"We did not revel in the idea of Christmas presents (we had very few) or the dubious ‘magic’ of Christmas. We had jollof rice and chicken—who needs magic when you have jollof? We sang all the wrong words to all the classic Christmas carols [Who had ever heard of a ONE-HORSE open sleigh???]"

It is December 1st and time to share my "Uncle Christmas" picture on another social media platform. (Any ideas on how to properly describe this in the ALT text info?)

Mehn, Nigerian Father Christmas memes are some of my favourite things to watch in December

Too afraid to start another Laura Kinsale after being burned so bad by Fool Moon and French Lessons. Every other thing makes up for it though but I fear for me, this makes Kinsale on abi is it at par, with Sherry Thomas and Judy Cuevas who have never let me down as badly

Always something new to learn when I read Panu Minkkinen's The Radiance of Justice

Miss proper *unbattered* Nigerian fried fish, beef and chicken/turkey, the only proper way to fry protein - batter-free. I think in the new year I will get a deep fryer so I can achieve the degree of heat I think is necessary to get that golden brown crisp without the thing drinking up all the oil

I've just watched a few LoK clips (I only watched S2) and I think I've gotten over my anger that Zutara wasn't canon enough to consider watching the entire thing 🤔

The number one use for generative AI for these and similar professions - and I am not doing a bit here, and I do think it is genuinely incredibly useful - is in handling a certain kind of 'tedious but important correspondence'.

Mehn, I know it's such a small, probably stupid little thing but I'm so happy to see the plant referred to as "cocoa" rather than "cacao" which is how we the Africans refer who grow the bulk of the world's cocoa refer to it. revista.drclas.harvard.edu/cocoa-versus...

When I say in many ways, Big Tech is building for the Global South and I don't mean this in a positive way, this is what I mean. As far back as 2013, Facebook began offering Facebook Basics to internet users in developing countries where access to the internet is expensive for free.

The spread of the idea that the ultimate sin wasn't cruelty or selfishness but rather "virtue signaling" has horribly corroded public morality over the last decade. A sizable bloc of the public now openly believes that supporting violent domination is preferable to advocating traditional virtues.

people simply do not remember the recession of the early 1990s (which formed the backdrop of films like FALLING DOWN). and the idea that the 80s were a decade of economic stagnation for most americans just isn't in the popular mind at all.

not that the present economic picture is rosy, but i do think that popular culture — and specifically nostalgia bait television — is a big part of the reason that our public memory of the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s seems to miss the real economic pain that marked each of those decades.

👏🏿 👏🏿

Mass deportations don’t protect working people—they weaken labor standards, silence organizing and empower bad employers. An attack on immigrant workers is an attack on ALL workers. @jimmy-iupat.bsky.social

Biblically accurate Herod and Herod's soldiers

Toor. I think Europe is already there. The only saving grace for migrants (in the UK especially) is all the hard work done by Black British people that has forced a recognition and acceptance of non-white people as citizens and humans deserving of human rights. I mean just talk to people

Finally found a store that stocked phone cases for my old pixel. It looks really nice now and some of my avarice for the new Pixels has ebbed

So it's not the Labour Party with their anti-immigrant policies that are granting respectability to the discontent stirred up by Reform? Hm

Altemeyer’s observation: the one survey question with the strongest power to separate right-wing authoritarians from others was not a political question at all but a question about child-rearing: What is more important, to raise children who are curious or obedient? RWAs choose obedient.

I send the longest voice notes of anyone I know and there are types of people those who refer to them as voice notes/VNs and those who refer to them as "voice memos"

For someone whose name is Favour it's probably some sort of character defect that I don't know what the right way to pronounce "savour" is. I feel it's sah-vor. But Favour isn't pronounced fah-vor, er, typically. Otoh, say-vor doesn't feel right either 😐

Remember when I went to China in April with a group of undergraduates and quite a few PhD students and we walked past this shrine in Xi'An and there was wide screen, a TV I think playing something and lots of people were shocked, scandalised, offended on behalf of the Chinese to see a TV in a

Ooh, new WhatsApp desktop interface. Fair, there's been a ridiculous amount of whatsapp updates on the app recently, many of which it has been impossible to view or replicate or interact on the desktop app

Lol I guess we can say if nothing else, Dangote's increasing foray into Nigerian politics will continue to provide lots of amusement. Game of thrones has nothing on Nigerian political intrigue

🤔 I don't even really think of America as a Catholic country in the way of say idk Italy or South America. Not American but parts of Nigeria that are Catholic strongholds like the SE, there's such a strong sense of pride for a member of the family to join the priesthood, pressure even to do so.

