Nigerian-Canadian poet Ademola Adesola has announced the forthcoming release of his debut poetry collection, “Dancing with My Tongue,” due for publication in May 2026 by Fairchild Media Publishing. The collection will be available in Nigeria, Canada,...
Talents Durban, in partnership with Berlinale Talents and the Goethe-Institut, has opened...
In 2014, the world gave the Chibok girls a hashtag. In 2026,...
Waterside, a critically admired Nigerian play that probes faith, family and the...
In a climate where social media constantly serves up a glut of unattainable beauty standards, a book like Hairstory offers a refreshing antidote to such messaging and should be valued. This quality has earned it favourable comparisons to Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
.
Shaitan: Telekinesis and Arodan Review – Michael Kolawole
...Brymo returns with a two-in-one album
.
A Celebration of African Hair: A Review of Hairstory by Sope Martins – Akumbu Uche
Hairstory, Sope Martins, 2026; Simon & Schuster, pp 48
Hymar David’s Memoir Is A Brave Manifesto for Self-Discovery & True Grit – Sima Essien
Hymar David, I For Don Blow But I Too Dey Press Phone (Extended Version), Narrative Landscape Press, 2025, pp. 258
This is set to appear on mobile phone devices only
Latest Posts
Nigerian-Canadian poet Ademola Adesola has announced the forthcoming release of his debut...
Talents Durban, in partnership with Berlinale Talents and the Goethe-Institut, has opened...
In 2014, the world gave the Chibok girls a hashtag. In 2026,...
Waterside, a critically admired Nigerian play that probes faith, family and the...
In a climate where social media constantly serves up a glut of unattainable beauty standards, a book like Hairstory offers a refreshing antidote to such messaging and should be valued. This quality has earned it favourable comparisons to Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
Nollywoodʼs suffering mother, in its earliest and most honest incarnations, had something of the former. In most of its contemporary iterations and certainly in its most commercially successful one, it has become the latter. The mother suffers, the children unite, the audience weeps, the credits roll, the naira accumulates...
Speaking further the curator noted that “our mission is to provide visibility, opportunity, and creative freedom for emerging Nigerian artists and photographers by creating an inclusive exhibition space that celebrates innovation, experimentation, and authentic storytelling.”
This week’s music scene is buzzing with a series of powerful releases...
Quramo Publishing has announced that submissions are now open for the 2026...
The 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist has been revealed with Marcia...
Algeria has formally expressed interest in hosting a future edition of the...
Renowned filmmakers Tunde Kelani and Joel Kachi Benson will headline a three-day...
Nollywoodʼs suffering mother, in its earliest and most honest incarnations, had something of the former. In most of its contemporary iterations and certainly in its most commercially successful one, it has become the latter. The mother suffers, the children unite, the audience weeps, the credits roll, the naira accumulates...
Short film production has been on the rise with producers taking advantage of the availability of streaming platforms like YouTube, a change in cultural viewing habits with more people leaning towards short and on-the-go content as opposed to long-form pieces,...
This section humanises Wizkid by refusing spectacle. Even at this height of his success, the documentary insists, greatness is still labour. Fame does not erase anxiety; it simply magnifies what is at risk. And when he learns that his ailing (now deceased) mother's health has worsened, almost colliding with his struggles to get his set ready, we see the pain behind the fame.
By the time the album closes with “Wild Goose Chase,” exhaustion has set in for Brymo. Tired of his foolish, hopeless search for love, relevance, and the pursuit of happiness, he pleads that the mirage should be taken from him. Sung in Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin, "Wild Goose Chase” transitions to become “Arodan”, the title and opening track on the Yoruba segment of Shaitan. Serving as a link, the song neatly ties the albums together, indicating that they are one.
Lyrically, the album resists tidy interpretation. Shallipopi prefers suggestion to clarity, repetition to exposition. Phrases loop until they begin to feel hypnotic, as though meaning might eventually reveal itself through repetition an observation that one might also make about Omah Lay. It may seem like laziness, but it is a strategy. “Laho” is a quintessential example. The repetition of the word “Laho” makes it an ear worm and a global hit.
Love is never one thing. It bends, expands, bruises, heals. In Tems’ new EP, it evolves into a kingdom, a place she builds, guards, and offers only on her own terms. Love Is A Kingdom explores love, power, spirituality, self-awareness,...
In a climate where social media constantly serves up a glut of unattainable beauty standards, a book like Hairstory offers a refreshing antidote to such messaging and should be valued. This quality has earned it favourable comparisons to Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
The memoir progressively comes off as an album of eclectic cuts. If “Signs of Our Redemption” burns bright as the bold anthem chronicling the #EndSARS saga, “Don't Cry For Me, Argentina” is the wistful paean for diminished talents and dreams (“Nigeria happens to the best of us…”), while “And Always Remember Them” stands out as a poetic and elegiac tribute to the fiery season of 2020 (“It is the forgotten who are truly dead” p. 192). David's use of “We remember them” as a refrain in that chapter creates a hypnotic, incantatory rhythm that sustains emotional accumulation.
Jideonwo leans into this rule, but then, as if looking to validate his struggles, he constantly makes reference to the experiences of various celebrity guests who have graced his #WithChude talk show. In social interactions, he would be called a name-dropper. In print, these insertions come off as cross-promotion and shortchange the book’s efficacy as a memoir.
Send In Your Submissions
To feature on thelagosreview.ng, simply send your writings to submissions@thelagosreview.ng
Talents Durban, in partnership with Berlinale Talents and the Goethe-Institut, has opened applications for the 2026 edition of Talent Press,...
Interviews
Now based between Lagos and Toronto, Elsie is bringing a new kind of African digital storytelling to the world. She’s bilingual in culture, able to code-switch between Afrobeat street trends and Western pop references with ease. This ability to exist in multiple cultural spaces without diluting her message makes her relatable, magnetic, and globally relevant.
Because of this, our environment becomes vital to our progress. As a fifteen-year-old, I knew this intuitively, not as I know it now, not theoretically. I knew that my environment was limited in significant ways. It wasn't one for creativity or imagination. It lay at the tail end of cynicism
A Celebration of African Hair: A Review of Hairstory by Sope Martins – Akumbu Uche
Hairstory, Sope Martins, 2026; Simon & Schuster, pp 48
Awele and friends present “Wake Up!” art exhibition at Angels and Muse
To run from March 21 – 28, 2026
