Arts/Culture
War Without End in Nigerian Literature | A review of The Road to the Country
Only the dead have seen the end of war- George Santayana Book: The Road to the Country, Author: Chigozie Obioma Publisher: Masobe Books, Lagos Year: 2024 The Nigeria civil war (1967-70) has produced so many literary works that it would be a surprise if definitive course (s) on the war is not already in our […]
The New York Black and African Literature Festival aims to be a bridge | Conversation with Efe Paul Azino
Efe Paul Azino is the Director of the Lagos International Poetry Festival, now in its tenth year. He is a spoken-word poet and writer. He is also the founder of a new literature festival based in New York City. In this conversation, we discuss the new New York Black & African Literature Festival happening between […]
Àṣàkẹ́’s Vibe as Gimmick
It is a common refrain to say Nigerian popular music doesn’t reflect the social issues of contemporary Nigeria, and yet frame its global rise as an emblem of Nigerian triumph and dysfunction. This disconnect between our claims that the music lacks sociopolitical substance and its overwhelming cultural influence leads to a state of critical coma, […]
Best Literary Translations Anthology: A Call for a Co-Editor of Middle Eastern Literatures
Deadline for Applications: Monday, August 4, 2025 Call for Applications: A series co-editor for expertise in Middle Eastern literatures, for Best Literary Translations, an annual anthology that has been published by Deep Vellum since 2024. Best Literary Translations (BLT) is an annual anthology of exemplary poetry and prose translations into English that have appeared in […]
“My life has always been based on very deep convictions” || Wole Soyinka in Conversation
In February 2024, we sat with Nobel Laureate Wọlé Ṣóyínká as part of the production of Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory — a documentary biopic that examines a location at the University of Ìbàdàn where he lived briefly when he was appointed as the first Nigerian Head of the School of Drama. It was […]
How Susanne Wenger Turned the World Into a Classroom for a Young Artist
Susanne Wenger may have lived in Òṣogbo, but Ìbàdàn always found a way to tug her back. The distance between the two cities wasn’t exactly a stroll, though it wasn’t terribly far either. She would often hop in her car, cruise through the roads connecting both towns, stop over in Ìbàdàn for a few hours […]
AI Writes. I Bleed
When I came across a writer’s online rant about his original work being flagged as 60% AI-generated, I thought he must be a bad writer. Not because the detectors are infallible, but because I’ve come to believe AI itself is a bad writer. Clean, articulate, even clever, but insipid. It writes with zero soul. So, […]
Sóyínká Off Broadway: Swamps and Syntheses
The off-Broadway premiere of Wole Soyinka’s 1958 play, The Swamp Dwellers, offers at least two reasons to be excited, and hopeful. The first comes from a point that is almost over-made in the American media, with theatre critics describing the event as some sort of lost-and-found moment. The New York Times reported the playwright himself […]
Black Orpheus Dispatch: On Re-counting History
On re-counting history 68-sh, 50-sh years later I It is easy to miss the moment when an intellectual tradition starts to wither: there is no bang, no funeral, no obituary. Nothing grand. It just disappears, and one day, you look around and realise that everything is gone, via a slow, suffocating erosion. Black Orpheus was […]
Presenting the Digitized Black Orpheus Journals
It gives us some pleasure to present the digitized copies of Black Orpheus journal to the public for the first time. Over the last six months, we’ve worked with Archivi.ng, a Nigerian nonprofit digitizing newspapers and other culture materials, to scan all the copies of Black Orpheus journals we obtained as part of the Black […]