Kingsley C. Nwabia Blog

We’ve all heard the saying before, ‘when life gives you lemons you make a lemonade’ (or something like that), as optmistic and rather practical this statement is, it never ceases to amaze me how much many people around me just fail to see the logic behind this simple statement.

Now its no news that this is a tough period for most people, financially speaking, yet while I’m sick and tired of hearing evryone use the ‘crisis’ as an excuse to whine, it gladdens my heart when I see people who, inspite of the difficult times, continue to soldier on and make head way in their various endeavours, kudos!

Personally, I’ve been swimming through some rather rough seas lately and though sometimes it all gets too much and brings me down, I force myself to get back on my feet and keep moving, trying to bring out whatever beauty I can out of the chaos that is my world lately. For a long time I have been incapable of painting, it felt as if something had clogged up the fountain of my creativity. I was at a loss, didn’t know what to do, then suddenly i decided to do something many of us have forgetten we could do at a time of confusion and tension. I sat back and just…did nothing! Sounds ridiculously simple doesn’t it? Trust me, it works, after a while I got the inspiration to make my fist abstract-like painting. I attacked my canvas with my pallete knife, played around with my brush, there were no rules to follow, no demands on form, nothing, I was just free to do whatever the heck I felt like and surprise! surprise! I created a piece of art that I really liked and at the same time, unclogged my creative fountain. I titled that painting “touches of yellow” and you can see it here or on my website. For some reason, I haven’t been able to upload pictures to my blog for a while but I think its fixed now.

Thats it for this post, my message to you my dear reader, is wherever you are, whenever things just seem to spin out of your control, let it go for a while! Just stand back and breathe, trust me things will become clearer once you step back and take a good look at the situation, preferably from a different angle.

As for me, whenever life throws me lemons, I do not settle for lemonade. In truth, as we walk through life, it throws more than just lemons at us. We get ‘sugar/sweetners’(in the form of the little things that make us happy, the kindness of strangers etc..), ‘Rum/alcohol‘(the crazy, often negative, things we experience such as, back-stabbing friends, deceptions from people we’ve trusted, insane job tasks and deadlines, bills etc..), ‘herbs & spices‘(the things we do and experience to keep our lives exciting such as romance, adventures, travels, hobbies etc…). A lot of people choose to leave out many of these other things life throws at us and focus only on the lemons and the sweetners mainly, but not me. I welcome everything life throws at me, good, bad and ridiculous. People often ask me, ‘Kingsley, how do you manage? Many others would never have been able to go through what you have alone and still remain standing, you must be a very special person!’ Me special? Maybe, but then again we all are special. What’s my secret? Here it is……. there is NO SECRET! Whenever life throws me lemons, rather than settle for lemonade like most normal optimists, I keep the lemons, keep walking, gathering as much spice, alcohol and sweetners as I can accomodate so that when I “take a break”, rather than squeezing out lemonades I put all I have gathered together and make myself one hell of a MOJITO!!

Well till next time, thank you all who sent me birthday wishes on my birthday, I trully appreciated it. Much luv!

Cheers!

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Ok, lets get started then,

Not much happened in the first half of April, so I’m not gonna bore you all with it so I’ll just skip right up to my trip back home. The days leading to my visit home were quite stressful i must admit, especially since i hadn’t been home in over 5yrs, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got my flight booked and gathered what i could fit into my bag. On the morning of my flight, my then girlfriend came over and drove me to the airport and as I checked myself in, i thought to myself ‘ok kings, this is it, you are going to see your folks and when you return to Bucharest at least you’ll have someone waiting for you’ Boy was I wrong!!!

My flight to Nigeria was relatively uneventful, besides the ’special treatment’ at Amsterdam airport where they have a special way of boarding flights heading to Nigeria. Let me explain. In all flights, the boarding time on the monitors were exact 17.00hrs, 15.30hrs, 12.45hrs etc.. but for the flight to Nigeria, it said ‘Boarding around: 14.00…tentatively!” Lol! ok maybe it didn’t use those exact words but it wasn’t an exact time and we ended up boarding almost an hour late mainly because many Nigerian travelers were trying to pass 4 traveling bags each as hand laugage!! I swear I don’t know what they were thinking! Apart from this, the screening was intense and i was even shocked when the pilots and flight attendants were made to strip their footwears and  thoroughly searched too, I’d never witnessed anything like that before!

Now, I love flying KLM, i just do and the flight attendants kept passing by with their trolleys every few minutes and trust us Nigerians, we made sure we got our money’s worth I think they stocked up more of those little wine bottles on that flight just for Nigerians, I cant remember how many of those I had but all I know is by the time we got to Lagos, I was wasted!

