Although tea tree oil has been talked about a lot in the media lately, it doesn’t mean it is new. As a matter of fact, aboriginals of Australia have been using this oil for hundreds of years.

The tea tree is native to Australia. There are over three hundred species of this tree. The tea tree oil is extracted by crushing the leaves of the tea tree. It produces a natural essential oil that contains many beneficial elements unlike commercial products.

Most hair products on the market contain alcohol, sulfates, parabens and all types of bad chemicals that are just not great for your hair. So, if you have damaged hair and are looking for a solution to get back those beautiful locks, then don’t overlook tea tree oil. Since it is a natural ingredient, it wins hands down over store bought chemical based products. Bottom line, it is as safe as it gets!

It may seem like an oxymoron, but some hair care products can actually cause damage to your hair by clogging up your hair follicles. More of these chemical based products, than we care to admit, are the primary cause behind damaged, brittle, dry breaking hair strands.

Another benefit of tea tree oil is that if you have dandruff, it can relieve the itch. How? Well, dandruff is the growth of bacteria on your scalp, by applying tea tree oil to your scalp it will help eliminate bacteria and fungus. In addition, the build-up of dead skin and dandruff can result in hair follicles becoming blocked. If your hair follicles are blocked, it prevents essential nutrients from getting in.

Tea Tree Oil Hair Recipe

The following recipe can help relieve your itchy scalp, dandruff, and even prevent head lice.

• Add tea tree oil to your shampoo
• Gently massage the mixture into your hair
• Leave in for approximately 10 minutes; then rinse

Using tea tree oil will give your hair an improved texture; radiant shine and it will have that silky smooth feel as well.

It is a fascinating story stumbled upon while visiting the observer Nigeria blog. Many a’times we are swayed to believe that civilization was introduced to Africa by the Europeans; our educational system,its curriculum and subject matter still revolves around white supremacy and heroic stories of the European conquest and colonization. We learn a lot on stories like the conquest of Alexander the great, the Roman Invasion, inventions of Thomas Edison, Charles Boyle,  Issac Newton etc. while the accounts of such stories and achievements remains remarkable in global civilization and world history, little has been said about African history in similar fashion or magnitude. The story of African Kings, Conquest, Inventions, Pre-colonial civilization and other forms of achievements despite the overwhelming documented evidence at the world’s disposal (written, archaeological, arts, music, language, DNA etc) are often told with such bias that one wonders if the script is not fashion against African existence and pride. The following story gives a glimpse of such remarkable achievement of  by an African kingdom written from an African perspective;

This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.

Pearce writes that these walls “extended for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They covered 6,500 sq km and were all dug by the Edo people … They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet”.

Barely any trace of these walls exist today.

Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.

When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.

In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”

In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.

African fractals

Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

 

At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them. In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals fed.

“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”

Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”.

Family houses were divided into three sections: the central part was the husband’s quarters, looking towards the road; to the left the wives’ quarters (oderie), and to the right the young men’s quarters (yekogbe).

Daily street life in Benin City might have consisted of large crowds going though even larger streets, with people colourfully dressed – some in white, others in yellow, blue or green – and the city captains acting as judges to resolve lawsuits, moderating debates in the numerous galleries, and arbitrating petty conflicts in the markets.

The early foreign explorers’ descriptions of Benin City portrayed it as a place free of crime and hunger, with large streets and houses kept clean; a city filled with courteous, honest people, and run by a centralised and highly sophisticated bureaucracy.

 

The city was split into 11 divisions, each a smaller replication of the king’s court, comprising a sprawling series of compounds containing accommodation, workshops and public buildings – interconnected by innumerable doors and passageways, all richly decorated with the art that made Benin famous. The city was literally covered in it.

The exterior walls of the courts and compounds were decorated with horizontal ridge designs (agben) and clay carvings portraying animals, warriors and other symbols of power – the carvings would create contrasting patterns in the strong sunlight. Natural objects (pebbles or pieces of mica) were also pressed into the wet clay, while in the palaces, pillars were covered with bronze plaques illustrating the victories and deeds of former kings and nobles.

At the height of its greatness in the 12th century – well before the start of the European Renaissance – the kings and nobles of Benin City patronised craftsmen and lavished them with gifts and wealth, in return for their depiction of the kings’ and dignitaries’ great exploits in intricate bronze sculptures.

“These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique,” wrote Professor Felix von Luschan, formerly of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. “Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”

 

What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city. Immediately European nations saw the opportunity to develop trade with the wealthy kingdom, importing ivory, palm oil and pepper – and exporting guns. At the beginning of the 16th century, word quickly spread around Europe about the beautiful African city, and new visitors flocked in from all parts of Europe, with ever glowing testimonies, recorded in numerous voyage notes and illustrations.
Lost world
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Now, however, the great Benin City is lost to history. Its decline began in the 15th century, sparked by internal conflicts linked to the increasing European intrusion and slavery trade at the borders of the Benin empire.

