AFRICA
Finding Bàrà: History at an Empire Town
Bàrà was the burial site of the Aláàfin (King) of Ọ̀yọ́, ruler over the empire and its millions of subjects. “It is a spiritual site. When a new Aláàfin was to be installed, the Aláàfin-elect must come here to worship the past Aláàfins."
Naked and Not Ashamed
Nakedness in dreams was a terrible thing. It called for extra caution in your day-to-day life. It could require several days of prayer and fasting, depending on the perceived severity.
Barter
Barter Because it’s 1945 And the Allies put a war horse over a west African infantryman, A boy is traded for a horse.
African Football Under the Western Gaze
The Western gaze comes from the idea that Eurocentrism influences the way we (Africans) are perceived, the way we think, and how we in turn see ourselves.
Family Affair
He belongs to a generation of Nigerian men raised to be strong, silent, and hopelessly incapable of accepting complicity even in the face of clear damage. The patriarchy is alive in him indeed.
Nigeria’s Holy Romance with Ignorance
Our dealings are dominated by a disregard for scientific reasoning, and a preference for ostentatious, and often venal religiosity.
Lagos to Lomé: Reflections on Borders
All our lives, a series of crossings. The parts of our existence we are often not proud to claim still make up the sum total of our lives.
Introducing the Olongo Talk Series
Our interest at Olongo Africa is to promote the interest of African creative works, artists, writers, curators, and producers of culture, and to collaborate in ways to enhance their vision as it intersects with issues of the moment across African countries today.
Are African Writers Ready For Science Fiction?
Although science fiction is still a white-dominated genre, Black sci-fi has come far from the days of zombies, aliens and white-washed robots. We have seen how much culture and history can be woven into technology to birth Afrofuturism.
First Principles
There were bigger boys. Boys with the height of a pole and the bulk of a boxer. And they knew it, that they were bigger and dangerous and powerful. So, they taunted the smaller kids and took their lunches and asked them to hang upside down.