The Terror Attack In Örebro, Sweden

February 9, 2025February 9, 2025 / Adeola / Leave a comment

The Terror Attack In Örebro

Örebro Castle

adeola.blog

By Adeola Aderounmu

On Tuesday 4^th of February 2025, a Swedish terrorist named Richard Andersson killed 10 people in the city of Örebro in Sweden. The terrorist attack was the worst in the history of Sweden.

The act of terror was carried out at Risberga school in Örebro. The school is where (foreign) students or relatively new settlers in Sweden would go in order to learn Swedish language in their process of integrating into the Swedish society. In Sweden you need a good knowledge the language to make a head way in many aspects of the Swedish life.

A lot of concerned citizens have expressed anger, frustrations, and disappointment in how the Swedish government, the Swedish police and the Swedish media have reported the terrorist attack.

For instance, the terror attack, as at the time of writing the blog, has not been called a terror attack. The police, the government and the media have reported it as a mass shooting. They have refused to call Richard a terrorist. Rather they have painted another picture of him (you will not read that on my blog, sorry). I don’t glorify terrorist.

In reporting the number of victims, the Swedish government, the police, and the Swedish media have reported that 11 people died in the terror attack, a number that included the terrorist. The correct report should have read that 10 people have been killed by a terrorist who also died in the line of his terrorist action. The Swedish police and Swedish media and the Swedish government have shown great disrespect to the victims (and the families of the victims) of the terror attack in Örebro. I have been blogging for about 2 decades, the handling of the terror attack in Örebro is the worst form of miscommunication and dishonesty I have encountered by any government, media, or police reporting terror attacks.

The police and the government of Sweden have failed the general population. They have failed the entire world. By not declaring the event of 4 of February an act of terrorism, the government failed to live up to its responsibility to protect lives and property.

The police, the government and the media heaped a lot of dishonour on the dead when they said that the motive was not known (even till today the 9th of February 2025) and that the killing may not have an ideological linkage.

It is common sense that a terror attack that is carried out at a school has an ideology linked to education. But I have read many times that common sense is actually not common. The motive was as clear as daylight. The terrorist targeted a school that immigrants would attend to learn or improve their Swedish language skills. His motive was to decimate the immigrant population in Örebro. He killed 10 people.

The terrorist act is a tragedy on one part. The actions, speeches and the reactions of the Swedish government, the Swedish police and the Swedish media constitute a greater collective tragedy. I don’t think there is any immigrant in Sweden today who trust the Swedish government, the Swedish Police and the Swedish media after the Örebro terror attack.

An opportunity, albeit an unfortunate one, to galvanize the country has been misused. It has been wasted. It has been used to divide the country more than ever. What a wasted opportunity! Lives were unnecessarily wasted by a terrorist and the government and the police made a mess of the sad situation. The media was caged in!

The people who have lost their loved ones, sisters, brothers, sons, wives, girlfriends, husbands, daughters, uncles, aunts and friends would have expected a more compassionate act of truth and actual presentations of events rather than all the cover-ups that the government and the Swedish media are displaying.

My sincere condolences to all the people who are affected by this act of terror. I have you in my thoughts now. I will have you in my thoughts every time I stop at Örebro, every time I visit Örebro and every time I drive by. You will be in my thoughts every time Örebro appears in my mind and in my conversations.

May the soul of the ten people killed by the terrorist rest in peace.

The Re-education Of The African

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 / Adeola / 1 Comment

The Re-education Of The African

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have no doubts that we need to educate and re-educate Africans. My blog is not a source of historical facts, but I can reflect on what has been and I have a right to write based on my observations and inspirations.

There is no doubt that we have challenges in Africa. We do.

Sometimes I wish I could go out and preach, not as a lazy religious leader ripping the people of their hard earned monies, but as a preacherman asking the people to look deep into their souls and search within for the meaning of their lives and the significance of their existence in relation to their immediate habitat and in a global context.

In matters of African policy and politics, the intellectuals have been relegated and rendered insignificant. They have been pushed to the background, relegated and made voiceless.

