We begin here: sandwich. This is only because Ikhide Ikheloa’s Oporoko Chronicles walks the margins of our sense of taste, humour, family, mischief, and imagination. Far from his equally brilliant and refreshing response to the mostly insensitive response of African intellectuals to the Kony 2012 viral video, the writer takes us on a trip through the quotidian rote of a generic [...]

“In the beginning was the word,” and it has defined everything else. We will return to this sentence time and time again, but for now, it serves as a good start. Words have defined, described, enthralled, moved, and enchanted us for generations. Words wake us in the morning, and lull us at night. Now – for the purpose of this [...]

by Kola Tubosun
On “being” the relative of a dead prince

There is a curious pattern of dangerous behaviour  now coming out of the Libyan revolt against the government of Moamar Gaddafi. In this frightening CNN report, rebel soldiers looking to exact revenge on the dying regime have found a perfect victim demographic: black sub-saharan African (in this case Nigerians) who are in the country en route to Spain or Italy for a better [...]

Sometime ago in May, at a house party in a friend’s house – an artist, I found myself seated around a table with a few elderly women who grew up in Mississippi in the 60s. One of them is my friend’s mother – a seventy year old professor of history in my institution. The conversation they were having was about [...]

Tragedy is a depressant, often leading people overcome by emotions to the wrong  and often very hasty resolutions. Like all observers of the aftermath of last week’s presidential elections in Nigeria, I was saddened by the loss of innocent lives in the north as a result of a mad frenzy of sadistic unemployed youths convinced that their candidate won. In [...]

I realize it’s one day late. Here is to the women on the 100th International Women’s Day 2011. Special regards to all our women contributors on Nigerianstalk, and to all the women of the earth because they make life worth living. May we never shirk from the challenges and commitments to make life better for you and all our daughters. [...]

This is a press release by Writers and Academics Against Homophobia. Feel free to append your signatures in the comment section, and to share this petition through your social networks. _________________________________ We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a [...]

My first memories of elections in Nigeria takes me to June 1993 when the biggest political event of my generation took place. Before then, the other most memorable event I remember was the death of someone called “The best president Nigeria never had.” That was Chief Obafemi Awolowo who, as the premier of the Western Region (another name for an [...]

Many commentators have already responded fittingly to a recently published op-ed in the New York Times by Nigerian writer Adaobi Nwaubani. (One of them was Carmen McCain in this blogpost). In “The Laureate Cause” which you can read on NY Times or on 234NEXT, Nwaubani argues a faulty logic that implies that having new authors write in local languages is detrimental to [...]