Nigeria

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

Watch: Short documentary on Lagos performance artist Jelili Atiku

From the perspective of one who appreciates Nigerian art, it seems as if a disconnect persists between those artists, almost exclusively painters and sculptors, who work in a mimetic realist representational mode and cater directly to wealthy local patrons, and other artists who press well beyond the limits of conventional art. The commonsensical view assumes

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

The social history of a ‘moral panic’ in Nigeria

It’s déjà vu all over again. Thirty five years ago, Stuart Hall and colleagues wrote one of the founding works of Cultural Studies, Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. They wanted to understand...

Monday, January 27th, 2014

A Visitor’s Guide to India

Last weekend in Khirki Village, Delhi, a late-night mob led by the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti went looking for "some Nigerians or Ugandans." They pulled four young African women out...

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

#Watch Binyavanga’s brilliant YouTube documentary calling out the BS behind “African” homophobia

We’ve been looking forward to this one. When our friends at the Guardian and BBC (and plenty of other outlets) finally reported on Binyavanga Wainaina’s wonderful essay yesterday, we learned that he had a documentary up his sleeve as...

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

Nigeria’s Gay Problems

let’s raise our hats to the biggest global news of the week thus far, after all this is Africa is a Country, not Earth’r’us: Nigeria, that giant town in Africa, declaring its disdain for any form or...

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

When Miley Cyrus met Nigerian parents

It is very likely that Miley Cyrus will end up somewhere in a number of “best of 2013″ lists, for reasons many still struggle to understand. Maybe for culturally appropriating ‘twerking’ and making it popular with white...