We arrived in Lagos in the evening and from the minute i stepped off the plane, the heat slapped me clean across the face! Everyone was stripping I had forgotten what the heat felt like. I got home and sure enough there was no electricity, I walked into our apartment and said “HI MUM I’M HOME!!!” It was great to see my family again. The next day I looked around the neighbourhood I grew up and little had changed, but all the kids had grown up, I barely recognized them and when I went out for a walk everyone who saw me almost went nutts, “heyy chibuuu.. welcome o!” I feel i should mention here that back home, no one calls me Kingsley, in my area, I’m known only by my native name which is Chibuzor! Now my hood is in a part of Lagos called Ebute-Metta and my peeps from that hood were ready to tax me to death lol! Anyhow, Its all love!

After a few days in Lagos, chilling at home, sweating like a christmas goat and downing an alarming amount of water at an equally alarming rate,I got to see my nephew and my sister in-law at my brother’s place unfortunately i forgot my camera when i went to visit so i didn’t get pictures. A couple of days later,  I took a rather unusually long bus ride to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, to see my older Bro and get the new west African passport which was my main reason for coming home. Now i can’t begin to tell you guys how much things have changed both in Lagos and Abuja, but i was seriously impressed. Abuja is such a beautiful place, I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.

Anyways, while in Abuja i got to see my older bro again and stayed with him a few days, then I stayed a week in a very nice Inn called Rommy’s guest inn. If any of you out there is planning a trip to Abuja, I highly recommend it. Its own by a very respected friend (more like a god father to many) and I had a very enjoyable stay there. Now there is no way for me to describe Abuja so I wont even try. In total I spent 2 weeks in Nigeria, during which i made up for 5yrs with out solid Nigerian food, I was guzzling down all sorts from ‘eba to ‘amala’ to Bush-meat to suya plantain…etc… most of you out there will have no idea what I’m talking about and again there is no way to describe it but to me they were like manna from heaven! My tongue was on fire with each meal, the spice, it burnt, my eyes were red with tears, my nose ran my senses went insane… GOD I LOVED IT!!!!

My trip home was flawless except for one part, yep I split with my girl friend and this was how it happened. There i was in Nigeria, communicating with her via sms and all seemed well, then one day i finally get on a computer(my bro’s)with internet connection that actually works. I get on yahoo messenger she was online and as usual i was thrilled to chat with her, then another friend of mine sent me a link to an article published in ‘Adevarul’ newspaper, a very famous newspaper here in Romania, about me and my book. The article came out while I was in Nigeria and I was pretty excited about it, I gave her the link and this was what came next…

Her: Hmm interesting article

Me: Thanks!

Her: So… you like Romanian girls but you don’t understand them?

Me: what?? What do you mean?

Her: Those were your own words in the article

I looked through the article and saw that i did say that , then i remembered the journalist had asked me what i thought about Romanian girls(i don’t know why I keep getting asked that question all the time), so I said ‘yeah Romanian girls are nice beautiful and all but I just can’t seem to understand them’

Me: yeah I said that to the journalist

That was the last conversation we had, she went to her facebook and changed her profile to complicated, now I was slightly confused and I asked her if there was a problem, but she did not respond, my internet went off . By the next day her status was ’single’ so I just simply changed mine like-wise and that was the end of that story. You know, there are many reasons for loosing a relationship but to loose one over a comment I gave to the press before I even met her its ridiculous to say the least. Now. tell me, who can blame me for saying I don’t understand Romanian women?? Oh well, such is life! Moving on…!

I finished my biz in Abuja, flew in to Lagos and hung out with a very good friend of mine called Prabu (he is Indian but has spent most of his years in Nigeria).  I have to confess, I had mixed feelings for being home, because in truth even though i loved being home i got that unmistakable feeling that i no longer belonged there. In 5yrs life seemed to have moved on without me in Nigeria, my bros and sis were all grown and doing their thing, my friends are married and are raising their own families and every where I went, I was treated as a foreigner and yet again, in the midst of my family I felt so very alone!

I got the chance to have a long talk with my dad and finally after all these years my old man finally gave me his blessings! Just before I left I made sure I took pictures with each member of my family and I realized that, to the best of my knowledge, the pic with my dad was the first one he and I had ever taken together since I was 8 about 25yrs ago. I paid a visit to my the creative art dept of my Old University to see some friends and was pleased to see 2 of them had graduated and had even become lecturers in the University.

I left Nigeria and once i returned to Romania, I felt like I was … well…. home! Somehow in these past 5 yrs Romania has become home to me and I’ve accepted it as such. For now my life is here. I returned to Bucharest and immediately started my yearly dance with immigrations to extend my stay like every foreigner here has to, i managed to succeed but was slapped with a fine for being late.

Last weekend , I had the great honor of being invited to be a speaker at the prestigious TEDx talk held in Cluj - Napoca, you can read more about that in the link below.

http://www.ziuadecj.ro/action/article?ID=43841

Well I think that just about summarizes these past few weeks. Now I’m preparing my paintings for my first and only major exhibition this year in Bucharest to mark Nigeria’s 50th anniversary, will keep you all posted on that.

So until my next post, be cool, stay blessed and keep smiling

cheers!

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Hello people,  I know its been a while but trust me the amount of things i have had to juggle these past few weeks could have driven most people insane with panic and frustration. Be that as it may, i know you guys are dying to hear it all from my trip back home to Nigeria after being away for 5 years, to my incomprehensible break up with my  then girl friend, my brief return to cluj for the TED x program and finally this week and beyond.

