Chimamanda Adichie, author of two well-received novels set in Nigeria, has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, or a “Genius grant.” Congratulations to her. I’ve only read her second, Half of Yellow Sun, and it’s great. Helped me understand the Biafra War in a way histories couldn’t.

Coincidentally, I used to do work for another grant recipient, the farmer Will Allen of Growing Power, when I worked with minority farmers for the Rural Coalition in Washington, D.C. I met him at a conference and remember him being a fantastically interesting man. And very tall (he used to be a pro ball player). Congrats to him as well. He definitely deserves it.

And even more randomly, a former roommate of mine from college worked in Growing Power’s Chicago office. I haven’t spoken to this roommate in five or six years, but I had one of my most memorable nights out in Chicago at a classic blues dive bar with her and her harmonica-playing boyfriend.

Am I alone in not feeling at all bad for this guy? Props to the Nigerian who scammed him. From the NYPost:

A stone-hearted - and rock-headed - securities broker stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly clients, money he then sent to Nigeria in hopes of collecting an $8.7 million inheritance from a “long-lost relative” who e-mailed him, prosecutors said yesterday.

If the charges against Axel, 69, are true, he doesn’t make for a very sympathetic victim of the ubiquitous and notorious Nigerian e-mail scammers.

Prosecutors said that among those he ripped off were a high school teacher and a 90-year-old woman living in a nursing home. They also believe he stole from an account shared by a mentally incompetent 83-year-old man and his daughter, who was dying of ovarian cancer.

A quick story I wrote about the escalation in fighting down in the Delta, for the NYTimes.

LAGOS, Nigeria — Fighting between militant groups and the Nigerian military in the oil-rich Niger Delta on Wednesday entered a fifth day in the region’s worst violence in two years, raising fears of an escalation in the unrest that has plagued the area.

Here’s a feature I wrote about Port Harcourt for the Washington Post.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria — Uche was the triggerman for his gang of thieves. When gang members stole oil from pipelines or cellphones from passersby, he made sure no one got in their way.

Early this year, Uche, who gave only his first name, decided to look for legitimate work. After a few difficult months scraping by, he returned to stealing oil, this time with neighborhood friends. At night, they would travel up one of the hundreds of creeks outside the city to the pipelines, siphon off crude oil, and move it by boat to larger vessels and refineries outside Nigeria.

Probably the final NYTimes brief on this particular episode. His Nigerian translator, Samuel George, is still not in the clear yet. Hopefully his situation will get resolved soon as well.

Andrew Berends, an American filmmaker who was arrested last week and accused of spying, was deported by Nigeria on Tuesday, he said. Mr. Berends had been working on a documentary about militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta when he was detained. Nigerian officials could not be reached for comment. “It’s a travesty, because I love Nigeria,” Mr. Berends said Tuesday night before boarding a flight to Germany.

Here’s my NYTimes Brief.

Andrew Berends, an American filmmaker who was arrested Sunday and charged with spying, has been moved to the capital, Abuja, and released for the weekend. He is still under arrest, however, and must report back to the State Security Services on Monday. American Embassy officials in Nigeria and State Department officials in Washington are working for his full release. Mr. Berends’s Nigerian interpreter, Samuel George, has also been released. Amnesty International had issued a statement warning that Mr. George might have been tortured and urged that both men be released immediately.

Yep, the soap opera I have a small role in, TINSEL, debuted last night on MNET, Africa’s biggest TV channel. I was hardly visible in the background, though apparently my eyebrows were spotted easily.

Here’s a feature I did for Time Magazine about land use in Lagos.

The tomatoes, peppers and yams used to fly off the shelves of Grace Emah’s small food stand. Then one night this spring, dump trucks came and filled a large stretch of land nearby with sand, blocking the drainage canals that carried rainwater and waste past her shop and into the Atlantic. When the rains came this summer, there was no place else for the water to go, and the stretch of road in front of her shop flooded.