Oxford Dictionary

Plagiarism

noun

[mass noun]

the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

Tuck is no longer a virgin. We lost our innocence earlier this year, courtesy of plagiarist David R. Morgan

This had to happen and in a way it was a clear indication that Tuck is no longer an obscure publication on the fringe. We are now a respected and viable resource for poets and writers seeking the validation of publication and because our reputation has been growing, it is a surprise we weren’t hoodwinked sooner.

Plagiarist and wannabe poet David R. Morgan perpetrated an incredible creative fraud on many publishing entities such as Ink, Sweat and Tears, Poetry Space and Tuck, passing off the work of poets Charles O Hartman, Colin Morton and Roger McGough as his own. The work he pilfered in both print and online were complete poems and not just extracts. He was brazen enough to comply with a photograph for us, showing no fear of exposure. So complete was this sham that even icon and poet Ted Hughes was snookered. You can read Hughes’ assessment HERE.

Plagiarism is theft and we all know the human capacity for lifting things that belong to another. Dishonesty plagues us in advertising, government responses to public inquiry, celebrity culture and let’s be frank many people won’t even tell the truth about their age, thus lying has become the order of the day in every sphere of life. If I were to wax philosophical I could say that we are all getting our panties in a wad over something that is a symptom of a greater problem and not the problem itself. Indeed, it is a more complex issue than plagiarized poetry and not one we will probably ever solve unless individually we all have a spiritual epiphany and ascend to a higher plane. I won’t hold my breath for that but on the other hand there is a positive to this negative: The reason David R. Morgan was able to fool so many for so long says more about the good in our society than the bad. Despite the corruption that exists on this planet, we operate on a foundation of trust, giving the benefit of the doubt often and while this does make us vulnerable, it is essential for any group to function at all.  I for one don’t want to lose this very humane way of relating in an otherwise jaded, isolated and cynical world.

In the future Tuck will be paying even closer attention to every submission sent to us but we are not going to be Chicken Little, no matter how many people keep pointing up at the sky in a panic. Tuck exists to give talented emerging indie writers a publishing clip and a confidence boost and we will not deviate from that policy.

Ultimately, Morgan’s admission of guilt was smug, his apology trite and convenient but from this fiasco, something important has occurred: poetry is being discussed. Say what you will, the poetry community hasn’t had this much mainstream chatter in a good long time, and as Oscar Wilde once said “The only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about.”

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GRIFTERS OF THE WORD: PLAGIARISM, POETRY AND TUCK
TUCK
TUCK - ...magazine

By

Mbizo Chirasha

Like Zimbabwe, most states in Africa are endowed with creative acumen and literary prowess. Zimbabwe, the country north of the Limpopo and south of the Zambezi, exudes both talent and natural endowment, while the country is faced with unending political paradoxes, social and economic ironies.

Arriving at the road and airports in the pockets of Harare, your face is smashed with horrific print headlines yawning of corrupt technocrats and political stalwarts under suspension and investigation. Your ears are choked with radios belting out Chimurenga hit songs and the sanctions rhetoric.

The television news bulletins belch out fat ministers signing cultural, educational and financial treaties in the Far East, accompanied by excess baggage – their delegations gobbling up what’s left of the corruption-roasted national purse.

Where are the pen pundits, where are the scribes, poets, writers and their swords? The myth of censorship puts writers and poets in despair, the fear of becoming victims of the state and its apparatus. Fear of the known and the unknown. In this country floating in political oil pans, poets and writers are not recognised, though their pens and voices can bring positive social and political change. Their platform is replaced by bootlickers and revolutionary hit singers. Bootlickers who do not criticise the ills of the state but celebrate everything, mostly propaganda gossip and cheap slogans.

For the past 13 years, writers’ organisations have been defunct. The Literary hubs crumbled down. Only the Book Café, that also happens to be the Poetry Hub where poets exhibit their talents, still remains. This Poetry Pub, the Book Café, hosts literary evenings and the popular House of Hunger Poetry Slam where young word revolutionaries, spoken-word poets, hip-hop cats, jargonists and performance poets battle it out, displaying their verbal dexterity, spitting out their patriotism to the state that rejected them. Some sing their revolutionary praise to the absent functionaries, some are aggressive verbal anarchists advocating for a change in the political class, the dead economy and rotting social and moral fabric – the Book Café has become the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s As you like it – a land of beauty, expression, naturalness and freedom, though with its own complexities.

The voices of poets in Zimbabwe, their voices of reason, are not heard because literary initiatives are not nationalised and not even greased with funding for continuity. They are just dangling in small pockets of cities and streets, they don’t reach those who matter the most, because those who matter most don’t give a damn about any literary existence, nor so its growth or promotion. Few of the state functionaries read books and poetry, to some extent newspapers. In Zimbabwe we don’t have publishing houses and the state has long stopped supporting the creative and book industry.

Writers and Poets who still follow the dream are real literary revolutionaries who do not care about sleeping on groaning stomachs – hunger, wretchedness and desperation. These are strong individuals who require a lot of respect and grand support because they have maintained the creative terrain and literary landscape in a state burning with political expediency, shrinking in corruption and roasting in mass poverty, rotting of propaganda and looting.

Mbizo Chirasha

Mbizo Chirasha The Black Poet, works as a poet/writer in residence , creative/literary projects expert , poetry festivals manager and performance poet. He is an acclaimed international performances poet and is published in more than 60 journals around the the world, websites, anthologies and literary reviews. He also works as a media relations strategist and consultant.

Mbizo’s Poetry can be found at http://www.mbizotheblackpoet.blogspot.ca/  and blog at http://personalitiesofinspiration.wordpress.com/ also.

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Poetry Pubs, Hubs and the State !
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Administrator
Early African Historians’ Writings Before 1945: Precursors of Modern African Historiography
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and the arts magazine

By

Durodola Tosin

This essay intends to examine the ways by which the early African historians’ writings before 1945 could be considered precursors of modern African historiography. We examine four early African historians – Carl Reindorf of Ghana, Sir Apolo Kagwa of Uganda, Jacob Egharevba of Benin and Samuel Johnson of Nigeria, their works, writings and contributions to African historiography.

They have influenced the development of African historiography and their works are precursors of modern African historiography acknowledged by succeeding historians. To an extent the early African historians’ works remain a vital source of information about the African past.

Scrutiny

The writings of the early African historians before 1945 influenced the development of modern African historiography in so many ways. Their motivation, style of motivation and writing and also their contributions to the development of African historiography have been of great influence.

Carl Reindorf is the author of “The History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti” published in 1895. Sir Apolo Kagwa wrote “The Customs of the Buganda” which was translated by E.C Kalibale and published in 1934. Jacob Egharevba wrote his famous book “A Short History of Benin’ which was first published by the C.M.S bookshop and it’s the only one of his 18 publications mostly dealing with the History and Customs of Benin Kingdom. Samuel Johnson also wrote “History of the Yoruba” which has become a vocal point of the Yoruba History.

It should be noted that these four historians are merely representative of a class of African educated elites who were among the inspired to write about the history of their people. There were many others, for instance, in Yoruba land; R.C.C Love noted that there were twenty-two historians– local historians who wrote like that because they were also inspired. They were often writing in vernacular.

These early African historians were not trained historians; they were largely motivated by patriotism. This motivation and patriotic desire inspired them to dig deep in the search for truth and information about African past. Their motivation has been a source of inspiration for other writers like R.S Smith. This motivation has driven many historians to develop interest in African historiography.

Reindorf wrote in the preface of his book that “It is most desirable that a history of the Gold Coast should be written by one who has not only studied but has had a privilege of initiation into the history of his former inhabitants and writes with a true nature of patriotism. Also, Egharevba summed up his motivation for writing in the preface of his book that “in necessity for the production of this little work may be seen from the fact that though every country have its own history but yet that of our native land Benin, we know but little.”

This same patriotic zeal and desire was in Johnson’s book “The History of Yoruba”. He wrote in his preface that “what led to this production was not the desire of the author to appear in print but a purely patriotic motive that the history of our fatherland might not be lost in oblivion…..” Johnson believes that the Yoruba has a glorious past in the chaotic condition of Yoruba land and he was hoping that his people will rise from their disunity to achieve the standards of the good old days. He wrote to inculcate self-respect and national consciousness in the way of writing the achievements of the Yoruba land.

Furthermore, the writings of the early African historians have been of great influence in modern African historiography in several ways apart from their motivation to write. Their writings have given other writers something to work on, that is, it has become a precursor of modern African historiography whereby other African historians can use it as a reference point in their works on African past.

Their patriotic desire to preserve their people’s heritage made them devote sessions of their works to customs, laws and its usages among their people. For instance;

Chapters 2-8 of Johnson’s history of Yoruba deal with religion, the political system, manners and customs, and principle of the landlord among the Yoruba. About 173 pages of ethnographic materials served as a kind of introduction and insight into the life and culture of Yoruba.

Sir Apolo Kagwa’s book is basically a history of Kings and Queens of Buganda, their characteristics, the prominent men of their time, a good proportion of the book was devoted into aspects like the customs and culture of Uganda.

Egharevba wrote in his book solely to preserve from oblivion the ancient laws and customs of the ancient race. There are 16 appendixes to a small famous book with matters as the royal families, Benin titles, ancient form of government, ancient method of warfare and other aspects of Benin culture.

Moreover, the methodology used by these historians made a lot of contributions to modern African historiography. The early African historians relied heavily on oral tradition.

Apolo Kagwa said he collected his materials for his book largely from Busiro kingdom reputed as the capital of Kings of Uganda and also the place for royal burials. There was the residence of most of the wives and servants of the deceased kings.

Egharevba in his book relied on sources from the Ihogbe – these are the worshippers and recorders of departed Oba. He also relied on the Ogbelaka – these are the royal ballads and singers, the royal blacksmiths, and obtained information also from Eweka II in 1930 who gave home attention for three hours. The main source of his book that concerns lives of the famous Iyases 1946 was the children of Ohemwen of a renowned Iyase of the past who visited him at his residence on February 1942.

Also, the field work undertaken by Samuel Johnson in his book was impressive even by modern standards. He was a cousin of Alaafin Adeyemi and had free access to the palace historians. He met Timi of Ede, Oba Lagunju, a recognised authority of Yoruba history; he also had an encounter with David Kukomi – a Patriarch of the Ibadan church who was also a participant in the wars and national movements of the period. Kukomi was able to give him an eye witness account of the sayings and prevailing thoughts and ideas of important personalities of the period – King Abiodun and so on. He also met one Josiah Oni who was a trade and intelligent observer and well acquainted with every part of Yoruba Land. According to Johnson there were other sources of oral data.

Nevertheless, Carl Reindorf similarly explained how he got his information. Reindorf’s methodology was one of the most distinguishing aspects of contributions to the growth of modern African historiography. He was meticulous, and made use of three sources – oral tradition, eye witness and written sources. Most important of these oral sources was that he was greatly influenced by his cultural background. He spent more than 30 years collecting sources for his book. He was aware of the necessity to consult all available written sources – Danish papers which were translated into German specifically for him by Reverend Steiner, and also made use of European travellers’ accounts, like Thomas Bowditch, William Bosman, all of whom he generously acknowledged like a modern historian would.

Reindorf was denied access to British colonial papers of the past which he lamented that such papers would have furnished him with correct dates and substantial information.

Furthermore, the style of writing of these early African historians was of great influence in the development of modern African historiography. In terms of presentation, the early African historians wrote in a narrative vein and usually chronological order. To them history is one long narration highlighting the glorious moments.

Reindorf defines history as “The methodological narration of events, the order in which they occur…..the causes and effect and the auxiliaries and tendencies of that which has occurred in connection with a nation.”

We can judge from their writing that the other early African historians have the same belief in the nature of history. They also had in common the tendency to emphasise the great and powerful, the colourful and the glamorous could have risen from the peculiarity of oral tradition.

However, the early African historians seem to place value on the European orientation by which even the colonial rule was seen as an avenue of Africa development by them.

Samuel Johnson welcomed the British intervention in Yoruba Land which he saw as the only answer for the establishment of peace paving way for the spread of Christianity and western civilisation. He even hoped that the declaration of British protectorate over Yoruba Land would benefit his people.

This notion of Samuel Johnson can be subjected to criticism because several records revealed that colonial intervention and colonial rule undermined the development of Africa and it is still one of the problems of nation building in Nigeria. Debt crises, monetisation of African economies during the colonial era, little or accidental developmental projects and a mono-cropping system is a major factor for heavily indebtedness and economy devastation in Africa. This has placed African countries at a disadvantageous position among the developed countries of the world. Many African countries are part of the Heavily Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) of the world.

Undoubtedly, the early African historians have made substantial contributions to the development of African historiography. They were veritable pioneers and played some significant roles which facilitated the development of modern historiography.

R.E Bradburg, in his foreword to Egharevba’s book, wrote that “we always remain a valuable and indispensable pioneering work.” Scholars like Geoffrey Parrinder, Saburi Biobaku, R.S Smith and Ade Ajayi, who have all worked on Yoruba history, acknowledged the usefulness of Samuel Johnson’s book “History of Yoruba Land”. J.B Danguah in 1930 recalled in respect of Carl Reindorf that “our inestimable debt in the admirable prophet of the Gold Coast nationality.” Most modern day academicians of Ghana have acknowledged the contributions of Reindorf.

One vital truth about the early African historians is that they base their history on sources collected from generations of elders.

In conclusion, the motivation, style of writing, methodology and other contributions by the early African historians as mentioned in this essay have influenced the development of African historiography. Their works are precursors of modern African historiography acknowledged by succeeding historians. With the points stated in this essay, I can say that to an extent the early African historians’ works remain a vital source of information about the African past.