There is no way i can fit all this in just one post, so I’ll break them down into bite-size chunks. But not now, hopefully this weekend will see the first part and i hope to post the other parts every other day till I’ve totally updated  you my dear dear reader.  look out for the first post……

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Hi all,

To my fans out there, sorry i cant write much this time around, been busier than I can ever remember myself ever being. Promoting this new book of mine has driven me to new levels of exhaustion! I actually broke down yesterday, had to take the day off to recover.

The book is doing great and everyone who’s got a copy seems to truly love and enjoy it which fills me with so much pride. last week alone I signed hundreds of autographs, an experience that was almost unreal but then again, personally fulfiling.

Did a radio show too at radio3net on a show called “Întâmplător” with the host Adrian Păduraru,  a famous romanian actor. It was loads of fun and I enjoyed the experience immensely. Last saturday also saw me having my first official book launch / book reading. You can all see a small clip of it  at the ”event” page of my website( www.kaizarts.com ) or on my facebook page.

Well, thats the update, will go rest now, still recovering from my exhaustion / near-nervous break down!

Till next time!

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Hi everyone,

Well, its been 2 weeks since my book came out and i’m happy to say its doing quite well and i hope it keeps doing so. last sunday, i was invited to lunch at my friends place. I also got the chance to meet their 6month old cute daughter who is more or less my first romanian niece

When they brought the kid, she took one look at me and went like ” GOOD LORD!!!”  The poor child had this expression on her face that was priceless, like she wasnt sure ‘what’ I was heh! heh! heh! when I carried her, whe kept looking at me like i was gonna eat her up or something.

As time past, she started calming down but every now and then, as if just to be sure, she would steal a quick glance at me. it was the cutest thing ever lol!

Her parents are very good friends of mine here and i kept telling her mum that when this kid is old enough, she is gonna have a hard time explaining to her peers how she managed to have an african uncle!

I am kinda proud that her first book just happens to be mine, even though its gonna take a while before she even has a clue what its about, but she seemed to like the pictures anyways so thats a good thing.

By the end of the day, she had started getting used to me and that made me glad. I also started wondering with my nephew’s reaction would be when he meets his dad’s big brother back home. Can’t wait!

After a really dark, and gloomy period, i’m just grateful that the sun has finally started to shine on me a bit and I look forward to more rewarding days ahead. I’ve started preparing  for my next major exhibition hopefully this summer, and from all indications, it might be the biggest i’ve ever had in Bucharest, but i guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

As another treat, I’m going to leave you all with another story from my book. I hope you’ll all like it.  You can get your copy of this book through me, the price remains 50 ron, simply contact me, and get yours plus a dedication/autograph (if u like, btw, just to be clear, I don’t charge for autographs ;)  )

Till next time!

NEGUTATORUL, FIUL SAU SI MAGARUL LOR

A fost odată ca niciodată un sat foarte îndepărtat, in care trăia un neguțător care calatorea des intre sate pentru a-si desfășura negoțul. Acest neguțător avea un fiu pe care îl lua des in călătoriile sale, si pentru ca deseori mergeau pe jos, calatoria dura mult si îl obosea atât pe neguțător cat si pe fiul acestuia.

                Intr-o zi, neguțătorul trebuia sa plece intr-o alta calatorie si de aceasta data, se hotăra sa cumpere un măgar pentru a-l scuti de oboseala drumului lung. Neguțătorul îl lua si pe fiul sau cu el, care era entuziasmat de faptul ca in aceasta calatorie avea si un măgar. După ce se pregătiră de drum, atât tatăl cat si fiul se așezară pe măgar si porniră spre satul învecinat.

                Pe drum se intalnira cu o femeie bătrâna care după ce ii văzu spuse: „Oh Doamne! Ce oameni fara de inima! Nu au pica de mila fata de saracutul, saracutul măgar? Nu isi dau oare seama cat de grei sunt? Unii oameni sunt pur si simplu cruzi cu animalele!” si cu aceasta, dădu din cap dezaprobator si se duse pe drumul ei. Neguțătorul si fiul sau auziră ce spuse bătrâna, si fura cuprinși de remușcări. „Fiule!” spuse neguțătorul, „poate ca ar fi mai bine ca eu sa merg pe jos in timp ce tu vei calări pe măgar, astfel măgarul nu o sa care in spate atâta greutate iar oamenii nu vor crede ca suntem fara inima!”. Astfel neguțătorul o lua înainte in timp ce fiul sau calarea pe măgar un urma sa.

