Glimpse into Nigeria with Solomon Okoli + Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bKmdGi98yHTSe70pLcbyf?si=5f4eb0ee5e4d4382

Subscribe, listen to, and share Happiness Between Tails Podcast on most any platform; from Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and Breaker, to Pocket Casts and RadioPublic and Castbox, plus many more and an RSS feed. The full list of 50+ places is H-E-R-E.

Judge me all you like — hey, I judge myself — truth be told, the sad fact is that if I haven’t visited a country, then I’m woefully ignorant about it. Aside from traveling, what helps is meeting people from other places. So does the wonderful world of blogs!

Fortunately, Solomon Okoli blogs (and tutors, writes, and graphic designs) from Nigeria’s Jos City in Plateau State. You can contact him at his blog, where he posts about world politics. Here he shares his interests, his photo manipulations, and about “Mamushi,” the novel he’s writing…

My Quest into the World of Digital Graphic Design by Solomon Okoli

Elephants: From the word go, I have been a lover of animals and wild life. One of my favourite animal is the elephant. Tropical Africa is blessed with lots of this creature even though we lost many to poaching. I had always wished elephant could have wings and fly away to defend themselves against this poachers. I manipulated one and wished it was a reality for that elephant.

It was on the 21st month of June 2020. As expected, summer solstice was here again. We experienced a longer day of daylight and a shorter day of darkness with raging low clouds dominated by strato cumulus and a conventional rainfall that lasted for 3 hours accompanied by lighting and thunder blast reoccurring at intervals.This was intense because I lived within the tropical region of West Africa in the northern hemisphere.

I was awaiting the arrival of my brother, a graduate of Fine and applied arts who majored in Graphic design.

(While he was in his 3rd year in school, I visited him in his lodge, but he hardly had time for me as he was too busy and his eyes keen to his laptop. I could recall the few hours of sleep he gets in a day because of the numerous uncompleted graphic projects at his disposal.

His graphic works were not just a beauty to behold, it also had a magical touch of perfection). After that visit, I picked interest in Graphics.

After the heavy downpour, I drove off to the airport at 2:30pm to pick him. This was another 2hours journey from the main city where I lived.

I was already used to the tropical rains of West Africa, so I knew the aftermath.

My vehicle was so lucky to avoid the heavy hail stones that fell from a vertical cumulonimbus cloud with a flat base because I had parked carefully inside my parking lot with an excellent coverage. I feared this cloud the most, because each time it appeared and showered, residents recounts their losses. Most times the cloud is almost invisible as it can be covered with a stratocumulus cloud.

My neighbours were so unlucky as their wind screen had been smashed by hailstones.

As I drove to the airport, many things flashed to my thought. First was how to beg my brother to teach me the art of graphic design and second was how to get the graphic softwares to install in my computer system.

We finally arrived home from the airport at 6:35pm, but the day was still bright because of the effect of the June summer solstice.

The next day, after I had spoken to him about my passion for graphic design, he offered to teach me as long as I am willing to learn.

Without much hesitation, I drove in the muddy swamp caused by the heavy downpour of yesterday.

How I drove my car back home was a miracle. The car tyres got stuck in the swampy mud. I was rescued by some kind hearted strangers.

I bought Adobe Photoshop, Filmora, Adobe Premier pro, Adobe bridge, Adobe After effect, and Adobe illustrator.

At first after the installation, i spent hours understanding how the software worked. I began with still graphics, and launched Adobe Photoshop.

During the learning process, I got fatigued, and eye pain because I had strained my eyes so much with the laptop, with a little bit of quarrell with my brother as we learned together.

After some days, I began to master the act of still graphics using Photoshop.

I had pleaded with fatigue and sleep to visit those who need their services and leave me alone at the moment.

I bought lots of Tiger nut and Date palm just to do away with fatigue and sleep and keep my mouth and body busy.

My brother was so happy for my near perfection as I had learnt almost everything In Photoshop and created a niche in photo manipulation.

Moreso, he gave me links to youtube videos and tutorials to watch from time to time and perfect my graphic skill.

After 6 months, I began to learn motion graphics. I watched so many tutorials. Practiced on my own and almost perfected the skills of video editing, manipulation and so on. I covered so many courses on any tutorial I laid my hands on.

Today, I am as good as my brother in the world of graphic design.

Here are some of my photo manipulations, myself included in each. Below them are thoughts on what inspired me…

3 Heads: This photo was as a result of the cycle of thoughts that sweeps the average African Head of Families. The face on the left signifies a family head filled with temporal  happiness to his family because a problem solved. The one in the middle signifies anxiety and worry when the head of the family cannot cope with the challenges ahead. The one on the right signifies an “action doing” head of a family. He is determined to succeed. He follows his words with action.

Ex President Trump and I discussing at the White House: The inspiration was done out of a great desire and wish that through mutual dialogue, the United States of America as a World Power will librate Africa from the shackles of poverty and restore economic prosperity.

An old tree with my face wrapped to it: done out of an inspiration to stop deforestation in Tropical Africa. I wished trees could talk, alert the public on the dangers of deforestation and encourage Afforestation and Reafforestation.

The cover to the novel I’m working on, “Mamushi”: I was inspired to write this fictional novel due to the challenging conflict between Nigerian farmers and Fulani Herdsmen clash that have led to loss of lives and properties. I wish this novel will reach other parts of the world when published and a movie made out of it.

Mamushi literally means a deadly venomous pit viper snake found in the islands of Japan. From the fictional novel, Haneef the major character is a young Fulani migrant from the highlands of Fouta Djallon that migrated into Northern Nigeria as a Pastoralist. He took advantage of the political instability in Nigeria and got the backing of rebel leaders and bad corrupt politicians handling the affairs of the country. Haneef rose to fame and fell by the intervention of a new government. He grazed his livestock without fear into any geographical region he wanted, destroyed farm lands, homes and properties, raped women and took children as hostage. He mobilised his men and launched a bloody attack at night on every community he visited. He also rustled cattles as much as he wanted. When the host community launches a counter attack, the bad elements behind this conflict and the corrupt millitary prevents any counter attack thus schielding  Haneef and his men and giving them full protection. This continued for a long time until deals went wrong. Haneef was betrayed by the same political class backing him up. A new government came to power, and Haneef was caught and impaled by the courts judgment. 

How do you learn about other countries?