Durodola Tosin

Durodola Tosin is a writer and diplomat. He started writing professionally at the age of 12. He was a Columnist in Ekiti Glory Newspaper, Nigeria from 2009-2010. He was the Ekiti 2009 Winner of the PETs Competition “Poem Section”. His passion for writing was ignited by his Parents profession in Journalism.

He has written on several topics like “The Second World War and the economic situation in Africa”, “Africa and the effect of World War II”, “Neo-Colonialism: A Major obstacle to the process of nation-building in Africa”,  “Nigeria’s Leadership Roles in Africa”, “The Ethnic Setting in the Nigeria Area Before 1800”, “How Apt is the Description of 1920s in America History as The Jazz Age”, “Debt Crisis: A Major Developmental Issue in the Third World Countries”.

Durodola lives in Ekiti State, Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor’s (Hons) Degree in History and International Studies and is currently writing a book on “Nigeria’s Quest for a Permanent Seat at The UN Security Council” and “Nigeria’s Leadership roles in Africa”.

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Early African Historians’ Writings Before 1945: Precursors of Modern African Historiography
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and the arts magazine

Administrator
Editorial: Tuck Magazine 2016
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Tuck Magazine had a record breaking 2016, publishing an increased number of articles as each month progressed, easily surpassing the achievements of the year before.

1569 articles were published in 2016, from 440 different writers around the world, originating from a total of 65 countries.

We are indebted to our contributors, readers and friends for ensuring that Tuck Magazine, an independent and free press, continued to be an inspiring read, reporting on important issues, making each think and reflect on the world around them.

In addition to the magazine’s Twitter feed, updates and stories were also posted on Linkedin and Facebook, via ‘Val Michael Tuck‘ and ‘Tuck Magazine‘.

Our contributors for the year came from the following countries:

South Sudan

Nigeria

Uganda

Bangladesh

United States

Sri Lanka

Sudan

DRC

Pakistan

Ghana

India

Egypt

Zimbabwe

Australia

Malawi

Iran

Switzerland

Nepal

Bosnia

China

Turkey

Senegal

South Africa

Ecuador

Canada

England

France

Italy

Brazil

Scotland

Venezuela

Wales

Algeria

Bahrain

Russia

Israel

Tanzania

Philippines

Romania

Holland

Albania

Iraq

Kenya

Ethiopia

Hong Kong

Mexico

Oman

Lithuania

Denmark

Yemen

Ireland

Somalia

Taiwan

Jamaica

Jordan

New Zealand

Argentina

Germany

Colombia

Austria

Palestine

Cameroon

Papua New Guinea

Mauritius

South Korea

2017 will continue in a similar vein, highlighting important stories from around the world with plans for Tuck to expand further as the year progresses, as well as publishing more articles on human rights, news, current affairs, music, politics, film, poetry, fiction, art, interviews, photography and reviews, so if you are interested in contributing, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

For now however we thank 2016’s talented contributors:

Peter Louis

Okeke Okechi 

Gloria Nakiyimba 

Benjamin Okochi

Wale Ayinla

Ikirigo Sokari Jeremiah

Sheuli Akter

Scott Thomas Outlar 

Indunil Madhusankha 

Darell Maurice 

Alagbe Omotayo

Damilola Jonathan Oladeji

(The late) Sattar Rind 

Celestine Chimummunefenwuanya

Ken Allan Dronsfield

Nana Arhin Tsiwah 

Guy Farmer

Byobe Malenga

Gopal Lahiri

Abdul Abubakar

John Grey

Ahmed Tharwat 

Lindri Riveras

Samuel Ayoade

Mathew Masinge 

Atanda Faruq Obatolu

James Diaz

Rob Harle 

Sunil Sharma

Sanjeev Sethi

Nixon Mateulah 

Muhammad Waqas Awan

Sarah Pedramnia 

Philipp Müller 

Adisa Amanor Wilks

Mercy UdoAkang

Onawale Femi Simeon

Catherine James

Sheena Pillai Singh

Goodnews Eruemuare

Pijush Kanti Deb

Robert Ssewankambo

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Akinpelu Yusuf

Vishal Ajmera

Ogunsanya Enitan Olalekan

Rahul Mall 

Alagbe Omotayo

Suvojit Banerjee

Ananya S Guha

Michael Lee Johnson

Ovuoba David

Sheikha A.

Sara Lerota 

Onyeka Obi

Ogana D. Okpah

Dan Marshall-Singh 

Akor Emmanuel

Fawole Immanuel Taiwo

Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju

Fadi Elhusseini 

Anwar Hasan

Alpha Jallow 

Oki Kehinde Julius

Constance van Niekerk 

Shakeel Haider

Russell W. Dickson

Soodabeh Saeidnia

Abienekpen Osaletin Augustine

Grégory Wilson 

Tom Arms 

Durodola Tosin

Nnaemeka Nwangene

Satyabrata Pal

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Jose Kalathil

Christine McNeill-Matteson

Adoboe Selorm

Gulcin Newby Kennett

Florence Vitel 

Ratnesh Dwivedi

Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa

Cecilia Sandroni 

Reena Prasad

Olena Kagui

Brian Horner

Kareem Awwal

Michael Inioluwa Oladele

Daisy Hasan

Hussain Ahmed

Rod Roldan-Roldan 

K.S. Subramanian

Musa Gift Masombuka

Paul Tristram

Geosi Gyasi

Justice Gift Ogochukwu

John Mingay 

Chukwu John David

Learnmore Edwin Zvada

Sami Jamil Jadallah

John Swain

Joe Milford

Ojo Blessing

Waqar Haider

Marcus Agar

Muhammad Aladdin

Alberto Quero 

Corinne Wainer

Michael Kwaku Kesse Somuah

Rajesh Nair

Sean Runyon

David Subacchi 

Matthew Laverty

Wally Swist

Prince Charles Dickson

Rashida Murphy

Anthony Jenkins

Kofi Acquah

Elwood Billshot

Semra Dehamna 

Onis Sampson

Alexander Limarev 

Cynthia Meru

David Bankson

Kitaka Alex

Mirissa D. Price

Keletso Mopai

Joan McNerney

Valda Organ

Ed Bremson

Peter Heerings

Adam Levon Brown

Maitreyee B Chowdhury

Adel Soualah

Johnson Grace Maganja

Purabi Bhattacharya

Gary Beck

Ayushi Singha

Paul Sezzie

Holly Day

Sudeep Mukhia

Amarjyoti Borah

Richard Donnelly

Rupen Savoulian

Dukhan Jundit

Anindita Bose

Beate Sigriddaughter

Rick Davis

Aurora M. Granata

Wayne F Burke

JD DeHart

Feroz Khan Jamali

Kolawole Oluwanifemi

Sona Maniar

Vickie Zisman 

Augustine Malizu

Michael Organ

Susan Price

Julia Symmes Cobb 

Ana Isabel Martinez 

Ricky Garni

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Gonsalves Mpili 

Anthony Boadle 

Alonso Soto 

Sudeep Adhikari

Joseph Taylor

Lou Charbonneau 

William Maclean 

Lydie Denier

Michael Marrotti

Mohammed Ghobari  

Sylvia Westall 

Ellen Wulfhorst

Julie Petersen

Nivedita Dey

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani 

Otatade Okojie

Renee Drummond-Brown

Ennin Kwaku Godfred

John Thieme

Narges Kharghani

Abu Thahir

Nasurullah Brohi

Belinda Goldsmith 

Astrid Zweynert 

Alex Whiting 

Sukrita Paul Kumar

Amore David Olamide

Alexander Balcoba

Anca Mihaela Bruma 

Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois

Kieran Guilbert 

U Atreya Sarma

Nicole Long

Seun Ajijala

Blanca Alicia Garza

Thambu Kanagasabai

Coby Daniels

Semon Swaraj

Tanvi Bijawat

Cynthia M. Lardner 

Anne Babson

Marites Gueta

Ojo Taiye

Dime Maziba

Irsa Ruci 

Prerna Singla

Tanushree Ghosh

Valentina Viskovic

Ayushi Gupta

Robert Kilborn

Bismark Amoah

Len Kuntz

Brianna Ricotta

Myra King

Kay Johnson 

Kaushik Chakraborty

Sandy Rochelle

Peter Magliocco

Umberto Bacchi 

Manuel Mogato

John Chalmers 

Lianne Kamp

Kylie MacLellan 

Anirban Nag

Micheal Ace

Monoranjan Thakur

Estelle Shirbon

Ben Blanchard

Saira Viola

Sarah Ito

Guy Faulconbridge 

Kate Holton

Don Krieger

Ahmad Al-khatat 

Joe Khamisi 

Warren Strobel

Yara Bayoumy 

Moses Chukwuemeka Daniel

Rina Chandran 

Malkeet Kaur

Hakeem Enesi Momoh

Ijalusi Samuel

Dhiraj Kumar Beniwal

Subashish Bhattacharjee

Lucy M. Logsdon

Nita Bhalla 

Stephanie Nebehay

Iwu Jeff

Nicole Surginer

Brian Minga Amza

Priyadarshini Kiran

Wesley D. Gray

Sabena Siddiqi

Somsukla Roy

Bolaji Akinwande Akintola

Zeravan Barwary

Ugwu Leonard Elvis

Hira Azhar

Mark Cleeford L Quitoras

Shola Balogun

Fanuel Lakew 

Abigail Rathbone

Zeeshan A. Shah

Debbie Hall

Joe Bavier 

Paul Summers

Joey Ho

Nurul Hoque

Hazel Speed

Marieta Maglas 

Sophie Sassard 

Michel Bernouin 

Rinita Banerjee

J.K. Durick

Kumbirai Kupfavira

Nikki Anne Schmutz

Abu Sufian

I.B. Rad

Ebi Robert

Dustin Pickering

Changming Yuan

Magdalena Mis 

Nii Armah Tagoe

Odinga Adiwu

Krista Clark

Fatimah Bakare-Dickson

Penn Kemp

Brian Frydenborg

Matt Alexander

Ifeoluseyi Ifeoluwapo Ifeyemi

Rehan Qayoom

Nita Bhalla 

Tom Gumbert

Tikuli

Scott Wozniak

Javed Majeedano

Akinola Sesan

Mohammad Forouzani 

Saru Pokharel

Colin Packham 

Aprajita Gupta

Gul Yousafzai 

Jill Crainshaw

Prince A McNally

Stephen Mead

Jason Allen

Alève Mine

Jenny Santellano

Mica Rosenberg 

Ieva Rasmussen

Habib Akewusola

Tejasvi Saxena

Michael T. Bee

Debasish Parashar

Naa Dedei Botchwey

Ron Larson

Oshogbemi A E Peter

Stephen Byrne 

Kenny Katombe

Benoit Nyemba 

Mousumi Ghose

David Adejumo

Lisa Morris

Mahmoud Sharif 

Chinwe O’Brien

Akeredolu Tope

Olta Totoni

Kay Roberts

Rebecca Cherrington

Angus McDowall 

Tom Perry 

Howard Debs

Ulf Laessing 

Christopher Hopkins

Chung Kwang Tien

David Paul White

Aina Oluwasegun Yakub

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

Venus Wu 

James Pomfret 

Aditya Singh

Ajay K Chaubey

Kim Bailey Deal

Natalie Crick

Shahper Hassan

Ricardo Swire 

Nehad Ismail 

Ifa Agnes

Bernard Ollo

Rafah Al Saad 

Opal Ingram

Sam Eastwood

P C K Prem

Prince Adetunji Fabode

Steve Holland 

Emily Stephenson 

Mohamed Elgadi 

Casey Dorman

Elizabeth Alford

Kaushik Acharya

Jake Aller

Paul Grams

Kanwal Abidi

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi

Temesghen Debesai

Patrick Calinescu

Vincent Alexander

Elizabeth Johnston

Noah Barkin 

Alejandro Escudé 

Ingrid Melander 

Michel Rose 

Ed Cropley 

Aremu Adams Adebisi

Siddhartha Rastogi

Jo-Ella Sarich

Daginne Aignend

Manjinder Kaur Wratch

Curtis Skinner

Muhammad Shoaib Khan

Patricia Walsh

Richard Lough 

David R Mellor

Rich Soos

Lin Taylor

Bethamehi Joy Syiem

Rob Plath

Alan Share

Chestlyn Draghoender

Albrecht Behmel 

J.J.Campbell

Mansour Rad

Blank Verse

Ramona Thompson

Peter Lykke Lind 

Harry Ricciardi

Anastasia Moloney

Sourav Sarkar

Crispian Balmer

Jennifer N. Shannon

Madamidola Oladele

Anuradha Nagaraj 

Sylvia Petter 

Gavin Jones 

Ken W Simpson

Florence Logarta

Williams Oladimeji

Nwibo Chinecherem Precious

David Susswein

Maha Elbanna 

Joseph Besong 

Richard M. Longthorpe

Abigale Louise LeCavalier

Eaton Jackson

Jerry Vilhotti

Tad Gruchalla-Wesierski

Umit Bektas 

Orhan Coskun 

Tuvan Gumrukcu

Jordan Dean

Jennifer Criss

Wole Oguntola

Sandeep Sharma

Leslie Philibert 

Lesley Wroughton

Yeganeh Torbati 

M.K. Eelaventhan

Ògbeni Làgbàyí

Samrat Dey

Ezra Acayan

Vatsala Radhakeesoon

A happy, peaceful and prosperous 2017 to everyone.

Michael Organ

Managing Editor and Publisher

Tuck Magazine

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Editorial: Tuck Magazine 2016
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Administrator Editorial: Tuck Magazine 2017 and 2018 Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Tuck Magazine had another ‘successful’ year, the number of articles and writers published, in addition to readers around the world increasing from the previous year.

1721 articles were published in 2017, from 540 different writers around the world.

We are indebted to our contributors, readers and friends for ensuring that Tuck Magazine, an independent and free press, continues to be an inspiring read, reporting on important issues, making each think and reflect on the world around them.

