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michael elegbede

‘There’s Always Something New to Learn.’ Michael Elegbede’s First Draft

Michael Elegbede·November 26, 2021
Head Chef at ÌTÀN Test Kitchen, Michael Elegbede, grew up in a family of chefs. The last book he enjoyed was Life, On The Line by Grant Achatz. Read our interview. Read More...
First DraftInterviewsNigeriaOctober/November 2021
war

Love and War The War That Stood Between My Ex and Me

Salem Afangideh·November 24, 2021
Our ‘us’ dissolved into thin air because the trauma of war that haunted our fathers shaped our view of love and without a conscious awareness of it, led us to make impossible demands of each other. Read more. Read More...
BiafraNigeriaOctober/November 2021The Black AtlanticUnited States

Who Was Sir Seretse Khama? Botswana’s Pacifist Revolutionary

Chioma Echebiri·November 22, 2021
Seretse Khama made an usual mark in the arena of politics in southern Africa, but his role in Botswana’s road to independence is unheralded history. Read more. Read More...
BotswanaOctober/November 2021South Africa
This photo is for our interview with Simukai Chigudu

‘I Liked to Think of Myself as a Cool, Distant Observer of the World’ Simukai Chigudu’s First Draft

Simukai Chigudu·November 19, 2021
Academic and author of The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu, is expanding his writing beyond traditional academic work and into narrative nonfiction. Read our interview. Read More...
First DraftInterviewsOctober/November 2021Zimbabwe

Head Above Water The Negotiations of Buchi Emecheta

Chika Unigwe·November 17, 2021
Having been brought up in a culture of storytelling, Buchi Emecheta would have been aware, from a young age, of ways in which her local tradition marginalized women and reinforced male supremacy. Read more. Read More...
NigeriaOctober/November 2021vol5-no4

Beyond ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ How Frantz Fanon Influenced African Anti-colonial Movements

Basil Abia·November 15, 2021
Frantz Fanon’s influence on the many anti-colonial struggles across Africa, as well as his contributions toward the Algerian fight for liberation cannot continue to be ignored or downplayed. Read more. Read More...
AlgeriaOctober/November 2021
Chika Unigwe

‘Assume Knowledge.’ Chika Unigwe’s First Draft

Chika Unigwe·November 12, 2021
Author of 'On Black Sister’s Street' and ‘Head Above Water: Scanning Buchi Emecheta’s Oeuvre’, Chika Unigwe, believes it is important for an author to know as much as possible about the characters they are writing about. Read our interview. Read More...
First DraftInterviewsNigeriaOctober/November 2021vol5-no4

Lessons of Discord The Repressive Dimensions of Pan-African Nationalism

Brooks Marmon·November 11, 2021
Pan-Africanist political organization in the 1950s and 1960s played a mutually reinforcing role in driving the advocacy that ended both colonial rule in Africa and legal racial discrimination in the American South. Read more. Read More...
AngolaGhanaOctober/November 2020South AfricaZimbabwe

Where Are the ‘Daughters’ of Emecheta? Tracing Buchi Emecheta’s Influence

Elizabeth O. Ben-Iheanacho·November 10, 2021
Buchi Emecheta was an acclaimed author of more than 20 books whose writing, according to Margaret Busby, ‘epitomized female independence’. Read more. Read More...
NigeriaOctober/November 2021vol5-no4

Call for Submissions – Vol. 6, No. 1 The Road to 2023

The Republic·November 9, 2021
Deadline 26 December 2021: The Republic is currently accepting submissions for February-April 2021 in which authors will critically discuss Nigeria's changing political landscape. Read More...
October/November 2021

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CURRENT ISSUE

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We’re on Instagram!

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The essential guide to the ideas, trends, people and stories shaping Nigeria and the broader African continent. Subscribe from N5,000/$5.99 monthly.

