Writing 


I wrote the Sweet Medicine (2024) podcast, my advocacy project for social healing in Nigeria through research and practice in the humanities and social sciences.

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





Interviews


2023                Wana Udobang’s Gospel of FreedomThe 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.



 🫧 Some 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.


2023                Ephrem Solomon’s Silence Series, Art from Africa Anthology (print)

“ in my attentiveness, 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.”


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)