Writing
I’m currently writing a bunch of essays for Sweet Medicine, my advocacy project for social healing in Nigeria through research and practice in the humanities and social sciences. Click to listen to Chapters 1, 2, and 3 (out of 7) out now.
- written on November 13, 2024.
If you see this later, the other chapters are going one every Tuesday until the end.
If you see this later, the other chapters are going one every Tuesday until the end.
Personal Essays
2023 The Fire in My Memory, Isele Magazine (winner of Abebi Award in Afro non-fiction)
“In another dream, a fire began on one end of our city and blazed through it. I heard about the fire while I was in school so I started running with my friends. We ran for our lives for what felt like a lifetime and we could still not outrun the fire.”
2023 Does Your God Sleep?, Za! publication (Juju Issue)
2022 Whom Did He Love?, The Brooklyn Rail
In this short essay, I looked for my grandfathers in the tender face of a young man photographed in 1911 by N. W. Thomas, the official anthropologist of the British Colonial Office. I use an experimental memoir approach to discuss the socio-political context and consequences of the photo. Listen to me and other November issue critics talk about our contributions here.
2019 In the Hands of God, We Rendezvous, Saraba Mag
2018 Me, My Body and I, Popula
Fiction
2022 Why Had They Never Left?, Michigan Quarterly Review mixtape
2018 Joseph Graba, Arts and Africa
Poetry & Misc
2022 Feature, Tender Photo Journal
2019 Sasha Fierce asks ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’, Lunch Ticket
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
- Abba, I. (2022). Conflicting Temporalities in the Struggle for Independence in Late-Colonial Nigeria (1945-1960). KUJUA: Journal of the African Studies Students' Association 2022, 2(1), 8-28.
Interviews
2023 Wana Udobang’s Gospel of Freedom, The Republic (2023)
an interview profile of Wana Udobang, one of the poets who revitalized the Nigerian poetry landscape in the last decade. I spoke to Udobang about emotional abandonment, the body as subject and object, the power of re-imagining personal and collective histories, the Nigerian creative/cultural industry, her role in shifting the culture towards greater levels of vulnerability and accountability, and more.
🫧 Other essays
2024 Revisit: New Culture Studios in Ibadan by Demas Nwoko, The Architectural Review
on how Demas Nwoko built his New Culture Studios and how the ever‑evolving arts and culture centre offers lessons in local and sustainable ways of building.
2024 Nigeria Online: Capitalism & Feminism: How Capitalist Individualism is Limiting Liberatory Discourse Among Women in the Nigerian Online Space, The Africa Centre
The rising popularity online of a Nigerian ‘soft life’—reminiscent of the Western ‘girlboss’ in its capitalist individualism—within the Nigerian online space is one major way I see our attention and energies being co-opted to focus instead on the consumerist enjoyment and for-private-profit hustle.
2023 Face the Music, Wuruwuru/ Wax Poetics
on how 1970s Nigerian album covers reflected reconstruction of personal and collective identities in this tumultuous decade of Nigeria’s history.
2023 In the Dark in Nigeria, Popula
on what poor electricity does to our minds.
2023 Can Green Hydrogen tackle Nigeria’s persistent energy poverty?, Unbias the News
Following a recent green hydrogen partnership between Germany and Nigeria, we need to interrogate three issues: energy poverty and development in Nigeria, green hydrogen as a climate-friendly option in Nigeria’s infrastructural development, and the terms of the Germany-Nigeria partnership.
2022 Time and the 1947 Abeokuta Women’s Revolt, History Workshop
“The AWU showed they were not interested either in the resurrection of old political titles, nor were they under the illusion that the Africanisation of the government would be the victory to end all struggles. From lived experience, women saw that the journey from living under colonial European leaders to indigenous African leaders was one of continual resistance against oppression, rather than a rupture. These women were not banking on independence as their source of redemption...”
