Cultural gap
My 13-year old son came home from school at 3 o’clock one rainy afternoon and realized that he had left his key in his locker at school. He called me … Read More
Blog
An African in Paris
By Soumanou Salifou An airline employee’s incompetence (or ignorance) caused me to spend one day and one night in Paris during my latest trip back from Africa to the United … Read More
“The African” receives a great review in The Library Journal, a major U.S. publication
The African magazine was pleasantly surprised with the laudatory review we got in the August 1999 issue of The Library Journal, highly-regarded U.S. publication. Below is the full text of … Read More
About The African
Just as John H. Johnson in November 1942 founded Negro Digest (which later became Ebony) to fill the information vacuum about Afro-Americans in the United States, Soumanou Salifou, who came from Benin, West … Read More
Polygamy in Africa
Polygamy is still part of the African cultural environment today. It is openly practiced in countries such as Senegal where it is legal. Men find a way to practice … Read More
African proverbs
Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe wrote in his famous novel Things Fall Apart that “proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” Palm oil is the main companion of yams, a … Read More
The Bororo of Northern Nigeria
BY USMAN TANIMU The Bororo are the cattle-rearing mobile tribe of Fulani stock who live in the outskirts of virtually all the major towns and cities of the Hausa-dominated Northern … Read More
A dowry ceremony in Benin
By Amina Sidiki Sofia Aly (maiden name Salifou), 33, an accountant, got legally married a couple of years ago to Osséni Aly, a bank employee. Soon thereafter, they had a … Read More
Movie star Djimon Hounsou’s homecoming
BY LOU SIFA Djimon Hounsou, the American movie star originally from Benin, West Africa who rose to fame thanks to his role in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film Amistad, and later gained increased … Read More
And they return home to Africa
BY USMAN MAMA Jah Eliajah Adanjah and his wife, Jah Evejah, are descendants of slaves from Guadeloupe who settled in Benin, West Africa, several years ago. They are the founders … Read More