Growing Up Too Fast
I think one of the quietest tragedies of this generation is how quickly young people are forced to become adults. In many Nigerian homes, childhood does not last very long. At some point, you stop be…
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Identity
How people understand themselves—values, status, roles, and personal meaning.
The Path of Least Resistance
I saw a quote that says people will always gravitate towards the path of least resistance. This means that in every situation, humans will follow the easiest route. This means that most of our choice…
Incentives Control Behaviours Than Intentions Do
I usually will come upon a profound statement in my nomadic doomscrolling on social media, usually on Twitter. These statements trigger deep thinking and philosophizing, and then I end up having exte…
The pressure to become somebody
I think one of the biggest fears young people carry today is the fear of becoming nobody. It is a quiet fear, but it shows up everywhere. In conversations about money. In the pressure to succeed ear…
The Last Canoe Carver on Ikorodu Road
There is a man on the edge of Ikorodu who still speaks to wood. His name is Baba Rasheed, and most mornings you will find him beneath a rusted zinc roof, not far from the lagoon's edge, bent over a ho…
Nobody told me about the waiting
A few months ago, I was lying in bed when a thought came into my head that has refused to leave ever since. What happens after school? Not after my final exams. Not after signing out or taking graduat…
The Performance Of Widowhood.
Widowhood is supposed to be a universal term, an umbrella broad enough to hold anyone who has lost a spouse. That is what the English dictionary defines it as. However, in many African societies,…
Fear is a Poor Strategist
Fear is very damaging, it cuts deep and renders you powerless, makes you feel like a blank with no prospect. I feel it consume me everywhere and even when I hang on to the little threads of hope, I st…
The quiet grief of outgrowing people
Nobody really talks about how painful it is to outgrow people you once thought would stay in your life forever. Not every ending is dramatic. Sometimes there is no argument, no betrayal, no final goo…
A holy blindness
I woke up to the call for Subhi. I immediately performed my ablution and jogged to the mosque opposite Mallam Bilyamin's ungwa for congregational prayer. With my forehead pressed to the mat, I asked…
The infidel's tear
“Go away!” “Dan Allah mallama, ina ji yunwa,” I said, emphasizing my hunger and need for help, no matter how small. “Don't bother me, Dan iska. Abi na me born you? All these useless Almajiri,” she…
A Borrowed Fate
As I crouched behind the rusted kiosk, lost in my thoughts and trying to understand what my mind was playing at, a sharp pain at the back of my head pulled me out of my reverie. I turned around. One o…
What We Watch: the Rinse and Repeat Problem!
“A direct result of viewership is comparison”. As viewers, audience members, watchers, however you choose to define it, we are constantly measuring what we see. We compare characters, recognize trope…
BLACK GIRL WEAR YOUR CROWN: FRO or NOT!
This greatly introspective piece focuses on a woman navigating her anxious relationship with her natural hair as a marker of identity, self-worth, and belonging. Through flashbacks of criticism, subtle racial comments, internalized bias from peers, strangers and even her own community, her looks by extension her hair becomes a ground shaped and molded to fit societal standards of beauty and acceptance. Through the story she swings back and forth between pride, shame and survival. Wholly, the story captures the emotional pressure and struggle to reclaim confidence in one's natural self.
Born Neutral, Raised Divided
The most dangerous barriers we face as a society are not the ones we can see, but the ones we carry within us, shaped by voices we trusted before we learned to question them.
Nigeria, a Country Where Passion Takes a Back Seat
A child grows up protected and hidden from the ugly truth. Passion in our country is nothing but a laughable topic, a statement made by a clown. In country where even the rich are barely surviving, the rest are left prioritizing survival. Every job, every skill, every connection made roots back to survival at the end of the day.
When Why Becomes How
One question everyone asks themselves in private is, “Why is this happening to me?” We ask that question because we are trying to make sense of an unfortunate situation we have found ourselves in. We also ask because somewhere inside us, we believe we may have done enough good to be spared from what feels like bad fortune.
The Person You Haven't Met
Take ownership of your identity instead of outsourcing it to external voices.
Atom of Healthy Greed
Life's Pursuit, Contentment, and the Tension Within