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.
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vol. 9, no. 3
An African Manual for Debugging 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.
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vol. 9, no. 3
An African Manual for Debugging 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.
This Week’s Essentials
Our top analyses, debates, ideas and stories of the week.
HEADLINE STORY / THE MINISTRY OF WORLD AFFAIRS
HEADLINE STORY / THE MINISTRY OF WORLD AFFAIRS
- WINNIE RUGUTT
- FRIDAH NJOKI
- February 9, 2025
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.
THE MINISTRY OF ARTS / BOOKS DEPT.
A Vision for Nigeria’s Queer Future
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde’s vision for Nigeria’s queer future requires new languages for care and intimacy—and lots of money.
THE BLACK ATLANTIC
Diaspora’s Struggle to Belong Home and Away
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.
THE MINISTRY OF BUSINESS X THE ECONOMY
The Vanishing Dream of Nigeria’s Middle Class
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, unravelled, and now fights to survive.
THE MINISTRY OF CLIMATE CHANGE X THE ENVIRONMENT
Africa’s Climate Future in a Fragmented Multipolar World
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.
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
A Eulogy for Dead Languages
‘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.’
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS / FIRST DRAFT INTERVIEWS
10 African Writers on How They Actually Wrote Their Books
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.
THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS
The Body, the Veil and the Muslim Woman
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.
THE MINISTRY OF GENDER X SEXUALITY
The Women Turning a Private Ritual Into a Public Business
The guardians of ukungwi—a practice that educates girls and women on sex, homemaking and marriage—are reimagining their approach to this East African tradition. Today, they face a dilemma: the risk of losing the cultural essence of ukungwi while seeking to monetize it for sustainability.
THE MINISTRY OF MEMORIES
Is This the Federation Nnamdi Azikiwe Fought For?
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.
THE MINISTRY OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS / DISPATCH FROM SOUTH SUDAN
Wi-Fi Warriors and Homeland Dreams
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.
THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE X TECHNOLOGY / THE REPUBLIC INTERVIEWS
‘Who Do We Imagine AI Is Built By and Built For?’
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.
THE MINISTRY OF SECURITY
Restrategizing Northern Nigerian Security Beyond Border Fences
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.
THE MINISTRY OF WORLD AFFAIRS
Is Ibrahim Traoré the Pan-Africanist Africa Needs?
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.
THE REPUBLIC RECOMMENDS
7 Books to Read if You Didn’t Study Nigerian History in School
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.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
A Vision for Nigeria’s Queer Future
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde’s vision for Nigeria’s queer future requires new languages for care and intimacy—and lots of money.
ANNOUNCEMENT DESK
Meet The Republic’s Founding Advertisers
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.
ANNOUNCEMENT DESK
The Republic Wins at the 365: AIGA Year in Design 2024 Awards
The Republic’s 2024 print magazine run (Volume 8) has been named a winner at the 365: AIGA Year in Design 2024 Awards!
#TRUMPIANAGE
Africa’s Opportunity in the Trumpian Age of American Transactionalism
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.
After Bandung
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.
A Eulogy for Dead Languages
‘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...
The Betrayal of Mandela’s Apartheid Liberation Movement
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...
A Vision for Nigeria’s Queer Future
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde’s vision for Nigeria’s queer future requires new languages for care and intimacy—and lots of money.
THE LATEST IN PRINT
VOL. 9, NO. 3
An African Manual for Debugging Empire
An African Manual for Debugging Empire
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!
THE LATEST IN PRINT
VOL. 9, NO. 3
An African Manual for Debugging Empire
An African Manual for Debugging Empire
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!
vol.8 no.1 / EDITOR'S FOREWORD
‘An African Feminist Manifesto’
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.
COVER ESSAY
Nigeria’s Anthems of Division and the Promise of Democratic Feminist Nationalism
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti showed that political organizing could transcend ethnic divisions while staying culturally rooted. Yet despite the vision of democratic nationalism her work offers us, today’s elite capture of democratic possibilities cloaks anti-democratic politics in the language of ethnic victimhood.
THE MINISTRY OF ARTs / PHOTO DEPT.
The Disruptive Potential of Frida Orupabo’s Metamorphic Women
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.
THE MINISTRY OF MEMORIES
A Womanist Reading of African Women in Abrahamic Tradition
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.
THE MINISTRY OF ARTs / BOOKS DEPT.
50 Years of Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen
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.
An African Manual for Debugging 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.
continue reading
We get it. Sometimes the headline stories are just not enough.
ARTS & CULTURE
A Eulogy for Dead Languages
‘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...
A Vision for Nigeria’s Queer Future
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde’s vision for Nigeria’s queer future requires new languages for care and intimacy—and lots of money.
Charly Boy Bus Stop and the Politics of Official Renaming
What happens when the politics of naming is used to silence a story? From ‘Charly Boy’ to ‘Baddo’, Nigeria’s streets are becoming battlegrounds where memory, identity and politics collide.
The Nigerian Heart of Joop Berkhout
Joop Berkhout, an icon of Nigeria’s publishing industry for almost six decades, died in February 2025 in Ibadan. He nurtured generations of writers and built Spectrum Books into a publishing...
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BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY
The Vanishing Dream of Nigeria’s Middle Class
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,...
The New Chapter in Nigeria’s Tax Story
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?
Saving Nigeria, the Piggyvest Way
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...
How America Determines Nigerian Fuel Prices
President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy and push to recalibrate the dollar has affected global capital flows, especially economies tethered to the dollar system. In Nigeria’s fuel sector, this manifests as...
HISTORY
The Betrayal of Mandela’s Apartheid Liberation Movement
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...
Is This the Federation Nnamdi Azikiwe Fought For?
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...
7 Books to Read if You Didn’t Study Nigerian History in School
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...
The Rocky Independence of Congo-Brazzaville
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.
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POLITICS
Wi-Fi Warriors and Homeland Dreams
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...
Angola’s ‘Inorganic’ Techno-Democracy
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...
The Recalibrated Presidency of Brice Oligui Nguema
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,...
Tinubu’s Rough Road to the 2027 Elections Post-Buhari’s Death
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...
RADIO REPUBLIC
The Republic: Season 1, Episode 1 Transcript IBB, the Evil Genius
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...
The Republic: Season 1, Episode 2 Transcript MKO: The Man Nigeria Waited to See
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...
The Republic: Season 1, Episode 3 Transcript Two Sides of the Same Coin
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...
The Republic: Season 1, Episode 4 Transcript June 12: Freest and Fairest of Them All
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...
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
An African Manual for Debugging 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 Geopolitics of Digital Technology in Africa
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...
‘Who Do We Imagine AI Is Built By and Built For?’
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...
The Dark Matter of Genetics
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...
WORLD AFFAIRS
After Bandung
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.
Liberia’s Complex Relationship with the United States
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...
How Technology Preserves the Legacy of Colonialism Across Africa
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...
China’s Golden ‘Palace Diplomacy’ in West Africa
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?