                Mai târziu, se intalnira cu un batran, care după ce ii văzu spuse: „Pe duhurile strămoșilor mei!! Copii din ziua de azi nu au deloc respect fata de parinti! Ia privește la acest băiat rasfatat, călărind pe măgar in timp ce bietul sau tata merge pe jos. Câta lipsa de respect!” si cu aceasta, dădu din cap dezaprobator si se duse pe drumul lui. Neguțătorul si fiul sau auziră vorbele batranului, care ii umplură din nou de rușine. „Tata!” spuse fiul neguțătorului „cred ca batranul grăiește adevărul, poate ca se cuvine ca eu sa merg si tu sa calaresti pe măgar, astfel lumea nu va considera ca sunt un fiu rău care nu isi respecta părintele”. Fiul cobora de pe măgar, si neguțătorul urca, si astfel isi continuară calatoria, cu fiul înainte si tatăl călărind pe măgar in spatele lui.

                După o vreme, le parau in cale un grup de femei care se întorceau de la râul din apropiere. Cum ii vazura, femeile spuseră: „Ce om lipsit de orice sentiment este acesta. Oare cum poate sa călăreasca așa pe măgarul sau ca un rege in timp ce bietul sau fiu trebuie sa meargă tot drumul pe jos, asemenea nepăsare este de necrezut!” si cu aceasta, dădură cu toate din cap dezaprobator si se duseră pe drumul lor. Deja atât neguțătorul cat si fiul sau erau cat se poate de nelămuriți si nu știau ce sa mai facă. „Fiule!” spuse neguțătorul „atunci când am mers amândoi pe măgar, oamenii au spus ca suntem cruzi cu animalul, atunci când ai călărit tu iar eu am mers pe jos, ei credeau ca ești doar un fiu rău si rasfatat, iar când am călărit eu iar tu ai mers pe jos, eu sunt considerat un tata nepăsător. Cred ca lucrul cel mai bun pe care îl avem de făcut este sa îl căram pe măgar in spate, cel puțin in acest fel nu o sa mai supăram pe nimeni, si o sa para ca suntem buni cu animalul.” ceea ce si facura.

                Pe măsura ce neguțătorul si fiul sau se apropiară de capătul calatoriei, oamenii din sat ii vazura si începură sa rada uimiți de ce vedeau, spunând „Oare ce este in neinregula cu acești oameni? De ce îl cară ei pe măgar? Măgarul ar trebui sa ii care pe ei!! La ce o fi bun un măgar daca nu la asta? Ce ciudățenie!!”. In acest moment atât neguțătorul cat si fiul sau se saturară de tot, si îl puseră pe măgar jos. băiatul sa uita la tatăl sau si întreba: „Tata, se pare ca indiferent ce facem, va exista mereu cineva care va fi nemulțumit de faptele noastre, oare ce ar trebui sa facem acum?”. Neguțătorul se gândi o vreme, după care răspunse, „Ei bine eu unul m-am saturat ca fiecare sa aibă ceva de spus in legătura cu ce facem cu măgarul, astfel ca pe drumul de întoarcere vom calări amândoi pe măgar si nu vom mai acorda atenție la ce va spune unul sau altul.”

                Neguțătorul își termina afacerile in satul respectiv, si după ce el si fiul sau se pregătiră pentru drumul de întoarcere, se urcară amândoi pe măgar si calarira liniștiți spre casa, pentru ca au inteles intr-un final faptul ca indiferent ce face sau cat de mult se străduiește un om, nu va reuși niciodată sa satisfacă pe toata lumea.

 

SFARSIT – Tradus de Enache Lucian.

(c) Nigerian folktales and other stories / Basme populare Nigeriene si alte povesti.  - 2010

 

THE TRADER, HIS SON AND THEIR DONKEY

 Once upon a time, in a village far a way, there lived trader who often traveled from one village to another to buy materials to trade with. This trader had a son who he would often take with him on some of his journeys and since they would often go on foot, the journeys took a long time and were quite exhausting for both the trader and his son. 

 A while later, they came across an elderly man, who saw them both and said, “By the spirits of my ancestors!! Children of these days have absolutely no respect for their parents! Look at this spoilt boy, riding on the donkey while his poor father is walking on foot. Such a disrespectful sight!” and with that, he hissed at them and walked away. The trader and his son over heard the old man which made them feel guilty again. “Father!” said the trader’s son, “I think that old man is right, maybe I should walk and you ride the donkey, this way people will not think I’m a bad son who does not respect his father.” So the son got off the donkey, while the trader got on the donkey and they continued their journey with the son leading the donkey while the father rode behind on the donkey.

 A while later they came across a group of women returning from a river close by. The women saw them approaching and they said “What kind of inconsiderate man is this? How can he be riding his donkey like a king while his poor son has to walk all the way, such heartlessness is unbelievable!” With that, they all hissed and walked away. By now, the trader and his son were quite confused and didn’t know what to do. “My son!” said the trader, “when we both ride the donkey, people say we are cruel to the animal, when you ride and I walk, they think you are a bad and spoilt son, if I ride and you walk, I am an inconsiderate father. I think the best thing for us to do is to carry the donkey on our heads, at least this way we will not offend anyone and we can appear to be kind to the animal.” And this they did.

