Straight Talk with Chukwudi Obi

            Today, heads of governments and citizens across the globe will mark Human Rights Day. It is a day set aside for the world to eliminate all forms of racial segregation. The offshoot of this event dates back to the Sharpville Massacre. Sharpville is a black township near Vereeniging, South Africa. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide protest for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws. South Africa’s pass laws required black South Africans to carry passbooks with them any time they travelled out of their designated home areas. The African National Congress, the leading anti-apartheid organization of the era, planned for an anti-pass campaign to begin March 31, 1960. However, the Pan Africanist Congress, a more militant offshoot of the A.N.C., organized a campaign that would begin 10 days before the A.N.C.’s, Mar...

Tired after a hard week’s job, I decided to rest at home on Saturday. After two movies and breakfast I slept off. I had planned on the sleep to recoup from the lost sleep earlier in the week. I was near scowling when my mobile phone buzzed. I looked at the screen with a hazy eye and saw it was Johnson. I picked it and the only thing i heard made me even angrier. “I’m coming to your place. No excuses”. The next thing that popped into my mind was a whole day of political and contemporary discussions laced with unending arguments. I had stocked my fridge the night before. I cried silently inside, this dude was going to empty the contents; fruits and drinks, alcohol and non-alcohol. I closed my mind and before i could take a ten minute nap, he was at my gate blaring his horn. Clad in jeans pants and a polo t shirt, Johnson stood tall at six foot eight inches. Intelligent and witty, he has this signature smile that endears people to him. Unfortunately, there was no smile today. I was alre...