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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Social Life of Tea Money in Kenya
If Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea, how come the 834,000 smallholder farmers growing tea across Kenya’s highland counties still cannot meet the country’s poverty threshold? This is the story of what happens to tea money after the digital scale beeps.
Sudan’s Economies of Survival
In wartime Sudan, civilians have built alternative financial networks to keep money circulating despite a broken banking system, enabling people to pay for food, healthcare and other necessities.
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.
