Benin History & Research Centre in Diaspora

Modern people seem to remain youthful and live longer than people in pre-modern societies. Many people seem to adopt the ideals of life extension and youthfulness and thus conform to society’s expectations. As a result, anti-aging products have become imperative in order to combat the physical signs of aging on the body.  Youthfulness is defined in terms of body maintenance and related products and activities form a vital feature of consumer societies. But consumer society is linked to science and medicine.  This has created new markets because human bodies can be reconstructed through plastic surgery and science can interfere with genetic structures and move internal organs from one body to another. Indeed, the more we know about bodies, the more we are able to control, intervene, and restructure them . However, not everybody will be able to afford life extension. I argues that public policy, the cultural and social contexts of aging, and the unequal power relationships betwe...

(This article was featured by Bronzepage Magazine in the US in 2016).  Written by Nekpen Obasogie  False Stereotypes of Africans: My Lived Experience in Canada When many African immigrants are migrating out of their various countries they have little knowledge of what they will encounter or how they will be perceived outside their homelands. Most often, they are confronted with different types of unexpected stereotypes and misconceptions about Africans in their host countries. Being an African can expose black people to labels that exclude and marginalize African immigrants once they step on the shores of new lands. As an immigrant woman from Nigeria, I have been a victim of stereotypes in Canada. It’s clear that some people are still carrying with them some outdated information about Africa and its people. In 2009, for instance, when I was still a very new immigrant in Canada, there was a man who usually drove my friend and me around the city of Montr...

African Women's Cultural Fashion and Styles.   Modern West African women, both in the diaspora and Africa continue to affirm their cultural fashion styles. Being a West African, Nigerian woman is not about wearing the African style of clothing or the braiding of the hair. Having had an opportunity to observe the lived experiences of many African women, I recognized the strong sense of cultural traditions, beauty, talents and resilience among these women. Despite the hash conditions in many West African countries and the exclusion African women are facing in different parts of the world they continue to strive for economic and social wellbeing. Modern Nigerian women, for instance, have become the pace of fashion, beauty and style . These women are utilizing their unique talents to reinvent new cultural fashion to serve and transcend the beauty of African women. Factually, new generation of women are more beautiful than the previous ones.          The ad...

Life Satification: The Reasons Why Many Women Embraced Fashion.         Fashion and healthy lifestyles serve as source of happiness for many modern women. We are living in an ageless society, as the norms of our modern world tells us to keep our body young forever. Some women  found their happiness through fashion and healthy lifestyles. People have difference ways of promoting their own happiness. For example, majority of my African female friends who adopted fashion claim that fashion is giving them some sense of happiness! Women's happiness is very imperative, because life satisfaction promotes longevity. Statistically, life expectancy is very high among people who considered themselves to be happy! Therefore, those women who embraced  fashion are doing it for their self-satisfaction. Women are working hard for their material resources these days. They deserve the best for themselves.  By Nekpen Obasogie

Healthy Lifestyle               I decided to take a drastic action this month over my constant weight grain. Although, this is not my first time of taking such step. In 2006,  for instance, my partner encouraged me to start exercising with healthy dieting; I acted upon his advice by taking a trip to a sport store to purchase these sport wears that are still with me today. My exercising commitment started in May 2006 and within ten to twelve months I lost 36 pounds -all by myself- through exercising and eating right.  It was indeed a huge success! However, I began to gain the weight back in 2008 immediately I got pregnant with my first child. My doctor told me during the pregnancy period that the degree of my weight gain was too high for a normal condition. Since, then, it has been a struggle for me  to loose my post-baby weight. Whenever I try to regulate my weight I'm often faced with the challenges of maintaining frequent exercising...