Review

Blood Sisters, the latest offering from EbonyLife Studios and NETFLIX’s  first Nigerian Original Series, is, at its best, a performance of cinematography. I have this image in my head of the filmmakers as peacocks, preening in anticipation of audiences’ reaction; I imagine them thinking, “their jaws will drop!”  This is not a bad thing, creating […]

     By merely looking at the cover of the book Nigerians… in Theory by Joe Abah and Yemi Adesanya, one might immediately place it within a certain tradition of Nigerian long-form commentary. For one, its sub-title ‘Our Quirks, Habits & Idiosyncrasies’. For another, its choice for cover art: cartoon characters illustrating the familiar scenario of […]

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. – Toni Morrison What does it mean to bring a city to life? To show its shapes and contours without yielding to the oft-tendency to romanticise? Eloghosa Osunde’s riveting debut, Vagabonds!, answers through a set of interlinked stories which can be read as a whole or independently, […]

Nigeria’s movie industry, Nollywood can no longer be regarded as a nascent industry, even though theorists and film historians are now defining the current age as the age of ‘New Nollywood’ because of advances in storytelling and cinematography. Still, the industry finds it difficult to move away from weak high society stories and romantic comedies. […]

Madness is often associated with the extent that an observed behaviour deviates from what is expected. This difference may also extend to distance – how far away observations are from expectations. In the realm of those classified as “sans sense”, this distance has physical manifestations. We cast away those who display actions counterpoint to normative […]

Disruption, the 2021 anthology of Short Story Day Africa, with its themes and carefully chosen title, couldn’t have arrived at a better time. 2021, like the preceding year, will go down in history as one of the weirdest years in humanity — a rather ordinary year disrupted by pandemic and human follies.  With stories from […]

Kunle Afolayan’s latest Netflix original property, Swallow is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Sefi Atta, one of the most influential contemporary Nigerian writers.  Released on the global platform as the big Independence Day release, Afolayan’s visual interpretation futilely gropes for ideas about national identity, economic inequality and the ways that […]

Yabasi is Basket Mouth’s debut album of 10 high-octane tracks that feature a variety of Nigerian artistes who bring their prowess to bear on the project, culminating into a medley. Even though Yabasi is his first full music project, Basket Mouth, an established comedian and actor, is not a stranger to music. He recalls in […]

Colours of Hatred is a riveting narrative,  coordinating language beautifully and weaving a fine web of intricacies through the different characters Obinna Udenwe presents before us. It could be suggested that Obinna had a fine story and employed characters to help him execute the job and sometimes those characters’ place in the story could be […]

Abi Dare’s debut novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice, is one that begins on a high note, engaging the reader immediately. Narrated by a teenage protagonist who is so relatable that her voice to the reader feels like friends gossiping, the novel is set in the protagonist’s village and Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. Even […]