When looking back on a year one invariably focuses on the negative, particularly relating to news, politics and current affairs. 2017 was of course no exception in this regard, the year being dominated by Donald Trump’s presidency, in addition to the increasingly disturbing rise of the far right around the world. It is no surprise that the former is here linked with the latter, Trump’s daily activities, be they via twitter, an executive order or other ill-judged statement or action, causing distress or bewilderment in equal measures.

Another story that has and continues to dominate is that of inappropriate sexual behaviour or sexual abuse, the former Hollywood Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein earlier this year being outed by fellow celebs in the press. This is in stark contrast to the large number of serious allegations of child sexual abuse in previous years against not only celebrities but MPs, government officials and members of the clergy, most of which were dismissed and ridiculed by the press. One can only hope that following the rise of such allegations against Weinstein, Spacey, Hoffman, Allen and all, as well as the relative acceptance of such by the public and mainstream media, that the aforementioned child abuse claims be looked into again and treated with the same level of respect and seriousness they surely deserve.

As for this magazine we will for as long as possible endeavour to continue reporting on as many important stories from around the world, centering on human rights, empowering and giving each a voice that may not necessarily be heard elsewhere. For this we rely on the goodwill, passion and integrity of not only our writers, but also readers who play an equally important role.

Most media outlets around the world are in their own financial turmoil, clamouring for the hits and readers that are becoming more and more precious by the day, the seemingly all important advertising dollar being the be all and end all of their business, integrity and the original goal of providing an unbiased and free media fading into obscurity. It is disturbing to see even respectable news outlets and publications conceding to the inevitable and posting inappropriate and often irrelevant content on their site, not to mention the glut of advertisers attached. Tuck Magazine has had numerous offers from such advertisers and content ‘creators’ and, while the need for revenue to pay our writers and running costs is perhaps greater than most given we have no financial support, will not back down, lose focus or compromise our vision and the important work we publish. Despite the relative inevitability therefore of another media outlet crashing to the wayside, and failing of course a hefty lottery win or wealthy backer(s), Tuck will continue for as long as possible until the inescapable gloom overcomes and reality of the media in the modern apathetic, indifferent, celebrity obsessed age finally calls a day on another important outlet.

For now however we thank 2017’s talented contributors without whom we would not be publishing each week day:

Chine Labbé

Cynthia M. Lardner

Gérard Bon

Gloria Nakiyimba

Ron Larson

Hazel Speed

Prince Charles Dickson

Rick Davis

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Tanushree Ghosh

Kanwal Abidi

Abigail Rathbone

David R Mellor

Tom Arms

Joe Khamisi

Cliff Graham

Ananya S Guha

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Wally Swist

Thambu Kanagasabai

Rafah Al Saad

Charlie Brice

Siddhartha Rastogi

Therese Young Kim

Ricardo Swire

Michael Holden

Estelle Shirbon Prime

Jennifer N. Shannon

Sarah Ito

Prakash Bimil

Prince Adetunji Fabode

Imad Zafar

Ahmed Tharwat

Nelson CJ

Alève Mine

Samuel Ayoade

Akinpelu Yusuf

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Magdalena Mis

Emily Bilman

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

Moses Chukwuemeka Daniel

Deborah Kahan Kolb

Rina Chandran Anjali

Abasi Torty Tortivie

Daipayan Nair

Ayesha Rascoe

Kumarathasan Rasingam

Allison Grayhurst

Dave Patterson

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Valda Organ

Jill Crainshaw

Madamidola Oladele

Quleen Kaur Bijral

Ebi Robert

Jose Kalathil

Rajesh Nair

Bikash Mohapatra

Olivia Vande Woude

Joseph Besong

Broken Montague

Stella Allou

Katy Migiro

Samantha Neugebauer

Muhammad Shoaib Khan

Rupen Savoulian

Lisa Morris

P C K Prem

Umberto Bacchi

Ellen Wulfhorst

Sheila Scobba Banning

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Maayan Lubell

Tara Sattar

Mark Davis

Saru Pokharel

Michel Rose

 Sudip Kar-Gupta

Samir Raiti Mtamba

Sylvain Muyali

Linda M Crate

Amit Shankar Saha

Lin Taylor

Valeria Cardi

Stephen Philip Druce

Binoy Kampmark

Emma Batha

Kanyinsola Olorunnisola

Jo-Ella Sarich

Paul Carrel

Hakan Erdem

Lianne Kamp

Julia Love

Jessica Toonkel

Tim Baysinger

Eaton Jackson

Esomnofu Ebelenna

Toby Melville

William James

Durodola Tosin

Eddie Awusi

Iwu Jeff

Ujjwala Kakarla

Robert Kilborn

Byobe Malenga

Musa Gift Masombuka

Durgesh Verma

Sheuli Akter

Scott Thomas Outlar

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Ittrika Pandit

Zeeshan A. Shah

Dov Weinman

J.J.Campbell

g emil reutter

Indunil Madhusankha

Thomas Escritt

Toby Sterling

Harshal Desai

Nicole Surginer

Carl Scharwath

Philip Blenkinsop

Pitambar Naik

Laboni Saif

Alok Mishra

Leslie Philibert

Gopal Lahiri

Sandy Rochelle

Nivedita Dey

Vishal Ajmera

Wole Oguntola

John Jimoh

Kofi Acquah

Emmanuel Joseph

Micheal Ace

Michael Chin

G David Schwartz

Safia Izhar

Alexandra Umlas

Daginne Aignend

Obaji-Nwali Shegun

Anuradha Nagaraj

I.B. Rad

Hira Azhar

Penn Kemp

Crystal Snoddon

Awesu Olaniyi Williams

Susan Bellfield

Katy Migiro

Amore David Olamide

Vatsala Radhakeesoon

Emmanuel Jarry

Md. Khaled Hosen

Akinola Sesan

Ndifreke George

Kanwal Abidi

John Irish

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

Bate Felix

James Dennis Casey IV

Vickie Zisman

JD DeHart

Sybille de La Hamaide

Matthias Blamont

Alejandro Escudé

Leigh Thomas

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Michael Mulvihill

Peter Louis

Bikash Mohapatra

Stephen Faulkner

Lisa Morris

Ian Fletcher

David R Mellor

Lianne Kamp

Blanca Alicia Garza

Beate Sigriddaughter

Marieta Maglas

Adrian Croft

Elizabeth Pineau

P.J. Johnson

Fee Thomas

Vera Ignatowitsch

Sunil Sharma

Alan Britt

Hongri Yuan

John Chizoba Vincent

Ifa Agnes

Ingrid Melander

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Nurul Hoque

Donatella Rovera

Ògbeni Làgbàyí

Anastasia Moloney

Ahmed Tharwat

Ken Allan Dronsfield

Ramona Thompson

William James

Patrick Graham 

Gary Beck

Hakeem Enesi Momoh

Denis Dyomkin

Sarah Ito

Martina Reisz Newberry

Noah Barkin

Sean Kelbley

Yasser M. Dhouib

Robin Emmott

Steve Holland 

Leslie Philibert

Mary Ann Callahan

Pranab Ghosh

Tejasvi Saxena

Florence Joseph

Kylie MacLellan

Michael Holden 

Matthew J Hall

Jon Super

Akuchie Ifeanyi Michael

J.R. Wu

Naa Dedei Botchwey

Ratnesh Dwivedi

Harlan Yarbrough

Michael Joseph Patton

Ayesha Rascoe

Ken Poyner

Ennin Kwaku Godfred

Matthew J. Lawler

JoyAnne O’Donnell

Fadi Elhusseini

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Nasreen Iqbal Kasana

Benedicte Kumbi

Kabedoopong Piddo Ddibe’st

Mathieu Rosemain

Andrew Callus

Howard Debs

Opal Ingram

Renee Drummond-Brown

Don Krieger

Dragos Niculescu

Clive Aaron Gill

Madhabi Das

Anindita Bose

Sally Hayden

Johnny B

Byron Kaye

Philip Pullella 

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Andrew Hubbard

Mica Rosenberg

Andrew Chung

Stephanie van den Berg

Stela Xega

Constance van Niekerk

Nome Emeka Patrick

Uduak Uwah

Femi Tunde Okunlola

Anahit Arustamyan

Alyssa Trivett

Ayeyemi Taofeek

Isaac Abban

Kayode Afolabi

Gift Friday

Patricia Zengerle

Susan Cornwell 

Eugene Skeef

Mehedi Hasan

Kumar Hassan

Darrell Herbert

Trish Wootten

John Grey

Andy Bruce

Alistair Smout 

Jan Wiezorek

Nixon Mateulah

Valerie Volcovici

Jeff Mason 

Bernard Ollo

Bijay Kumar Show

Anant Mishra

Richa Chadha

Koraly Dimitriadis

Ajmal Khan

Pat Ashinze

Damiam Vincent Henry

Ogundele Faith Oluwaranti

Oshogbemi A E Peter

Elisabeth Horan

Ugwu Leonard Elvis

Bob Eager

Raminder Paul Singh

Katie Lewington

Shahper Hassan

Oki Kehinde Julius

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan

Raymond Asante

Roshini Shetty

Sheena Pillai Singh

Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani

Paul Brookes

Rahul Mall

Michael T. Bee

Samuel Son

Munia Khan

Mbizo Chirasha

Ibrahim Ayobami Balogun

Tamanna Hossain

Jameel W. Karaki

KJ Hannah Greenberg

Ricky Garni

Amit Parmessur

Donise Sheppard

Lynn White

Steve Carr

Daniel Casey

Alisa Velaj

Surbhi Anand

Ilda Lamçe

Kanika Gautam

Penn Kemp

Anca Mihaela Bruma

Gerry Sikazwe

Mark W. Jones

Zena Howard

Amlan Biswas

Success Akpojotor

Jeff Rasley

Devon Balwit

Sanju Clement

Javed Ahmed

Sourav Sarkar

Purabi Bhattacharya

F. S. Byrne

Muhammad Mushtaq Khan

Jake Aller

Jennifer Scott

Victor Ola-Matthew

Maria Tosti

Megan Collins

Laureta Petoshati

Gareth Culshaw

Gary Glauber

Douglas Patterson

Sarah Ream

Bob McNeil

Sanjeev Sethi

Kakali Karmakar

Jillian Haslam

Sohail Mahmood

Paul Ilechko

Fisuyi Tolulope

Beulah Kleinveldt

Jonathan Otamere Endurance

Eze Ifeanyichukwu Peter

Harry Ricciardi

Poornima Laxmeshwar

Kingson Chingakham

Rony Nair

Nikita Parik

Zion Victor-Tade

Jon Vreeland

Amara Sesay

R. James

Husniya

Chidi Anthony Opara

Mobolaji Olawale

Joel Schueler

Judy Alexander Brice

Mirissa D. Price

Ernest Gordon Taulbee

Oluwa Seun Tiwistar

Tom Roth

Maryam Gatawa

Shola Balogun

Aakriti Kuntal

Shabir Ahmad Mir

Michael Lee Johnson

Cecilia Sandroni

Mario Vitale

Steve Robertson

Eliza Segiet

Karlo Sevilla

Susan Ranford

Ben White

Marc Brightside

Alpha Jallow

Ashi Kalim

Ogunsanya Enitan Olalekan

Henneh Kyereh Kwaku

Najib Adamu Usman

Siraj A Sabuke

Rajnish Mishra

Justin Fox

John Watt

Olubela Murewa

Peter H Armitage

Kapardeli Eftichia

Ann Christine Tabaka

Nsah Mala

Dustin Pickering

Sofia Kioroglou

Kathy Gibbons

Dime Maziba

Casey M. Millette

Debendra Kumar Bauri

R.L.M. Cooper

Lynne Zotalis

Sona Maniar

Erika Kamp

Saliha Khalid

Satis Shroff

Debbie Hall

Alycia Vreeland

Darren C. Demaree

Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois

Adam Levon Brown

Nwoba Chika Nwoba

Olabusayo Ajay

Catherine Rauchenberger Conley

Jacqueline Jules

Pramod Kumar Das

Fatimah Bakare-Dickson

David Lohrey

Umarani Jayaraj

Emily Strauss

Michele Leavitt

Hermann-Habib Kibangou

Faleeha Hassan

Robert Boucheron

Fanuel Lakew

Frederick Omari Okonneh

Krista Clark

Selden Cummings

Selorm Adoboe

Bevan Boggenpoel

Caroline Johnson

Judy Shepps Battle

Gil Trythall

Chandrani Banerjee

Nyashadzashe Chikumbu

Alina Maria

Joe Balaz

Trish Hopkinson

Grant Guy

PW Covington

Ferris E Jones

Hareem Fatima

Bronson Thomas

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

Marites Gueta

Alan Share

John D Robinson

Amreen Qadir

Julie Petersen

S Liam Spradlin

Adamu Usman Garko

Corina Constantinescu

Soren Paul Petrek

Mike Griffith

Mileva Anastasiadou

Amara Femoh Sesay

Gulam Yazdani

Kelechi A Anthony

Rania Moudaress Silva

J.J. Campbell

Nitusmita Saikia

Ebere Terr Ebere

Agunbiade Kehinde Adeshina

Yvonne Higgins Leach

Oluwapelumi Francis Salako

Brian Crandall

Ernest Ogunyemi

Norberto Franco Cisneros

Zeke Jarvis

Abigail George

Sandy Olson-Hill

Clive Collins

Marguerite Guzman Bouvard

Hugo J. Quizhpi

Ankita Anand

Marcus Agar

Riham Adly

Gail White

T.S. Bob

Kingsley Alumona

Sarah Bigham

Omar Khan

Dev Dutt

WJP Newnham

Nandini Srivastava

Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim

Ahmad Al-Khatat

Beatrice Hunter

Kate Rae

John Balouziyeh

Santosh Bakaya

Utpal Chakraborty

Maria Lagdameo

Jill Kiesow

Linda Imbler

Anna Green

Anil Trigunayat

Katelyn Thomas

Howard Brown

Vanessa de Largie

Blessing T Masenga

Sydney Saize

Philani Amadeus Nyoni

Michael Mwangi Macharia

Tynoe Wilson

Julius Muriithi

John Eppel

Sadiqullah Khan

Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa

Jurgen Troy Namupira

Oladipo Kehinde Paul

Pasi Gunguwo

Richmore Tera

Ambassador Dan Amakor

Caesar Obong

Brighton Busybee Muponda

Tendai Mwanaka

Mbonisi Zikhali

Gopichand Paruchuri

Cosmas Mairosi

Richard Mbuthia

Akor Emmanuel Oche

Aleck T Mabenge

Theodora Chirapa

Simbarashe Jongwe

Emmanuel Douglas Mulomole

Sinkende Mashayangombane

Wafula P’Khisa

S Kojo Frimpong

Rich Unger

Patrick Kamau

Liz Berry

A happy, peaceful and prosperous 2018 to everyone.

