the equal importance of both genders in appreciation to their peculiarities, intelligence, and contributions to the development of the world.

As we celebrate women today, I call on everyone to advocate for value-based equality and not competitive equality, in doing so, we hold each other accountable for the enhancement of our collective consciousness in what is right, in what is of value and of overall benefit to all. A woman shouldn’t beg to be respected and treated fairly, she should simply be accorded respect because she is human, and should be treated equitably just like anyone else.

International Women’s Day Mini Saga Challenge

To celebrate 2019 International Women’s Day, we are delighted to team up with Caprecon Foundation for a mini saga writing contest on the theme ”Balance for Better”⠀

How to Participate:

like @coalng and @caprecondevelopmentfoundation pages on facebook
Mail your fifty word story to custodiansofafricanliterature@gmail.com
Top five stories selected by our judges would be reposted on our Facebook page where the public would vote for the winning story.

Price:
• 10,000 naira cash.

Competition is open from 27th February to March 6th 2019. Winner would be announced on the 8th of March 2019.

Good luck writers and tag a friend !

Coal Founder Patience Andrew becomes an Atlas Corps Fellow

Literature has been imperative in society as an active tool of advocacy for civil melioration. Once again, it proves true as COAL founder enlists with the Atlas Corps fellowship program. The social activist, poet, on-air-personality, has shown commitment in using and providing the platform for literary expression towards development and innovation. The very plinth COAL rests on.

Patience Andrew has a deep-seated desire to use her skill for societal development as seen in her enrollment of the Atlas Corp fellowship – an international organization established for more than a decade of promoting innovation and cooperation among leaders while providing solutions to address current world challenges.

The COAL founder will serve as Boston Program Coordinator Fellow and will primarily focus on direct youth work including daily intensive group facilitation with teens. She will work as part of TE (Teen Empowerment ) Organizers responsible for the day-to-day operations of a TE operations site. the 12-18 month long program will see her associate with skilled professionals of like minds from across the world and from different sectors of leadership, a step further in making literary consciousness and participation a vanguard in the campaign for societal development.

We at COAL are proud of her and we will continue to push for social transformation using the art.

Overcoming Hate: The Role Of Conscious Literatures

‘‘Writers are shapers of life; they are the wheels controlling what direction our minds travel to and how far the journey goes. They are the gods that determine what creed or rituals befitting for shaping the extent of our realization of truth.’’

History serves as a palpable proof of man’s insatiable desire for wrong doings, this was revealed in wars and the ubiquitous pride of individuals and nations who boasted of the knowledge and weaponry they had amassed to destroy other races, people and nations they considered as threats to their economy, ideologies or conceived power. This is not just historical but equally present in the world right now. This thirst for malevolence is not and should not be conceived only in the tussle between world powers, it is very much present in our individual lives and interactions with one another on a daily basis.

In a world where so much is preached about love and the need for unity, it is also a world plagued with so much hate, separation, poverty, corruption, diseases and death. We’ve become reactionary to these problems and fail to understand why they happen, or our contributions to these ills and why the drive for lasting peace or love is delusive by the day. It is because man (generically) does not know who he really is and how he is to behave; it is because man understands himself only based on what he sees. It is because man is not awakened to realize his real self beyond his ties to the material; it is because man can never be good outside the spirit.

It is however clear that there is something invincible binding the entire human race, whether it is believed as true or not. There is an invincible tie binding us all to a collective experience of all the happenings in the world, and this connectedness affects our relationship with one another and all life forms present in the universe. Man is affected by his environment as much as environment is shaped by man’s actions and inactions. If there is a clear basis for such understanding, it is therefore necessary to strive in knowing how to bring about balance and lasting peace in the world.

But pathetically, a spiritually unconscious man is trying so hard to bring peace to a spiritually unconscious world. The world’s drive in bringing about harmony has been somewhat disruptive in its approach to solving one problem to the other. This will equally create other problems that will need other disruptive ideas to solve it, and on and on it goes. This will never bring about any sustainable solution to the dissonance we experience today. To soundly understand who we are, we must first understand the primal nature of ourselves. Are we just what we see or is there something more to us? How do we build a collective consciousness in love that seeks the good of all? It doesn’t happen by just preaching about love or by trying to be good, it happens only when there is an awakening in our consciousness and in the realization of the essence of our beings. We have come to accept that love is the most powerful force in the universe, yet fail to give or experience this love in all situations in our interactions with people. We choose those we love and those we don’t and further create separation amongst each other, whereas this love force we all experience should have been an indicator to our desire for what is good and how much we all long for a touch of love and kindness.

As a literary artist, I have experienced the power of literature and the decisive role it plays in building sound knowledge of diverse human experiences. Literatures have been very compelling and powerful means in shaping how people think, and literatures are written by men and women awakened at different levels of self realization either in good or bad; and these literatures have been resources for human knowledge and reasoning. With such level of influence, it isn’t surprising therefore of how ideologies have shaped people, nations and how the world is structured today. This reveals the enormous power man has in contributing to every activity in the world. Every idea, belief, systems is always shaped by a person whether it is written or unwritten.

The world’s quest for knowledge has become increasingly voracious and the availability of myriad information in different fields of study has rather left many more confused than enlightened. Imagine if we had a world of spiritually awakened minds who shape thoughts, experiences and knowledge based on truth, imagine the beauty of diversity which invariable brings us all to one truth we know as love. This will further drive and deepen our consciousness in what is true, in what is of value and of utmost benefit to all.

So, for us to have conscious literatures, we must first have conscious people who will in turn write conscious literatures. And to be spiritually conscious takes a grave and honest seeking of truth, the source energy of the universe or God. Nobody truly becomes awakened without earnestly seeking. Whatever form of literature, be it prose, poetry or drama, fiction or nonfiction, it must always seek to express the universality of truth hidden in love and oneness of all.

Literature should be beyond the mere intelligent collection of words, ideas or facts to create fun or meaning, it should be conscious, decisive and intently created to transform its readers for good. Writers are shapers of life; they are the wheels controlling what direction our minds travel to and how far the journey goes. They are the gods that determine what creed or rituals befitting for shaping the extent of our realization of truth.