 As the trader and his son approached their destination, the people from the town saw them and burst out laughing in disbelief saying “what is wrong with these people? Why are they carrying their donkey? The donkey should be carrying them!! What is a donkey for? So strange!” At this point both the trader and his son had had enough and they put the donkey down. The boy looked at his father and asked “father, it seems like whatever we do, there is always someone who will have a problem with it, what should we do now?” The trader thought for a while and answered, “Well, I for one, am tired of everyone having something to say about what we do with the donkey, so on our way back we will both ride the donkey and pay no attention to what anyone says”.

 The trader completed his business in the town and as he and his son set off on their journey home, they both got on the donkey and rode peacefully home for they had finally realized and understood that no matter what one does or how hard one tries one can never please everyone.

 

 

THE END.

 (c) Nigerian folktales and other stories / Basme populare Nigeriene si alte povesti.  - 2010

 

 

 

 

 

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Well, after a rather long wait, my book has finally arrived. I can’t begin to explain how.. unreal the whole thing feels.  Its really quite amazing the things one can achieve within the time frame of a few months to a year if one just commits one’s self to something. I mean for example by this time last year, my now famous ‘Mask’ painting wasn’t even painted yet, the idea for a book was just a passing thought and i had never illustrated anything tangible my entire life. Fast forward 12months, and not only is the ‘Mask’ painting my main painting its also the cover for my first book ever, my book itself moved from a dreamy fantasy to reality and i moved from never doing an illustration before to illustrating almost every story in my book except a couple plus one where i asked my dear ex 2nd grade student to illustrate for me. Of all the illustrations in my book, the one that little kid did is my personal favourite.

Well, after recieving my copies of the book, i went straight to the Nigerian embassy and present a set to the mission, then i started reaching out to my friends who translated for me(the ones i could find) i had promised that they would be the first to get copies, all autographed of course, and people who trully know me, know that my word is my bond and i always keep my promises.  Always! I also asked each one to do me the honour of autographing my own copy.

Feeling very good with myself, i decided to treat myself to a movie, I went to see avatar in 3D (couldn’t get IMAX which seems to be booked full from now till kingdom come!) it was my first 3D movie ever and all i can say is WOW! I was stunned both by the movie and the 3D film-watching experience. There are no words to describe it if you havent seen a movie in 3D you just have to go see one for yourself  ’cause no one can describe it adequately to you!

At the movies i met a couple of friends and we decided to go have a couple of drinks in town afterwards at a pub called ‘Van gogh’(i think!) somewhere in lipscani. While there i met a rather pleasant person from Netherlands who overheard me telling my friends about my meeting with the royal family and my art. we talked a bit and just before we left he ordered a painting. It was a good evening!

I’m officially an author and illustrator. It feels good!

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Hello everyone,

We all know that January is usually more or less the longest month of the year especially since a lot of us are often piss broke this month after the xmas and new years celebrations. Well its gone now, and hopefully we’ll all start recovering financially from here on.

This month has been largely uneventful, which is not a bad thing for me right now, but be that as it may it did have a few events that i feel are worth mentioning. The most interesting for me being the day i was invited by my publishers at C.N.I Coresi to witness the birth of my upcoming story book.

It was such an unbelieveable experience for me and I documented some parts of it and posted it on youtube, you can go check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDySlqfWaiI .

Coresi in Bucharest is located at ‘Casa presei libre’ an immense building for the free press. The process of bringing this book to life has taught me one valuable lesson which is, I KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO PUBLISH A BOOK. Seriously, a lot of people think that once you write a book its ‘Abracadabra’ the book is out, printed overnight and you are rich and powerful! Trust me the reality is so so so very different.

I designed most of this book by myself, and trust me, just getting the cover right for printing almost drove me insane! Not to mention the intricate ‘dance’ involved in getting the page layouts to work, my friend Eugen handled that. And then there was the romanian translations, turns out that all characters had to have the what like to call the ” hat & Tails ” of the romanian alphabets before the texts could be considered worthy of being printed. I discovered that there are so many intricacies involved in making a book that i have considered myself schooled! Just like a lot of you out there, I cant wait to see the finished book too .

What else? Yeah! i just finished my first minor exhibition for 2010 at Serendipity tea house and have immediately moved my works to the next minor exhibition at CHIDI AFRICAN CAFE, so you all can go see my works they and can buy one if the work speaks to you. In the next few months i intend to have a major exhibition featuring new works and I’ll let you all know when and where.

Lastly I just received a letter of thanks from the king and queen for their painting, and i’m feling really good about myself. The letter also came with an xmas card too, all hand signed by the king and queen. Its a treasure!

Well thats it for now, nextime, i’ll probably be announcing the arrival of my book and letting you all know where you can get your copies. the book has about 200pages and it will be selling for 50 ron, (or 60 ron if you want the first set with personalised autographed copies ).

Till then see you guys!

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Yes people, you know i cant let recent developments go by without speaking my mind.

First of all a happy new year to all may this year bring good things to everyone of you out there.