Michael Organ

Managing Editor and Publisher

Tuck Magazine

%%AUTHORLINK% Editorial: Tuck Magazine 2017 and 2018 Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Administrator Nigeria: Tell All Writers Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

AFP photo

By

John Chizoba Vincent

Tell all writers, those who care to listen, that the darkness sometimes is saved on a shelf of rightful solitude in tattered pages of red and black ink. Let them know that their worth is not validated by the judge’s opinion, nor by vain praises. Tell them that rejection is normal to writers. Tell them that writers don’t give up immediately; they don’t give up the quest for a successful life, they keep fighting and dreaming. They keep writing and don’t give up the fight to be known. Tell them to be purposeful writers. Tell them that those broken letters carved yesterday could be a milestone to climb. Giving up is letting yourself down, you are worth much more than giving up. You are a star, the mirror through which the world sees. You are a prophet, a teacher, a mentor, a doctor, a lawyer, a child, a mother, a father. You wear everyone’s shoes to know how and where it hurts them. You are a god and the best you can do for yourself is to see the best in you.

I have watched you grow into a nation of many colours. I have watched you give birth to children of many symbols. I have known you even before you were born. Why do you have to give up? This is the right time to pick your broken self up. The moon in your eyes, I remember how it glowed gloriously. I remember how it gave light to you before the winds came to put out its flame into your thoughts. Be much better, be much appreciated. Writers, be yourself and call the wind of love to continue to be your harsh reminder of what is at stake.

Tell all writers what is at stake in our beloved country. This is not the right time to write of love and forget the lost glory of our land. Nigeria is dying. Our mother is sick and needs a doctor. Who amongst us can treat her? Who amongst us can heal her of his ancestry, the ancient historical pains? The contextual content of these wet Benue roads are home to drive us insane. We no longer live anymore. We live in another man’s treasured house. We no longer live here anymore. Nigeria is sick and needs our ink like never before. Point your accusing finger northward to the politicians; finger the mouth of the gods. Tell the gods that Nigeria is sick and she’s dying.

The fireplace in your heart, I remember the warmth before its coals became ice in this land. Rise up writers! Let’s match this madness to the street. Let’s tell the street the way the fire crackled and resonated with the music in our heart. Writers, gear up let’s fight and then save our future for the next generation to come. I remember everything, but writing is like sweetened gall, an alloy of pain and pleasure; a reminder that poisons are not always bitter but sweet sometimes.

All writers come out let’s rewrite Nigeria. Tell all writers to come out and write. This is not the right time to start seeking awards and all. Don’t go looking for awards while our problems are still there. Write to the police, tell them their crimes, write about the army, tell them their personal problems. Write to our flammable leaders and educate them of their problems. It is only one who is closer to you that tells you how bad your mouth smells. Write about pain, write about hunger, write about the boy child, write about the girl child, write about the hardship, write about suffering, write about the genocide; write about the killings. All writers come out, let’s write an end to this.

The night is cold, old and grey, but my thoughts would not let it die. My anger won’t let it snow down and slide into an abyss. We must fight with our ink. Tell a writer to tell a writer to tell another writer to tell another writer that we have to fight with our pens. A tear trickles down my cheek to water the stands of joy withering in my heart. When shall we see the good of this land? If life is a desert, every man carries his own oasis in his eyes and chews the dust raised by his feet for survival. Writers, we must learn this and much more of other things that lurked behind.

My fellow writers, I have seen the branch from which the words of birds fall and break into pieces and I am not afraid this will still repeat itself over and over again. And now the soles of my feet are sore from trekking and walking down to this boredom called freedom and the shackles of shabby depression and desperation but this one thing I know for sure; I shall return from this journey with the head of death of this country on my palms. Tell all writers to come out, the street is not smiling.

Beat not the gong of sadness anymore, writer. Let’s fight, do not spin a web of dirges for our mother. Let’s fight to save her in her lifetime, her ear was made a desert yesterday where many water has gone into different holes. Let’s revisit those verses from whatever book they are written. Tell all writers to come out from their comfort zone and let’s write for tomorrow. All writers come out!

John Chizoba Vincent

John Chizoba Vincent is a cinematographer, filmmaker, music video director, poet and a writer. A graduate of mass communication, he believes in life and the substances that life is made of. He has three books published to his credit which includes Hard Times, Good Mama, Letter from Home. For boys of tomorrow is his first offering to poetry. He lives in Lagos.

%%AUTHORLINK% Nigeria: Tell All Writers Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Administrator A 2018 Compendium of Nigeria’s Literary Feats and Defeats Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

GT photo

By

Izunna Okafor

It is no longer a novelty that every calendar year wakes up and sleeps off with a natural book of many pages. Pages of dreams and visions, pages of imaginations and realities, pages of successes and failures, pages of joy and sorrow, pages of progress and regress, pages of victories and losses, pages of smiles and tears, among many others. These pages indeed represent what the year holds for us.

Among many others, the Nigerian literary industry has been a silent character that has tasted a paragraph in virtually all the pages of the natural book in the year 2018. That is to say that a lot of pages have opened and closed to the literary industry as the year 2018 blinks away.

The Nigerian literary industry has been one of the most highly revered industries in the country, owing to her gargantuan contributions towards the development of the country, coupled with the venerable caliber of people therein.

Analytically speaking, the year 2018 was neither all white nor all black for the industry, as many writers were recorded with many others also recorded in different books in the year.

For Nigerian writers, the year 2018 began with good news, following the long listing of 30-year old Ayobami Adebayo in the ‘Wellcome Book Prize‘ on 9th February, for her debut novel “Stay With Me” published in 2017, making her the only African Writer that made it to the list of the highly competitive annual British Literary Award.

Shortly after this, sad news crawled in, following the shocking news of Akinwunmi Ishola’s demise on Saturday, 17th February, being the first global sad news to surface from the corner of the literary industry across the world in 2018. Prof. Ishola was a Yoruba literary scholar, novelist, playwright and cultural icon whose works: Oleku, Efunsetan Aniwura, Koseegbe, Saworoide, Agogo Eewo and Campus Queen were widely regarded as among the best literary works produced by writers of his generation.

This was followed by the death of Elizabeth Fagunwa, a renowned literary promoter and wife of foremost writer and author, late Chief Daniel O. Fagunwa. Her death was described as a great loss for the Nigerian literary community, owing to the great roles she played in advancing, peaking and championing the cause of literary activities in the country, especially through the Fagunwa Literary Foundation.

Among these, the most recent and unsavory of all the ugly news that elicited tears from the eyes of Nigerian writers in 2018 was the announcement of Ikeogu Oke’s fall on 24th November. Oke was a great Nigerian bard who, with his classic poem “The Heresiad”, won the Africa’s biggest literary prize, the Nigerian Prize for Literature 2017, sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to the tune of $100,000 (N37m).

On the laudatory flank of the journey, the Nigerian creative industry recorded leviathan feats in the year 2018, as many Nigerian writers, both burgeoning and established, proved their worth in the field of the pen this year both nationally and internationally, thereby emblazing and embellishing the hope for the advancement of literary arts in Nigeria.

If there is any set of people that have kept Nigeria’s image alive and shiny for decades in the international community, it is Nigerian Writers. And this year is no exception. Several Nigerian writers toed their feet in the literary field this year while many others advanced in their echelons.

In her corner, a leading character in the Nigerian literary scene, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recorded some of her greatest achievements in the literary field this year, following her prodigious victories in various international and globally acclaimed literary contests, awards, coupled with other noble honours she received in the year.

Adichie opened the award year with the 2018 Barnes & Nobel ‘Writers for Writers’ award which she received in the fall of the quarter of the year. Shortly after that, the literati had within a couple of months clasped several other awards and Honorary Degrees among which are: the ‘Shorty Award 2018’, Pen Pinter Prize 2018; 2018 Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award; 2019 Everett M. Rogers Award; Thought Leadership Award from the Global Hope Coalition (GHC); Honorary Doctor of Literature (DLit) degree, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); University of London, UK; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, Duke University, North Carolina, USA; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA; Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree, Bowdoin College, Maine, USA, among others.

Other great and upcoming writers who recorded great feats with their pen in the year include: Anietie Isong, whose debut novel “Radio Sunrise” won the UK’S biggest literary prize, the 2018 McKitterick Prize; Nigerian-German Efua Traoré who emerged the African regional winner in the world’s most global literary prize, the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize; Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto who won the New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Writing Award, and the Castello di Duino Poesia International Prize 2018; Abimbola Dare who won the 2018 Bath Novel International Award among others.

The highly coveted 2018 NLNG Prize for Literature which is Africa’s biggest Literary Prize (worth $100,000) went to Soji Cole for his drama ‘Embers’. Be it as it may, this year’s Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature went to a Ugandan writer, Harriet Anena, making her the first Ugandan to win the prize, while, with her ‘Fanta Blackcurrant’, a Kenyan writer, Makena Onjerika, won the 2018 Caine Prize, in which three Nigerian writers: Nonyelum Ekwempu, Olufunke Ogundimu and Wole Talabi were shortlisted out of 147 entrants from 20 African countries.

It is also worthy to recall that two Nigerian authors: Chimamanda Adichie and Nnedi Okorafor were in 2018 nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, for the first time in 36 years, after Wole Soyinka became the first black person to win the world’s most coveted literary prize.

However, due to some circumstances challenging public confidence in members of the Swedish Academy hosting the award, the winner of the prize was not announced this year, instead being postponed to the next year. Nevertheless, one of the Caribbean’s most renowned authors, Maryse Conde, was said to have won an alternative prize created to replace this year’s Nobel Literature Prize. Hence, according to the organizers, who were being torn apart by a kerfuffle evolving from certain claims and accusations, two Nobel Laureates will be announced next year, being for 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Aside from awards and recognition, many Nigerian writers, especially the young ones published internationally acclaimed books this year. The Nigerian literary industry also welcomed new members this year, among whom were top-notch politicians who decided to ‘test’ their ‘fortunes’ in creative writing, and hence now wear the badge of ‘author’.

The most recent of these politicians turned authors include: Sullivan Chime who authored “An Honour to Serve: Enugu State in the Sullivan Years” and Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who authored ‘My Transition Hours’. Professionally as it may have been written, president Jonathan’s book surprisingly made it to the list of 15 best books published in the year 2018. Other newly published books and Nigerian authors who made it to the prestigious international list include: ‘Devil’s Pawn’ by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson; ‘When Trouble Sleeps’ by Leye Adenle; ‘When Day Breaks’ by Adamu Usman Garko (a secondary school student); ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi and ‘Embers’ by Soji Cole, among others.

Nnedi Okorafor, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tochi Onyebuchi, Tomi Adeyemi, Lola Shoneyin, Roye Okupe, and Chika Unigwe had earlier in the year been listed by Pulse as among the authors currently setting the pace in the literary field.

However interesting these may be, it is also more interesting to puff the sore truth that book piracy and plagiarism received a great boost in Nigeria in 2018, as reports reveal several cases of the ugly act carried out this year. Even President Jonathan’s new book was said to have been pirated by an unknown malignant, in just less than 48 hours after its launching.

However, a number of individuals, groups and non-governmental organizations in the country played great roles in waging war against this centuries old global issue which has pauperized many writers across the world. A most recent instance of this brawl was one waged by the Anti-Piracy Society of Nigeria in her 2018 annual convention in which the MD/Editor-in-chief of the National Light Newspaper, Sir Chuka Nnabuife, who is also a renowned author and poet, lectured on: “Evolving Challenges-Innovative Responses”. It is generally believed that piracy and plagiarism trailed in the year despite the fierce campaigns truculently championed against it.

On the aspect of activities, 2018 recorded the celebration of numerous literary events and activities by Nigerian writers. The outstanding among these literary activities and events include: the 37th Annual National Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors; 2018 CORA Book Party; NSPP Awards Ceremony hosted by Poets In Nigeria (PIN); Lagos Book and Art Festival 2018; Return To Idoto 2018 (in honour of late Poet Christopher Okigbo), hosted by Awka Literary Society; the 2018 Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, hosted by the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (Anambra Chapter); Northern Nigerian Writers’ Summit 2018; the 2018 Ake Arts and Book Festival; Anambra Book and Creativity Festival (ANBUKRAFT) 2018; first Poetry Slam in Anambra, hosted by Poets in Nigeria (PIN), Awka Connect Centre; 2018 Carter Literary Festival, Enugu; 2018 admission of writers into the Ebedi Writers Residency, Iseyi, the only writers residency in Nigeria; among other literary activities.

Indeed, 2018 has been a historic year for Nigeria’s literary industry, given the bizarre feats and achievements recorded by the members/Nigerian writers in the year in their quest to advance globally in the field to promote Nigerian literature and Nigeria’s image in the international community. In fact, the industry is believed to be among the few sectors that has consistently projected and upheld the image and dignity of the country upto today. Ipso facto, it is optimistically believed that the sector and the actors will take even more historic dives and achieve more selcouth feats before the fall of 2019.

