Nigerian artist, Nnamdi Okonkwo and I in front of his award winning sculpture at the Chicago Botanic Gardens art show.
It was a Sunday morning. The alarming chime of the telephone rudely woke me up. It was my step-dad telling me to get out of bed and come to the Botanic Gardens near my house. “I am with a Nigerian guy and he has seen your videos! He wants to meet you,” he told me excitedly. Of course I scurried out of the house, hopped on my bike to see the anonymous Nigerian who had befriended my parents. I made my way through the crowds of suburbanites enjoying a beautiful Sunday until I spotted them. With his staggering height and black skin he stood out pretty well in the homogenous crowd. He introduced himself as Nnamdi Okonkwo (like the famous character in Things Fall Apart) and told me he was so excited to meet me after reading an article about us in The Punch and reading my blog. He is Igbo and came to the U.S. in 1989. The Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe is the last place I would think to run into a Nigerian artist. This encounter just proves that there are no limits to the places a Nigerian might go. Such a genuine and talented artist, my parents loved his sculptures of plump women so much they bought one.
Nnamdi Okonkwo's booth at the art show.
Okonkwo's fat women statues. They look so peaceful.
Okonkwo chatting with some fair-goers interested in his art.
This sculpture, three women on a bench, won the award for the best piece at the entire art show.
North of Lagos 
Hi, Titilayo. How is work? Fine! I assume. Pelu ife ti oni si omo ati ede yoruba, o ose kuku fe omo yoruba ki e le maaso ede naa si ara yin nigbagbogbo. Emi ni tire nitooto. Femi, FCT, Nigeria.
Nice article. As innaporiate as this may sound , I have to say it ; Cara looks quite hot !
Well, thank you
Wow! What a small world, Cara! Great post as always! How are you? What does your summer hold?
These works almost make +size appear ‘in’
Casy, I agree with you 100% about Charles’ comment on Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo’s name. I think the two words we are looking for is ‘Maturity and Respect’. In charles’ case… lack of these, lol
Cara, thank you so much for yet another brilliant post. It is always nice to see or hear about Nigerians all over the world in a positive way. Respect to Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo for showing to the world how talented many people are in Nigeria. Unfortunately there are a too many of us that makes Nigeria known in negative way. In the Uk for example, we are probably well known for our “expertice” in all sorts of financial fraud than in anything else. That ends up forming a “hard to-get-rid-of” stereotypes in the minds of the host country’s citizens. Cara your open-mindedness about life and people in general is so amazing for such a young lady. I hope you continue to meet good Nigerians. There are many out there. Be careful cos there are a few bad eggs out there that gives us all a bad name. I hope you can smell them miles away. I can. lol
Nice, a funny saying goes like this: if you get to a country and you dont see a Nigerian, a Chinese or an Indian, then run away from that country. I guess this is partly true. We do indeed seem to be everywhere 😀
Nnamdi Okonkwo?! Name seems like serious bad juju…hope he doesn’t end up like his name sake!
I have encountered Nigerian bouncers in Tokyo and I read there r a number even in Cambodia
What do you mean by that on this man’s name? How can you say such thing about someone you don’t know?
That’s not nice and i believe you don’t even know the meaning his name.
Really nice!
Thanks for sharing… When will you start learning Igbo and Hausa? lol
Yes, Nigerians can go any where