Good Read: The Girl With The Louding Voice - Abi Dare

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  In this remarkable story, Adunni, the main character, depicts ambition fuelled with a burning desire to succeed despite all odds. Tales of this type still abound in Lagos, and they are portrayed in the media daily. Adunni is hailed as the poor girl with a rich mind, "Sherlock Holmes," who never stops asking intelligent questions, a child-bride, and a strong-willed girl who grew up fast due to the circumstance her parents put her through. However, she had the guts to pursue the life she wanted. - An education by any means necessary.  Adunni finally got her groove back after reading such an easy book, I could relate to the characters there. the harsh and despicable reality of Lagos till date. I would recommend this book to my friends and would love to see it turned into a film.

Chineke! Orchestra To Debut At Southbank

Chineke Orchestra
Europe’s first professional orchestra made up entirely of musicians of colour will make its performance debut this September at the Southbank Centre in London.

The Chineke! Orchestra and Foundation is the brainchild of renowned British double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE, who co-founded the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and serves as Professor of Double Bass Historical Studies at the Royal Academy of Music.


It was Nwanoku who chose the ensemble’s name (pronounced CHI-neh-keh), which comes from the Igbo tribe in south-eastern Nigeria. Meaning ‘spirit of creation’, the word is frequently used as an exclamation of good tidings among Igbo people (‘Chineke! Amazing!), hence the exclamation mark in the title.

Nwanoku, the daughter of an Igbo father and an Irish mother, grew up in Kent in a town where hers was the only black family. ‘I’ve always felt as though I completely belong to the country and society in which I live,’ she says, ‘and I’ve never gone through my life feeling like I’m a token person of colour. I wasn’t brought up to be a statistic – I was brought up to be who I am, and being mixed race is not part of my agenda.

‘But it is clear to me that there are many reasons why people like me, people of colour, are not coming through, why they’re so very underrpresented in the arts in this country. And I know for a fact it’s not due to lack of talent.’

Chineke! is a conscious effort to redress the balance in classical music as far as race is concerned, both in the UK and across Europe. Nwanoku recruited the members of her new 60-piece ensemble (led by American violinist Tai Murray and conducted by black British conductor Wayne Marshall) by mining her impressive Rolodex of musician contacts for recommendations of professional musicians from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds.

The Chineke! Orchestra make their debut on Sunday 13 September at the Southbank Centre as part of the third annual Africa Utopia festival (10-13 September 2015). For more information about the Chineke! Orchestra and Foundation (including how to get involved), visit chineke.org.


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