Why do we need to educate and re-educate Africans?

We have lost touch with our culture.

We don’t speak our languages.

We don’t write in our languages. I am Yoruba and have not written Yoruba in several decades. I don’t know how to put marks on Yoruba letters. I am guilty. I need education

We need to teach us our culture and languages.

We need to teach us the goodness of our spiritualities and educate ourselves how to remove the evil part of our spiritualities.

We need to go back to our civilization. It was modern and progressive.

We need to find out why we lost the mind games that brought slavery and colonization to our lands. We shall not make the same mistakes now or in the future.

We need to wear our natural hairs and natural looks.

We need to write our own books and read them along with others. But ours must be the priority.

We need to educate ourselves and our children on the need to work together and build together.

We need the education and the re-education that will bring us glory.

We are AFRICANS.

Our stories and our existence go far beyond the origin of the Bible and Koran.

We owe it to ourselves to find out what went wrong.

I heard a brother asked: how did we fall to the foreign forces if our gods and ancestors were so powerful? It is a stupid question. It is like asking how the lizard got into your room despite the walls and windows. If you know how the lizard got into your room, you know the answer to your foolishness or carelessness.

We must with haste, re-educate everyone.

My generation may not achieve so much, but these things we write will help us and those coming after us to know that AFRICAN is the NUCLEUS of the world.

We need education and re-education.

This short essay does not say it all. I just wanted to wake you up. You’ve been sleeping since you were born.

Wake up and start your own re-education.

Start now!

aderounmu@gmail.com

The African Woman On Social Media: Where Is Your Dignity?

December 2, 2018December 2, 2018 / Adeola / 1 Comment

In a recent article, l wrote about how the Nigerian women in Nollywood have misrepresented the African woman. This article is a follow up to it.

The African Woman On Social Media, Where Is Your Dignity?

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

In a recent article, l wrote about how the Nigerian women in Nollywood have misrepresented the African woman. (https://adeola.blog/2018/02/24/nollywood-is-failing-africa-in-the-appearances-of-african-women/.This) article is a follow up to it.

It is now generally accepted that for the African woman to be accepted as pretty or beautiful, she needs to be wearing a foreign hair popularly called wigs. The wigs come in various colours, sizes, forms and dimensions. As I previously pointed out, the industry provides jobs for several women and is a multibillion-dollar industry in Africa and globally.

The target is simple. It is the African woman who has lost her pride and sense of dignity. The present generation of African women dominating the social media, film industry and other social platforms have lost it completely. They are rich, they are famous and they are celebrities. But they lack one thing: self-dignity.

Again, l will go back memory lane. I am 46 years old and I remember growing up in Lagos, South-West Nigeria. My mother never liked the idea of my sisters putting chemicals on their hair and she frowned at it. Her take was that my sisters must always braid their hair the African way. It was the same for many families. Our parents did all they could to persuade our sisters and even some of us guys from using chemicals on our hair. The barber shop it was for us.

But just a couple of years down the lane. The dignity of the African woman has been completely eroded. She takes no pride in the colour of her skin. She takes no pride in the texture of her hair. She takes no pride in her curly, tangled hair. The African woman wants straight hair. It is so bad that so many African girls and ladies would not appear in public without the foreign hair.

Omotola Talade-Ekeinde (@realomosexy)

It is going to be one of those huge tasks that we have ahead of us in Africa to reverse and revert the trend. But it is a cause some of us must continue to remind ourselves of. The celebrities and stars on Nigerian and African screens have failed Nigeria and Africa. They are big stars and they are the biggest hope of a trend reverse.

Funke Akindele Bello (@funkejenifaakindele)

A few of our stars are featured here. There are several more. But we just need all of them to take up the cause and help us reverse the trend. They may also need help themselves because they will not be able to do something about it if they don’t realise that they too have lost their sense of dignity and African-ness. But with several million followers on Instagram and twitter, the best way to bring back the pride of the African woman is through these social celebrities and actresses.

Some may argue that they use the wigs for acting and work, but that argument does not hold water. What is wrong with acting and working with the African hair? Why must we act, work, live and go around with foreign hair? Why are we not proud of who we are and what nature endowed us with?

