The Art of African Braiding, Through the Eyes of Gen Z
In many African cultures, hair can carry stories from one generation to another. Through braiding and threading techniques, a simple change in appearance can become meaningful, representing different statuses and stages across an individual’s lifespan. Hair traditions were therefore fundamental to a community’s identity, often signifying the crown of its kinship and the core of […]
Whose Taste Is It Anyway? The Cultural Renaissance of the African Home
In the 2009 published book Yoruba Proverbs and Philosophy, author and traditional leader Chief F.I. Sotunde coined the term “westernosomiasis,” a condition he believed was draining African youth of cultural pride, treating their heritage with indifference while embracing anything Western. He wrote about what was at stake for future generations and the significance of returning […]
Young African Photographers Are Looking Back
In 2024, a Nigerian hit found a second life on social media. “Who Get Dat Thing (Remix),” by Dekumzy featuring Slow Dog and Stormrex, began circulating after a group of young Nigerian women recreated the choreography to Stormrex’s verse, dressed in the exaggerated glamour of the late 1990s and early 2000s: fitted tops, low-rise bottoms, […]
Yemi Alade, In Her Own Name
It is a blazing noon in the second week of March 2026 when the Grammy-nominated artist Yemi Alade presses record on a “Get Ready With Me” video. She begins with a meditative hook, her eyes closed, her hands pressed together solemnly. In the same measured succession, she works moisturising cream into her face before turning […]
Holy Dress Codes: What Comes to Mind When You See the Garment?
There is usually something immediately legible about religious dress codes. When I see a woman in a hijab, a man in a yarmulke, or a Black American Southern Baptist church hat, I have some sense of who they are — their values, their community, their relationship to God, defined largely on their own terms. In […]
In Lagos & Accra, an Underground Queer Ballroom Scene Thrives Again
When Timileyin Olaide Kayode started Pride in Lagos in 2021, he didn’t anticipate how big it would become. He only knew there was a need for queer Nigerians to have a visible, collective space to exist and celebrate themselves. Five years later, it has grown into a major Owambe ball and the very reason a […]
Building Around Broken Systems
When Godwin Okoruwa, founder and creative director of GDWN, started his gender-fluid label amidst the pandemic in 2020, he had it firmly at the back of his mind that he had to build purely from his instinct. There was no elaborate market analysis or established blueprint for how the brand would grow. His already decade-long […]
The Record Is the Asset
“Get the right person in the room and they can tell you exactly where a record lives.” Adaobi Orajiaku is describing Nigeria’s National Gallery of Art. Its documentation department maintains printed and handwritten catalogues recording how each work entered the national collection. Orajiaku’s company, Atsur, has spent the past two years working with the Gallery […]
Akin Faminu on Style, Taste and the Things He Returns To
Akin Faminu can spend one evening watching a 1999 Dolce & Gabbana show and another reading an anatomy textbook from cover to cover. The medical doctor and fashion creator has built a public life around style, but his tastes extend well beyond clothes. For this edition of Word of Mouth, Faminu talks about the designers […]
The Back of the Field
Across Buea, Lagos, Nairobi and Cairo, a running boom is exposing the hidden economics of belonging. Who pays to keep a community free, who profits when it grows, and why not one of six global brands would say what any of it is worth.