CHAT ME UP
ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA - Aug 12 2009 06:00
As infectious as yellow fever, internet chatrooms are the new Nigerian craze. Students, pastors, politicians, journalists and business people log on 24 hours a day offering cyber-romance or business deals.
Nigerians have wised up to the scamming spammers such as 419 practitioners, the Yahoo Yahoo Boys and the Night People.
Now they're crowding into chatrooms such as Hi Nigeria, nimsanigeria, Online Nigeria.com, UK Chatterbox, Lagosmeet.com and Nigeria Chat Room to look for kindred spirits and do business with them.
For some African women, chat-rooms unshackle them from the requirements of traditional modesty. Shina 247 signed up to Nigeria Chat in April, writing: "I'm a nice lady. Looking for hot sex and fun. My email address is ..."
Sugar-mummy lovers -- young men who can't keep their fingers off the bodies and money of older women -- join in the chatroom mania. One wrote in Online Nigeria.com recently: "I'm a 21-year-old young guy who is looking for a sugar mummy to cater for his needs. My number is ... I am in Ejigbo, Lagos, and I promise to be good to that woman."
Many use chatrooms to express their love for their girlfriends or boyfriends. Analechukwu Nwachukwu, a student, wrote on Online Nigeria.com: "Baby, ur baby boy is missing u so much. Just have it in your mind that I can't do without u."
But it's not all about love or cybersex for Nigerians. Online entrepreneurs use the chatrooms for schemes that aren't quite scams but are close. Tidestring 80 had this proposition in Lagosmeet.com: "I have discovered a new secret that can help anyone browse the internet for free. You can use your MTN card. And as a loyal member of this forum I'll be willing to teach you for free." When you contact him -- as I did -- you'll learn that Tidestring 80 won't tell his secret for free. He wants money.
Chatrooms aren't free of embarrassment, though. A journalist who logged into a chatroom in March was confronted by a fellow Nigerian who wrote: "I'm in Port Harcourt. A u a g?" When the journalist learned that "a u a g?" meant "are you a gay?" he promptly logged off. He didn't know how to cope with a situation he was experiencing for the first time -- meeting someone who admitted being gay.
Adetokunbo Abiola writes for The Hope Newspaper in Akure, Nigeria
Source: Mail & Guardian OnlineWeb Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-12-chat-me-up
First published I2 August on Mail and Guardian, Africa's first online newspaper
Thursday 13 August 2009
Wednesday 4 February 2009
New Currency of Romance
(First published in South Africa's Mail and Guardian)
My friend Thomas Alo had two problems. Though he had been friends with Juliet, a colleague, for years, he hadn't had the guts to tell her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. His second problem was that he had refused to buy a cellphone. One day, I sat him down and told him that if he had a phone his problems with Juliet would be over. He asked me how. I told him that he could send her a text message, telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her. He said love affairs were not conducted through text messages.
Later I put pressure on him for a while; he eventually decided to act on my advice and went to buy a cellphone. Rather than face Juliet, who worked in the same office as him, he sent her an SMS declaring his feelings and requesting a date.
Thomas had thought she wouldn't reply, but she did. After three days of exchanging text messages, she agreed to a date. Three months later, Thomas proposed, not directly, but through an SMS. Last December, at the grand old age of 38, Thomas took Juliet to the altar and they were married.
Here in Nigeria, text messages have come to define the nature of romance. Young men and women search for soulmates and marriage partners through radio programmes such as The Matchmakers every Saturday. The host reads on air the SMSes sent in by listeners: "Murphy (30) civil servant, wants a young, well-behaved girl for marriage. She must be between 22 and 24, God-fearing, Benin by tribe, beautiful, dutiful, ready to settle down, 5 to 6ft tall, slim, educated, have a well-paying job and must be a good Christian."
Newspapers are another popular vehicle for lonely-hearts text messages. You can also SMS your love problems to a newspaper's relationships' counsellor for advice.
Young women carried away by the performances of Nollywood actors send their favourite stars hot text messages. Many a Nollywood actor has complained that their marriages are put under pressure as a result of their wives reading the messages sent by female fans.