Now, even though this last festive season was a major let down for me, I was hoping to coast through it and into the new year, full of hope and motivation and with minimal stress. Was that too much to desire? I mean not only did Santa not put me on his naughty or nice list, instead, I and my entrire countrymen ended up on the list of  terrorists sponsoring Nations!! FUCK THAT!!!!

As a Nigerian, I (and many of us) have had to endure a lot of bullshits daily everywhere we go especially through airports. I mean on my last trip a couple of years back, I was returning from visiting my best friend in Amsterdam and had to transit through Munich. As I got off the plane, security walked up to me, flashed their badges and said ” customs, random search sir please come this way”. I looked around and thought ‘ how do you ”randomly” walk to the only black guy to come out of a plane, pick him out for searching and still call it a random thing?

Now back then, I was irritated by the kind of search I was subjected to, but that is nothing compared to what I and every other Nigerian now expect to look forward to from now on.

And now, America has added my country on their ”countries of interest” list? What the hell for?? Look if they are looking to play the blame game, they should look inwards or elsewhere for a scape-goat and leave Nigeria alone. The people are already having to endure so much both home and away, why add this?

Lets look at the facts.

1) The boy in question, minus having a Nigerian passport and being born a Nigerian, spent most of his developing life outside the country. He had no close ties within the country, not even with his own family for crying out loud.

2) His own father Alerted the american embassy in Nigeria, about a month before the incidence. And they did nothing even though they now claim to have been monitoring him for a while.

3) This same boy, passes through airport security, in schipol, in a manner that should have raised multiple red flags in many stages. Was he stopped? No! (with the kinds of searches Nigerians are usually subjected to, how this happened is practically incomprehensible!)

I can go on and on, and yet, just because he had a Nigerian passport, with no real ties to any group in Nigeria, never minding the fact that Nigeria as a nation has no problems with the U.S. (or practically any other country for that matter), disregarding the systemic failure of the fabled American intelligence organizations, automatically ALL NIGERIANS now have to be punished for this??? It is an injustice of the highest magnitude!

Thinking about this fills me with such bitterness, but its ok, I’ll stop here. This is not how I hoped to start my year but I couldn’t let this go with out venting. But know this, Nigerians have sufferd in the hands of bad leaders, colonial exploitations and slavery too. We as a people have gone through things that in lesser magnitudes have split other nations but we are still here, why? Because We are protected by the hands of God himself. We as a people live life as collective orphans since our leaders have all but abandoned us in order to perpetuate their own greed and mismanagements. And the scriptures tell of what happens to people who mistreats or are Unjust to orphans.

OUR GOD IS NOT ASLEEP!

To my fellow Nigerians, we know ourselves as is with our unwritten code that ” Everybody wan go heaven, but nobody wan die”, we know suicide(including suicide bombings) is not in our nature. We do not merit this new curtain of shame and accusations that is trying to cover us. Providence will stand in our defence and we as a people like always with the help of God, will get through this one too. The fact that we now have to practically ”grab our ankles” in the name of ‘random searches’ at airports just to fly to our destinations will be a pain in the butt (no pun intended), but even this shall pass!

Just remember, .. “The action(s) of one, does not define a people!”

Till next time all, stay vigillant, stay blessed!

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Hello all and compliments of the season to everyone out there.

Yes, 2009 is coming to an end. Its been one heck of a year, and I’m sure a lot of us just cant wait for it to be over, so we can put our lessons learnt in this year, to work  for us in the new one. For me, its been a very eventful year, and a ‘character-shaping’ one in more ways than one. Before i go on to say my adios to 2009, i’d like to tell you all about the las great thing that happend to me this year. Yes thats right, my meeting with His majesty king Mihai I of Romania and The Queen too.

As you will recall in my last post, I presented a painting to the Romanian Royal family, and was privileged to be recieved then by HRH prince Radu and HRH Princess Margarita. This is a picture of the painting they received titled “Portrait of a queen”

 The prince and the princess loved the painting though initially, I actually thought they were just being polite, but from their reactions I knew they appreciated it.  About a week after that meeting, an event I did not expect happened.

I was on my way out of the house when I recieved a phone call, the person calling informed me that I was being expected at the palace and the King would like to meet me so I should be there in 15 mins! I jumped in a cab and went as fast as I could to the palace. I got there just in time and was ushered into a room, where i was to wait to be brought to another room when i would meet his majesty.

Now, for me, I couldnt believe this was happening. I have read about the king, heard tales, seen him only in pictures from the net and books, and here i was, i was going to meet him face to face, one of (if not) the last living head of state from the world war II era. A real life King! I could barely contain my excitement.

After waiting a few minutes i heard 2 women comin in my direction nd they were speaking to each other in french. I Turned around and before me was her majesty queen Anne and another lady. I turned and said “good day your highness” and then the following dialogue happened:

Her majesty: Yes, who are you?

Me: I’m Kingsley, Kingsley Nwabia.

Her majesty: What do you want??

Me: I’m here to see the king

Her majesty: Why?? What purpose?

Me: I was told that the king wanted to see me

Her majesty: For what?

Me: Well last week i brought a painting here of the queen  and i…….

