The
2008 African Movie Academy Awards went down in Abuja, Nigeria on 26 April 2008 and heish! The whole trip nje was an experience and a half!!
The Awards were broadcast live on a Nigerian TV channel & we will be able to catch them on Africa Magic, 25 May 2008.
I have delayed this article coz I've just been so tired, so overwhelmed and didn't know where to begin, so I'm just gonna tell you as it comes to my head......you didn't really expect that I would be taking notes with all those naija hunks floating around now did you? he he he he.
Okay, firstly there were about 8 of us who left SA for Naija, a group of journalists who had been invited to cover the event for the different publications. I had never met any of the guys before, I just knew their names from having read their stuff but damn, we had lots of fun and it was like kade sazana...
Let me warn you, there is way too much detail in here so if you are too lazy to read or just wanna hear about the awards, then skip this and read my next article :-)
You still here? Cool, I'm dying to tell someone!!!
We landed in LAGOS around 23:00 on 23 April 2008 and we went to check in at our Aquatic Hotel in Toyin Street, Ikeja. I later heard that "no one goes to Toyin Street." It's THAT hectic!
(I took a video of the street & interviews with people there, coming up soon as Youtube get their act together)
As I was saying, we checked into our "hotel" hehehe.....let me not say much and just show you my room.
A view from the gate. The power goes off every half hour and there's a delay before their generators kick in. Not bad but it's kinda irritating...
The hardest bed in the universe.
Browsing through their TV channels was very interesting. There were more news channels & religious programmes than we have here.....I didn't know what to watch.
Doors were safely lockable :-)
The bathroom...
eish, this hotel must pay me for all this free marketing...
Now y'all know where to go when you visit Lagos......or is it NOT to go? LOL
One of the ladies with us (Gail) commented that she needed a seat belt for the one in her room....
Heee, the breakfast menu bathong....lol
You had a choice of either TEA or COFFEE
You had a choice of WHITE BREAD or NO BREAD
You had a choice of PLAIN OMELETTE or VEGGIE OMELETTE.
If you wanted juice or anything more than what is up here, you pay extra. I'm not exxagerating guys and they actually start asking for money, the minute they put food on your table...lol that's Aquatic Hotel neh? I don't know about the rest of Nigeria.
Okay, those were the basics. No big deal.
I was more interested in seeing Lagos and so the next morning Mick (from DreamCatcher) & I took a walk around the block and it was Hectic with a capital H. Make that in caps. HECTIC!
They use bikes as taxis & you'd see a guy in a suit or a lady in office wear being driven to work in those things. In that heat! And you wonder whether they're not dripping wet by the time they get to work.
I don't think there are any traffic laws in Lagos. Those people drive like maniacs. Biker/taxis included!
Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing any traffic lights that were functioning, nor did I see a traffic cop.
Their police go around carrying gazungas...or is it the military police? I don't know. It's just all very scary that they carry those huge things all the time.
Anyways, Lagos maybe the heart of Nigeria and all but bottom line is that the place is chaotic! (especially Ikeja) I have no idea how people survive in that madness.
Oh, I was telling you about what we did...well...
Later that day, we went out to Victoria Island, which is a much nicer part of Lagos. The plan was to go there, shop around, have lunch and get back to our hotel so we could get ready for a function later that day but it took us AGES to get to Eko Hotel, VI, thanks to the Lagos traffic.
Jhb hasn't got traffic people, go to Lagos and you'll have something to really complain about!
All we had time for was to exchange our dollars to Nairas (118 Naira for 1 dollar) & a quick lunch before heading back to prepare.
One other thing, we first sat down at Eko Hotel for the lunch but the prices were damn expensive, we decided to go elsewhere.
Enzo, who acted as our guide, took us to a nice place called TERRA KULTURE, also at Victoria Island.
The vibe of the place is awesome, they have an art gallery of some sorts at the same place & amazing paintings are sold there too.
We went there for the food, of course and it was amazing.
I love Nigerian dishes! My favourite is Egusi Soup with pounded yam but here I had it (I think that's still it) with friend rice & chicken.
There's also dried fish in that green thingy and I don't know why there's fish in every dish...??
What was in my neighbour's plate....
That pap looking thing, I don't know what the difference is between Pounded Yam, Fufu or Eba...can someone who knows please help me out? All I know is that the "pounded yam" I ate looked (it was white) & tasted like pap.
There is also this yellow looking one...
I didn't try it coz Lindo (who was with us) told me it was still pounded yam but it was just discoloured coz of the heat and being in that plastic for long.
LOL we both later found out he was wrong, it was something else. Either fufu or eba...don't remember.
