Speaking to journalist, media consultant and SOGI advocate, I share my journey and what it means to be a freelance journalist. writing to the world, from Nigeria. https://player.captivate.fm/episode/8fd21501-bf07-424d-ba6b-10d4020129c1
Charly Boy decided he would wear rouge. It was the 1970s, the height of the sexual revolution in the West, so it wasn’t unusual for men to be seen in makeup. But for a young student in the United States coming from a small town in Nigeria, dressing in ways that drew attention to himself… Continue reading New York Times: What It Means to Dress in Lagos
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
The history of (West) Africa’s most famous, loved and easily identifiable fabric – the Ankara – is a book written with half-truths, missing many scripts and authored by interlopers. Their version of the story begins once upon a time, in the Netherlands where ‘African prints’ (which Ankara is sometimes also called) was first manufactured. Conveniently… Continue reading We Are Dressed Up in Conflict and Appropriation, Colonial Legacy
About a week ago, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, a 30-year-old Nigerian product designer, walked into a high-end lifestyle store in Victoria Island, Lagos’s central business district. He asked if they might stock his “LM Stool,” named after a dear friend. The two-legged stool—created by bending, welding, and laser-cutting metal—looks weightless, and comes in two colors. It’s currently on… Continue reading VOGUE: Meet the Nigerian Product Designers Behind a New Brand of Minimalism
“Made-in-Nigeria goods are taking on a new shine,” says Femi Olayebi, founder of the Lagos Leather Fair and the designer of an eponymous handbag label. “In the past few years a surge of designers has conscientiously made grand efforts to offer beautifully made goods.” Now everyone wants a piece. Read more HERE
Michael Soi was hard at work in his Nairobi studio, speckled in acrylic paints, when four unidentified Chinese men and women walked in, demanding to see some paintings. It was July 2015, and Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting Kenya. Soi’s visitors didn’t wait for him to respond. They moved around the studio, shifting cans… Continue reading OZY: Africa’s New Satirists Draw Political Fire
Like other African cities, or the entire continent for that matter - who are victims of the West’s pen, weaponized by half-truths, misconceptions, single stories and unfortunate generalizations – Lagos is a misrepresented little giant. Yes, we are coastal and really should be investing more in water transportation instead of choking our roads with more… Continue reading Lagos is Not Only Yellow Buses and Hours-Long Traffic
Get ready to bake. It’s hot or humid in Lagos all year round. Not warm. Hot. Only from mid-December to January does the city cool off, when the Harmattan winds bring a plague of dust instead. When you arrive at the airport, have your sunglasses and hat ready. And skip the airport taxis: you’ll have… Continue reading Roads & Kingdoms: 18 Things to Know Before you Go to Lagos
"It is only when tires don’t roll on the road, that’s when we don’t make any money,” Oriyomi tells me. We are in an alley of Lagos Island standing on the remains of an abandoned building that was intended to be a bungalow. Iron bars, straight and bent, stick out of the building’s foundation.… Continue reading CNN / Explore Parts Unknown: The Birth of the Agbero: A Toll Collector, A Menace of Lagos
The Rotinwa Read 