Before i could finish my sentence, the lady next to the queen turns and goes “ OH , he is the artist who made that new painting you just showed me”. Then the queen in realization looked at me in mild shock and surprise, “THAT WAS MADE BY YOU???” she asked me, and i said ” yes your highness”, to which she said, ” I have been showing that painting off to everyone who’s visited and I really wanted to put a face to the name of the artist who made it, now I can!” The queen and I chatted a bit, she is such a pleasant woman, a true breath of fresh air so to say. As we walked, she asked me to sign in the Royal registry(visitor’s book), I felt so honoured, i wondered within myself how many famous, and important people have signed this and now I’m being asked, me, kingsley, a mere Artist from Nigeria, I’m being asked to sign it, automatically promoting me to an important person. It felt GOOD!

As we entered the room, before me, hanging on the wall, on the opposite side of the door was my painting, now framed in an absolutely gorgeous frame(fit for a palace), it took my breath away, not just the fact that there was no way in hell i could have afforded to frame that painting with that kind of frame on my own, I was more touched that my painting had found its home and i knew it would be taken care of.

We took a few pictures and i’m waiting to recieve my copies from the Royal house as I didnt go with a camera. As soon as i get them, i’ll insert them into this post, but that would probably be in January 2010. The last thing i remember the queen saying to me was ” kingsley your works are magnificent, you will definitely go places!”, It was like recieving a high level endorsement. Lost a tear drop in that moment. Shortly Afterwards, the King walked in and when i shook his hand, i felt like i was touching a living piece of the world’s history. I mean I was standing face to face to who was to me a living legend. Naturally at firt even his highness wasnt sure who i was, so i had to be reintroduced(Its ok, no one whoever meets me ever believes I’m an artist, but i’m sure if I introduced myself as a bone-crushing guard, or out of work wrestler, no one would have a problem with that LOL!).

A few pictures later, the king and I sat down and we chatted over coffee(i had the coffee) for a while and it turns out that The king had visited my country Nigeria before, so it was a pleasant conversation. we talked about life, Art, cultures and everything, He is such an easy going person, the whole royal family seemed that way to me. well, after a bit, i said by good by to His Highness and after the king left the room, i went on my way, so proud of how things had turned out. Acouple of days later, I got a call from The Nigerian ambassador here, who also had an audience with the king and he congratulated me for “representing” well, I thanked his Excellency and after i Hung up the phone i sat by the widow, my lit stick of camel in my hand, gazing at the snow falling beautifully outside my window and i said to my self. ‘ “kaiza, in this year, you met the Romanian president, had solo exhibitions, made your embassy proud, had your heart broken, lost your ability to love like before, lost friends, made new friends, went through countless problems, got broke, will be alone for christmas, and try as u did, still got nothing in the bank to show for all your efforts, and just towards the end, you met Royalty, all things considered, the good, the bad and the ridiculous, 2009 was A VERY GOOD YEAR!”.

I’ll leave you all now by saying, “Have a wonderful year, My God keep you and your family safe, May you enjoy the warmth of loved ones this festive season, may misfortune never find you or your loved ones,May the Joy of this season overflow for you and yours, And as you travel, My God keep you safe, may he bring you back home healthy and happy. May you find the strenght to forgive all who have hurt you in one way or another this year, and the will to leave all regrets, mistsakes and grudges of 2009, IN 2009.  May the new year find you well, May all your good dreams come through, May you succeed in all your positive endeavours and may God grant you blessing and long life to enjoy 2010 and many more years to come”

I thank you my fans, readers and friends who’ve been there for me thus far, Kingsley has a new gift for Romania next year, and i look forward to sharing it with everyone. This is my last post for 2009, Merry Christmas everyone! may God bless us all!

with heart-felt love!

- Kingsley “kaiza” Nwabia

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Hi all,

Been a little over 2weeks since my last post, so i’m just gonna get right at it!

last week saw me ironing out some little details in trying to get my book published, more on that as things unfold! I also had the opportunity to visit the book fair at ROMEXPO. I felt it would be a good idea to see what books are out there and get a feel of how the ‘book business’ works.  The fair was really nice and there were lots of publishing houses and book stores displaying their products. I walked around to get an idea of what books go for these days and to see if there were any books currently offering what i have to offer with mine. Mercifully there weren’t any. So i knew that whenever it does come out I could be adding a bit to the story telling culture here.

As i walked around, despite being constantly stared at by just about every Ana, Maria and Bogdan present at the venue, I looked at all the beautiful books on display, It made me mildly pissed that my level of romanian understanding does not permit me to understand everything i read well enough to fully enjoy any of the books I saw, but i was reminded that the feeling of having a physical book in your hands opening the pages and peering into the world of the author, is many times better than having an e-book. It just is! 

After walking around for a while, i got to the Coresi stand, where a friend was presenting his own book to a crowd. His name is Eugene Matzota and he, believe me, is quite a character. His book sound interesting from the way he talked about it, but again, my poor command of the language hinders me from finding out for myself .

