THE 60's

Cinema:

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  Some of Hollywood's most notable blockbuster films of the 1960s include: Psycho; Spartacus; Lawrence of Arabia; The Pink Panther; Mary Poppins ; The Sound of Music; Doctor Zhivago; Bonnie and Clyde; Midnight Cowboy; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Night of the Living Dead; The Planet of the Apes.
• Began to break social taboos such as sex and violence causing controversy and fascination
• Turned increasingly dramatic, unbalanced, and wild
• Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969) focused on the drug culture of the time
• Movies also became more sexually explicit, such as Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968)
• Western was a direct result of the Kurosawa films. The influence of these films is most apparent in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) starring Clint Eastwood and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996)
• Rise of 'art house' films and theaters
• Move to all-color production in Hollywood movies

Fashion:

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  The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the mop-top haircut, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket
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  The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints
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  The bikini finally came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the movie Beach Party
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  Mary Quant invented the mini-skirt which became the rage in the late 1960s
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  Women’s hair styles ranged from beehive hairdos in the early part of the decade to very short styles popularized by Twiggy just five years later

Television:

• The most prominent American TV series of the 1960s include: Star Trek: The Original Series, I Dream of Jeannie, The Outer Limits, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Pink Panther Show, The Time Tunnel, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones and Bewitched

Art:

• Influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age seemed to forecast
• Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret
• Andy Warhol was a leading name in pop art
• Assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely)
• Kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp)

Literature:

• Reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social issues of America in the sixties
• A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they affected people in America, Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social distinctions between races
• Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), and Mary McCarthy (The Group) spoke of women in roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties
• Women like Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, and Gloria Steinem, led the way for many women
• Disillusionment with the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Events & People:

• 1961 - Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy
• 1963 - Martin Luther King delivers his I have a dream speech
• 1963 - Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
• The Presidential Commission of the Status of Women (1963) presented disturbing facts about women's place in our society. Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and Gloria Steinem, (National Organization for Women) questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women's Lib, and disclosed the "glass ceiling."
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The birth control pill became widely available and in 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states
• Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968The term "blacks" became socially acceptable, replacing "Negroes"
• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in Apollo XI, were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969

Music:

• Popular music entered an era of "all hits", as numerous artists released recordings
• Bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record
• The taste of the American listeners expanded from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s to the Motown sound, folk rock and the British Invasion
• The rise of the counterculture movement, particularly among the youth, created a market for rock, soul, pop, reggae and blues music produced by drug-culture
• Elvis Presley resumes his musical career by recording "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" in 1960
• Chuck Berry's "Come On" was the A-side of the The Rolling Stones' first single, released on 7 June 1963
• The Beatles arrive in America in 1964, spearheading the British Invasion
• Bob Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
• The Rolling Stones have a huge #1 hit with their song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in 1965
• In 1966, Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots Are Made for Walking'" became very popular
• The Doors release their self-titled debut album The Doors' in 1967’
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two successful albums during 1967 Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques
• The Beatles release the seminal concept album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967
• Pink Floyd releases their debut record The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
• Bob Dylan releases the Country rock album John Wesley Harding in December 1967
• The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was the beginning of the so-called "Summer of Love"
• Johnny Cash releases At Folsom Prison in 1968
• 1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin is formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin
•  Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, becomes an overnight sensation after their performance at Monterey Pop in 1967 and release their massively successful second album Cheap Thrills in 1968
• The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert in 1969
• The Who release and tour the first rock opera Tommy in 1969

What may the message of Buchi Emecheta be?

In The Moonlight Bride Buchi Emecheta shows us that she is against the discrimination of albinos. In the story the bride is albino and she is very welcome in the village of Odanta. They really believe that she is supposed to bring good luck into the village and to their umunna (community). They think that she is the reason why they were able to discover the snake and hunt it, getting a lot of good items from/with it. When she arrived to their village, they didn’t discriminate her based on her looks and after getting to know her, they liked her personality and who she was on the inside. This shows that it is wrong to judge people just because they are different on the outside. It’s not albinos fault that they are born like that and it is a cruelty what some cultures do to them because of wrong beliefs.

