OUR BEST WRITING OF 2023
Every year, The Republic publishes the most ambitious writing focused on Africa, from news and analysis to long-form features.
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Read our best writing of 2023.
Our latest issue, Reimagining Nigerian Heritage, focuses on the unknown and underdiscussed stories that reflect the richness of Nigeria’s heritage across its different cultures.
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.
Our latest issue, Reimagining Nigerian Heritage, focuses on the unknown and underdiscussed stories that reflect the richness of Nigeria’s heritage across its different cultures.
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.
Coalition governance offers potential for enhancing democracy in theory; but the dominance of party-political funding and influence of elite and commercial interests from the minerals-energy-finance sectors risk exacerbating political and economic inequalities in South Africa.
Coalition governance offers potential for enhancing democracy in theory; but the dominance of party-political funding and influence of elite and commercial interests from the minerals-energy-finance sectors risk exacerbating political and economic inequalities in South Africa.
News of Idris Elba starring in the screen adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has generated mixed opinions. These opinions have raised questions about why works of fiction are often treated as real, rather than imitations of reality.
Ghanaian writer and author of The Rest of You, Maame Blue, says her debut novel, Bad Love, was inspired by own dating experiences at the time of writing: ‘I wanted to explore how first love shapes who we are for everyone else we meet afterwards, and what it means to navigate a relationship for the first time.’
While Nigeria has experienced oil-fuelled growth, over-reliance on the sector and a lack of diversification have kept the economy shackled, raising critical questions about Nigeria’s ability to move beyond resource dependence.
Why are boys’ issues often used to derail the conversation when issues affecting girls are raised? Until men recognize that our true battle is against patriarchy and not feminism, we will remain stuck, unable to achieve meaningful progress.
Every Nigerian is one state decision away from becoming ‘unworthy’ subjects. Yet many Nigerians celebrate when the state punishes queer people not realizing that what is being witnessed is the state testing and perfecting its technologies of removal.
From a celebrated Nigerian novel produced by Netflix to a classic pre-apartheid South African novel starring renowned American actor James Earl Jones, the books on this list prove that African novels can make for intriguing movies too!
How have the Ogoni people been able to come to terms with the execution of the Ogoni Nine, and deal with the unresolved environmental crisis caused by oil exploration till this day? What does the crisis in Ogoni and the Niger Delta more broadly tell us about what it means to be Nigerian? The seventh episode of the second season of The Republic is now available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Feranmi Ariyo’s I Watch You Disappear articulates illness, grief, hope and faith, blending prosaic narrative with poetic depth to capture the emotional tension of a family grappling with cancer and loss.
With funding from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), The Republic is launching a student writing competition themed ‘Decolonizing Artificial Intelligence’.
Nigerian pop icon Onyeka Onwenu died earlier this year. With an iridescent career spanning decades, Onwenu’s knowledge of Nigeria’s failings ran as deep as her capacity to imagine and believe in a better Nigeria.
As Nigeria embraces its digital future, inclusion—not just innovation—must lead. Can this transformation reach all Nigerians or just the privileged few?
Nigeria has the highest number of people who have used skin-bleaching products, reflecting a phenomenon that is not merely a beauty preference but a symptom of colonial legacies, global beauty...
As the Nigerian film industry arrives at a crossroads, experts weigh in on its place in the world and what the future holds.
African societies have, over centuries, had to deal with a cleavage of their present from their pasts by foreign powers. In the face of such cultural imperialism, how invested are...
Now Available: Our November 2024 – January 2025 Print Issue
Featuring:
Republic editor, Wale Lawal, in conversation with Museum of West African Art director, Ore Disu; Emmanuel Esomnofu on the magic of musician, William Onyeabor; Kéchi Nne Nomu on the legendary influence of pop icon, Onyeka Onwenu, who died earlier this year; Ozoz Sokoh on the foods inspired by novelist, Buchi Emecheta; Yusuf Omotayo on the timelessness of Tunde Kelani’s Yoruba film classic, Ṣaworoìdẹ; and much more!