We’re looking for the most interesting brands! ⁠
⁠
For the first time since we officially launched in 2018, The Republic is opening up its platform to advertisers.⁠
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But we’re not doing it the usual way.⁠
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We’re inviting a small number of visionary African brands (companies and organizations building for the future, shaping culture, and sparking conversation) to advertise with us in a way that reflects our values: bold thinking, clean design, and editorial integrity.⁠
⁠
As part of this pilot, we’ll be selecting just three standout brands to receive a full month of premium visibility—across our website, newsletter, and social media channels—for ₦200,000 (a special flat rate compared to our standard ₦2 million).⁠
⁠
If selected, your ad will be vetted and supported by our editorial team to ensure it aligns with The Republic’s visual and storytelling standards. This is a rare chance to reach our highly engaged, globally minded African audience—on terms that elevate your brand.⁠
⁠
For more details and to apply, visit the link in our bio or IG story. ⁠
⁠
Deadline: 12 July 2025.⁠
⁠
We can’t wait to see what you’re building.
Today in 1922, Joseph Ki-Zerbo was born. #RPUBLCHi Today in 1922, Joseph Ki-Zerbo was born. #RPUBLCHistory⏳️⁠
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On 21 June 1922, Joseph Ki-Zerbo was born in Toma, Upper-Volta (now Burkina Faso). As a historian, politician and writer, Ki-Zerbo is recognized as one of Africa's foremost thinkers.⁠
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Read more about Burkinabé politics by clicking the image in the link in bio⁠
____________⁠
📝: Ibukun Olokode x Ugonna Eronini⁠
📷: 1)Joseph Ki-Zerbo / Wikimedia Commons.⁠
2)Joseph Ki-Zerbo / Wiki.⁠
3)Thomas Sankara at the UN headquarters, New York, 1984. Milton Grant/UN Photo.
Nok and Africa’s Disregard for Prehistory #OnSi Nok and Africa’s Disregard for Prehistory  #OnSite⚡⁠
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⁠Who stole our past, and why did we let them?⁠
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Nok art, 2,500 years old, locked in glass boxes in Paris. A German university training archaeologists on Nigeria’s Nok Valley, with none of them African. An ancient Ethiopian feminist philosophy rediscovered in Norway, while Addis Ababa looked the other way.⁠
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In today’s essay, Odafin Odafe Okoh confronts the question at the heart of Africa’s heritage crisis: Why do African leaders continue to treat precolonial history as dispensable? And what happens to a society that allows the world to define its past?⁠
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It’s a timely, cultural report about imperial theft but more hauntingly, it is about African amnesia, state-sanctioned silence and the quiet burial of our most powerful intellectual legacies.⁠
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Read the full essay by clicking this image in the link in bio or our IG story.⁠
⁠
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📝: Odafin Odafe Okoh⁠
📸: Photo illustration by Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke) / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: WIKIMEDIA. Nok Art / African Art Gallery.⁠
🔍: Ada Nnadi (@horneddaughter), Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo), Wale Lawal (@wallelawal); Editors.
Today in 1920, Amos Tutuola was born. #RPUBLCHisto Today in 1920, Amos Tutuola was born. #RPUBLCHistory⏳️⁠
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On 20 June 1920, Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria. He was a Nigerian novelist whose works featured rich Yoruba folklore written in nonstandard English. Many of his books featured stories he had heard as a child.⁠
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Swipe to learn more and read more about Amos Tutuola by clicking the image at the link in our bio.⁠
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📝: Ibukun Olokode and Ugonna Eronini⁠
📷: 1) Amos Tutuola. Francoise Huguier/Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center/The University of Texas at Austin. ⁠
2) Amos Tutuola. Wikimedia Commons.⁠
Press Freedom is at Risk in the Democratic Republi Press Freedom is at Risk in the Democratic Republic of Congo. #RPUBLCNews📡⁠
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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has banned the country’s media from reporting on the activities of former president, Joseph Kabila, and his party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), claiming that they pose a threat to ‘national cohesion’. This comes after Kabila visited the eastern city of Goma, which is controlled by the M23 rebels currently fighting the DRC army. ⁠
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The ban raises concerns about press freedom in the DRC, coming only two years after the country passed a new press law potentially restricting press freedom and providing several opportunities for journalism to be criminalized. In 2024, the Journalist in Danger, a DRC-based organization, reported that there had been ‘at least 523 cases of various attacks against the press’ in the last five years.⁠
_____⁠
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📝: Ijapa O (@ijapa_o)⁠
🔍: Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke), Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo), Adetola Wahab; Editors.
What Is the Place of Nollywood in the World? #OnS What Is the Place of Nollywood in the World?  #OnSite⚡⁠
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Despite being the world’s second-largest film industry by volume, Nollywood remains startlingly absent from the global spaces where culture is consumed. On a train from Paris to Lille for Series Mania—the largest TV festival in Europe—Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi browses the in-train film catalogue: French, Italian, Indian, American. Nollywood? Not there. Even on the flight over, Nigerian films were buried under ‘World’ then ‘African.’⁠
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Nollywood has topped Netflix global charts (Aníkúlápó, Shanty Town), attracted streaming giants like Amazon and Netflix, and sent delegations to Europe’s most prestigious festivals. Yet, the industry remains on the margins: overlooked by the Oscars, sidelined by global distributors and perpetually asked to prove its worth.⁠
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Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi’s essay draws from the Series Mania Forum (where ten Nollywood filmmakers joined Africa’s cultural elite) to ask urgent questions: Why does Hollywood exist in Nigeria but not vice versa? Is the industry being undermined by its obsession with volume over quality? What happens if streamers pull out completely? And why hasn’t Nollywood, despite decades of output, been invited to sit at the table of global cinematic power?⁠
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With commentary from Kunle Afolayan, Mimidoo Bartel and Blessing Uzzi, this essay is a sharp reflection on race, gatekeeping, cultural capital and the complex politics of distribution.⁠
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Read the full essay by clicking this image in the link in bio or our IG story.⁠
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📌 Check the pinned comment for our question of the day.
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📝: Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi (@ahmad_adedimeji)⁠
📸: Photo illustration by Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke) / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: UNSPLASH. Nollywood sign / RIPPLES NIGERIA. ⁠
🔍: Ijapa O (@ijapa_o), Peace Yetunde Onafuye (@yetundeandbooks), Wale Lawal (@wallelawal); Editors.
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