Izunna Okafor

Izunna Okafor is an award-wining creative Young Nigerian Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Journalist, Editor, Translator, Publicist, Igbo Language Activist and an Administrator who hails from Ebenator in Nnewi South L.G.A of Anambra State Nigeria. He has published seven novels, won over 25 awards, and has over 800 articles published online.

%%AUTHORLINK% A 2018 Compendium of Nigeria’s Literary Feats and Defeats Tuck Magazine Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Oxford Dictionary

Plagiarism

noun

[mass noun]

the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

Tuck is no longer a virgin. We lost our innocence earlier this year, courtesy of plagiarist David R. Morgan

This had to happen and in a way it was a clear indication that Tuck is no longer an obscure publication on the fringe. We are now a respected and viable resource for poets and writers seeking the validation of publication and because our reputation has been growing, it is a surprise we weren’t hoodwinked sooner.

Plagiarist and wannabe poet David R. Morgan perpetrated an incredible creative fraud on many publishing entities such as Ink, Sweat and Tears, Poetry Space and Tuck, passing off the work of poets Charles O Hartman, Colin Morton and Roger McGough as his own. The work he pilfered in both print and online were complete poems and not just extracts. He was brazen enough to comply with a photograph for us, showing no fear of exposure. So complete was this sham that even icon and poet Ted Hughes was snookered. You can read Hughes’ assessment HERE.

Plagiarism is theft and we all know the human capacity for lifting things that belong to another. Dishonesty plagues us in advertising, government responses to public inquiry, celebrity culture and let’s be frank many people won’t even tell the truth about their age, thus lying has become the order of the day in every sphere of life. If I were to wax philosophical I could say that we are all getting our panties in a wad over something that is a symptom of a greater problem and not the problem itself. Indeed, it is a more complex issue than plagiarized poetry and not one we will probably ever solve unless individually we all have a spiritual epiphany and ascend to a higher plane. I won’t hold my breath for that but on the other hand there is a positive to this negative: The reason David R. Morgan was able to fool so many for so long says more about the good in our society than the bad. Despite the corruption that exists on this planet, we operate on a foundation of trust, giving the benefit of the doubt often and while this does make us vulnerable, it is essential for any group to function at all.  I for one don’t want to lose this very humane way of relating in an otherwise jaded, isolated and cynical world.

In the future Tuck will be paying even closer attention to every submission sent to us but we are not going to be Chicken Little, no matter how many people keep pointing up at the sky in a panic. Tuck exists to give talented emerging indie writers a publishing clip and a confidence boost and we will not deviate from that policy.

Ultimately, Morgan’s admission of guilt was smug, his apology trite and convenient but from this fiasco, something important has occurred: poetry is being discussed. Say what you will, the poetry community hasn’t had this much mainstream chatter in a good long time, and as Oscar Wilde once said “The only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about.”

By

Mbizo Chirasha

Like Zimbabwe, most states in Africa are endowed with creative acumen and literary prowess. Zimbabwe, the country north of the Limpopo and south of the Zambezi, exudes both talent and natural endowment, while the country is faced with unending political paradoxes, social and economic ironies.

Arriving at the road and airports in the pockets of Harare, your face is smashed with horrific print headlines yawning of corrupt technocrats and political stalwarts under suspension and investigation. Your ears are choked with radios belting out Chimurenga hit songs and the sanctions rhetoric.

The television news bulletins belch out fat ministers signing cultural, educational and financial treaties in the Far East, accompanied by excess baggage – their delegations gobbling up what’s left of the corruption-roasted national purse.

Where are the pen pundits, where are the scribes, poets, writers and their swords? The myth of censorship puts writers and poets in despair, the fear of becoming victims of the state and its apparatus. Fear of the known and the unknown. In this country floating in political oil pans, poets and writers are not recognised, though their pens and voices can bring positive social and political change. Their platform is replaced by bootlickers and revolutionary hit singers. Bootlickers who do not criticise the ills of the state but celebrate everything, mostly propaganda gossip and cheap slogans.

For the past 13 years, writers’ organisations have been defunct. The Literary hubs crumbled down. Only the Book Café, that also happens to be the Poetry Hub where poets exhibit their talents, still remains. This Poetry Pub, the Book Café, hosts literary evenings and the popular House of Hunger Poetry Slam where young word revolutionaries, spoken-word poets, hip-hop cats, jargonists and performance poets battle it out, displaying their verbal dexterity, spitting out their patriotism to the state that rejected them. Some sing their revolutionary praise to the absent functionaries, some are aggressive verbal anarchists advocating for a change in the political class, the dead economy and rotting social and moral fabric – the Book Café has become the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s As you like it – a land of beauty, expression, naturalness and freedom, though with its own complexities.

The voices of poets in Zimbabwe, their voices of reason, are not heard because literary initiatives are not nationalised and not even greased with funding for continuity. They are just dangling in small pockets of cities and streets, they don’t reach those who matter the most, because those who matter most don’t give a damn about any literary existence, nor so its growth or promotion. Few of the state functionaries read books and poetry, to some extent newspapers. In Zimbabwe we don’t have publishing houses and the state has long stopped supporting the creative and book industry.

Writers and Poets who still follow the dream are real literary revolutionaries who do not care about sleeping on groaning stomachs – hunger, wretchedness and desperation. These are strong individuals who require a lot of respect and grand support because they have maintained the creative terrain and literary landscape in a state burning with political expediency, shrinking in corruption and roasting in mass poverty, rotting of propaganda and looting.

Mbizo Chirasha

Mbizo Chirasha The Black Poet, works as a poet/writer in residence , creative/literary projects expert , poetry festivals manager and performance poet. He is an acclaimed international performances poet and is published in more than 60 journals around the the world, websites, anthologies and literary reviews. He also works as a media relations strategist and consultant.

Mbizo’s Poetry can be found at http://www.mbizotheblackpoet.blogspot.ca/  and blog at http://personalitiesofinspiration.wordpress.com/ also.

By

Durodola Tosin

This essay intends to examine the ways by which the early African historians’ writings before 1945 could be considered precursors of modern African historiography. We examine four early African historians – Carl Reindorf of Ghana, Sir Apolo Kagwa of Uganda, Jacob Egharevba of Benin and Samuel Johnson of Nigeria, their works, writings and contributions to African historiography.

They have influenced the development of African historiography and their works are precursors of modern African historiography acknowledged by succeeding historians. To an extent the early African historians’ works remain a vital source of information about the African past.

Scrutiny

The writings of the early African historians before 1945 influenced the development of modern African historiography in so many ways. Their motivation, style of motivation and writing and also their contributions to the development of African historiography have been of great influence.

Carl Reindorf is the author of “The History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti” published in 1895. Sir Apolo Kagwa wrote “The Customs of the Buganda” which was translated by E.C Kalibale and published in 1934. Jacob Egharevba wrote his famous book “A Short History of Benin’ which was first published by the C.M.S bookshop and it’s the only one of his 18 publications mostly dealing with the History and Customs of Benin Kingdom. Samuel Johnson also wrote “History of the Yoruba” which has become a vocal point of the Yoruba History.

It should be noted that these four historians are merely representative of a class of African educated elites who were among the inspired to write about the history of their people. There were many others, for instance, in Yoruba land; R.C.C Love noted that there were twenty-two historians– local historians who wrote like that because they were also inspired. They were often writing in vernacular.

These early African historians were not trained historians; they were largely motivated by patriotism. This motivation and patriotic desire inspired them to dig deep in the search for truth and information about African past. Their motivation has been a source of inspiration for other writers like R.S Smith. This motivation has driven many historians to develop interest in African historiography.

Reindorf wrote in the preface of his book that “It is most desirable that a history of the Gold Coast should be written by one who has not only studied but has had a privilege of initiation into the history of his former inhabitants and writes with a true nature of patriotism. Also, Egharevba summed up his motivation for writing in the preface of his book that “in necessity for the production of this little work may be seen from the fact that though every country have its own history but yet that of our native land Benin, we know but little.”

This same patriotic zeal and desire was in Johnson’s book “The History of Yoruba”. He wrote in his preface that “what led to this production was not the desire of the author to appear in print but a purely patriotic motive that the history of our fatherland might not be lost in oblivion…..” Johnson believes that the Yoruba has a glorious past in the chaotic condition of Yoruba land and he was hoping that his people will rise from their disunity to achieve the standards of the good old days. He wrote to inculcate self-respect and national consciousness in the way of writing the achievements of the Yoruba land.

Furthermore, the writings of the early African historians have been of great influence in modern African historiography in several ways apart from their motivation to write. Their writings have given other writers something to work on, that is, it has become a precursor of modern African historiography whereby other African historians can use it as a reference point in their works on African past.

Their patriotic desire to preserve their people’s heritage made them devote sessions of their works to customs, laws and its usages among their people. For instance;

Chapters 2-8 of Johnson’s history of Yoruba deal with religion, the political system, manners and customs, and principle of the landlord among the Yoruba. About 173 pages of ethnographic materials served as a kind of introduction and insight into the life and culture of Yoruba.

Sir Apolo Kagwa’s book is basically a history of Kings and Queens of Buganda, their characteristics, the prominent men of their time, a good proportion of the book was devoted into aspects like the customs and culture of Uganda.

Egharevba wrote in his book solely to preserve from oblivion the ancient laws and customs of the ancient race. There are 16 appendixes to a small famous book with matters as the royal families, Benin titles, ancient form of government, ancient method of warfare and other aspects of Benin culture.

Moreover, the methodology used by these historians made a lot of contributions to modern African historiography. The early African historians relied heavily on oral tradition.

Apolo Kagwa said he collected his materials for his book largely from Busiro kingdom reputed as the capital of Kings of Uganda and also the place for royal burials. There was the residence of most of the wives and servants of the deceased kings.

Egharevba in his book relied on sources from the Ihogbe – these are the worshippers and recorders of departed Oba. He also relied on the Ogbelaka – these are the royal ballads and singers, the royal blacksmiths, and obtained information also from Eweka II in 1930 who gave home attention for three hours. The main source of his book that concerns lives of the famous Iyases 1946 was the children of Ohemwen of a renowned Iyase of the past who visited him at his residence on February 1942.

Also, the field work undertaken by Samuel Johnson in his book was impressive even by modern standards. He was a cousin of Alaafin Adeyemi and had free access to the palace historians. He met Timi of Ede, Oba Lagunju, a recognised authority of Yoruba history; he also had an encounter with David Kukomi – a Patriarch of the Ibadan church who was also a participant in the wars and national movements of the period. Kukomi was able to give him an eye witness account of the sayings and prevailing thoughts and ideas of important personalities of the period – King Abiodun and so on. He also met one Josiah Oni who was a trade and intelligent observer and well acquainted with every part of Yoruba Land. According to Johnson there were other sources of oral data.

Nevertheless, Carl Reindorf similarly explained how he got his information. Reindorf’s methodology was one of the most distinguishing aspects of contributions to the growth of modern African historiography. He was meticulous, and made use of three sources – oral tradition, eye witness and written sources. Most important of these oral sources was that he was greatly influenced by his cultural background. He spent more than 30 years collecting sources for his book. He was aware of the necessity to consult all available written sources – Danish papers which were translated into German specifically for him by Reverend Steiner, and also made use of European travellers’ accounts, like Thomas Bowditch, William Bosman, all of whom he generously acknowledged like a modern historian would.

Reindorf was denied access to British colonial papers of the past which he lamented that such papers would have furnished him with correct dates and substantial information.

Furthermore, the style of writing of these early African historians was of great influence in the development of modern African historiography. In terms of presentation, the early African historians wrote in a narrative vein and usually chronological order. To them history is one long narration highlighting the glorious moments.

Reindorf defines history as “The methodological narration of events, the order in which they occur…..the causes and effect and the auxiliaries and tendencies of that which has occurred in connection with a nation.”

We can judge from their writing that the other early African historians have the same belief in the nature of history. They also had in common the tendency to emphasise the great and powerful, the colourful and the glamorous could have risen from the peculiarity of oral tradition.

However, the early African historians seem to place value on the European orientation by which even the colonial rule was seen as an avenue of Africa development by them.

Samuel Johnson welcomed the British intervention in Yoruba Land which he saw as the only answer for the establishment of peace paving way for the spread of Christianity and western civilisation. He even hoped that the declaration of British protectorate over Yoruba Land would benefit his people.

This notion of Samuel Johnson can be subjected to criticism because several records revealed that colonial intervention and colonial rule undermined the development of Africa and it is still one of the problems of nation building in Nigeria. Debt crises, monetisation of African economies during the colonial era, little or accidental developmental projects and a mono-cropping system is a major factor for heavily indebtedness and economy devastation in Africa. This has placed African countries at a disadvantageous position among the developed countries of the world. Many African countries are part of the Heavily Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) of the world.

Undoubtedly, the early African historians have made substantial contributions to the development of African historiography. They were veritable pioneers and played some significant roles which facilitated the development of modern historiography.

R.E Bradburg, in his foreword to Egharevba’s book, wrote that “we always remain a valuable and indispensable pioneering work.” Scholars like Geoffrey Parrinder, Saburi Biobaku, R.S Smith and Ade Ajayi, who have all worked on Yoruba history, acknowledged the usefulness of Samuel Johnson’s book “History of Yoruba Land”. J.B Danguah in 1930 recalled in respect of Carl Reindorf that “our inestimable debt in the admirable prophet of the Gold Coast nationality.” Most modern day academicians of Ghana have acknowledged the contributions of Reindorf.

One vital truth about the early African historians is that they base their history on sources collected from generations of elders.

In conclusion, the motivation, style of writing, methodology and other contributions by the early African historians as mentioned in this essay have influenced the development of African historiography. Their works are precursors of modern African historiography acknowledged by succeeding historians. With the points stated in this essay, I can say that to an extent the early African historians’ works remain a vital source of information about the African past.