If monkeys don’t discriminate them, why would us?

By: Carla & Vânia

White Paper (it can have a little light)

No, I cannot write if I have no inspiration… It can come from the air, from the Earth, but mainly from the people and from me: me and what I feel.


I love to write, it is true. But sometimes it is so difficult to express something on a piece of paper… some years or months ago it was easier but maybe I was less demanding. Now I am looking for a more literary writing. I wish to be drowned in descriptions, wrapped up in narrations, full of characters, bewitched by the magic of linking words: some nouns, accompanied by a few adjectives, plus a pinch of adverbs and more! More! Conjunctions, pronouns, determiners, articles! And then we can form phrases, sentences and a text: a discourse, a dialogue, an argumentative essay, an opening of the heart, a story (an enchantment story, a real story, an alternative story with unicorns, and computers, and girls and ETs and acrobats!), a description…

WOW! We have just to wait that this light, this breeze, this perfume come through us and then, then we should find a pencil (yes, a pencil is always better, it is more inspirational), grab a piece of white paper and let the magic happen: we start by seeing blurs, then a more homogeneous colour. Oh! It is grey: the grey of rough draft, the grey of poetry, the grey of the old manuscripts.

And we are ready to show the world what we think, what we see. And we can make the others cry, laugh, or just make them smile and pass their hand on our head, our heart.

And how I love watching this scandal!

Joana Alves, nº11

Nigerias’s Geography

Borders and Areas


• Shares land borders with Republic of Benin at west, with Chad and Cameroon at East and Niger at North;

• It coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the South and it boarders lake Chad to the Northeast;

• Geographic coordinates are 1000’N, 800’E;

• Nigeria total area is 923,768 Km2;

Climate

• Is divided in three regions:

1. The far south-tropical rainforest;

2. The far north-desert-like;

3. Rest of the country-savannah
Topography

• Jos Plateau, Udi Hils, Nambila Mountains;

• The main river is Niger extending about 4,180 km;

• Valleys of the Niger and Benue river;

Vegetation

• Three types of vegetation:

1. Forests;

2. Savannah;

3. Mountain land;

Natural Resources

• Petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, natural gas;

Information selected from http://en.wikipedia.org/

Ivo, Pedro & Tânia

History of Nigeria

Archaeological research has shown that people were already living in southwestern Nigeria (specifically Iwo-Eleru) as early as 9000 BC.

Yoruba people are one of the largest ethno-linguistic or ethnic groups in west Africa.[6] The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language. The Yoruba constitute around 30 million individuals throughout West Africa and are found predominantly in Nigeria with approximately 21 percent of its total population.

Yoruba settlements are often composed of three main generations:

• The first generation is made up of founding towns and cities of the origin or capitals of Yoruba states/kingdoms.

• The second generation is those created by conquest, diaspora or/and resettlement.

• The third generation is those that emerged after the Yoruba wars.

Igbo people are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism. Igbo people are among the largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Before British colonialism, the Igbo were a politically fragmented / divided group. There were variations in culture such as in art styles, attire and religious practices. Various subgroups were set according to clan, lineage, village affiliation and dialect. There were not many centralized chieftaincy, hereditary aristocracy, or kingship customs except in kingdoms like that of the Nri, Agbor and Onitsha. This political system changed significantly under British colonialism in the 19th century.

Certain conflicts with other Nigerian ethnicities led to the Igbo dominant Eastern Nigeria seceding from Nigeria to create the independent state of Biafra. The Nigerian-Biafran war (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970) broke out shortly after. The end of the war led to the defeated Republic of Biafra being reabsorbed into Nigeria.

The Hausa Kingdoms were a collection of independent city-states situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad.

The Hausa Kingdoms began as seven states.

The Hausa Kingdoms emerged in the 13th century as vibrant trading centers. The primary exports were leather, gold, cloth, salt, kola nuts, animal hides, and henna.

Despite relatively constant growth, the city-states were vulnerable to aggression and, although the vast majority of its inhabitants were Muslim by the 16th century, they were attacked by Muslim jihadists from 1804 to 1808. In 1808 the last Hausa state was finally conquered by Usuman dan Fodio and incorporated into the Sokoto Caliphate.

