Culture & Society
The Dangers of Celebrity Activism
For art to be revolutionary it must detach itself from the artist; and for revolutions to survive, they must reject the celebrity. Read More...
‘Black Womanhood Is Not a Monolithic Experience’ Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s First Draft
Travel writer and author of the upcoming novel Bitter Honey, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, wants to spark more conversations about the challenges of raising biracial children in white-majority countries: ‘Raising biracial children in a society that remains the last bastion of whiteness and making sure they are deeply self-confident and have a strong sense of identity is my utmost role as a mother in Sweden.’ Read More...
7 Books That Will Break You, and Then Heal You
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books that will break you and heal you right back. From the moving story about the separation of twin brothers to a sci-fi novel that transports readers continuously between the present and the antebellum past, the books on this list will make you cry, but they will also make you smile. Read More...
The Language of Violence
South African poet Qhali’s Crying in My Mother’s Tongue: Ukulila, is a searing meditation on language and identity, intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, healing, and the intimate ties of motherhood and family. Read More...
Reading Gabriel García Márquez in Nairobi
With the recent Netflix adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, I recount what it meant to read his work as a young writer living in Nairobi. Read More...
Writers and the Fictional Women Characters They Love
In our First Draft interviews, we asked prominent women authors about the fictional women characters that they love. Here’s what they told us. Read More...
7 Books Perfect for a Nollywood Film Adaptation
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books that are perfect for Nollywood film adaptations. From the story of a man who mysteriously transforms into a white person, constituting a biting satire about a race relations in Nigeria, to a brilliant woman’s account of her experiences in the male-dominated scene of Nigerian politics, the books on this list will certainly make blockbuster films! Read More...
The Tragedy of an Evil Genius
Babangida’s attempt to tell his own story or shape his own legacy through his memoir, A Journey in Service, falls short of expectations raising questions about whether the book should have been written at all. Read More...
Rediscovering Nigeria’s Radio Heritage
Nigerian radio dramas, like Abule Oloke Merin, were once powerful mediums for storytelling and cultural memory, yet many of these programmes have been lost due to poor archival practices. By drawing lessons from other African nations on preserving ephemeral media, Nigeria will be well equipped to preserve its auditory heritage. Read More...
‘I Wanted to Explore the Thrill That Comes with First Loves’ Fatima Bala’s First Draft
Nigerian writer and author of Broken, Fatima Bala, says that with her new novel, Hafsatu Bebi, she wanted to explore the realities of being a northern Nigerian girl: ‘I have always wanted to see different authentic depictions of northern Nigerian girls. And so, in the characterization, I was itching to write a northern Muslim who happens to be very different from Fa’iza from Broken.’ Read More...
