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Nigerian architect and designer, Tosin Oshinowo, believes that, now more than ever, the growing awareness of the climate crisis makes it imperative for architects to rethink building practices: ‘The next generation of practitioners will likely be better equipped than mine, as sustainability is now a fundamental part of their training and practice...We must rethink architecture, not just in terms of design, but also in how we live, build, and develop materials that are suited to our environment.’
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This story features in our print issue, 'Demas Nwoko’s Natural Synthesis'.
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About the Author
is a Lagos-based Nigerian architect and designer renowned for her expansive residential and commercial spaces and insights into socially-responsive approaches to urbanism. She is the founder of Oshinowo Studio, an architectural design studio based in Lagos.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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