2022 Whom Did He Love?, The Brooklyn Rail [archived link]
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 used 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.
2023 Face the Music, Wuruwuru/ Wax Poetics [archived link]
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 [archived link]
On what poor electricity does to our minds.
2023 Can Green Hydrogen tackle Nigeria’s persistent energy poverty?, Unbias the News [archived link]
Following a recent green hydrogen partnership between Germany and Nigeria, we need to examine three issues: energy poverty and development in Nigeria, green hydrogen as a climate-friendly option for Nigeria’s infrastructural development, and the terms of the partnership.
2023 Ephrem Solomon’s Silence Series [pdf], Art from Africa Anthology (print)
“I found that the human face in the series is a mask for silence. And silence, the series showed me, is language before it is mirror.”
2023 The Fire in My Memory, Isele Magazine (winner of Abebi Award in Afro non-fiction) [archived link]
“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.”
2024 Revisit: New Culture Studios in Ibadan by Demas Nwoko, The Architectural Review [archived link]
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.
2022 Will Africapitalism Save Africa?, Le Temps [archived link]
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.
2022 Precious Okoyomon’s Politics of Ecological Revolution, Inkstick [archived link]
In inviting us to consider our politics of relation, 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.
2018 Me, My Body and I, Popula [archived link]
2022 Time and the 1947 Abeokuta Women’s Revolt, History Workshop [archived link]
“The AWU showed they were not interested 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...”
2021 Ekpere Ji Ji [website page], GIDA Journal
The answer to this question–why construct a flat wall?–pulls us back into the realities of post-colonial design where money talks. Circles and triangles are costly to sculpt, cement blocks are mass moulded in rectangles.
2024 Nigeria Online: How Capitalist Individualism is Limiting Liberatory Discourse Among Women in the Nigerian Online Space, The Africa Centre [archived link]
2021 Dispossess: Evictions for Development, Heinrich Böll Stiftung [archived link]
As Lagos pushes to become a 'world-class' city, gentrification continues to displace more low-income residents under the pretext of 'public interest'. This research summary explores how evicted victims are impacted and its implications on trade and the Lagos economy.
Interviews
2023 Wana Udobang’s Gospel of Freedom, The Republic [archived link]
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 prioritising vulnerability and accountability, and more.
Fiction, Poetry & Misc
2022 Why Had They Never Left?, Michigan Quarterly Review mixtape [archived link]
2022 Feature, Tender Photo Journal [pdf]
2019 Sasha Fierce asks ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’, Lunch Ticket [archived link]
2019 In the Hands of God, We Rendezvous, Saraba Mag [archived link]
2018 Joseph Graba, Arts and Africa [pdf]
Peer-reviewed Academic Essays
- 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. [pdf]
- Abba, I., Otitooluwa, T., Agbeh, J. K., Matua, C., Latim, T., Kiconco, J., Oguntade, B., & Codjoe, E. (2023). ‘What is Shared about African Modernism? What is African about Modern Heritage?’ Docomomo Journal, (69), 86–98. https://doi.org/10.52200/docomomo.69.10 [pdf]
in Nsukka, 2022
Unless otherwise stated, all images and text on this website were made by Immaculata Abba.
Copyright: Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2025)