Information directly selected from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nigeria.

Joana & Vanessa

The biography of Buchi Emecheta

Florence Onye Buchi Emecheta is a PEPA African novelist who has published over 20 books, plays and shorts about child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom, and she was born on July 21, 1944, in Lagos, Nigeria.
She is the daughter of Alice (okwuekwuhe) Emecheta and Jeremy Nwabudinke, who was railway worker in the 40s’.
Due to the gender discrimination, Buchi was kept at home while her younger brother was sent to school, but after persuading her parents to consider the benefits about her education, Buchi was then sent to an all-girl’s missionary school.
When Buchi was nine years old, her father died and, one year later she received a full scholarship to the Methodist Girls School.
At eleven she got engaged to Sylvester Onwordi, and she stayed at the Methodist Girls School until their marriage, when Buchi turned sixteen years old.
After their marriage Sylvester moved to London to attend University and Buchi only joined in 1962.
In six years Buchi already had five children, but she was unhappy and trapped in oft-violent marriage.
Buchi, then started writing in her spare time, although her husband, suspicious of what she wrote, burned her first manuscript
At the age of twenty-two, while working as a librarian at the British Museum, where she stayed from 1965 to 1969, Buchi left her husband and supported all of her five children while earning a BSc degree in sociology at the University of London.
She also wrote many articles about Black British life in several journals and newspapers.
In 1972 she published her first book of shorts, titled ‘In the Ditch’. This book showed the struggles of a main character named Adah, who was forced to live in a housing estate while working as a librarian to support her five children, needless to say, this story talked about her own life.
In 1974 her book Second-Class Citizen was published and, both this book and In the Ditch were published as one single book titled Adah’s Story in 1983.

Until 1976 she was a youth worker and sociologist for the Inner London Education Authority. After that she visited the United States and was a community worker in Camden, New Jersey, from 1976 to 1978.
From 1972 to 1979 she visited several American Universities, including Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, The University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Illinois, and she travelled all throughout the world giving lectures as the successful author she was.
From 1980 to 1981, Dr. Emecheta was the senior resident fellow and visiting professor of English at the University of Calabar in Nigeria.
In 1982, Dr. Emecheta saw her lecture at Yale University, and the University of London, and a fellowship at the University of London in 1986.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchi_Emecheta

Made by: Ana Cláudia, Débora Sofia e Ruthermassy.

Nigeria

Nigeria

1. Demography

          Nigeria is the most populous country of Africa and represents a quart of the population in the West African. There is a big variety of costumes, languages, traditions between 389 ethnic groups of the country. Nigeria has a big tax of fecundity and a big population growth. There is more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria as hauçá-fulani, vorubás, igbos, ijaw, kanuris, ibibios, annangs, tiv and efik. The most common religions are Islamism and Christianity and the official language is English.

2. Igbos

          They are one of the biggest ethnic African groups. They live in the East, South and Southeast of Nigeria, besides Cameroons and Equatorial Guinea. In 1967, supported by the French multinational Elf-Aquitaine, they declared the independence of the East of Nigeria, creating the Biafra Republic. There was a widespread famine in this region and a civil war that leaded to the defeat of the Igbos.

3. The Igbos language

          Igbo is a language spoken in Nigeria by approximately 20-25 millions of people. It is written in Latin alphabet and it is a tonal language like Chinese. There are hundreds of different dialects and languages that derive from Igbo and the most are intelligible between them, like ikwerre enuane, bende, owerri, ngwa, umuahia, nnewi, onitsha, awka, abriba, arochukwu, nsukka, mbaise, abba, ohafia, agbor, wawa okigwe, ukwa/ndoki and ekpeye. The high degree of similarity between them makes easier to form a dialect continuity.

Sources:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nig%C3%A9ria

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbos

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ADngua_igbo

http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/igbo/ekpafia8.JPG

http://www.prisonpastor.com/images/the_new_map_of_nigeria.jpg

By: Carla, Duarte and Vânia