Comments on: Zombie Nation

By: naijadude

naijadude — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:23:16 +0000

I love love love this article! its a crazy nation I tell yah but nonetheless I think there’s room to do you and live carefree… Ppl do it but its gonna be an upheival battle I tell yah…

What do I care? I plan to go unapologetical with my dressing when i am visiting.. Goodluck to me on wearing my extra short shorts with my long lean hairy legs…

By: Tosin

Tosin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:51:54 +0000

lol! i love this article very much, because its so true. Anytime i am in naija, lagos especially, its like there’s a pressure to be what you’re not, and i just feel like i should not go out or that i should leave asap. its just plain crazy, when people are going to the mall (the palms of course) and they’re dressed up as if they’re going to a party…haba! kilole to yen? while here people dont really bother wearing make up, high heels etc,it just puzzles me why one is made to feel so uncomfortable in his/her country just in the name of “conforming” to some fashion norm. Sometimes when some people make comments about fashion on this site , i just wonder who died and made them an authority in fashion matters. my dear abeg dont conform to that nonsense, it wont help your morale neither would it help your pocket. my two cents.

By: black mentality

black mentality — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:43:09 +0000

I think it’s not only Nigeria… I think it’s the black mentality in general. I remember when I was in a predominately black school, I could barely survivie for 1 semester. Kids will work 2 jobs, just to carry $300 bags to impress “who i don’t know”, I thankfully transferred to a white school and the freedom was awesome. I had a friend that her Dad was filthy rich and everybody on campus knew they were rich, she drove the latest BMW, but yet she wore sweatpants and tank tops with flip flops to class. So, my point is I don’t think it’s only Nigeria, it’s something about blacks in general. Anyone in the states should compare blacks at howard and the blacks at harvard and you’ll see what I mean.

By: Casual By-Stander

Casual By-Stander — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:32:00 +0000

One of the best articles I’ve read on this site (based on both content and writing style). Keep it coming. After sojourning in the individualist world of the west, we often forget how collectivist our home country is. Fashion is just one of the many ways some people in naija feel the need to ‘force’ others to conform. The part that irks me is how everyone feels they have the right to tell one to one’s face (and boldly too!) how one’s life should be led…if we all sleep facing the same direction, how can naija have the progress we so often clamor for…The type often borne from freedom of expression?…your article aptly conveys the poignancy of the situation

By: GamGam

GamGam — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:20:21 +0000

na real zombie, lolol

By: lolLLLL

lolLLLL — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:57 +0000

HAHAHAHA! oh gosh, i thoroughly enjoyed reading this. i know *just* who your designer friend is and i’ve marveled @ the transformation myself my moment of clarity happened in terra kulture some months ago…my returnee counterparts matched each other weave for weave, hermes for hermes, prada for prada (myself unfortunately included). ZERO originality…and it was QUITE sickening. i stick it to the man when i have the same weave for 2 months (it’s called WASHING it and keeping it moving) and i always tell anyone who dares ask that it’s none of their (her) damn business. i’m frugal like that. when i “clash”, my friends tell me i can’t step out like that because Lagosians “don’t understand that” and i tell them i don’t give a damn. i still don’t wear make-up, still can’t afford brazilian hair and still don’t care to belong to any cliques. i figure if i spend my life and time on more worthwhile things, people will gravitate towards me however i look.

p.s. seriously though, why does practically every returnee look and dress the same?

By: Obi-talker

Obi-talker — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:19:55 +0000

I like this article, it kindda of feels like poetry… and its almost sad.

By: ngozi

ngozi — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:05:24 +0000

I have to say thanks for this article. I thought it was only me. I would come out dressed comfortably and nicely and someone will say something to put me down in Nigeria. After a while I started snapping back at people. It’s kinda crazy cause I am like why cant I be me and you be U. It’s ridiculous but then again that’s how it was when we were in high school!