 The days after the book  fair were pretty much uninteresting, nothing to write about really. I just spent most of it contemplating life and the nature of the universe, you know, things most people do when they have a lot of free time on their hands(heh! heh! heh!). I met with a friend i hadn’t seen in a while and he asked me what I was up to and then proceeded too ask about a certain ’someone’ and I cut him short instantly, saying “my past is my past. and I refuse to discuss it anymore”. I just wonder why people just seem to love stories of love gone wrong, heart aches etc.. I mean, aren’t there enough telenovenas out there already? Jeez! and one other reader of my blogs, asked me in a private email ” kings, u dont mention ”mi lady” anymore on your posts, did u really grow to hate her that much?….” For a while, i didnt think i’d respond to that question, then the other day by share coincidence, I ran into the one formerly known as “mi lady”. And I knew the answer to my writer’s question. NO!

No, I don’t hate her, I never trully did. Will I ever show as much interest in her as i did before? Nnnnot in this life time! Do I still have feelings for her? ( you’d be shocked how many times I get asked this question!) The answer in all honesty is yes! I still love her as much now as I did the first time I laid eyes on her, why the gods of the universe decide to punish and torture me in this fashion, only they know! But the truth is this, True love never dies, it just morphs from one form to another, most times it morphs into hate, but since I make it a point not to hate anyone,(I usually just mentally delete them fom my universe)I guess I just have to live with it. Its not hard especially since I also know she has as much feelings for me as I do for her but….. there is always that but and I truly get it now. I actually understood the scene in this new movie ‘New moon” where towards the end, there was this stand off between wolf stud and vampire stud, where the girl had to tell wolfy she loves him dearly but her choice is always going to be Dracula’s nephew here! Naturally wolfy was pissed as hell, but then just had to accept it as such! Not the exact same scenario here, but all i’m trying to say is she and I have a bond we will always remain intimate friends from now till the far distant future. So please LET THE STORY GO PEOPLE! Enough already, plus if you are going through simillar things in your life, do yourself and the world a great favour and get over it!

Yesterday, I had one of the high points of my year, when I got word that the Royal family of Romania, had graciously accepted my gift to them “Portrait of a queen” and I was recieved by His Royal Highness Prince Radu, and Her Royal Highness princess Margarita at the Elisabeth Palace here in Bucharest. Now i was nervous at first, especially since it seemed like everything was working against me that day, couldnt see to find a van to transport the rather large painting to the palace. Finally, with the help of my dear friend, Ionut from Andreea Arts Store, we found a van and were on our way, narrowly escaped a car accident from some insane driver trying to over take us from the wrong side of the road, got lost in the process too, but then we made it.

The guards and the Secret service were quite amiable and I took the painting into one of the rooms(its a palace people, there are many rooms there). Now, in researching for that particular painting I had managed to firmiliarize myself with pictures of members of the royal family, and then all of a sudden, there I was with the Prince and the Princess in living colour! When he shook my hand and said hello, I just responded ” good day your highness!” and realized, how much i’ve always wanted to say that to someone without being sarcastic when i said it! I did not know how they would react to my work, but apparently judging from their reaction, The Royal couple absolutely loved it! Strangely enough, even though i had set out to make a portrait of her majesty queen Maria of Romania, by borrowing features of the queen and other members of her lineage, I somehow created a portrait that looks like (according to the Royals) 3 members of the family line. I mean when HRH princess Margarita walked ito the room, I was shocked at how much of her i could see in the painting. The next few minutes were spent looking for and placing the painting in different locations in the palace to see where it would fit, and finally, HRH Prince Radu, suggested a particular room called the white room, which had only portraits. I confess i was filled with a bit of guilty pleasure, just realizing to myself that this room is being rearranged, furnitures are being moved just to accomodate my painting? I couldnt have asked for or remotely expected this much honour. It was enough to cause tears of joy(which i surpressed ofcourse….ahem!)

The meeting ended with me drinking coffee with royalty, and the prince giving me a book on the family, which were autographed in front of me by both the Prince and the Princess. It was just awesome. It just gives me great honour to know that my work is now amongst the collection of the royal family. I am satisfied!

I got home feeling good about the day, waited for a friend to come pick up his mum’s portrait, but he never showed up, then i went to one of my newest friend’s house warming shin-dig, I ate myself sick! Drank some rather ungodly cocktail mixtures of my own making too, had some enlightening discussion with a Danish gentleman, who is actually a very good cook too, and then headed to “chidi african cafe” which was down the street. Felt like listening to some African music.

After an hour I decided to step out a bit and ran into some quys, and turns out there was a new club across the street called TAN TAN,  you all know me, I just had to check it out for myself, and it was nice, but still the same faces from malibu club, there and then I decided the minute I get some cash in my wallet again..(hey why are u surprised? i’m an artist we are almost always broke at our early stages!)… I’m gonna pimp myself up and go see what other clubs have to offer in this city. I need a break from the same old scenes.

Well thats that, Christmas is around the corner, take it easy the rest of the year people!

much love!!

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