Then in 1897, the city was destroyed by British soldiers – looted, blown up and burnt to the ground. My great grandparents were among the many who fled following the sacking of the city; they were members of the elite corps of the king’s doctors.

Nowadays, while a modern Benin City has risen on the same plain, the ruins of its former, grander namesake are not mentioned in any tourist guidebook to the area. They have not been preserved, nor has a miniature city or touristic replica been made to keep alive the memory of this great ancient city.

A house composed of a courtyard in Obasagbon, known as Chief Enogie Aikoriogie’s house – probably built in the second half of the 19th century – is considered the only vestige that survives from Benin City. The house possesses features that match the horizontally fluted walls, pillars, central impluvium and carved decorations observed in the architecture of ancient Benin.

 

Curious tourists visiting Edo state in Nigeria are often shown places that might once have been part of the ancient city – but its walls and moats are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps a section of the great city wall, one of the world’s largest man-made monuments, now lies bruised and battered, neglected and forgotten in the Nigerian bush.

A discontented Nigerian puts it this way: “Imagine if this monument was in England, USA, Germany, Canada or India? It would be the most visited place on earth, and a tourist mecca for millions of the world’s people. A money-spinner worth countless billions in annual tourist revenue.”

Instead, if you wish to get a glimpse into the glorious past of the ancient Benin kingdom – and a better understanding of this groundbreaking city – you are better off visiting the Benin Bronze Sculptures section of the British Museum in central London.

Courtesy: TheGuardianUk

On the twentieth anniversary of Nation of Islam’s Million Man March, the “Justice or Else” rally saw speeches from African American leaders, including Farrakhan, calling for unity and institutional reform related to issues that effect the African American community specifically. At the forefront of everyone’s concerns, and the discussion Saturday, was the issue of police brutality, murder and accountability.

The website, www.justiceorelse.com, live-streamed the rally and speakers, making it easy for those who could not be there to keep informed.

For several hours, the hashtag #MillionManMarch was trending throughout Saturday.

 a trending topic for much of the day.

One hundred people are about to donate their live bodies to science as part of an unprecedented new study that will examine how to improve personal health, researchers said.

It’s all too easy to direct anger at the person often responsible for those little frustrations- your spouse!

Sometimes even when others are getting under our skin or a situation outside of the home brings us down, it’s the spouse who feels the brunt of our negative emotions.

Yet in the happiest marriages, spouses do their utmost to shield that anger from their partner. While it is never healthy to sweep your frustrations under the rug, you can try to deal with them while remembering these three essential elements of a happy marriage.

Understand your partner

It can be difficult to separate ‘knowing’ your partner from ‘understanding’ them.

Knowing may mean you know what they’re going to do or say before they do it. When you’ve been married for long this becomes easy, usually for both parties.

The trick is to instead try to understand the feelings that motivate your partner’s behaviors.

Continually trying to understand how your spouse is feeling and treating those feelings with care, you can enhance your relationship each and every time you make an effort to understand where they’re coming from and how they’re feeling.

According to WebMD, couples should “Make small gestures, but make them often.” In other words, find small ways to be nice, to show you understand how your partner feels after a long day at work or a long day with the kids.

Face difficulties together instead of on your own.  When you understand what drives your partner you’ll be able to find more of those small ways that will lighten their load and help them feel better, feel all the more better in light of your understanding.

Be supportive

Men and women, husbands and wives, and partners get ideas into their heads. Sometimes we think our spouses are off the wall. Sometimes we are just too tired to think.

Yet to complement your relationship and build your happy marriage, try to be supportive and encourage your partner in their pursuits. Instead of pointing out what you feel are their flaws, help them find creative ways to overcome them.

Being supportive inspires a feeling of ‘togetherness.’ An article in Men’s Health reported that “…researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that couples that say ‘we’ are better at resolving disagreements than couples that emphasized their separateness by using pronouns like ‘I,’ “me,” and ‘you.'”

Sometimes it can help to lead by example. Your supportive example may spur your spouse on to another supportive behavior that will benefit you just when you need it most.

Putting a spouse and their thoughts down does not lead to a happy state and it can erode away many of the other positive features of a relationship.

Be respectful

Arguing is a part of marriage, but fighting doesn’t have to be. When you argue, try to keep the focus on the issue at hand.

Perhaps one partner wants to purchase something major for the home and the other does not.

Disagreements must involve reasoning; once your argument degenerates into personal insults (i.e. you’re always a jerk about money), you’ve weakened the strength of your argument and you’ve reduced respect.

Name calling and personal insults have no part to play in a happy marriage. Instead, they drag it down making it harder to return to those times when you didn’t use such behaviors.

Respect one another’s opinions as well as one another’s feelings. According to Woman’s Day, losing respect for a partner could be a sign that the marriage is faltering–maybe even over.  Respect is vital to every marriage-certainly every happy one and must be cultivated during the rough times as well as the good times.

If these elements are missing from your marriage and you’re opting for another course, a course of separation or divorce, you can click here to work with a firm that is sensitive to family issues and considerate through the entire process of formally ending a marriage.