Realising since leaving Nigeria that when people in the Global North say human they're mostly referring to white people + Global North racial minorities. It's why I prefer to say westerner and not "white people" because not all the erasure and invisibilisation I experience comes from white people

Language is so political sha and that's why I think while the Southern Africans and East Africans are able to adopt Swahili, while us West Africans are making do with pidgin

The Nigerian r is many things: aro, aru, arrr. I've heard arrow even in Benin 😭

I think this is very obviously the case too in Nigeria where what I would call Standard Nigerian English, the English which when you hear it, you would be extremely hard pressed to figure out the speakers ethnicity originates from the South South and the Middle Belt where there are so many ethnic

Nigerians also say aks by the way. Aks me how I know? 😩 Met this German guy at BILETA in April who aksed me why his Nigerian friends say aks. I don't know. That's how we say it. And yes, I know not all Nigerians. But also not all the time. I tend to say aks, "she aksed me" when I feel relaxed

A morning spent reflecting on Nigerian boarding school life which continues in British Lord of the flies fashion .

Weirdly I think my written and spoken English have worsened since leaving Nigeria. I'm not actually sure why but I have my suspicions 🌚 At the very least in Nigeria, people, your peers, mean strangers on the internet/classmates, correct - sometimes nicely, sometimes not - your broken English.

Is this not something people do?? I'm remembering being in primary school and my teacher teaching us to use it in debates to introduce a new point? 🤔 And in Nigeria at least, it's quite common to use however not in the "but" sense but as a replacement for "whichever way."

This is one of those the grass is greener on the other side things. So I got my undergraduate law degree in Nigeria and I also did the mandatory qualifying Law programme. 5 years for the first, 1 year for the second - in all, 6 years as a Nigerian law student.

Lots of conversation here about why returning to twitter is bad, which I have mixed feelings about. I guess it's easy to frame one's departure as a necessary one but from what I can see, most people here are Global Northerners and have the cultural and social capital due to being from this part of

One crucial thing I've observed (in middle class circles) is that everyone thinks that apprenticeships are a really good idea and more people should do them instead of degrees except for them/their children, who were perfectly suited for higher education

Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who tackled one of the Bondi killers, became an Australian citizen 3 years ago. His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship." He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm. www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Long haired black women complaining about how difficult it is to style their hair is like rich people moaning about how money isn't everything. 😩 Please! Iydgtf.

God, everything I've seen in clips about Bob hearts Abishola has me convinced it's a great show. Very heartwarming. The characters seem really nice and warm hearted. But the costuming! The awful Yorubanese, Nigerianese, Africanese etc. all make me suspect it was written by a second generation

I forgot to bring garri with me to this strange land. Probably for the best. They might have confiscated my precious garri

I *loved* the best of Twitter and Bsky is a pallid replacement. But X contrived to replace stimulating discussion with ragebait. I found myself being edged into angry political discussions I didn't want to be part of. I am not obliged to use a product that's farming me for outrage.

Shet. Might have made a mistake with this thing/person. Let's wait and see sha

The result, broadly speaking, is wealthy white people pointing the finger at much poorer Black and Brown people and saying, “You're the problem.” It's more than a distraction, it's a grim and sometimes racist alternative to effective action. It’s an excuse for *inaction*. 12/13

Something must be done about *them* breeding too fast, rather than *us* consuming too fast. All too often, residual population growth is used as a scapegoat to shift blame from rich-world impacts, which means that the people in places where growth is still occurring are themselves scapegoated. 11/13

In the short run, we can survive the decline in wealthy countries by reopening the door to immigrants, which would also offer sanctuary to people fleeing from the climate breakdown and conflict we've caused overseas. Two wins, in other words. In the long run, we'll steadily shuffle away. 8/13

There's almost nothing we can do about that either. It's about as locked in as any human behaviour can be. As the opportunity costs of childcare rise (i.e. as prosperity increases), the birth rate declines. 6/13

All women should have total reproductive freedom and full access to modern birth control. *Because it’s a fundamental right.* NOT because old men on other continents want them to have fewer children. Even if it became universal now, it would scarcely nudge the curve, due to the factors above. 4/13

B. infant mortality has declined very fast and longevity has risen very fast. Again, there's nothing you can do about either of those things and, I hope, nothing you would want to. 3/13

Please read my new essay: "Indian Nights, Hausa Mornings: Cinema, Weddings and Women's Words in Northern Nigeria." #Bollywood #Kannywood #India #Nigeria #Film elnathanjohn.substack.com/p/indian-nig...