Toyin Abraham (@toyin_abraham)

We need Africans to promote Africa. We need ourselves to sustain and maintain our values, culture and way of life. We have lost our languages. We have lost our mode of dressings. We cannot afford to lose our heads and our brains with the hairs. Something urgent need to be done.

In our schools, from the primary to the university, awareness need to be created about the pride of the African woman. One day l wrote to @iamlizzyjay about her natural hair and l implored her to keep it African. But l see how hard it is to remain pure and natural in the industry because she wore wigs a few times and went back to natural a few times.

Linda Ikeji (@officiallindaikeji)

@calabarchic does not even know where to stay. She is also back and forth. She’s trying to keep her natural hair but the industry and the “norm” for what a woman in Nigeria should look like is creating a lot of confusion. It is like if you are not wearing wig or a foreign hair, you are local. That is how terrible the image and dignity of the African woman had been battered.

@iamlizzyjay

You have to feel sorry for the African woman especially from the entertainment industry point of view. They need help. We need help because their takes have destroyed our values and expectations of the women that nature gave us. We need a return to the basics.

@calabar_chic

We need role models of African origins to keep African culture and tradition.

I look forward to the day that African women will look 100% African again.

Nollywood Is Failing Africa In The Appearances of African Women

February 24, 2018February 24, 2018 / Adeola / 1 Comment

African women should be proud to wear their natural hairs. They are beautiful just the way they are.

Nollywood Is Failing Africa

By Adeola Aderounmu

A few weeks ago l watched some films on a Nollywood TV channel. My attention was drawn to the appearances of the women in the various films.

The appearances of Nigerian women in Nollywood films are nothing to write home about. It may have been so before l left home in 2002 but definitely not as rampant as it is now. Regardless, the rise of the use of artificial hairs, now rampant in both real life and in the Nigerian movie industry is highly condemnable.

The almost complete disappearance of the African hairstyles in Nollywood films is extremely disturbing. In the movies l’d seen 100% of the women are wearing imported wigs/hairs. No one wore their natural hair.

It seems that our women are not proud of their natural beauties. This scenario is shameful and tasteless. It is actually also disgusting!

The continent of Africa had been suffering from colonial mentality for more than 500 years. When are we going to revert to our originalities? If not now, then when?

We have been lied to that we are inferior. We have been lied to that we have lower intelligence levels. We have been told that our skin is black and bad. We have been looked down upon and we continue to fight around the world that we are equal to or above other races.

We can leave our political calamities for once as the basis of comparison with other places around the world, though that is also a very difficult thing to do. For our political lives in Africa and how politics have been used to separate and destroy us cannot be overlooked. We are first judged by the outcomes of our political decisions and the implications on our socio-economic situations.

However, it becomes also very disturbing and worrying that we don’t seize the opportunities on other platforms we have to show ourselves in good light. By ourselves, we reduce or destroy our dignities. The appearances of the Nigerian women on Nollywood, are an admittance that African women have lesser dignity than other women around the world. The only way to turn this sad situation around is to reverse the trend, let African women look 100% African.

Nollywwod has the opportunity to showcase the beauty of the African woman but all she is showing is copied version of Hollywood women and copied version of some international celebrities that do not depict the true glory and beauty of Africa.

It is not a good development for Nigeria and definitely not for Africa when we replace our cultures, our traditions, our appearances and our dignities with foreign objects. We’ve lost it.

Nollywood in particular need to do a search within and start a campaign to promote Africa to the tune of 100%. Someone is going to ask what the roles of the government is in Nollywood that would make them do this. O well, Africa belong to all of us and we need to look inward and promote our traditional hairstylists and save billions of dollars that we waste annually on importation of disgusting wigs and dead people’s hairs.

There is a lot Nollywood can do for itself if it starts to act as a promoter of culture and custodian of tradition rather than a neocolonial stooge in the heart of Africa. We should promote our hairstyles and help African women and hairstylists travel round the world to showcase our hairstyles.