After the delicious lunch, we had to go and beautiful as Terra Kulture is, it is quite disturbing that a place that posh would be in the midst of such umm...I don't know how to describe it....let me show you.
This is what the place looks like outside in the yard...
Beautiful building, beautiful garden....and now walking towards the gate....
And this is what lies outside the gate:
You step out of the gate into a completely different world altogether! There is no Sandton & Alexandra on the side. Alex & Sandton are all in one!
One person told us that there are only extreme opposites in Lagos. You are either rich or poor, there is no middle class. It is only now recently that the middle class is slowly emerging.
Enough about food & stuff....
We then rushed back to Ikeja to get ready for a Sickle Cell Foundation Charity Dinner organized by the AMAAs & United Bank of Africa (UBA). The function was to be held at The Lagoon, in Victoria Island.
Sickle Cell is a disease I had never heard of and apparently it is so common that 2 out of every hundred children born Naija have the disease. Now in a country with over 150 million people, those are big numbers!
So we got ready for the event....
Big ups to Ify (from Big Brother Nigeria) for coming to see me just before we left for the event and ended up doing my make up!! Gal you rock!
Pic: Gail Smith
She was forever the glamourous one in the BBN house so being me who knows zilch about applying make up, her visit (short as it was) was just on point!
Later pictured with Michelle Dede, who co-hosted Big Brother Nigeria, you can see my face a bit clearer. A visible difference compared to my usual plain Jane look....
Hehehehe Ify was very distressed that I had forgotten earrings...heish mina I didn't even notice!!! ubuqaba....!!
Michelle hosted the Sickle Cell event and the who's who of Nollywood was there and they were all dressed fabulously!
I wondered what they'd all be wearing at the awards coz it seemed the women were in their best outfits already.
Gotta give it up to Nigerian women, they love fashion! Oh, and weaves, gosh, I am yet to see a Nigerian woman rocking her natural hair!
If it's not a weave (I'd estimate about 95% of the women I met), it's braids or something like that. (Guess that makes me a Naija woman too lol)
More and more South African women are going the weave route but there are still those sistas who are into dreadlocks, just relaxing their hair, doing the chiskop or just growing their natural afros. Nigeria? Ain't none of that!
One guy was so amazed to see Lelethu and her chiskop! To him it was so refreshing, he called her an African Queen.
It made me wonder what our men really think of these weaves we are so into??
Journalist Lelethu Lumkwana (former editor of True Love Babe) & Nigerian born Jazz Guitarist Kunle Ayo, who is based in Jozi.
Kunle gave a super perfomance & honestly I knew the name but had never seen him before and he is kinda .....umm....wa shebeha!
Mzansi was well represented and we made it known ukuthi ons is daar!
Actually, out of all the 6 ladies who went to Naija, I was the only one with fake hair...
Melanie in her natural hair & Lelethu in a very flattering chiskop...(plus she's Xhosas so....u must understand, we've got it lol)
Sis Gugu Sibiya (Sowetan) in her accesorized chiskop & Gail Smith (City Press), whos' spotting a funky afro under the doek.
Oh well, like India Arie said...."I AM NOT MY HAIR"....lol
Gosh, why am I talking about hair??? heheheh I'm going mad...
Okay, all in all the charity dinner went well, we got to learn about the disease, people got auctioned for the cause and the event was a success.
I can't say the same about the food though, the buffet dinner was so disappointing compared to what we had eaten earlier. Some of the foods didn't smell okay (at least to me, they didn't) but the locals seemed to enjoy it so yeah, I"m speaking for myself neh?
The event ended, some went club hopping and I went back to the hotel & ended up sharing my "hard bed" with 2 Naija chicks I didn't know at all!!! That's a story for another day!
With business done in Lagos, we were off to the capital city of Nigeria, beautiful Abuja (an hour's flight from Lagos) for the 4th Annual African Movie Academy Awards & thank goodness, the accomodation was superb!
Compared to Aquatic Hotel (I don't think I can even give it a 1 star grading), the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja was HEAVEN on EARTH.
No seatbelts needed in this bathroom! heheheheh
ABUJA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!! (More on that later)
Mmmmmhhh, this is one long S article so check out my final piece, Part 2 to find out what happened in ABUJA, at the AMAA's, which Nollywood stars we got up close and personal with, whether or not the men in Naija are worth FIGHTING for.......as demonstrated here...
...and how 3 of us got to be up on the AMAA stage presenting awards to Nollywood stars.......with Angela Bassett in the audience.......
Or how we got to be known as famous South African Actresses heheheheh
KEEP IT LOCKED!!!! IT GETS JUICIER...