Durodola Tosin

Durodola Tosin is a writer and diplomat. He started writing professionally at the age of 12. He was a Columnist in Ekiti Glory Newspaper, Nigeria from 2009-2010. He was the Ekiti 2009 Winner of the PETs Competition “Poem Section”. His passion for writing was ignited by his Parents profession in Journalism.

He has written on several topics like “The Second World War and the economic situation in Africa”, “Africa and the effect of World War II”, “Neo-Colonialism: A Major obstacle to the process of nation-building in Africa”,  “Nigeria’s Leadership Roles in Africa”, “The Ethnic Setting in the Nigeria Area Before 1800”, “How Apt is the Description of 1920s in America History as The Jazz Age”, “Debt Crisis: A Major Developmental Issue in the Third World Countries”.

Durodola lives in Ekiti State, Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor’s (Hons) Degree in History and International Studies and is currently writing a book on “Nigeria’s Quest for a Permanent Seat at The UN Security Council” and “Nigeria’s Leadership roles in Africa”.

Tuck Magazine had a record breaking 2016, publishing an increased number of articles as each month progressed, easily surpassing the achievements of the year before.

1569 articles were published in 2016, from 440 different writers around the world, originating from a total of 65 countries.

We are indebted to our contributors, readers and friends for ensuring that Tuck Magazine, an independent and free press, continued to be an inspiring read, reporting on important issues, making each think and reflect on the world around them.

In addition to the magazine’s Twitter feed, updates and stories were also posted on Linkedin and Facebook, via ‘Val Michael Tuck‘ and ‘Tuck Magazine‘.

Our contributors for the year came from the following countries:

South Sudan

Nigeria

Uganda

Bangladesh

United States

Sri Lanka

Sudan

DRC

Pakistan

Ghana

India

Egypt

Zimbabwe

Australia

Malawi

Iran

Switzerland

Nepal

Bosnia

China

Turkey

Senegal

South Africa

Ecuador

Canada

England

France

Italy

Brazil

Scotland

Venezuela

Wales

Algeria

Bahrain

Russia

Israel

Tanzania

Philippines

Romania

Holland

Albania

Iraq

Kenya

Ethiopia

Hong Kong

Mexico

Oman

Lithuania

Denmark

Yemen

Ireland

Somalia

Taiwan

Jamaica

Jordan

New Zealand

Argentina

Germany

Colombia

Austria

Palestine

Cameroon

Papua New Guinea

Mauritius

South Korea

2017 will continue in a similar vein, highlighting important stories from around the world with plans for Tuck to expand further as the year progresses, as well as publishing more articles on human rights, news, current affairs, music, politics, film, poetry, fiction, art, interviews, photography and reviews, so if you are interested in contributing, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

For now however we thank 2016’s talented contributors:

Peter Louis

Okeke Okechi 

Gloria Nakiyimba 

Benjamin Okochi

Wale Ayinla

Ikirigo Sokari Jeremiah

Sheuli Akter

Scott Thomas Outlar 

Indunil Madhusankha 

Darell Maurice 

Alagbe Omotayo

Damilola Jonathan Oladeji

(The late) Sattar Rind 

Celestine Chimummunefenwuanya

Ken Allan Dronsfield

Nana Arhin Tsiwah 

Guy Farmer

Byobe Malenga

Gopal Lahiri

Abdul Abubakar

John Grey

Ahmed Tharwat 

Lindri Riveras

Samuel Ayoade

Mathew Masinge 

Atanda Faruq Obatolu

James Diaz

Rob Harle 

Sunil Sharma

Sanjeev Sethi

Nixon Mateulah 

Muhammad Waqas Awan

Sarah Pedramnia 

Philipp Müller 

Adisa Amanor Wilks

Mercy UdoAkang

Onawale Femi Simeon

Catherine James

Sheena Pillai Singh

Goodnews Eruemuare

Pijush Kanti Deb

Robert Ssewankambo

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Akinpelu Yusuf

Vishal Ajmera

Ogunsanya Enitan Olalekan

Rahul Mall 

Alagbe Omotayo

Suvojit Banerjee

Ananya S Guha

Michael Lee Johnson

Ovuoba David

Sheikha A.

Sara Lerota 

Onyeka Obi

Ogana D. Okpah

Dan Marshall-Singh 

Akor Emmanuel

Fawole Immanuel Taiwo

Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju

Fadi Elhusseini 

Anwar Hasan

Alpha Jallow 

Oki Kehinde Julius

Constance van Niekerk 

Shakeel Haider

Russell W. Dickson

Soodabeh Saeidnia

Abienekpen Osaletin Augustine

Grégory Wilson 

Tom Arms 

Durodola Tosin

Nnaemeka Nwangene

Satyabrata Pal

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Jose Kalathil

Christine McNeill-Matteson

Adoboe Selorm

Gulcin Newby Kennett

Florence Vitel 

Ratnesh Dwivedi

Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa

Cecilia Sandroni 

Reena Prasad

Olena Kagui

Brian Horner

Kareem Awwal

Michael Inioluwa Oladele

Daisy Hasan

Hussain Ahmed

Rod Roldan-Roldan 

K.S. Subramanian

Musa Gift Masombuka

Paul Tristram

Geosi Gyasi

Justice Gift Ogochukwu

John Mingay 

Chukwu John David

Learnmore Edwin Zvada

Sami Jamil Jadallah

John Swain

Joe Milford

Ojo Blessing

Waqar Haider

Marcus Agar

Muhammad Aladdin

Alberto Quero 

Corinne Wainer

Michael Kwaku Kesse Somuah

Rajesh Nair

Sean Runyon

David Subacchi 

Matthew Laverty

Wally Swist

Prince Charles Dickson

Rashida Murphy

Anthony Jenkins

Kofi Acquah

Elwood Billshot

Semra Dehamna 

Onis Sampson

Alexander Limarev 

Cynthia Meru

David Bankson

Kitaka Alex

Mirissa D. Price

Keletso Mopai

Joan McNerney

Valda Organ

Ed Bremson

Peter Heerings

Adam Levon Brown

Maitreyee B Chowdhury

Adel Soualah

Johnson Grace Maganja

Purabi Bhattacharya

Gary Beck

Ayushi Singha

Paul Sezzie

Holly Day

Sudeep Mukhia

Amarjyoti Borah

Richard Donnelly

Rupen Savoulian

Dukhan Jundit

Anindita Bose

Beate Sigriddaughter

Rick Davis

Aurora M. Granata

Wayne F Burke

JD DeHart

Feroz Khan Jamali

Kolawole Oluwanifemi

Sona Maniar

Vickie Zisman 

Augustine Malizu

Michael Organ

Susan Price

Julia Symmes Cobb 

Ana Isabel Martinez 

Ricky Garni

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Gonsalves Mpili 

Anthony Boadle 

Alonso Soto 

Sudeep Adhikari

Joseph Taylor

Lou Charbonneau 

William Maclean 

Lydie Denier

Mohammed Ghobari  

Sylvia Westall 

Ellen Wulfhorst

Julie Petersen

Nivedita Dey

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani 

Otatade Okojie

Renee Drummond-Brown

Ennin Kwaku Godfred

John Thieme

Narges Kharghani

Abu Thahir

Nasurullah Brohi

Belinda Goldsmith 

Astrid Zweynert 

Alex Whiting 

Sukrita Paul Kumar

Amore David Olamide

Alexander Balcoba

Anca Mihaela Bruma 

Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois

Kieran Guilbert 

U Atreya Sarma

Nicole Long

Seun Ajijala

Blanca Alicia Garza

Thambu Kanagasabai

Coby Daniels

Semon Swaraj

Tanvi Bijawat

Cynthia M. Lardner 

Anne Babson

Marites Gueta

Ojo Taiye

Dime Maziba

Irsa Ruci 

Prerna Singla

Tanushree Ghosh

Valentina Viskovic

Ayushi Gupta

Robert Kilborn

Bismark Amoah

Len Kuntz

Brianna Ricotta

Myra King

Kay Johnson 

Kaushik Chakraborty

Sandy Rochelle

Peter Magliocco

Umberto Bacchi 

Manuel Mogato

John Chalmers 

Lianne Kamp

Kylie MacLellan 

Anirban Nag

Micheal Ace

Monoranjan Thakur

Estelle Shirbon

Ben Blanchard

Saira Viola

Sarah Ito

Guy Faulconbridge 

Kate Holton

Don Krieger

Ahmad Al-khatat 

Joe Khamisi 

Warren Strobel

Yara Bayoumy 

Moses Chukwuemeka Daniel

Rina Chandran 

Malkeet Kaur

Hakeem Enesi Momoh

Ijalusi Samuel

Dhiraj Kumar Beniwal

Subashish Bhattacharjee

Lucy M. Logsdon

Nita Bhalla 

Stephanie Nebehay

Iwu Jeff

Nicole Surginer

Brian Minga Amza

Priyadarshini Kiran

Wesley D. Gray

Sabena Siddiqi

Somsukla Roy

Bolaji Akinwande Akintola

Zeravan Barwary

Ugwu Leonard Elvis

Hira Azhar

Mark Cleeford L Quitoras

Shola Balogun

Fanuel Lakew 

Abigail Rathbone

Zeeshan A. Shah

Debbie Hall

Joe Bavier 

Paul Summers

Joey Ho

Nurul Hoque

Hazel Speed

Marieta Maglas 

Sophie Sassard 

Michel Bernouin 

Rinita Banerjee

J.K. Durick

Kumbirai Kupfavira

Nikki Anne Schmutz

Abu Sufian

I.B. Rad

Ebi Robert

Dustin Pickering

Changming Yuan

Magdalena Mis 

Nii Armah Tagoe

Odinga Adiwu

Krista Clark

Fatimah Bakare-Dickson

Penn Kemp

Brian Frydenborg

Matt Alexander

Ifeoluseyi Ifeoluwapo Ifeyemi

Rehan Qayoom

Nita Bhalla 

Tom Gumbert

Tikuli

Scott Wozniak

Javed Majeedano

Akinola Sesan

Mohammad Forouzani 

Saru Pokharel

Colin Packham 

Aprajita Gupta

Gul Yousafzai 

Jill Crainshaw

Prince A McNally

Stephen Mead

Jason Allen

Alève Mine

Jenny Santellano

Mica Rosenberg 

Ieva Rasmussen

Habib Akewusola

Tejasvi Saxena

Michael T. Bee

Debasish Parashar

Naa Dedei Botchwey

Oshogbemi A E Peter

Stephen Byrne 

Kenny Katombe

Benoit Nyemba 

Mousumi Ghose

David Adejumo

Lisa Morris

Mahmoud Sharif 

Chinwe O’Brien

Akeredolu Tope

Olta Totoni

Kay Roberts

Rebecca Cherrington

Angus McDowall 

Tom Perry 

Howard Debs

Ulf Laessing 

Christopher Hopkins

Chung Kwang Tien

David Paul White

Aina Oluwasegun Yakub

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

Venus Wu 

James Pomfret 

Aditya Singh

Ajay K Chaubey

Kim Bailey Deal

Natalie Crick

Shahper Hassan

Ricardo Swire 

Nehad Ismail 

Ifa Agnes

Bernard Ollo

Rafah Al Saad 

Opal Ingram

Sam Eastwood

P C K Prem

Prince Adetunji Fabode

Steve Holland 

Emily Stephenson 

Mohamed Elgadi 

Casey Dorman

Elizabeth Alford

Kaushik Acharya

Jake Aller

Paul Grams

Kanwal Abidi

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi

Temesghen Debesai

Patrick Calinescu

Vincent Alexander

Elizabeth Johnston

Noah Barkin 

Alejandro Escudé 

Ingrid Melander 

Michel Rose 

Ed Cropley 

Aremu Adams Adebisi

Siddhartha Rastogi

Jo-Ella Sarich

Daginne Aignend

Manjinder Kaur Wratch

Curtis Skinner

Muhammad Shoaib Khan

Patricia Walsh

Richard Lough 

David R Mellor

Rich Soos

Lin Taylor

Bethamehi Joy Syiem

Rob Plath

Alan Share

Chestlyn Draghoender

Albrecht Behmel 

J.J.Campbell

Mansour Rad

Blank Verse

Ramona Thompson

Peter Lykke Lind 

Harry Ricciardi

Anastasia Moloney

Sourav Sarkar

Crispian Balmer

Jennifer N. Shannon

Madamidola Oladele

Anuradha Nagaraj 

Sylvia Petter 

Gavin Jones 

Ken W Simpson

Florence Logarta

Williams Oladimeji

Nwibo Chinecherem Precious

David Susswein

Maha Elbanna 

Joseph Besong 

Richard M. Longthorpe

Abigale Louise LeCavalier

Eaton Jackson

Jerry Vilhotti

Tad Gruchalla-Wesierski

Umit Bektas 

Orhan Coskun 

Tuvan Gumrukcu

Jordan Dean

Jennifer Criss

Wole Oguntola

Sandeep Sharma

Leslie Philibert 

Lesley Wroughton

Yeganeh Torbati 

M.K. Eelaventhan

Ògbeni Làgbàyí

Samrat Dey

Ezra Acayan

Vatsala Radhakeesoon

A happy, peaceful and prosperous 2017 to everyone.

Michael Organ

Managing Editor and Publisher

Tuck Magazine

Tuck Magazine had another ‘successful’ year, the number of articles and writers published, in addition to readers around the world increasing from the previous year.

1721 articles were published in 2017, from 540 different writers around the world.

We are indebted to our contributors, readers and friends for ensuring that Tuck Magazine, an independent and free press, continues to be an inspiring read, reporting on important issues, making each think and reflect on the world around them.