The onus is not on the women only. It is on all of us and our perception of beauty. Our men should be involved in promoting the glory of Africa too. They also must appear and dress African in our movies.

Viewers and watchers of the African movie industry have a role to play in appreciating our men and women as they do their best to maintain the African culture and tradition. We cannot condemn them by comparing them to foreign Hollywood stars. We are Africans.

It is Africa that should be exporting her tradition and culture because they are pure and golden. In these tradition and culture lie some hidden wealth of Africa that should be tapped just the same way we are imploring government to tap into both the natural and human resources in order to build a better continent to the envy of the world.

A word is enough for the wise. Let us join hands in various ways to promote these ideas and ideals. Africans in the diaspora also have their own roles to play. Keep your hair natural, keep your looks simple. Don’t change who you are because you are abroad. Be recognisable!

Share this view, spread the concept. Let’s win back our continent and our originalities. Every little way counts!

Follow me on twitter @aderinola

aderounmu@gmail.com

Yoruba Union in Stockholm Celebrates 3rd Annual Yoruba Day

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 / Adeola / Leave a comment

The Yoruba Union in Stockholm, Sweden successfully hosted its third annual Yoruba Day celebration. The event took place on Saturday the 23rd of May 2015.

Directors of Ceremony, Abiola Amos and Lydia Akinwale

The Yoruba Day in Stockholm is a day set aside to celebrate Yoruba culture and heritage in Stockholm the capital of Sweden.

The president of the Union Adeola Aderounmu in his welcome address trace the history of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm to 2010 when a group of young people came together to form the association.

Adeola Aderounmu, Welcome Address

The Yoruba Union was registered in Sweden in the same year-2010.

Yoruba Union in Stockholm is a non-political and a non-profit making organisation. This uniqueness distinguishes the Union from other associations that have been formed for the purpose of making profits or for self-aggrandisement.

Mr. Aderounmu stated that the Yoruba Union provides a social platform for the Yoruba community in Stockholm and even in Sweden as a whole.

Some of the executive members of Yoruba Union, Stockholm

The union provides a genuine base where members feel a sense of belonging and togetherness that have continue to contribute to the growth and development of the union.

Under the platform of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm the Yoruba culture and tradition is being spread and made known in Sweden.

The Yoruba Union-Stockholm is now very popular in Sweden.

Yoruba Union members and special guests at Yoruba Day 2015

In April 2015 Adeola Aderounmu represented the Union in a national televised live program. The Swedish celebrity TV-presenter Doreen Månsson, who spent some part of her early life in Ibadan-Nigeria requested the presence of the Adeola during a program that was dedicated to Nigeria.

In recent years the Yoruba Union in Stockholm has also worked together with the Modern Museum in Stockholm during the display of ancient art work from Ile-Ife at the museum which spans a period of about 6 months between 2013 and 2014.

The Union continues to receive request to represent and show the Yoruba culture in various ways and forms. The Yoruba Union has given lectures /talks bordering on the Yoruba Ifa religion and ancient art work from Ile-Ife.

Yoruba Union at the 2015 Africa Day in Sweden

Yoruba Union at the 2015 Africa Day in Sweden

Five days after the celebration of the Yoruba Day in Stockholm, the Union represented West Africa at this years Africa Day celebration in Sweden. Yoruba dance and songs were presented to the rest of Africa.

Yoruba Union is growing from strength to strength.

Over the past 5 years the Yoruba Union in Stockholm has put YORUBA culture permanently on the cultural map of Sweden.

This year the city of Stockholm Council through the department of culture gave some financial support to the Yoruba Union. This sort of partnership will ensure more progress for the union in the forth coming years.

The Yoruba Union has a close working relationship with the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm. The Union is also a prominent partner with the educational institution-SENSUS, based in Stockholm and Gotland.

A friend of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Mr. Kadiri and Dr. Adeniran

Mr. Aderounmu emphasized the positive roles played by the executive and the entire members of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm towards the sustenance of the ideals of the union and the continuous progress that the union continues to make.

