OUR BEST WRITING OF 2023
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Our latest issue, An African Manual for Debugging Empire, confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining the futures of AI.
Purchase an annual print + digital subscription, and get unlimited access to The Republic. We ship worldwide.
Every year, The Republic publishes the most ambitious writing focused on Africa, from news and analysis to long-form features.
Support our award-winning coverage by subscribing today.
Our print + digital subscription is 50% off.
Your Duration: 0
Highest Score: 0
// Items Remaining
// keyboard arrows to play
// Eat all the items to debug the empire
Our latest issue, An African Manual for Debugging Empire, confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining the futures of AI.
Purchase an annual print + digital subscription, and get unlimited access to The Republic. We ship worldwide.
Our top analyses, debates, ideas and stories of the week.
I knew policemen as neighbours, as fathers of schoolmates, as bullies, as murderers. Even though the protest was my first, it was nothing new. They were killing and harassing young boys; we needed to speak. Everything was the same until DJ Switch went live on Instagram that night.
As domestic unrest in Kenya grows, President William Ruto’s carefully crafted global image is unravelling. Internal discontent is eroding Ruto’s international standing, which can potentially damage Kenya’s position as a regional sanctuary.
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde’s vision for Nigeria’s queer future requires new languages for care and intimacy—and lots of money.
If the media plays an important role in the extreme portrayal of the West as a haven in the mind of the African, we might also assume that the same media largely has a role to play in the making of the self-perception of Africans.
Tinubu’s economic reforms have had an unintended consequence: the collapse of Nigeria’s once-vibrant nightlife. In its wake, a surprising twist has emerged. Young Nigerians are channelling their frustrations from dance floors to the democratic arena.
Africa’s ability to shape its climate future in a multipolar world depends on deepening feminist, decolonial and intersectional approaches to foreign policy, development cooperation and justice.
With the #EndSARS movement and the eventual Lekki Massacre in October 2020, the realization that the lives of ordinary Nigerians could be snuffed out simply for demanding a better country transformed migration from an option for a better life into a perceived necessity for survival.
Editor of Who Gave The Order: The History of a People’s Movement, Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, believes that 20 October 2020 stands as an indictment of the Nigerian conscience and urges Nigerians to remember that day: ‘What happened at the Lekki Toll Gate could be described as a country waging war against its citizens.’
In our latest First Draft interview, we ask leading African writers, including Laila Lalami and Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, about their writing processes. Here's what the told us.
Halimatu Iddrisu paints Muslim women and their voices. She entrusts their faceless bodies with self-expression and the freedom to engage viewers in a dialogue about dressing choices and the hijab—veiling in Islam—that transcends language.
Member of the Feminist Coalition and organizer of the #ArewaMeToo and #NorthNormal movements, Fakhrriyyah Hashim, reflects on #EndSARS five years after ‘Feminists against SARS’ redefined national consciousness on police violence.
Nigeria celebrates its 65th independence anniversary during a period of uninterrupted 26 years of democratic governance. Despite this commendable sustenance of democracy, the country struggles to unite as ethnic tension rises.
In a country failed by peace agreements, connection didn’t disappear—it went online. South Sudan’s digital diaspora challenges the glossy myths of Silicon Valley and insists that innovation thrives not only in wealth and infrastructure, but in resilience, memory, and connection across borders.
With AI proponents promising to ‘save’ Africa, Nanjala Nyabola asks an urgent question: what happens when a continent’s future is outsourced to someone else’s imagination? We discuss the politics of technology, the myth of the ‘cloud’, and why the next digital revolution must begin with African women.
Nigeria’s worsening insecurity cannot be curtailed by border fences alone, as suggested by the chief of defence staff, but by the government investing in border communities, strengthening local infrastructure and deepening cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries.
In a period of dwindling pan-Africanism, Ibrahim Traoré has risen as one of Africa’s most favourite leaders, raising questions about whether he represents a new breed of pan-Africanism.
In 1977, historian Obaro Ikime delivered a lecture, ‘History and the Changing Cultures of Nigeria’, responding to Alhaji Shetima Ali Munguno’s disapproval of what he saw at the University of Calabar. Ikime argued that one of Nigeria’s greatest problems is our ‘inadequate knowledge of history and the ways of life of the various groups that make up Nigeria.’ As Nigeria turns 65, it is important to return to that history.
