Talking down on speaking up
Beyond the social media firestorm over journalist Trish Lorenz’s book about #EndSARS, it is worth engaging in the debate about wider representation in movement building and protest.
Nigeria
Life to the sound of gunfire
Nigerians fleeing extremist violence at home take refuge across the border in Niger among an already fragile population. Together they proceed to carve out a way to live better lives for now.
The “alternative” money economy of Nigerian students
In Northern Cyprus, African students, many of them Nigerian, study diligently for tertiary degrees while juggling multiple income streams in a peer-to-peer system for collective survival.
More than a national pastime
Nigeria did not qualify for Qatar 2022. The troubles in the country's football administration reflect the crises in the nation’s political culture.
Expensive shit
Protracted strikes in Nigeria’s higher public education sector lay bare nefarious efforts by the ruling class to entrench privatization.
Why are Nigerian academics on strike?
Since 1999, Nigeria's academics have gone on strike 15 times. Since February, they've been on strike again. This week on the AIAC Podcast, we unpack why.
Ted Lasso and the Afropolitan
The Afropolitics of one of the characters, Sam Obisanya, makes the second season of TV series "Ted Lasso" even better than the first.
A matter that defies tears
Wọle Ṣoyinka's new novel examines a country caught in the crosshairs of unimaginable events.
EndSARS, workers’ power, and war
The working class that organized #OccupyNigeria should collaborate with #EndSARS. If these two boiling points burn together to produce the fire next time, a new Nigeria will be possible.
Louder in Lagos
Africa Is a Country Radio continues its season focused on African club culture. Our next stop is Lagos. Listen here and on Worldwide FM.
Lagos street boys
Filmmaker Tolulope Itegboje humanizes the maligned area boys of Nigeria's commercial capital; presenting them with an opportunity to share their stories.
Netflix Nollywood tackles political corruption in Nigeria
King of Boys: The Return of the King, a seven-part limited series of Netflix, is a sustained—if ultimately pessimistic—critique of Nigerian corruption.
Even dogs are racist
A vernacular attempt at a social anthropology of dogs across three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Canada.
Sound Sultan’s political music
Sound Sultan, who died of cancer in July 2021, battled with the cankerworm of bad leadership and outright violations of rules of law in his homeland, Nigeria, through his songs.
Postfeminism is only for wealthy Nigerian women
To have—or, at least, claim—a sense of self that is “already empowered” or happily unencumbered by power relations, requires a fair bit of material privilege.
On failed states and the pitfalls of Western commentary
The tendency of Western commentators to dress up African tragedies in the patronizing logic of relativism.
The most humanistic socialist of our generation
The mathematician Edwin Madunagu, 75 years old in 2021, is one of Nigeria’s foremost socialist intellectuals. Here, his friend Biodun Jeyifo, the literary scholar, pays tribute to him.
The Nigerian and the Lenin Prize
Peter Ayodele Curtis Joseph was a prominent left nationalist in Nigeria’s struggle for independence. Then he was forgotten. How do we commemorate him?
Nigeria’s Twitter ban and the resistance politics of VPNs
Anyone who cares about civil society, free speech, and human rights should find the state’s digital silencing of its citizens deeply troubling.
Beyond violence and militarism
In Nigeria, we should train and empower communities to participate in security measures, rather than arming militias.