By: Bebe

Bebe — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:20:56 +0000

i’m so feeling this article. I remember during my undergrad days in unilag, imy friends used to laugh at me because i wore plimsoles, never fixed weavon or braids [i used to always pack my hair] and i didnt wear make-up [just powder]. Everytime we had to go out, there was always something to say about what i was wearing, it wasnt even over d top stuff, just clothes i felt very comfy in. Naija’s still think you have to wear heels and rock ‘indian’ hair to be ‘in’. :p
Do not succumb o…i didnt succumb…after all, i’m comfortable in my clothes, which is not d same for them skinny jeans [with bum cleavage showing], heel wearing [walking like a crab] weavon fixing babes!

rock on!

By: jules

jules — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:28:34 +0000

Mine is the other way round. I lived in Nigeria then relocated I love the freedom to wear what you want therefore expressing your style in how you dress instead of following the crowd. I love the less make up look, the one flat comfy shoe for 3mths but not the dead braids for 4mths!!! As for my naija pple trying to keep up hmmm I once had to host a silly girl from naija whom i obviously earned three times what she was earning and she had the guts to tell me to dress up ie wear heels, make up, not that everyday skinny jeans need I tell you the end She started wearing flat shoes from trekking long distance from train station to bus stop!!!

By: afolabi

afolabi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:07:14 +0000

Nice. The country is SO averse to non-conformity. Somehow, it just breaks you, even the ones who prance around as avant-garde make non-conformity look so conforming (as if they themselves are following set rules) .

By: LP

LP — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:38:37 +0000

My sentiments exactly…..hahahaha…”I will not succumb….I will be free”.
Never change who you are because of the “My neighbours dress is shorter” culture and “this year Big sunglasses are in style”. I for one will stick to my eccentric 80′s/Nonconformist style. I get the smug looks and hear the smart remarks everytime from the shallows. They can all suck on rotten eggs for I shall remain LP. The one that stayed True to Truth…hehehehe. Stay different Love. Being true to yourself will always bring happiness and satisfaction.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:11:59 +0000

Its all a case of wannabes in Naija, they all want to belong but no one really knows what they are supposed to belong to. Honey, please be yourself and don’t mind them, by they gab you will know the country folks because they try too hard.

By: Zenna

Zenna — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:37:36 +0000

true talk…everytime I go to niaja i usually wonder how i’ll survive all the superficiality when I finally move back

By: ronke

ronke — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:01:30 +0000

Ok Wana,gotta say this, i normally cant stand ur rantings on the radio most times (i have to confess it gets so bas t have to turn it off…lol) but girl ur so right on this one!!!! u hit the nail right on the head men!!! so now iv got love for u.

im honestly tired of the way things are on this side.individual creativity is so stone age…the whole thing just does my head in and i keep asking why are we so scared of being ourselves,who are we scared of???

By: Bemused

Bemused — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:41:43 +0000

Personally I think its the people you know, I sometimes get comments about how ‘special’ my look is but like really!! Fear will not even allow some random waist belt matchy matchy to atempt to bestow fashion advice on me. I have been unplugged, there is no going back

But seriously doe, I have had to tone it down abit but thats life YOU must adapt to ur enviroment esp if ur 9-5 is Lawyer!:)

By: izie

izie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:02:23 +0000

ok babe. i loved love this article. it was funny but true. it was real and it hit home. Love it. Please keep writting. And the Brazillian hair thing is so true. Ask bella. She be rocking Brazillian one day and Funmi hair the next. she’s an OPPRESSOR. quote me.

By: Glory Edozien

Glory Edozien — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:50:04 +0000

Perfectlyyyyyyyy depicted. “The society was going to annihilate our bohemian aesthetic limb for limb”… it seems we are indeed the last of our kind….just remember…Lydia Maria Child famous words…and take strength!!!!

“Nature made us individuals, as she did the flowers and the pebbles; but we are afraid to be peculiar, and so our society resembles a bag of marbles, or a string of mold candles. Why should we all dress after the same fashion? The frost never paints my windows twice alike”.