‘At 16 every Zambian gets a green National Registration Card (NRC). On my NRC, much of that information is either a lie, a slight fabrication, or, as with many things in life, a well-intentioned truth turned false.’
Earlier this year, we opened our platform to advertisers, to brands that could tell meaningful stories that share our values of progress, clarity and independent thought. Meet our founding advertisers.
The Republic’s 2024 print magazine run (Volume 8) has been named a winner at the 365: AIGA Year in Design 2024 Awards!
Amid Trump’s disruptive return, Africa isn’t just reacting—it’s recalibrating. The continent has the opportunity to turn Washington’s unpredictability into a strategic advantage.
Tinubu’s economic reforms have had an unintended consequence: the collapse of Nigeria’s once-vibrant nightlife. In its wake, a surprising twist has emerged. Young Nigerians are channelling their frustrations from dance...
Member of the Feminist Coalition and organizer of the #ArewaMeToo and #NorthNormal movements, Fakhrriyyah Hashim, reflects on #EndSARS five years after ‘Feminists against SARS’ redefined national consciousness on police violence.
With the #EndSARS movement and the eventual Lekki Massacre in October 2020, the realization that the lives of ordinary Nigerians could be snuffed out simply for demanding a better country...
Editor of Who Gave The Order: The History of a People’s Movement, Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, believes that 20 October 2020 stands as an indictment of the Nigerian conscience and urges...
Now Available: Our May – July 2025 Print Issue
Featuring:
Republic editor, Wale Lawal, in conversation with Kenyan writer Nanjala Nyabola; Dawn Chinagorom-Abalakam on African and artificial intelligence; Otobong Inieke on the geopolitics of digital technology in Africa; Oyindamola Depo-Oyedokun on the revolutionary rise of Piggyvest. This issue also includes writing by Boluwatife Oyediran on the debates about the acceptability of generative AI in art; Rui Verde on Angola’s inorganic techno-democracy; art, comics, quizzes and much more!
Now Available: Our August – October 2025 Print Issue
Featuring:
Republic editor, Wale Lawal, in conversation with Kenyan writer Nanjala Nyabola; Dawn Chinagorom-Abalakam on African and artificial intelligence; Otobong Inieke on the geopolitics of digital technology in Africa; Oyindamola Depo-Oyedokun on the revolutionary rise of Piggyvest. This issue also includes writing by Boluwatife Oyediran on the debates about the acceptability of generative AI in art; Rui Verde on Angola’s inorganic techno-democracy; art, comics, quizzes and much more!
For whom is the transformative potential of feminism new? Our latest issue, An African Feminist Manifesto, considers the imperatives for Black African feminism(s) in our uniquely uncertain times, plus more.
Member of the Feminist Coalition and organizer of the #ArewaMeToo and #NorthNormal movements, Fakhrriyyah Hashim, reflects on #EndSARS five years after ‘Feminists against SARS’ redefined national consciousness on police violence.
To encounter a body in collage is to momentarily believe the human form is physically and even gesturally incapable of coming up against its own limitations. Frida Orupabo’s collages do this so well. They haunt the viewer with fond, familiar and unexpected shapes.
Though the presence of Abrahamic tradition within global Black consciousness often finds expression through male-dominated narratives, a closer examination uncovers Black women at the very centres of the most path-altering moments in the tradition, offering analogues with which Black women have interpreted, reimagined and reclaimed their past, present, and future.
In 1974, Buchi Emecheta’s novel, Second-Class Citizen, was published. While this novel has inspired a generation of African writers, the themes Emecheta explored—such as Black immigrant life in the UK and the ills of a patriarchal society—remain as relevant today as ever.
Our latest issue, An African Manual for Debugging Empire, confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining the futures of AI.
We get it. Sometimes the headline stories are just not enough.
I knew policemen as neighbours, as fathers of schoolmates, as bullies, as murderers. Even though the protest was my first, it was nothing new. They were killing and harassing young...
