Iheoma Uzomba

1 month ago | opencountrymag.com | Paula Willie-Okafor |Orji Victor Ebubechukwu |Iheoma Uzomba |Otosirieze Obi-Young

There are days when I think that Nollywood film critics are too harsh and more days when I think they are not harsh enough: it reflects an inconsistent industry from which the two biggest streamers, first Prime Video and then Netflix, have pulled out — a business many of whose stakeholders seem to not understand that there is no extent of “branding” or trumpeting of “numbers,” no annual feature in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter stalely announcing “the rise” and “arrival” of “African...

Jan 14, 2025 | opencountrymag.com | Paula Willie-Okafor |Iheoma Uzomba |Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera |Michael Aromolaran |Otosirieze Obi-Young

Our top stories of 2024 are not so much our most-read pieces as they are the pieces that reflect the range of subjects we covered in the year, and that we therefore recommend, in case you missed reading them. They show our deep work in finding untold stories, contextualizing developments in African literature and Nollywood, and highlighting the shapers of culture and industries.

Jul 26, 2024 | opencountrymag.com | Iheoma Uzomba

Aiwanose Odafen had seen so many of her aunts persevere in difficult marriages, but it was when it happened to a friend of hers that she felt the need to encourage the women around her to push back. Her friend, only 22 then, was in an abusive marriage. “I felt she was too young to be dealing with those sorts of issues,” Odafen told me.

Jun 3, 2024 | opencountrymag.com | Iheoma Uzomba |Otosirieze Obi-Young

The Nigerian poet Adedayo Agarau has won a Poetic Justice Institute Book Prize for his manuscript The Years of Blood. He received the organisation’s Editors Prize for a BIPOC Writer, which comes with $1,000 and a publication deal. Here is an exclusive synopsis: In this searing debut, Adedayo Agarau immerses readers in the haunting of his childhood in Ibadan, Nigeria, set against the country’s turbulent transition from military rule to democracy.

Mar 28, 2024 | opencountrymag.com | Iheoma Uzomba

It is the early 2000s and Momtaza Mehri is a kid sprawled on the couch, watching poetry contests on Emirates TV and other pan-Arab channels. Scattered all over the room are her parents’ cassettes, mainly of Gabay, a kind of Somali poetry that is chanted. They live in Dammam, a coastal city in eastern Saudi Arabia that, unlike the capital city of Riyadh, is lackluster, stiff in a way that suggests routine rather than stagnation. So for the family, routine meant, among other things, watching TV.