Now Available: Our November 2024 – January 2025 Print Issue
Featuring:
Republic editor, Wale Lawal, in conversation with Museum of West African Art director, Ore Disu; Emmanuel Esomnofu on the magic of musician, William Onyeabor; Kéchi Nne Nomu on the legendary influence of pop icon, Onyeka Onwenu, who died earlier this year; Ozoz Sokoh on the foods inspired by novelist, Buchi Emecheta; Yusuf Omotayo on the timelessness of Tunde Kelani’s Yoruba film classic, Ṣaworoìdẹ; 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.
Every Nigerian is one state decision away from becoming ‘unworthy’ subjects. Yet many Nigerians celebrate when the state punishes queer people not realizing that what is being witnessed is the state testing and perfecting its technologies of removal.
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, Who Dey Fear Donald Trump?, assesses Africa’s global positioning in the new Trumpian era of multipolarity.
We get it. Sometimes the headline stories are just not enough.
The architectural identity of Lagos is at a crossroads. It got there on the back of urbanization and economic growth. While these major influences have led to remarkable development, they...
Nigeria has the highest number of people who have used skin-bleaching products, reflecting a phenomenon that is not merely a beauty preference but a symptom of colonial legacies, global beauty...
As the Nigerian film industry arrives at a crossroads, experts weigh in on its place in the world and what the future holds.
Nigerian writer and author of Not So Terrible People, Nana Sule, says it takes a special kind of grace to find and write about joy as a writer from Africa:...
For 50 years, West Africa has struggled to establish financial integration. The East Africa community offers a compelling success story that West Africa can emulate.
The AfCFTA’s potential to transform intra-African trade risks being undermined by the volatility created by instability in the Sahel and Great Lakes regions.
As China’s Belt and Road Initiative is reshaping Africa’s economic landscape, opportunities in infrastructure development clash against rising debt, raising questions of sovereignty and long-term sustainability.
One of Nigeria’s woes is the soaring level of sovereign debt amidst persistent hardship and underdevelopment, raising questions about whether debt relief mechanisms can serve as a sustainable, effective solution.
African societies have, over centuries, had to deal with a cleavage of their present from their pasts by foreign powers. In the face of such cultural imperialism, how invested are...
The Gadaa system of the Oromo people of Kenya and Ethiopia offers an indigenous method of governance in Africa, as the adopted Western democracy seems to be failing the continent.
The world’s closest capital cities—Kinshasa and Brazzaville—sit within two modern-day states, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, that once reigned as a united Kongo...
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Nigerian writer and editor, Angel Nduka-Nwosu, compiles a list of books by Black women that belong on your reading list this month and beyond. These...
As Nigeria’s ruling party, All Progressives Congress, marks ten years in power, Nigerians should assess the performance of the party and decide the political trajectory of the nation.
In the wake of political defections by Nigerian governors, there are questions about their influence and how much of these defections significantly affect the country’s political trajectory.
Africa’s largest country, Algeria, has a sizeable record of global mediation, spanning the Iran-Iraq conflict in 1975 to the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict in 2000. Algeria’s evolving diplomacy raises questions on how...
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the gadfly former governor of Kaduna State, is no stranger to the corridors of power, but his new-found activism exposes a hypocrisy typical of Nigerian politicians who...
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...
As Nigeria embraces its digital future, inclusion—not just innovation—must lead. Can this transformation reach all Nigerians or just the privileged few?
The founder of PARIWO and creator of the social media platform, neno, Ann Daramola, discusses building technology by and for African women and reimagining digital platforms that centre Black African...
Across Africa, millions in the informal sector remain uninsured—not from apathy, but due to the exclusionary nature of health systems. In Tanzania and beyond, digital innovations offer promising models for...
By 06 February 2025, the University College Hospital in Ibadan had been in a blackout for 97 days. ‘Surgeries are on hold. Patients are dying. And in the best teaching...
In the wake of tumultuous geopolitical policies and an increasingly multipolar world, pan-Africanism today struggles to evoke the spirit of comradeship that it used to.
ECOWAS has underperformed in its trade integration and crisis response mandates. Nigeria has to step up its game in improving effective regional cooperation in West Africa. To accomplish this, a...
Our latest issue, Who Dey Fear Donald Trump?, assesses Africa’s global positioning in the new Trumpian era of multipolarity.
Unlike nineteenth-century multipolarity where Africa had limited internal interaction and post-colonial bipolarity when South Africa was under apartheid, the present state of multipolarity under anti-globalization may create sufficient pressure and...
