LAST MONTH, when Benin’s Palais de la Marina in Cotonou opened its doors, a belated history class swung into session. Organized by the president’s office and titled “Benin Art from Yesterday to Today, from Restitution to Revelation,” the exhibition paired work by thirty-four contemporary Beninese artists with a trove of twenty-six royal objects pillaged by the… Continue reading Artforum: Kingdom Comeback – the spectacular return of Benin’s looted art
On 3 October, two days after Nigeria’s Independence Day, a grainy video was posted to Twitter that purportedly showed an attempted murder. A shooting at point blank range. Two unarmed men dragged from a hotel in Delta State by a group of armed men. A gun pointed to the floor. A loud, familiar crack. Smoke...… Continue reading #EndSARS: The first seven days
Dr. Bola Oyeledun arrived at General Hospital in Kafanchan, Kaduna State in 2005, during the peak of Africa’s HIV and AIDS epidemic. Scores of patients awaited her. An emaciated, possibly HIV-positive baby was rushed to her attention by a distressed head nurse and the mother who, sobbing, begged Oyeledun to save her child. She couldn’t. Read more… Continue reading Devex: Uncertainty over PEPFAR support prompts concerns from HIV advocates in Nigeria
Binta Abdullahi had gone through labour a few days before we met but she decided to forfeit some hours of rest to tell me about a lecherous neighbour. The neighbour had been making advances to her teenage daughter, Salamatu* when the girl was enroute evening lessons at her Islamic school. Abdullahi and I met in… Continue reading THISDAY – Young girls in Northern Nigeria are getting empowered in a new way: Picking up the phone
by AYODEJI ROTINWA On September 8th 2015, a sculpture created in memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni 9, a group of environmental activists executed by the Nigerian military government, was seized by the Nigerian Customs Service and has since been in their possession. The sculpture was created by Nigerian-British… Continue reading Newswire NG: Is the Nigerian Customs trying to suppress the memory of the Ogoni 9 executions?
The Rotinwa Read 