When looking back on a year one invariably focuses on the negative, particularly relating to news, politics and current affairs. 2017 was of course no exception in this regard, the year being dominated by Donald Trump’s presidency, in addition to the increasingly disturbing rise of the far right around the world. It is no surprise that the former is here linked with the latter, Trump’s daily activities, be they via twitter, an executive order or other ill-judged statement or action, causing distress or bewilderment in equal measures.

Another story that has and continues to dominate is that of inappropriate sexual behaviour or sexual abuse, the former Hollywood Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein earlier this year being outed by fellow celebs in the press. This is in stark contrast to the large number of serious allegations of child sexual abuse in previous years against not only celebrities but MPs, government officials and members of the clergy, most of which were dismissed and ridiculed by the press. One can only hope that following the rise of such allegations against Weinstein, Spacey, Hoffman, Allen and all, as well as the relative acceptance of such by the public and mainstream media, that the aforementioned child abuse claims be looked into again and treated with the same level of respect and seriousness they surely deserve.

As for this magazine we will for as long as possible endeavour to continue reporting on as many important stories from around the world, centering on human rights, empowering and giving each a voice that may not necessarily be heard elsewhere. For this we rely on the goodwill, passion and integrity of not only our writers, but also readers who play an equally important role.

Most media outlets around the world are in their own financial turmoil, clamouring for the hits and readers that are becoming more and more precious by the day, the seemingly all important advertising dollar being the be all and end all of their business, integrity and the original goal of providing an unbiased and free media fading into obscurity. It is disturbing to see even respectable news outlets and publications conceding to the inevitable and posting inappropriate and often irrelevant content on their site, not to mention the glut of advertisers attached. Tuck Magazine has had numerous offers from such advertisers and content ‘creators’ and, while the need for revenue to pay our writers and running costs is perhaps greater than most given we have no financial support, will not back down, lose focus or compromise our vision and the important work we publish. Despite the relative inevitability therefore of another media outlet crashing to the wayside, and failing of course a hefty lottery win or wealthy backer(s), Tuck will continue for as long as possible until the inescapable gloom overcomes and reality of the media in the modern apathetic, indifferent, celebrity obsessed age finally calls a day on another important outlet.

For now however we thank 2017’s talented contributors without whom we would not be publishing each week day:

Chine Labbé

Cynthia M. Lardner

Gérard Bon

Gloria Nakiyimba

Hazel Speed

Prince Charles Dickson

Rick Davis

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Tanushree Ghosh

Kanwal Abidi

Abigail Rathbone

David R Mellor

Tom Arms

Joe Khamisi

Cliff Graham

Ananya S Guha

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Wally Swist

Thambu Kanagasabai

Rafah Al Saad

Charlie Brice

Siddhartha Rastogi

Therese Young Kim

Ricardo Swire

Michael Holden

Estelle Shirbon Prime

Jennifer N. Shannon

Sarah Ito

Prakash Bimil

Prince Adetunji Fabode

Imad Zafar

Ahmed Tharwat

Nelson CJ

Alève Mine

Samuel Ayoade

Akinpelu Yusuf

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Magdalena Mis

Emily Bilman

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

Moses Chukwuemeka Daniel

Deborah Kahan Kolb

Rina Chandran Anjali

Abasi Torty Tortivie

Daipayan Nair

Ayesha Rascoe

Kumarathasan Rasingam

Allison Grayhurst

Dave Patterson

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Valda Organ

Jill Crainshaw

Madamidola Oladele

Quleen Kaur Bijral

Ebi Robert

Jose Kalathil

Rajesh Nair

Bikash Mohapatra

Olivia Vande Woude

Joseph Besong

Broken Montague

Stella Allou

Katy Migiro

Samantha Neugebauer

Muhammad Shoaib Khan

Rupen Savoulian

Lisa Morris

P C K Prem

Umberto Bacchi

Ellen Wulfhorst

Sheila Scobba Banning

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Maayan Lubell

Tara Sattar

Mark Davis

Saru Pokharel

Michel Rose

 Sudip Kar-Gupta

Samir Raiti Mtamba

Sylvain Muyali

Linda M Crate

Amit Shankar Saha

Lin Taylor

Valeria Cardi

Stephen Philip Druce

Binoy Kampmark

Emma Batha

Kanyinsola Olorunnisola

Jo-Ella Sarich

Paul Carrel

Hakan Erdem

Lianne Kamp

Julia Love

Jessica Toonkel

Tim Baysinger

Eaton Jackson

Esomnofu Ebelenna

Toby Melville

William James

Durodola Tosin

Eddie Awusi

Iwu Jeff

Ujjwala Kakarla

Robert Kilborn

Byobe Malenga

Musa Gift Masombuka

Durgesh Verma

Sheuli Akter

Scott Thomas Outlar

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Ittrika Pandit

Zeeshan A. Shah

Dov Weinman

J.J.Campbell

g emil reutter

Indunil Madhusankha

Thomas Escritt

Toby Sterling

Harshal Desai

Nicole Surginer

Carl Scharwath

Philip Blenkinsop

Pitambar Naik

Laboni Saif

Alok Mishra

Leslie Philibert

Gopal Lahiri

Sandy Rochelle

Nivedita Dey

Vishal Ajmera

Wole Oguntola

John Jimoh

Kofi Acquah

Emmanuel Joseph

Micheal Ace

Michael Chin

G David Schwartz

Safia Izhar

Alexandra Umlas

Daginne Aignend

Obaji-Nwali Shegun

Anuradha Nagaraj

I.B. Rad

Hira Azhar

Penn Kemp

Crystal Snoddon

Awesu Olaniyi Williams

Susan Bellfield

Katy Migiro

Amore David Olamide

Vatsala Radhakeesoon

Emmanuel Jarry

Md. Khaled Hosen

Akinola Sesan

Ndifreke George

Kanwal Abidi

John Irish

Santosh Kumar Pokhrel

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

Bate Felix

James Dennis Casey IV

Vickie Zisman

JD DeHart

Sybille de La Hamaide

Matthias Blamont

Alejandro Escudé

Leigh Thomas

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Michael Mulvihill

Peter Louis

Bikash Mohapatra

Stephen Faulkner

Lisa Morris

Ian Fletcher

David R Mellor

Lianne Kamp

Blanca Alicia Garza

Beate Sigriddaughter

Marieta Maglas

Adrian Croft

Elizabeth Pineau

P.J. Johnson

Fee Thomas

Vera Ignatowitsch

Sunil Sharma

Alan Britt

Hongri Yuan

John Chizoba Vincent

Ifa Agnes

Ingrid Melander

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Nurul Hoque

Donatella Rovera

Ògbeni Làgbàyí

Anastasia Moloney

Ahmed Tharwat

Ken Allan Dronsfield

Ramona Thompson

William James

Patrick Graham 

Gary Beck

Hakeem Enesi Momoh

Denis Dyomkin

Sarah Ito

Martina Reisz Newberry

Noah Barkin

Sean Kelbley

Yasser M. Dhouib

Robin Emmott

Steve Holland 

Leslie Philibert

Mary Ann Callahan

Pranab Ghosh

Tejasvi Saxena

Florence Joseph

Kylie MacLellan

Michael Holden 

Matthew J Hall

Jon Super

Akuchie Ifeanyi Michael

J.R. Wu

Naa Dedei Botchwey

Ratnesh Dwivedi

Harlan Yarbrough

Michael Joseph Patton

Ayesha Rascoe

Ken Poyner

Ennin Kwaku Godfred

Matthew J. Lawler

JoyAnne O’Donnell

Fadi Elhusseini

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Nasreen Iqbal Kasana

Benedicte Kumbi

Kabedoopong Piddo Ddibe’st

Mathieu Rosemain

Andrew Callus

Howard Debs

Opal Ingram

Renee Drummond-Brown

Don Krieger

Dragos Niculescu

Clive Aaron Gill

Madhabi Das

Anindita Bose

Sally Hayden

Johnny B

Byron Kaye

Philip Pullella 

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Andrew Hubbard

Mica Rosenberg

Andrew Chung

Stephanie van den Berg

Stela Xega

Constance van Niekerk

Nome Emeka Patrick

Uduak Uwah

Femi Tunde Okunlola

Anahit Arustamyan

Alyssa Trivett

Ayeyemi Taofeek

Isaac Abban

Kayode Afolabi

Gift Friday

Patricia Zengerle

Susan Cornwell 

Eugene Skeef

Mehedi Hasan

Kumar Hassan

Darrell Herbert

Trish Wootten

John Grey

Andy Bruce

Alistair Smout 

Jan Wiezorek

Nixon Mateulah

Valerie Volcovici

Jeff Mason 

Bernard Ollo

Bijay Kumar Show

Anant Mishra

Richa Chadha

Koraly Dimitriadis

Ajmal Khan

Pat Ashinze

Damiam Vincent Henry

Ogundele Faith Oluwaranti

Oshogbemi A E Peter

Elisabeth Horan

Ugwu Leonard Elvis

Bob Eager

Raminder Paul Singh

Katie Lewington

Shahper Hassan

Oki Kehinde Julius

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan

Raymond Asante

Roshini Shetty

Sheena Pillai Singh

Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani

Paul Brookes

Rahul Mall

Michael T. Bee

Samuel Son

Munia Khan

Mbizo Chirasha

Ibrahim Ayobami Balogun

Tamanna Hossain

Jameel W. Karaki

KJ Hannah Greenberg

Ricky Garni

Amit Parmessur

Donise Sheppard

Lynn White

Steve Carr

Daniel Casey

Alisa Velaj

Surbhi Anand

Ilda Lamçe

Kanika Gautam

Penn Kemp

Anca Mihaela Bruma

Gerry Sikazwe

Mark W. Jones

Zena Howard

Amlan Biswas

Success Akpojotor

Jeff Rasley

Devon Balwit

Sanju Clement

Javed Ahmed

Sourav Sarkar

Purabi Bhattacharya

F. S. Byrne

Muhammad Mushtaq Khan

Jake Aller

Jennifer Scott

Victor Ola-Matthew

Maria Tosti

Megan Collins

Laureta Petoshati

Gareth Culshaw

Gary Glauber

Douglas Patterson

Sarah Ream

Bob McNeil

Sanjeev Sethi

Kakali Karmakar

Jillian Haslam

Sohail Mahmood

Paul Ilechko

Fisuyi Tolulope

Beulah Kleinveldt

Jonathan Otamere Endurance

Eze Ifeanyichukwu Peter

Harry Ricciardi

Poornima Laxmeshwar

Kingson Chingakham

Rony Nair

Nikita Parik

Zion Victor-Tade

Jon Vreeland

Amara Sesay

R. James

Husniya

Chidi Anthony Opara

Mobolaji Olawale

Joel Schueler

Judy Alexander Brice

Mirissa D. Price

Ernest Gordon Taulbee

Oluwa Seun Tiwistar

Tom Roth

Maryam Gatawa

Shola Balogun

Aakriti Kuntal

Shabir Ahmad Mir

Michael Lee Johnson

Cecilia Sandroni

Mario Vitale

Steve Robertson

Eliza Segiet

Karlo Sevilla

Susan Ranford

Ben White

Marc Brightside

Alpha Jallow

Ashi Kalim

Ogunsanya Enitan Olalekan

Henneh Kyereh Kwaku

Najib Adamu Usman

Siraj A Sabuke

Rajnish Mishra

Justin Fox

John Watt

Olubela Murewa

Peter H Armitage

Kapardeli Eftichia

Ann Christine Tabaka

Nsah Mala

Dustin Pickering

Sofia Kioroglou

Kathy Gibbons

Dime Maziba

Casey M. Millette

Debendra Kumar Bauri

R.L.M. Cooper

Lynne Zotalis

Sona Maniar

Erika Kamp

Saliha Khalid

Satis Shroff

Debbie Hall

Alycia Vreeland

Darren C. Demaree

Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois

Adam Levon Brown

Nwoba Chika Nwoba

Olabusayo Ajay

Catherine Rauchenberger Conley

Jacqueline Jules

Pramod Kumar Das

Fatimah Bakare-Dickson

David Lohrey

Umarani Jayaraj

Emily Strauss

Michele Leavitt

Hermann-Habib Kibangou

Faleeha Hassan

Robert Boucheron

Fanuel Lakew

Frederick Omari Okonneh

Krista Clark

Selden Cummings

Selorm Adoboe

Bevan Boggenpoel

Caroline Johnson

Judy Shepps Battle

Gil Trythall

Chandrani Banerjee

Nyashadzashe Chikumbu

Alina Maria

Joe Balaz

Trish Hopkinson

Grant Guy

PW Covington

Ferris E Jones

Hareem Fatima

Bronson Thomas

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

Marites Gueta

Alan Share

John D Robinson

Amreen Qadir

Julie Petersen

S Liam Spradlin

Adamu Usman Garko

Corina Constantinescu

Soren Paul Petrek

Mike Griffith

Mileva Anastasiadou

Amara Femoh Sesay

Gulam Yazdani

Kelechi A Anthony

Rania Moudaress Silva

J.J. Campbell

Nitusmita Saikia

Ebere Terr Ebere

Agunbiade Kehinde Adeshina

Yvonne Higgins Leach

Oluwapelumi Francis Salako

Brian Crandall

Ernest Ogunyemi

Norberto Franco Cisneros

Zeke Jarvis

Abigail George

Sandy Olson-Hill

Clive Collins

Marguerite Guzman Bouvard

Hugo J. Quizhpi

Ankita Anand

Marcus Agar

Riham Adly

Gail White

T.S. Bob

Kingsley Alumona

Sarah Bigham

Omar Khan

Dev Dutt

WJP Newnham

Nandini Srivastava

Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim

Ahmad Al-Khatat

Beatrice Hunter

Kate Rae

John Balouziyeh

Santosh Bakaya

Utpal Chakraborty

Maria Lagdameo

Jill Kiesow

Linda Imbler

Anna Green

Anil Trigunayat

Katelyn Thomas

Howard Brown

Vanessa de Largie

Blessing T Masenga

Sydney Saize

Philani Amadeus Nyoni

Michael Mwangi Macharia

Tynoe Wilson

Julius Muriithi

John Eppel

Sadiqullah Khan

Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa

Jurgen Troy Namupira

Oladipo Kehinde Paul

Pasi Gunguwo

Richmore Tera

Ambassador Dan Amakor

Caesar Obong

Brighton Busybee Muponda

Tendai Mwanaka

Mbonisi Zikhali

Gopichand Paruchuri

Cosmas Mairosi

Richard Mbuthia

Akor Emmanuel Oche

Aleck T Mabenge

Theodora Chirapa

Simbarashe Jongwe

Emmanuel Douglas Mulomole

Sinkende Mashayangombane

Wafula P’Khisa

S Kojo Frimpong

Rich Unger

Patrick Kamau

Liz Berry

A happy, peaceful and prosperous 2018 to everyone.

