Last month i got the opportunity to attend the annual AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa thanks to an International Reporting Project(IRP) fellowship. Amongst many enlightening sessions was a pre-conference keynote address given by activist Bisi Alimi. Though the narrative has mostly focused on him being the first Nigerian to publicly come out on Nigerian […]
THIS IS NOT A FEMINIST POEM By Wana Udobang This is not a feminist poem This is not contorted metaphors with neither punch line nor chorus This is not a feminist poem It is a woman learning to trade possessions before her lover takes his last breath. She will never get the chance to […]
When I was a child the image of my mother barging through our front door pulling up her dress, pulling down her girdle and exhaling as she let our a big sigh has never quite left me. The tight elastic from the girdle would leave her yellow skin red and embossed with lines and patterns. […]
Finally my poem ‘The Banquet’ gets a visual treatment thanks to my brother and friend director/music producer Niyi XYZ Faleyimu. I asked if he could help me out with some kind of montage and i quite enjoyed what he came up with. I hope you do too.
Emmanuel Iduma is a writer and art critic who has been traveling with the Invisible Borders Trans African project since 2011. In our session, we talk about intimacy with strangers, cultural ownership and otherness. During the press conference you talked about wanting to explore being a stranger in a place, especially when you do […]
This year I have partnered with the Invisible Borders TransAfrican project; a travel project that assembles writers and photographers who move across cities questioning boarders and mapping out diversity. This year the project has decided to travel within Nigeria seeking to question the Nigerian identity as well as its artificial boarders. My first of […]
I am regularly trolling the internet for inspiration and more so right now as i am working on my new poetry album. My current poetry obsession is Vanessa Kisuule. I don’t know whether it is the way she is able to weave her words with emotions seamlessly yet delivering them with a certain kind […]
Like most of contemporary art, abstract and conceptual photography gets a lot of flack for being artsy fartsy self indulgent nonsense. This is why interviewing artist and photographer Abraham Oghobase seemed for me my most emotional interview in this series so far. Being an artist already places you on the fringe of things and […]
You know one of those friends who never mind their business. Before you know it every conversation turns into a career counselling session and if there is any extra time in view, it is likely to morph into an intervention. Yes those types of friends. Those really annoying kinds that sometimes you would rather […]
THE BANQUET By Wana Udobang Never discard the bones. Boil them till the marrow slips and melts on your tongue. Nothing about you is useless Soften your heart. You need to be tender enough to soak up the flavours, temper enough to mop up the juice. You mustn’t be hard to swallow Revel in […]