When things fall apart
Against a backdrop of global collapse, one exhibition used Chinua Achebe’s classic to hold space for voices from the Global South — and asked who gets to imagine the future.
Chinua Achebe
Nigeria’s Catch 22
American style democracy will only throw up more more leaders like Goodluck Jonathan.
When Chinua Achebe went to Scandinavia in 1988
It is striking that that the topics his hosts discussed with Achebe in those days are still animating us.
How to deal with uncomfortable journalists
If a journalist reports on the unsavory parts of Nigeria, attack them on Twitter. For reporting while white. There's no comeback when you bring race into it.
L’Afrique Est Un Pays
Dutty Artz and Africa Is a Country co-present the EP, "L'Afrique Est Un Pays," as a gift to Africa is a Country readers. For a limited time you can download the EP by liking our Facebook page.
The complicated history of a famous photograph
The story of how the most famous portrait of a young Chinua Achebe was taken at his house in Enugu, Nigeria in 1959 by American photographer, Eliot Elisofon.
The left winger
A meditation on left footed footballers, especially wingers, given the conventional wisdom that lefties are always useful to have in a match.
A Poet of Global Encounters
Chinua Achebe’s legacy is not fixed but rather about responding to change with energy and wit.
Chinua Achebe The Writer Lives On
To my ear Achebe’s voice is always measured even at its most defiant.
The passing of Chinua Achebe
Comparisons between Chinua Achebe and Nigeria's other great writer, Wole Soyinka, will increase, now Achebe has passed.
Chinua Achebe reflects on Biafra, but for whom?
Achebe's "There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra" reopens old wounds about the civil war.
A Room Adrift in London
This thing about a boat on The Thames named for the one Joseph Conrad sailed up the River Congo before writing Heart of Darkness.
On Brand Nigeria
A quick read of comments to recent posts defending gay rights, point to how deep-seated and widespread homophobia is in Nigeria.
The Global Imagination of James Baldwin
An interview with Rich Blint, a James Baldwin scholar. Biggest takeaway: Baldwin lamented the fragile human impulse for categorization.
People who have lost the habit of ruling themselves
Africans are like the man in the Igbo proverb who does not know where the rain began to beat him and so cannot say where he dried his body.
Cricket is big in Nigeria
Cricket is gloriously multilayered, with strategy and tactics available in abundance.
Too many films about the 2010 World Cup
Here's some things I did not have the time to blog about properly or link to this past week. It's Weekend Special.