2022 Precious Okoyomon’s Politics of Ecological Revolution, Inkstick
In inviting us to consider our politics of relation and interconnectivity, Okoyomon calls us to recognize not just our place in the family of things, but also our responsibility of care in it, especially in the face of our global ecological crisis.
2022 Will Africapitalism Save Africa?, Le Temps
Our current economic system needs to go beyond the Africanisation of an exploitative system. It needs to foreground collective responsibility instead, be vigilant about closing the inequality gap and commit to the welfare of all workers, consumers and the environment.
(This op-ed was featured as part of a debate series, alongside Tony Elumelu, Khadija Sarife and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira).
Listen to me talk more about Africapitalism on the Nigerian Scam podcast, following my essay in The Republic.
2021 Dispossess: Evictions for Development, Heinrich Böll Stiftung
As Lagos pushes to become a 'world-class' city, gentrification increases with more low-income residents being displaced under the pretext of 'public interest'. This research summary explores how evicted victims are impacted and its implications on trade and the Lagos economy.
2024 Revisit: New Culture Studios in Ibadan by Demas Nwoko, The Architectural Review
on how Demas Nwoko built his New Culture Studios and how the ever‑evolving arts and culture centre offers lessons in local and sustainable ways of building.
2024 Nigeria Online: Capitalism & Feminism: How Capitalist Individualism is Limiting Liberatory Discourse Among Women in the Nigerian Online Space, The Africa Centre
The rising popularity online of a Nigerian ‘soft life’—reminiscent of the Western ‘girlboss’ in its capitalist individualism—within the Nigerian online space is one major way I see our attention and energies being co-opted to focus instead on the consumerist enjoyment and for-private-profit hustle.
2023 Face the Music, Wuruwuru/ Wax Poetics
on how 1970s Nigerian album covers reflected reconstruction of personal and collective identities in this tumultuous decade of Nigeria’s history.
2023 In the Dark in Nigeria, Popula
on what poor electricity does to our minds.
2023 Can Green Hydrogen tackle Nigeria’s persistent energy poverty?, Unbias the News
Following a recent green hydrogen partnership between Germany and Nigeria, we need to interrogate three issues: energy poverty and development in Nigeria, green hydrogen as a climate-friendly option in Nigeria’s infrastructural development, and the terms of the Germany-Nigeria partnership.
2022 Time and the 1947 Abeokuta Women’s Revolt, History Workshop
“The AWU showed they were not interested either in the resurrection of old political titles, nor were they under the illusion that the Africanisation of the government would be the victory to end all struggles. From lived experience, women saw that the journey from living under colonial European leaders to indigenous African leaders was one of continual resistance against oppression, rather than a rupture. These women were not banking on independence as their source of redemption...”
2022 Precious Okoyomon’s Politics of Ecological Revolution, Inkstick
In inviting us to consider our politics of relation and interconnectivity, Okoyomon calls us to recognize not just our place in the family of things, but also our responsibility of care in it, especially in the face of our global ecological crisis.
2022 Will Africapitalism Save Africa?, Le Temps
Our current economic system needs to go beyond the Africanisation of an exploitative system. It needs to foreground collective responsibility instead, be vigilant about closing the inequality gap and commit to the welfare of all workers, consumers and the environment.
(This op-ed was featured as part of a debate series, alongside Tony Elumelu, Khadija Sarife and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira).
Listen to me talk more about Africapitalism on the Nigerian Scam podcast, following my essay in The Republic.
2021 Dispossess: Evictions for Development, Heinrich Böll Stiftung
As Lagos pushes to become a 'world-class' city, gentrification increases with more low-income residents being displaced under the pretext of 'public interest'. This research summary explores how evicted victims are impacted and its implications on trade and the Lagos economy.
(Nsukka, 2022)
Unless otherwise stated, all images and writing on this website were made by Immaculata Abba.
Copyright: Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2024)
Copyright: Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2024)