He acknowledge their positive energies, innovations, determination and collection of life experiences that have been brought into play to mastermind the success of the annual Yoruba Day and other activities of the union round the year.

In her address the Head of Mission, Nigerian Embassy Sweden Mrs. Jane Ndem said that the Nigeria embassy in this era of citizen diplomacy strongly supported all Diaspora organisations and ethnic unions as their roles both abroad and back home cannot be overstated.

The Head of Mission at the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden Representing Nigerians in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, Mrs. Jane Ndem

She urged Nigerians to remain law abiding citizens and should feel free to contact the embassy whenever the need arises. Mrs. Ndem commended the efforts and enthusiasm of the Yoruba Union in ensuring that the Yoruba culture is projected effectively to African and the rest of the world through the formation of the cultural group.

The highlight of the 2015 Yoruba Day was the special lecture given by Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran the Executive Director, Center for Black Cultural and International Understanding, Osogbo-Nigeria

The title of the lecture was: Will The Yoruba Language Survive Beyond The 21st Century?

Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran, Executive Director Center for Black Cultural and International Understanding, Nigeria

Dr. Adeniran emphasized the importance of speaking Nigerian indigenous languages to children at home especially before the age of 11 when the ability to learn languages begins to deteriorate as the brain begins to change physiologically.

He also lamented the lack of implementation of policy on the preservation of Nigerian indigenous languages. He emphasised the importance of making use of Nigerian indigenous languages as the language of instructions in early age schools and up to the tertiary levels.

Dr. Olu Adeniran deplored the elevation of the colonial language (the English language) above the other Nigerian languages. Making students textbooks available in our indigenous languages will also be a way to revive and preserve Nigerian languages so that they do not go into extinction.

While encouraging Nigerians in Diaspora to ensure that they make it a point of duty to ensure that they preserve their languages by speaking them to their children, he pointed out how Nigerian literary giants first mastered their indigenous languages before they became global names in the literary world. He gave the example of professor Wole Soyinka who won the nobel prize in Literature in 1986.

The full text of Dr. Adeniran-more than 20 pages-will be made available on the Yoruba Union website (www.yorubaunion.se)

During the celebration of the 2015 Yoruba Day, there were songs and dances in accordance to the Yoruba tradition and culture. There was fashion parade during which some of the popular Yoruba traditional attires and modern designs were on display.

Fashion parade of Yoruba attires.

There was also a session demonstrating how Yoruba women make and wear their headgears popularly called gele.

Kike Johansson with the gele demonstration

Guests, friends and members of the union danced to popular Yoruba music. They were also treated to exclusively Yoruba dishes.

Dr. Adeniran and Dele Momodu (in absentia) both received the Yoruba Union Lifetime Membership Award. They were also recognised for their contributions to the development of the Yoruba culture and Nigeria in general.

Yoruba Union Stockholm Lifetime membership award and recognition for Dr. Adeniran’s contribution to the sustenance of the Yoruba culture and heritage

The event was drawn to a close by a vote of thanks given by Debo Faseyi and Ibrahim Onifade.

They thanked all the special guests and sponsors of this year’s event. They even extended the greetings sent by Dele Momodu who had made plans to be at the event but had to return to Nigeria from London 2 days before the Yoruba Day.

Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Among other dignitaries at this year’s event were:

Mrs Chika Nwachukwu, Counsellor and Head of Consular, Nigerian Embassy, Stockholm

Mr. Ali-Gombe Haruna, Head of Chancery, Nigerian Embassy Stockholm

Hajia Rafat Usman, Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja

The president of the Yoruba Union in Gothenburg Mr. Majekodunmi

Others are:

Mrs. Victoria Majekodunmi, Engineer Olatunde Aluko, Princess Adetoun Lasebikan, Mr. Salimonu Kadiri, Ify Onuoha, Gloria Viegurs and Mr. Tayo Adeyemi-the editor of African News, Sweden.

To follow the Yoruba Union Stockholm events, visit our group on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/yorubaunion

Our website:

www.yorubaunion.se

Our Channel on YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/user/YORUBAUNION

Mail us:

info@yorubaunion.se