Your Essential Guide to Africa Through Nigeria
This Week’s Essentials
Podcast
VOL 10. N0. 3
Africa’s Hustle Republics
Explores the social life of money across the African continent. Spanning weddings, agriculture, migration, finance and informal economies, this magazine examines the many ways Africans make, move, perform and imagine money; and what these worlds reveal about the continent today.
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Explore by Region
The Bombing That Changed Abuja Forever
In 2011, a Boko Haram bombing at the United Nations House in Abuja claimed the lives of 26 people. The incident changed Nigeria’s capital city and the lives of its residents forever.
The Last Days of Abuja’s City of Metal
For decades, Apo Mechanic Village has kept Abuja’s cars running. Now, as demolition looms again, the mechanics and traders who built the Abuja’s informal engine confront another uncertain future.
‘Port Harcourt No Be Abuja’
Nyesom Wike’s appointment as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could be Wike’s biggest political task yet. As minister, he will have to govern a people who are majorly religiously and ethnically different from him while trying to retain power over his previous domain, Rivers State.
Kidnapped From the House of God
What began as a Tuesday evening service at Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, turned into a live-streamed kidnapping that dragged 38 worshippers into the forest and left three people dead. Nearly 40 days after the bandit attack, Pelumi Salako visits Eruku to speak with survivors.
How Nigerian Universities Became Centres of Islamic Radicalism
The religious extremism that fuels insecurity in Nigeria today did not begin only in terrorist camps; it also developed, quietly, within Nigerian universities.
The True Source of Ladi Kwali's Genius
For decades, the potter on Nigeria’s twenty-naira note was considered the product of British colonial art instruction, but this viewpoint denied a crucial truth: that Ladi Kwali’s art came from a Gbagyi worldview in which clay, labour and the female body were sacred, inseparable and hers alone.
The Bombing That Changed Abuja Forever
In 2011, a Boko Haram bombing at the United Nations House in Abuja claimed the lives of 26 people. The incident changed Nigeria’s capital city and the lives of its residents forever.
The Last Days of Abuja’s City of Metal
For decades, Apo Mechanic Village has kept Abuja’s cars running. Now, as demolition looms again, the mechanics and traders who built the Abuja’s informal engine confront another uncertain future.
‘Port Harcourt No Be Abuja’
Nyesom Wike’s appointment as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could be Wike’s biggest political task yet. As minister, he will have to govern a people who are majorly religiously and ethnically different from him while trying to retain power over his previous domain, Rivers State.
Kidnapped From the House of God
What began as a Tuesday evening service at Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, turned into a live-streamed kidnapping that dragged 38 worshippers into the forest and left three people dead. Nearly 40 days after the bandit attack, Pelumi Salako visits Eruku to speak with survivors.
How Nigerian Universities Became Centres of Islamic Radicalism
The religious extremism that fuels insecurity in Nigeria today did not begin only in terrorist camps; it also developed, quietly, within Nigerian universities.
The True Source of Ladi Kwali's Genius
For decades, the potter on Nigeria’s twenty-naira note was considered the product of British colonial art instruction, but this viewpoint denied a crucial truth: that Ladi Kwali’s art came from a Gbagyi worldview in which clay, labour and the female body were sacred, inseparable and hers alone.
Just For You
Explore by Topic
Why a Pardon Is Not Justice for Ken Saro-Wiwa
Last year, when Nigeria announced a posthumous pardon for Ken Saro-Wiwa and twelve other Ogonis, it was framed as a gesture of closure. Noo Saro-Wiwa does not see it that way. In this conversation, she explains why a pardon, without exoneration, cannot undo the violence of the past or resolve the political struggle her father left behind.
How African Women Are Fighting Climate Capitalism Today
Africa’s Role in the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Who Will Own and Control Africa’s AI Energy Future?
The Bushmeat System, Hunting and the Conflict of Ethics
The Human Cost of Lagos Demolitions
Why a Pardon Is Not Justice for Ken Saro-Wiwa
Last year, when Nigeria announced a posthumous pardon for Ken Saro-Wiwa and twelve other Ogonis, it was framed as a gesture of closure. Noo Saro-Wiwa does not see it that way. In this conversation, she explains why a pardon, without exoneration, cannot undo the violence of the past or resolve the political struggle her father left behind.
How African Women Are Fighting Climate Capitalism Today
Africa’s Role in the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Who Will Own and Control Africa’s AI Energy Future?
The Bushmeat System, Hunting and the Conflict of Ethics
The Human Cost of Lagos Demolitions
Explore by Audio
The Extravagant Economics of Lagos Weddings
In recent years, Lagos weddings have become spectacles, in scope, in scale, in animation and in sheer grandeur. Despite Nigeria’s economic instability, the wedding industry, especially in the country’s economic hub, continues to flourish, revealing a complex ecosystem driven by social expectations, cultural pride and rising consumerism.
The Hustle Republic
In The Gambia, migration and remittances have become society’s measure of success and failure. Through the lives of young people, we see the emotional and financial costs of staying behind, the expectations placed on those who leave, and what it means to return home after an unsuccessful attempt to migrate.
The Palestinian Freedom Fighter Who Was Also Nigerian
In 1967, Afro-Palestinian Fatima Bernawi became the first woman to be arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces after planting explosives in a theatre frequented by Israeli soldiers. Though sentenced to life, she was released ten years later, continuing to fight for Palestinian nationhood.
The Lesser-Told Story of Nigerians in Ireland
From missionary classrooms in Ibadan to music stages in Dublin, the story of Nigerians in Ireland stretches further back and runs deeper than many realize.