Michael Organ

Managing Editor and Publisher

Tuck Magazine

AFP photo

By

John Chizoba Vincent

Tell all writers, those who care to listen, that the darkness sometimes is saved on a shelf of rightful solitude in tattered pages of red and black ink. Let them know that their worth is not validated by the judge’s opinion, nor by vain praises. Tell them that rejection is normal to writers. Tell them that writers don’t give up immediately; they don’t give up the quest for a successful life, they keep fighting and dreaming. They keep writing and don’t give up the fight to be known. Tell them to be purposeful writers. Tell them that those broken letters carved yesterday could be a milestone to climb. Giving up is letting yourself down, you are worth much more than giving up. You are a star, the mirror through which the world sees. You are a prophet, a teacher, a mentor, a doctor, a lawyer, a child, a mother, a father. You wear everyone’s shoes to know how and where it hurts them. You are a god and the best you can do for yourself is to see the best in you.

I have watched you grow into a nation of many colours. I have watched you give birth to children of many symbols. I have known you even before you were born. Why do you have to give up? This is the right time to pick your broken self up. The moon in your eyes, I remember how it glowed gloriously. I remember how it gave light to you before the winds came to put out its flame into your thoughts. Be much better, be much appreciated. Writers, be yourself and call the wind of love to continue to be your harsh reminder of what is at stake.

Tell all writers what is at stake in our beloved country. This is not the right time to write of love and forget the lost glory of our land. Nigeria is dying. Our mother is sick and needs a doctor. Who amongst us can treat her? Who amongst us can heal her of his ancestry, the ancient historical pains? The contextual content of these wet Benue roads are home to drive us insane. We no longer live anymore. We live in another man’s treasured house. We no longer live here anymore. Nigeria is sick and needs our ink like never before. Point your accusing finger northward to the politicians; finger the mouth of the gods. Tell the gods that Nigeria is sick and she’s dying.

The fireplace in your heart, I remember the warmth before its coals became ice in this land. Rise up writers! Let’s match this madness to the street. Let’s tell the street the way the fire crackled and resonated with the music in our heart. Writers, gear up let’s fight and then save our future for the next generation to come. I remember everything, but writing is like sweetened gall, an alloy of pain and pleasure; a reminder that poisons are not always bitter but sweet sometimes.

All writers come out let’s rewrite Nigeria. Tell all writers to come out and write. This is not the right time to start seeking awards and all. Don’t go looking for awards while our problems are still there. Write to the police, tell them their crimes, write about the army, tell them their personal problems. Write to our flammable leaders and educate them of their problems. It is only one who is closer to you that tells you how bad your mouth smells. Write about pain, write about hunger, write about the boy child, write about the girl child, write about the hardship, write about suffering, write about the genocide; write about the killings. All writers come out, let’s write an end to this.

The night is cold, old and grey, but my thoughts would not let it die. My anger won’t let it snow down and slide into an abyss. We must fight with our ink. Tell a writer to tell a writer to tell another writer to tell another writer that we have to fight with our pens. A tear trickles down my cheek to water the stands of joy withering in my heart. When shall we see the good of this land? If life is a desert, every man carries his own oasis in his eyes and chews the dust raised by his feet for survival. Writers, we must learn this and much more of other things that lurked behind.

My fellow writers, I have seen the branch from which the words of birds fall and break into pieces and I am not afraid this will still repeat itself over and over again. And now the soles of my feet are sore from trekking and walking down to this boredom called freedom and the shackles of shabby depression and desperation but this one thing I know for sure; I shall return from this journey with the head of death of this country on my palms. Tell all writers to come out, the street is not smiling.

Beat not the gong of sadness anymore, writer. Let’s fight, do not spin a web of dirges for our mother. Let’s fight to save her in her lifetime, her ear was made a desert yesterday where many water has gone into different holes. Let’s revisit those verses from whatever book they are written. Tell all writers to come out from their comfort zone and let’s write for tomorrow. All writers come out!

John Chizoba Vincent

John Chizoba Vincent is a cinematographer, filmmaker, music video director, poet and a writer. A graduate of mass communication, he believes in life and the substances that life is made of. He has three books published to his credit which includes Hard Times, Good Mama, Letter from Home. For boys of tomorrow is his first offering to poetry. He lives in Lagos.

GT photo

By

Izunna Okafor

It is no longer a novelty that every calendar year wakes up and sleeps off with a natural book of many pages. Pages of dreams and visions, pages of imaginations and realities, pages of successes and failures, pages of joy and sorrow, pages of progress and regress, pages of victories and losses, pages of smiles and tears, among many others. These pages indeed represent what the year holds for us.

Among many others, the Nigerian literary industry has been a silent character that has tasted a paragraph in virtually all the pages of the natural book in the year 2018. That is to say that a lot of pages have opened and closed to the literary industry as the year 2018 blinks away.

The Nigerian literary industry has been one of the most highly revered industries in the country, owing to her gargantuan contributions towards the development of the country, coupled with the venerable caliber of people therein.

Analytically speaking, the year 2018 was neither all white nor all black for the industry, as many writers were recorded with many others also recorded in different books in the year.

For Nigerian writers, the year 2018 began with good news, following the long listing of 30-year old Ayobami Adebayo in the ‘Wellcome Book Prize‘ on 9th February, for her debut novel “Stay With Me” published in 2017, making her the only African Writer that made it to the list of the highly competitive annual British Literary Award.

Shortly after this, sad news crawled in, following the shocking news of Akinwunmi Ishola’s demise on Saturday, 17th February, being the first global sad news to surface from the corner of the literary industry across the world in 2018. Prof. Ishola was a Yoruba literary scholar, novelist, playwright and cultural icon whose works: Oleku, Efunsetan Aniwura, Koseegbe, Saworoide, Agogo Eewo and Campus Queen were widely regarded as among the best literary works produced by writers of his generation.

This was followed by the death of Elizabeth Fagunwa, a renowned literary promoter and wife of foremost writer and author, late Chief Daniel O. Fagunwa. Her death was described as a great loss for the Nigerian literary community, owing to the great roles she played in advancing, peaking and championing the cause of literary activities in the country, especially through the Fagunwa Literary Foundation.

Among these, the most recent and unsavory of all the ugly news that elicited tears from the eyes of Nigerian writers in 2018 was the announcement of Ikeogu Oke’s fall on 24th November. Oke was a great Nigerian bard who, with his classic poem “The Heresiad”, won the Africa’s biggest literary prize, the Nigerian Prize for Literature 2017, sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to the tune of $100,000 (N37m).

On the laudatory flank of the journey, the Nigerian creative industry recorded leviathan feats in the year 2018, as many Nigerian writers, both burgeoning and established, proved their worth in the field of the pen this year both nationally and internationally, thereby emblazing and embellishing the hope for the advancement of literary arts in Nigeria.

If there is any set of people that have kept Nigeria’s image alive and shiny for decades in the international community, it is Nigerian Writers. And this year is no exception. Several Nigerian writers toed their feet in the literary field this year while many others advanced in their echelons.

In her corner, a leading character in the Nigerian literary scene, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recorded some of her greatest achievements in the literary field this year, following her prodigious victories in various international and globally acclaimed literary contests, awards, coupled with other noble honours she received in the year.

Adichie opened the award year with the 2018 Barnes & Nobel ‘Writers for Writers’ award which she received in the fall of the quarter of the year. Shortly after that, the literati had within a couple of months clasped several other awards and Honorary Degrees among which are: the ‘Shorty Award 2018’, Pen Pinter Prize 2018; 2018 Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award; 2019 Everett M. Rogers Award; Thought Leadership Award from the Global Hope Coalition (GHC); Honorary Doctor of Literature (DLit) degree, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); University of London, UK; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, Duke University, North Carolina, USA; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA; Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree, Bowdoin College, Maine, USA, among others.

Other great and upcoming writers who recorded great feats with their pen in the year include: Anietie Isong, whose debut novel “Radio Sunrise” won the UK’S biggest literary prize, the 2018 McKitterick Prize; Nigerian-German Efua Traoré who emerged the African regional winner in the world’s most global literary prize, the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize; Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto who won the New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Writing Award, and the Castello di Duino Poesia International Prize 2018; Abimbola Dare who won the 2018 Bath Novel International Award among others.

The highly coveted 2018 NLNG Prize for Literature which is Africa’s biggest Literary Prize (worth $100,000) went to Soji Cole for his drama ‘Embers’. Be it as it may, this year’s Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature went to a Ugandan writer, Harriet Anena, making her the first Ugandan to win the prize, while, with her ‘Fanta Blackcurrant’, a Kenyan writer, Makena Onjerika, won the 2018 Caine Prize, in which three Nigerian writers: Nonyelum Ekwempu, Olufunke Ogundimu and Wole Talabi were shortlisted out of 147 entrants from 20 African countries.

It is also worthy to recall that two Nigerian authors: Chimamanda Adichie and Nnedi Okorafor were in 2018 nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, for the first time in 36 years, after Wole Soyinka became the first black person to win the world’s most coveted literary prize.

However, due to some circumstances challenging public confidence in members of the Swedish Academy hosting the award, the winner of the prize was not announced this year, instead being postponed to the next year. Nevertheless, one of the Caribbean’s most renowned authors, Maryse Conde, was said to have won an alternative prize created to replace this year’s Nobel Literature Prize. Hence, according to the organizers, who were being torn apart by a kerfuffle evolving from certain claims and accusations, two Nobel Laureates will be announced next year, being for 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Aside from awards and recognition, many Nigerian writers, especially the young ones published internationally acclaimed books this year. The Nigerian literary industry also welcomed new members this year, among whom were top-notch politicians who decided to ‘test’ their ‘fortunes’ in creative writing, and hence now wear the badge of ‘author’.

The most recent of these politicians turned authors include: Sullivan Chime who authored “An Honour to Serve: Enugu State in the Sullivan Years” and Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who authored ‘My Transition Hours’. Professionally as it may have been written, president Jonathan’s book surprisingly made it to the list of 15 best books published in the year 2018. Other newly published books and Nigerian authors who made it to the prestigious international list include: ‘Devil’s Pawn’ by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson; ‘When Trouble Sleeps’ by Leye Adenle; ‘When Day Breaks’ by Adamu Usman Garko (a secondary school student); ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi and ‘Embers’ by Soji Cole, among others.

Nnedi Okorafor, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tochi Onyebuchi, Tomi Adeyemi, Lola Shoneyin, Roye Okupe, and Chika Unigwe had earlier in the year been listed by Pulse as among the authors currently setting the pace in the literary field.

However interesting these may be, it is also more interesting to puff the sore truth that book piracy and plagiarism received a great boost in Nigeria in 2018, as reports reveal several cases of the ugly act carried out this year. Even President Jonathan’s new book was said to have been pirated by an unknown malignant, in just less than 48 hours after its launching.

However, a number of individuals, groups and non-governmental organizations in the country played great roles in waging war against this centuries old global issue which has pauperized many writers across the world. A most recent instance of this brawl was one waged by the Anti-Piracy Society of Nigeria in her 2018 annual convention in which the MD/Editor-in-chief of the National Light Newspaper, Sir Chuka Nnabuife, who is also a renowned author and poet, lectured on: “Evolving Challenges-Innovative Responses”. It is generally believed that piracy and plagiarism trailed in the year despite the fierce campaigns truculently championed against it.

On the aspect of activities, 2018 recorded the celebration of numerous literary events and activities by Nigerian writers. The outstanding among these literary activities and events include: the 37th Annual National Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors; 2018 CORA Book Party; NSPP Awards Ceremony hosted by Poets In Nigeria (PIN); Lagos Book and Art Festival 2018; Return To Idoto 2018 (in honour of late Poet Christopher Okigbo), hosted by Awka Literary Society; the 2018 Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, hosted by the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (Anambra Chapter); Northern Nigerian Writers’ Summit 2018; the 2018 Ake Arts and Book Festival; Anambra Book and Creativity Festival (ANBUKRAFT) 2018; first Poetry Slam in Anambra, hosted by Poets in Nigeria (PIN), Awka Connect Centre; 2018 Carter Literary Festival, Enugu; 2018 admission of writers into the Ebedi Writers Residency, Iseyi, the only writers residency in Nigeria; among other literary activities.

Indeed, 2018 has been a historic year for Nigeria’s literary industry, given the bizarre feats and achievements recorded by the members/Nigerian writers in the year in their quest to advance globally in the field to promote Nigerian literature and Nigeria’s image in the international community. In fact, the industry is believed to be among the few sectors that has consistently projected and upheld the image and dignity of the country upto today. Ipso facto, it is optimistically believed that the sector and the actors will take even more historic dives and achieve more selcouth feats before the fall of 2019.

Izunna Okafor

Izunna Okafor is an award-wining creative Young Nigerian Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Journalist, Editor, Translator, Publicist, Igbo Language Activist and an Administrator who hails from Ebenator in Nnewi South L.G.A of Anambra State Nigeria. He has published seven novels, won over 25 awards, and has over 800 articles published online.