With the #EndSARS movement and the eventual Lekki Massacre in October 2020, the realization that the lives of ordinary Nigerians could be snuffed out simply for demanding a better country...
Editor of Who Gave The Order: The History of a People’s Movement, Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, believes that 20 October 2020 stands as an indictment of the Nigerian conscience and urges...
‘At 16 every Zambian gets a green National Registration Card (NRC). On my NRC, much of that information is either a lie, a slight fabrication, or, as with many things...
Tinubu’s economic reforms have had an unintended consequence: the collapse of Nigeria’s once-vibrant nightlife. In its wake, a surprising twist has emerged. Young Nigerians are channelling their frustrations from dance...
Rice costs more, the naira buys less, and the middle class is checking out. From golden-age dreams post-independence to present japa-fuelled exits, this essay traces how Nigeria’s middle class rose,...
Nigeria will begin 2026 with its biggest tax overhaul in decades. But what exactly is changing and will the new tax regime worsen or improve Nigeria’s economic and fiscal future?
In today’s digital age, history-making lightbulb moments don’t always strike in boardrooms or after soul-searching mountain hikes. Sometimes, they unfold casually on the X timeline. Piggyvest, now one of Africa’s...
Although Nelson Mandela’s presidency fostered hope for a permanent end to the woes of the apartheid era, South Africa’s non-white population have come to realize that they are still under...
Nigeria celebrates its 65th independence anniversary during a period of uninterrupted 26 years of democratic governance. Despite this commendable sustenance of democracy, the country struggles to unite as ethnic tension...
In 1977, historian Obaro Ikime delivered a lecture, ‘History and the Changing Cultures of Nigeria’, responding to Alhaji Shetima Ali Munguno’s disapproval of what he saw at the University of...
Since its independence from France 65 years ago, the Republic of Congo has remained profoundly shaped by its Marxist-Leninist past, marked by authoritarian resilience and intimate Chinese connections.
In a country failed by peace agreements, connection didn’t disappear—it went online. South Sudan’s digital diaspora challenges the glossy myths of Silicon Valley and insists that innovation thrives not only...
In Angola, the intersection of technology and governance is forging an unconventional democratic landscape—one that emerges spontaneously and outside traditional political structures. While the regime has long maintained control through...
In April 2025, Brice Oligui Nguema was formally elected as president of the Gabonese Republic. Two years on from the coup d’état that overthrew the Bongo dynasty in August 2023,...
The death of former president Muhammadu Buhari has put President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a precarious political position where he risks losing the support of the north, which can cost...
We all grew up hearing about ‘June 12’, but how well do you know what really happened? Let’s find out together. The first episode of The Republic is now available...
This episode will establish M. K. O. Abiola as a major actor. It will examine his personal life; his initial foray into business and politics; and areas of his life...
In this episode, we take a look at the key election candidates and what platforms they ran under. We compare their profiles and proposed agendas for Nigeria, highlighting what political...
After eight years of anticipation, and eight years of promises from General Ibrahim Babangida’s junta, Nigerians were finally about to have their say at the ballot box. In this week’s...
Our latest issue, An African Manual for Debugging Empire, confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining...
As the world leans into the fourth industrial revolution, Africa has become a frontier for the geopolitical power play of China and the United States. Amid this, African governments must...
With AI proponents promising to ‘save’ Africa, Nanjala Nyabola asks an urgent question: what happens when a continent’s future is outsourced to someone else’s imagination? We discuss the politics of...
From his mother’s community chemist shop in Enugu to a Toronto lab, Nigerian pharmacist Chukwunonso Nwabufo is building a device that could save lives by revealing how your genes respond...
Exactly 70 years ago, African and Asian states gathered to imagine a world beyond empire. Their dream of solidarity—its failures and achievements—still haunts global politics.
Since its founding in 1847, the story of Africa’s oldest republic, Liberia, has been entwined with that of the United States. Centuries later, in 2025, is Liberia’s relationship with America...
The parallels between colonialism and bias in modern technology offer an instructive analysis that reveals how contemporary digital infrastructures perpetuate colonial power even as they claim to connect the world...
The emerging Chinese-funded ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja has sparked attention on the possibilities ahead for China’s bolstered relations with the subregion. What’s in it for West African states?
