Still a few tickets left for the FREE screening of Half of a Yellow Sun.

So apparently the quiz I set for the free tickets to the Half of a Yellow Sun film screening at the ICA in London was too hard. Thank you to all those who sent emails.

The answer I was looking for was something like ‘Biyi Bandele is the director of the HOAYS film based on the book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose boy Elnathan is’ but never mind. Here is a new one. Much easier! (Let it not be said I kept the tickets for myself!)

Odenigbo is a character in which book?

1) Wuthering Heights

2) Arrow of God

3) The Lonely Londoners

4) Half of a Yellow Sun.

Remember, this is for a free ticket to the screening of the HOAYS film on Thursday the 20th of March.  I will post to anywhere in the UK.

Want to see the Half of a Yellow Sun film for FREE? Here’s how.

So, I have got 7, that’s right 7 tickets to see Half of a Yellow Sun on Thursday, the 20th of March at 9pm at the Institute of Contemporary Art here in London.

(I think it is on Sunday the 16th at BFI but you have to pay for that, so if you have no patience, you could see that instead.)

Now to the catch, because there is one. This offer is available as part of a discussion titled ‘Art: Business ‘Coexistence or Contradiction’ which AABRU ART is hosting. The discussion will last from 7.15 – 8.15 pm, followed by drinks from 8.15 – 9.00pm at which point the film will start. Not a bad night eh? And like I said before, it’s FREE.

The panel will feature HOAYS film director Biyi Bandele, Baroness Lola Young of the House of Lords and the BBC’s Nkem Ifejika whom you all know is a business reporter. You have Nkem to thank for the tickets! To get a ticket (one per person please. I will be checking IPs.) just answer the following question:

• Who is Elnathan John and how is he connected to the director of HOAYS Biyi Bandele?

That’s it! Good luck, Jonathan.

Aabru Art is hosting a week-long series of events on contemporary West African Art.  Click here for more information.

Half of a Yellow Sun film poster.

Well, well. And so it begins. I do not know for sure that the sex scene with Odenigbo and Olanna was included but that is not why you’re going to see this film is it? (At least not the only reason!) Watch it if it’s showing near you and let me know what you think.

This is what working in my house sounds like.

Yesterday one of the mums in the new playgroup I tried out with Tot asked me what I did and I told her.

“Really? How do you work? What does he do when you work?”

“He plays by himself,” I said.

“Oh.” I could see her regard me out of the corner of her eye, trying to consider whether the ‘worthiness’ of being an’ artist’ outweighed her suspected neglect of my offspring. And whether – maybe – she should call someone.

“What language is that you’re speaking to him?” she asked instead.

“Igbo. It’s a Nigerian language.”

“I read a book about Nigeria recently,” she started slowly.

“Yeah?” I responded, knowing what she was going to say.

“Yeah, it is called ‘Half of a Yellow Sun.'”

Of course. “That’s about Igbo people.”

“I thought it might be! My goodness. Do you know, I knew nothing about the Biaf…Biafra? at all before that.”

I knew then she would not call social services. And I thanked God for the book which had enlightened her.

But to answer your question Mother-at-playgroup, this is what it sounds like when I am trying to do some work. I forgot the recorder as soon as I put it on which is why it runs for as long as it does (3 minutes). It was meant to be shorter.

It starts off with me reading back what I have just written after I switch on the recorder, hence the bit of silence from me while Tot babbles on.

My fingers are itching.

Genevieve Nnaji

I know sontin about the Half of a Yellow Sun film. I have been sitting on it for weeks.

No, not that Genevieve’s part (may have)/has been cut. That’s old news.  But I may know certain factors surrounding this. In other words, why.

I would love to talk about it, not because of gossip – it’s not really my style – but because of the conversation I want to start about Nollywood and …and…grrrrr! I can’t even say the next thing because of the ultra smart people who will guess and I have my source (yes, the same one that worked on the set of the film) to protect.

We need this conversation. We need it.

What to do, what to do?