However, if you can work to develop these essential elements of a happy marriage and strengthen your bond by these nurturing behaviors, you may enjoy the contentment that comes from a healthy and happy marriage.

Lupita Nyong’o (born 1983) is a Kenyan actress and film director. She made her American film debut in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013), as Patsey for which she received critical acclaim. For her role Lupita Nyong’o went on to be nominated for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Nyong’o was born in Mexico City, where her family were political refugees. It is traditional to name a child after the events of the day, so her parents decided to give her a Mexican first name. She is the second of six children.

Lupita Nyong’o’s parents are Dorothy and Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, a politician. Peter was the former Kenyan Minister for Medical Services. At the time of Lupita’s birth, he was a visiting lecturer in political science. He was elected in 2013 to represent Kisumu County in the Kenyan Senate. Her cousin Isis Nyong’o was named one of Africa’s most powerful women by Forbes magazine in 2012.

Lupita Nyong’o moved back to Kenya when she was less than one year old, when her father was hired as a professor at the University of Nairobi.  At age sixteen, her parents sent her back to Mexico for a few months to learn Spanish.

Lupita currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her brother.

Nyong’o attended university in the United States. After graduating from Hampshire College with a degree in film and theatre studies, she worked on the production crew of many films, including Fernando Meirelles’s  The Constant Gardener, with Ralph Fiennes, and Mira Nair’s The Namesake. She starred in the 2008 short film East River, directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn, New York. She returned to Kenya in 2008 and starred in the Kenyan television series Shuga. In 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, about the treatment of Kenya’s albino population,  which played at several film festivals.

She subsequently enrolled in the acting program at the Yale School of Drama.  At Yale she appeared in many stage productions, including Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale.  After graduation, she played a role in the Nigerian television show Shuga.

Lupita Nyong’o was cast in 12 Years a Slave immediately after her graduation from Yale in 2012.  The film was released in 2013 to great critical acclaim. Lupita received rave reviews for her performance and has been nominated for several awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and two Screen Actors Guild Awards including Best Supporting Actress.  She will next be featured in Liam Neeson’s upcoming film Non-Stop.

In 2014 she was chosen as one of the faces for Miu Miu’s Spring 2014 campaign, alongside Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning and Bella Heathcote.

The Nigerian Army (NA) have warned celebrities that they will suffer severe repercussions if they do not stop “using and abusing” military camouflage clothing.

Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET) reports that the NA issued a statement which specifically addresses celebrities who wear the clothing during music videos, photoshoots and concerts.

According to the statement, the NA are particularly displeased with local rapper Jesse Jagz who has smoked marijuana while wearing the military clothing on several occasions.

The NA have vowed to punish any celebrity or civilian who dares to wear camouflage clothing.

Camouflage has been an attraction for musician and supper stars around the world. It has been used to make several fashion statements and used to enhance creativity or expressions. While camouflage prints has made a huge come back this season around the globe. The Nigerian Military is game with the buzz.

We for once  thought it has gone but believe me fashion always repeat itself.

Camouflage has been around for years, but now the military inspired print is taking on a new life. The print that was once a staple in guy’s closet is gaining some major momentum in women’s fashion. Camouflage can be edgy and girlie, it just depends on how you rock it. From the likes of Rihanna, Beyonce, Pharrell, JZ , 2pac … have all crested the fashion, but if you find you self within the borders of NIGERIA, think twice before you touch a camouflage.

 

 

The new collection by accessories design label Sharon Oke is everything a Bride would look so pretty wearing on her happy day and everyone in-between would want to rock. Created by Sharon Oke, the eponymous label presents its “Smoke Collection”.

Taking a cue from the glamorous attire that African women wear, the label has infused bold colours, elaborate patterns and architecture of the African culture with a modern twist.

If you are going to do something great, you will have to do it wholeheartedly.  While on your toes at a full momentum waiting for what’s next, enjoy this six strand chipped quartz and pearl and rhinestone brooch.

It’s no lie that all beautiful things are best viewed in the eye that beholds it. We won’t blame you for falling for these five strands of Montana blue crystals and encircled around a striking vintage looking brooch to create this enchanted look

Smoke by Shar is a collection for the fashion forward woman of style.  The selection ranges from high quality contemporary and urban pieces inspired by today’s trends.  Staying true to our one of a kind exclusivity, we search for unique curated items with a combination of handmade designs by Shar to add a special touch.

Shar Oke, a line inspired by Sharon’s modern take on rich culture and today’s jewelry, tailored to suit each individual.  Her vision is to create statement pieces that appeal a variety of women.

With an instinctive eye for color and her attention to detail, Shar kicks you out of the box and separates you from the norm.   Her pieces are versatile and allow you to transition well and work with anything in your wardrobe. The line showcases jewelry with hundreds of crystals, swarovski, semi precious pearls and high quality gemstones.

Everything is handmade by Sharon unless otherwise stated so be confident and rest assured that no one else will be wearing the exact same piece as you!