Greeting-card sellers who once did a roaring trade during festive periods are also complaining because young lovers and friends no longer buy their ready-made love notes, preferring text messages.
SMSes have another, less happy Cupid's role: they provide clues that lovers use to detect whether their partners are cheating on them. Suspicious partners simply pick up their mates' cellphones, which -- unlike old-fashioned love lettersare not hidden or locked up -- and read their text messages.
Others have seen a business opportunity: they write books and pamphlets suggesting romantic words that lovers can use in their SMSes. One such entrepreneur is Femi Emmanuel, who wrote Touching the Heart through Unforgettable Text Messages. A suggested message reads: "H for Happiness, O for Orderliness, N for Natural Woman, E for Everything and Y for Yuletide. HONEY! You're my honey forever and ever."
Still others coin sexy words for text messages, post them on websites and invite people to make free use of them.
A typical message reads: "Did u dream of me touching u last night? … I dream of u here with me with nothing on but our imagination … Can u come over here and give me a good rubdown?"
Some old-fashioned people complain that text messages are transient, too casual and can't be kept. One man told me he still had a love letter his wife sent him 30 years ago. But for millions of mobile-crazed young Nigerians, text messages are the new currency of romance.
Adetokunbo Abiola, a prize-winning journalist, works at the Hope newspaper in Akure, Nigeria
My friend Thomas Alo had two problems. Though he had been friends with Juliet, a colleague, for years, he hadn't had the guts to tell her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. His second problem was that he had refused to buy a cellphone. One day, I sat him down and told him that if he had a phone his problems with Juliet would be over. He asked me how. I told him that he could send her a text message, telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her. He said love affairs were not conducted through text messages.
Later I put pressure on him for a while; he eventually decided to act on my advice and went to buy a cellphone. Rather than face Juliet, who worked in the same office as him, he sent her an SMS declaring his feelings and requesting a date.
Thomas had thought she wouldn't reply, but she did. After three days of exchanging text messages, she agreed to a date. Three months later, Thomas proposed, not directly, but through an SMS. Last December, at the grand old age of 38, Thomas took Juliet to the altar and they were married.
Here in Nigeria, text messages have come to define the nature of romance. Young men and women search for soulmates and marriage partners through radio programmes such as The Matchmakers every Saturday. The host reads on air the SMSes sent in by listeners: "Murphy (30) civil servant, wants a young, well-behaved girl for marriage. She must be between 22 and 24, God-fearing, Benin by tribe, beautiful, dutiful, ready to settle down, 5 to 6ft tall, slim, educated, have a well-paying job and must be a good Christian."
Newspapers are another popular vehicle for lonely-hearts text messages. You can also SMS your love problems to a newspaper's relationships' counsellor for advice.
Young women carried away by the performances of Nollywood actors send their favourite stars hot text messages. Many a Nollywood actor has complained that their marriages are put under pressure as a result of their wives reading the messages sent by female fans.
Greeting-card sellers who once did a roaring trade during festive periods are also complaining because young lovers and friends no longer buy their ready-made love notes, preferring text messages.
SMSes have another, less happy Cupid's role: they provide clues that lovers use to detect whether their partners are cheating on them. Suspicious partners simply pick up their mates' cellphones, which -- unlike old-fashioned love lettersare not hidden or locked up -- and read their text messages.
Others have seen a business opportunity: they write books and pamphlets suggesting romantic words that lovers can use in their SMSes. One such entrepreneur is Femi Emmanuel, who wrote Touching the Heart through Unforgettable Text Messages. A suggested message reads: "H for Happiness, O for Orderliness, N for Natural Woman, E for Everything and Y for Yuletide. HONEY! You're my honey forever and ever."
Still others coin sexy words for text messages, post them on websites and invite people to make free use of them.
A typical message reads: "Did u dream of me touching u last night? … I dream of u here with me with nothing on but our imagination … Can u come over here and give me a good rubdown?"
Some old-fashioned people complain that text messages are transient, too casual and can't be kept. One man told me he still had a love letter his wife sent him 30 years ago. But for millions of mobile-crazed young Nigerians, text messages are the new currency of romance.
Adetokunbo Abiola, a prize-winning journalist, works at the Hope newspaper in Akure, Nigeria
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