June/July 2025
‘We Must Market Our Stories on Our Own Terms’ Nana Sule’s First Draft
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: ‘I believe writers are very much shaped by the times they live in. Part of our role is to document the world around us, and for many African writers, that means confronting trauma and hardship. It takes a special grace to find and write about joy, honestly.’ Read More...
5 Books You Probably Didn’t Know Were Made into Movies
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! Read More...
Queer People Today, You Tomorrow
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. Read More...
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Fragility of Gendered Power in Africa
When Nigeria’s upper chamber punished Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan with a six-month suspension after she spoke up about harassment, the act didn’t just close a door on one woman—it revealed the fragile hinges of gendered power that determine who may even touch the handle in African politics. Read More...
The Fading Pride of Ikoyi Cemetery
Ikoyi Cemetery which was once a revered resting place for some of the most notable figures in Nigerian history, is now a shadow of its former self as a result of neglect and expansion of Lagos. Read More...
Does APC Deserve Another Ten Years?
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. Read More...
Is the African Union a Symbol of Waning Pan-Africanism?
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. Read More...
‘The Boko Haram Conflict is Still Ongoing!’ Chitra Nagarajan’s First Draft
Author of The World Was In Our Hands: Voices from the Boko Haram Conflict, Chitra Nagarajan, decided to write a book on the conflict to shift narratives that tended to focus on particular stories—such as the abduction of the Chibok girls: ‘I set out to write a non-fiction book about the Boko Haram conflict but decided put together this collection of narratives instead. I felt these stories would reveal the truth of what is happening in a different (perhaps more compelling!) way.’ Read More...
7 Books That Will Make You Feel Seen This Pride Month
From a book about the experiences of a gay teenager in a Nigerian boarding school to the empowering memoir of the first trans man to force a medical aid to pay for his trans surgery in South Africa, these books offer unprecedented queer representation, reiterating the popular LGBTQ+ rights slogan, ‘We are here, we are queer.’ Read More...
This Minority Is No Longer a Tiny Island
As a child, I was mesmerized by the feathered crowns and effeminate dancers of the Egedege Dance Group. Now, I’m an adult navigating social pressures and marginalization. The difference, though, is I am no longer as afraid. Read More...
