I'm pleased to be hosting the third day of Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko's 4Wills Publishing blog tour.
I was excited, at the beginning, that I will be alone in Rome, without parental supervision or support, without someone telling me what to do, or me looking over my shoulder all the time to see who was judging me. But my presence in Rome changed all that. I wanted all those things I was excited about losing. I missed home. I missed the connection with people like me. I latched myself onto the first group that accepted me, and no matter how I later tried to detach myself from them, I found myself always going back to them. They were my anchor, so to say. Alfi in the story was my nemesis in Rome. Even though I knew she was not good for me, I couldn’t shake her off me.
Alfi did everything in her power to destroy me. I knew that, and perhaps it was that knowledge, and the grace of God that kept my head above water.
Fast forward to Nigeria. When most of us finally returned to Nigeria-- the good and the bad, the high and the low, the snubs and the snubbed-- the ground levelled out. The fact that we were all abroad and studied abroad put all of us on the same level.
Those princes who snubbed me in Rome did not like it. They still wanted to maintain that divide. Now I was a professor at the university, and they rumored that I was not qualified to be a professor. They wanted everyone to look at the fact-- they were the favored ones, I was not. They got the big scholarship, I did not. They schooled at the University of Rome, I did not-- I schooled at the Conservatoy of music, and to them that was not anything equivalent to a university, therefore, inferior. They hounded me! I had to go back to school to prove them wrong. This book: Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko The Saga of a Nigerian Female Ethnomusicologist, written by one who witnessed my struggles at the time, detailed everything.
Alfi did everything in her power to destroy me. I knew that, and perhaps it was that knowledge, and the grace of God that kept my head above water.
Fast forward to Nigeria. When most of us finally returned to Nigeria-- the good and the bad, the high and the low, the snubs and the snubbed-- the ground levelled out. The fact that we were all abroad and studied abroad put all of us on the same level.
Those princes who snubbed me in Rome did not like it. They still wanted to maintain that divide. Now I was a professor at the university, and they rumored that I was not qualified to be a professor. They wanted everyone to look at the fact-- they were the favored ones, I was not. They got the big scholarship, I did not. They schooled at the University of Rome, I did not-- I schooled at the Conservatoy of music, and to them that was not anything equivalent to a university, therefore, inferior. They hounded me! I had to go back to school to prove them wrong. This book: Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko The Saga of a Nigerian Female Ethnomusicologist, written by one who witnessed my struggles at the time, detailed everything.
Pregnant Future Trailer
About the Author
Joy has written and published extensively on national and international scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Her first short story I Come from Utopia was published in African Voices, Spring/Summer, 2007, pg. 18. Since then, she has published numerous others in RAVE SOUP FOR THE WRITER'S SOUL Anthology, Bks 1-3.
Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women was published in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Contest in 2012. She has also two books published in the Italian language.
The Legend of the Walking Dead: Igbo Mythologies, is a journey into the mysteries of life and death of the Igbos of Nigeria was published in 2014
In Pregnant Future, her new Novel, Justina is the story of every young woman who found herself alone in the world to fend for herself. It is the story of the pitfalls that await such a woman. It is the story of survival
Author of:
Legend of The Walking Dead: Igbo Mythologies
Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women
Pregnant Future
CONTACT:
Website: https://thelookingglassjnlb.wordpress.com
Bog: www.Jinlobify.Com
Twitter: @Jinlobify
Facebook: Facebook
Her first short story I Come from Utopia was published in African Voices, Spring/Summer, 2007, pg. 18. Since then, she has published numerous others in RAVE SOUP FOR THE WRITER'S SOUL Anthology, Bks 1-3.
Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women was published in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Contest in 2012. She has also two books published in the Italian language.
The Legend of the Walking Dead: Igbo Mythologies, is a journey into the mysteries of life and death of the Igbos of Nigeria was published in 2014
In Pregnant Future, her new Novel, Justina is the story of every young woman who found herself alone in the world to fend for herself. It is the story of the pitfalls that await such a woman. It is the story of survival
Author of:
Legend of The Walking Dead: Igbo Mythologies
Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women
Pregnant Future
CONTACT:
Website: https://thelookingglassjnlb.wordpress.com
Bog: www.Jinlobify.Com
Twitter: @Jinlobify
Facebook: Facebook
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