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 one of neo-imperialism or fair partnership?
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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 / MUSIC DEPT.
Rema Wants a Seat at the ‘Big Three’ Table—Has He Earned It?
With sonic versatility and global reach, Rema is rewriting the rules of Afrobeats. But does that earn him a place alongside Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid?
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
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 leading wealth management platforms, began exactly with that: a tweet, a conversation and a simple idea that would quickly revolutionize Nigeria’s fintech industry.
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 / FIRST DRAFT INTERVIEWS
‘Write for Love Before You Consider Writing for Money’ Sue Nyathi’s First Draft
Zimbabwean writer and author of 'The Polygamist', Sue Nyathi, was motivated to write her latest novel, 'An Angel’s Demise', by the lack of knowledge about African history: ‘I realized that I didn’t know the entire history of my country. It made me realize that, for a great part of my life, my existence was whitewashed. I knew a lot about European history, but I couldn’t tell you anything substantial about African history.’
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
On Misogyny and Black Women’s Hair
For many Black women, the pressure to straighten their hair is not just an aesthetic choice, nor only a necessity for survival in professional spaces, but a burden imposed by colonial and patriarchal standards of beauty.
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
You Are Still with Me
In Kenya, three young queer men built a family from stolen kisses, cheap alcohol, and poetry read aloud on thin mattresses, until the world that refused to make space for them claimed two of their lives.
THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Africa’s AI Path to Health Impact
AI is opening the door to health systems that can learn, adapt and act. Can Africa harness it to leap ahead?
THE MINISTRY OF MEMORIES
Nok and Africa’s Disregard for Prehistory
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 their leaders in reclaiming Africa’s plundered historical heritage?
THE MINISTRY OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS / DISPATCH FROM GABON
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, is Nguema’s presidency a genuine political overhaul or more of the same?
THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE
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 to drugs, but his real revolution may be redefining what is ‘rare’ in medical research.
THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE X TECHNOLOGY
Africa’s Geopolitics Needs a Digital Upgrade
In the age of artificial intelligence, can Africa recode its global positioning?
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 That Will Convince You That Good Men Do Exist
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books that will convince you that good men exist. From the former colonial officer who turns against the empire to care for a tortured native woman to the loving father whose unwavering support encourages his daughter’s intellectual curiosity, the men in the books on this list challenge the prevailing stereotypes about men.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Driving Through Life as a Fully Veiled Muslim Woman
Mutia’ah Badrudeen documents how her decades of driving, as a fully veiled Muslim Yoruba woman across multiple countries, reveal prevailing social ideas about gender, identity and belonging.
ANNOUNCEMENT DESK
Become One of The Republic’s Founding Advertisers
For the first time since we officially launched in 2018, The Republic is opening up its platform to advertisers. But we’re not doing it the usual way.
ANNOUNCEMENT DESK
Black Atlantic Editorial Fellowship Call for Applications
The Republic is pleased to announce the Black Atlantic Editorial Fellowship, a six-month fellowship programme designed towards the commissioning, writing and curation of stories rooted in Blackness and the African experience.
#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.
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...
Rema Wants a Seat at the ‘Big Three’ Table—Has He Earned It?
With sonic versatility and global reach, Rema is rewriting the rules of Afrobeats. But does that earn him a place alongside Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid?
You Are Still with Me
In Kenya, three young queer men built a family from stolen kisses, cheap alcohol, and poetry read aloud on thin mattresses, until the world that refused to make space for...
‘Write for Love Before You Consider Writing for Money’ Sue Nyathi’s First Draft
Zimbabwean writer and author of 'The Polygamist', Sue Nyathi, was motivated to write her latest novel, 'An Angel’s Demise', by the lack of knowledge about African history: ‘I realized that...
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
In Nigeria, to Err Is Human, Unless You Are Poor or a Woman
Untruth, injustice and the Nigerian way. A lesson in the difference between a ‘human’ connected Nigerian man and the everyday Nigerian/woman as reflected in the Ibom Air and Comfort Emmanson debacle.
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
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...
Rema Wants a Seat at the ‘Big Three’ Table—Has He Earned It?
With sonic versatility and global reach, Rema is rewriting the rules of Afrobeats. But does that earn him a place alongside Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid?
‘Write for Love Before You Consider Writing for Money’ Sue Nyathi’s First Draft
Zimbabwean writer and author of 'The Polygamist', Sue Nyathi, was motivated to write her latest novel, 'An Angel’s Demise', by the lack of knowledge about African history: ‘I realized that...
7 Books That Will Convince You That Good Men Do Exist
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books that will convince you that good men exist. From the former colonial officer who turns against the empire...
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BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY
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...
The Financial Chains on Nigeria’s Digital Workforce
Nigeria’s restrictive financial policy is hindering payments for its rising digital workforce, keeping many locked out of the global economy.
Who Benefits From Nigeria’s Detty December?
The beginning of the second half of the year signals plans for Lagos’ glitzy Detty December, a seasonal spectacle that generates short-term profits for a privileged few while deepening inequality,...
HISTORY
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.
Nok and Africa’s Disregard for Prehistory
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 Timeless Solutions of the Gadaa System
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.
From Kongo Kings to Cross-Congo Conflicts
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...
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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
Liberia’s Puzzling 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?
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.
