“So do you play baseball in Nigeria?” my friend Ernie asked as he switched lanes. We were heading on I4 to Lakeland to play table tennis. “No. Cricket’s about the only batting game,” I replied. “Now that’s one game I’ve never understood. Wickets, fielding, batting — I don’t know anything about that stuff. I know […]

A long, long time ago in the Okuleye family it was customary to serve oneself from the soup pot when Mom wasn’t home yet — or when she gave you the go-ahead to do so. Whenever this happened, there was the unspoken rule that you had to limit yourself to one piece of meat, so […]

The first Oluchi I knew was a runny-nose crybaby in Primary One, the first Ernest a fair-skinned math teacher with huge nostrils who grinned as he strolled around you when you got a question wrong, before applying a cane to your unsuspecting back. My first Ifeoma was a cheery, brilliant girl in my class who […]

My cellphone rang loudly, rousing me from the uneasy sleep I had just drifted into. I reached for it, with half a mind not to answer if it was my elder brother, ‘Chief.’ It was. Courtesy, and the knowledge that I seldom called him, won out. I flipped the phone open. “Hello?” “Hello! Azuka, this […]

In what way is an operating system like a government? It seldom functions correctly… Enough said. I’m back.