I came home early that day, the office left behind like a battlefield where I had lost a fight I never started. My pets stared at me, their wide eyes full of questions they couldn’t ask but seemed to know. They always knew. “I’m on probation,” I [...]

Pets are not just animals in our homes; they are family, bringing joy, comfort and companionship words can’t fully capture. Among all pets, dogs have been “man’s best friend” for centuries. Their loyalty, playfulness and affection make them [...]

Control has always felt like a suffocating weight on my chest. I despise it deeply, and I often find myself reflecting on the six long years I spent in an authoritarian-style Christian school where every thought, every step, and every gesture [...]

I am a book! Well, to so many other people, books are a fountain of wisdom. Key to the greatest treasures in the world, or a bound set of blank sheets. But I must say, I am more than just a book! For I hold the weight of endless possibilities [...]

There was this poem I read when I was still in secondary school. It was titled, “The Panic of Growing Older.” There’s a panic I feel but it’s not of me, it’s of my parents. Along came an Instagram post that read, “We don’t talk enough about the [...]

This is not a pep talk from someone who just stubbed her toe on reality. This is a scream from the heart of a young Nigerian girl, writing with the grit of unfulfilled dreams. They tell us a bad day doesn’t mean a bad life. But what about when [...]

On the warm afternoon of October 2, 2020, my mother received a phone call from a relative of my best friend. Instinctively, she tried to hand me the phone, but the person on the other end asked that she hear the news first to relay it to me with [...]

Old dogs can learn new tricks. After graduating in December 2019, I landed a job in one of the posh primary schools in Kenya. It was posh as all the students had a master of the queen’s language; unlike the village I originate from, where we all [...]

Growing up, albinism was never really something I thought about. My childhood was a happy blur of playing outside, laughing with friends, and dreaming about the future—just like any other kid. My family made sure I felt included and loved, and I [...]

I sat looking at the blank page on my laptop; that blinking cursor was relentless, almost mocking me as if I could not put pen to paper. At 24, one would expect me to have ideas racing through my mind, gushing with all the ambition and [...]

E. Joseph Cossman once said, “The greatest power is often simple patience.” I concur wholeheartedly, as this principle was embodied in the way my father built our home. As a child, I remember gazing at the building plans, marveling at how sand, [...]

Lately, memories from my childhood have been surfacing, like fragments of a forgotten dream. One late afternoon stands out vividly. I had gone to buy Baba Dudu from a Hausa man’s kiosk, drawn there not just for the goods but for the intoxicating [...]