Nigeria

The clashes are instant in this interesting, fashionable take on Africa’s largest city, yet the show’s Season 1 is unable to stamp its own identity or manufacture original conflicts.

As warring sister chefs, Funke Akindele and Mercy Johnson, aided by a tight script, torch each other in an entertaining, and ultimately touching, tale that became Nollywood’s highest-grossing film of all-time.

Blossom Chukwujekwu puts in an indelible layered performance as a criminal defined by a deep-seated sense of manhood.

A magnetic Femi Adebayo doubles as producer and star of this story about a kingdom caught in ancestral turmoil.

As conversations sethe about the “death” of Nigerian literature and the loss of authenticity in its poetry, a writer counters for the growing japa-MFA subculture: “I call them the Nomadic Generation because of their complication of nationalism.”

A long career playing playboys and villains, including a soldier in ’76 and real-life robber Monday Osunbor, set him apart as an intriguing supporting act. But after a moment of personal adversity, he dug deep and returned in Shanty Town — a domineering leading turn unlike any other we have seen in Nollywood.

The magical realist delights of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s third novel.

In Prime Video’s first Africa Original, Jade Osiberu takes on forceful, compelling ideas to varying results, but most of the cast shine, especially the singer Chike.

Aided by Tobi Bakre’s AMVCA Best Drama Actor-winning turn, director Loukman Ali and producer Jade Osiberu’s shot at telling a memorable story prioritizes spectacle over relationships.

A strong ensemble including Nse Ikpe-Etim and Nancy Isime, playing off a domineering leading performance by Chidi Mokeme, enhances Netflix’s intense limited series. But its grittiness can veer, avoidably and frustratingly, into violence porn.

Chidi Mokeme and Nse Ikpe-Etim were snubbed in a near shut-out of Netflix series Shanty Town, with Tobi Bakre scooping a shock Best Drama Actor victory as Brotherhood swept its categories. Perennial Best Comedy Actress champ Funke Akindele also lost for the first time in five years while Anikulapo won Best Overall Movie.

Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, the actress’ debut collection of stories, sold over 2,200 copies, assuring it the No. 1 spot on The Rovingheights Bestseller List: Presented with Open Country Mag. So why do these stories of failing romance connect so widely?

Alhaji Waziri Oshomah fused Highlife, local folk styles, and Western pop into songs of positivity in Auchi, Nigeria. When New York label Luaka Bop released The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah in its World Spirituality Classics series last year, we spoke to musician and label about his artistry.

In addition to literary and film stories on Open Country Mag, you can now also read stories in business, culture, and society from Folio Nigeria.

In the private space of family and the public space of Biafra, a significant new memoir asks questions of loss and longing. But will the answers be enough?

Despite characters that are not fully realized, and a convenient central dilemma, Dakore Egbuson-Akande and Nse Ikpe-Etim serve the strength of connection between women.

Since she erupted in The Meeting, playing against type as a hilariously antagonistic receptionist, the superstar has embodied complex women, including a soldier’s wife in ’76 and a bewitching singer in La Femme Anjola. Now, 25 years into her career, she is Nollywood’s most critically acclaimed actor, and Open Country Mag‘s first film cover star. But where does she draw from to inhabit these women?