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October 9, 2026

What Adedayo Agarau Got from His Fathers

The Nigerian poet did not necessarily plan for his first full-length collection, The Years of Blood, to confront his boyhood in a stark way. But the layers of memory and spirituality it unpeels go back to the Yoruba verses of his direct ancestors.
Iheoma Uzomba
Adedayo Agarau did not think of himself as coming from a family of artists because none in their bloodline had claimed the word publicly. Supplied.

October 8, 2026

In Nollywood, an SFX Master Earned His Audience

Before his award-winning work in big dramas Oloibiri, Shanty Town, The Milkmaid, and Jagun Jagun, Hakeem “Effects” Onilogbo, the most decorated makeup artist in the industry, wanted to be an actor. Two decades later, he expresses his craft with the ambition of one.
Oluwatobi Adedayo
Hakeem “Effects” Onilogbo has a prominent place in awards lore, holding the record of wins in makeup and special effects at both of Africa’s two biggest film awards, the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs) and the African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs). Supplied.

September 30, 2026

Former Open Country Mag Cover Star Maaza Mengiste Awarded 2026 MacArthur “Genius” Grant

The Open Country Mag cover star is now the third African writer and second Ethiopian to receive the grant, after Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dinaw Mengestu. She gets $800,000.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Maaza Mengiste, onstage at Labone Dialogues, Accra. Credit: Labone Dialogues.

September 18, 2026

12 Eritrean Writers Were Disappeared 25 Years Ago. Now, 176 Writers & PEN International Are Calling for Proof of Life.

The advocating writers, including Tsitsi Dangarembga, J.M. Coetzee, Olga Tokarczuk, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Anthony Doerr, Colm Tóibín, and Kamila Shamsie, signed an open letter to President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea.
PEN International
The 12 Eritrean writers disappeared in 2001. Images courtesy of PEN International.

July 9, 2026

“Resist Containment”: Iheoma Uzomba on Interdisciplinary Poetry and Winning the Evaristo Prize

A month after her production Pretty Dangerous: Four Acts on Womanhood wrapped in Canada, the Nigerian artist took home African poetry’s top honour. Her practice is “a way of holding those in-betweens,” she said.
Oluwatobi Adedayo
As a poet, performer, and journalist, Iheoma Uzomba has built a reputation as one of the most versatile young writers on the African scene, scooping a host of prizes.

May 25, 2026

Afabwaje Kurian Grows Her Gbagyi Roots

The Gbagyi are an ethnic minority in Nigeria’s vastly diverse Northern Central region, with scant representation in mainstream arts and literature. With Before the Mango Ripens, a historical novel set during a 1970s Christian tussle, an emigrant daughter shares an untold chapter.
Open Country Mag
Afabwaje Kurian on exploring her Gbagyi heritage: “There's a sense that you have to prove how Nigerian or African you are and that you might fail to do so with what you know or don't know about the country or continent."

May 3, 2026

Inside the Cutting Room of Nollywood’s Highest-Grossing Film Editor

Behind Funke Akindele’s 7.2-billion-naira box office dominance is Valentine Chukwuma, her top editor at Scene One Productions. In an industry that overlooks underdog talents, the 31-year-old, who once made skits to escape poverty, has cut five of its six most profitable films of all-time.
Oluwatobi Adedayo
Nollywood film editor Valentine Chukwuma is the industry's highest grosser. Supplied.

April 29, 2026

The Digital Crusades of Ikhide Ikheloa

The Nigerian social critic riled up online controversies through blunt, unsparing commentary on African literature, politics, and establishment culture. His style has been criticized as abrasive, dismissive, and even unfair. But, in his persistent alarm, he foresaw a moral decay.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
The Digital Crusades of Ikhide Ikheloa

December 10, 2025

Wole Soyinka Is on the December 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag

He inherited the drama of the gods and became the greatest living writer. But at 91, in the long rage of Nigerian nationhood, his deep political legacy is at a crossroads.
Otosirieze

November 29, 2025

Ikenna Okeh’s Quest for Authenticity

To tell their stories, the author of Yahoo! Yahoo! imitates his characters. If he writes about scammers, he wants readers to suspect him of scamming. Why should Nigerian literature not be as relatable as its music? And why, as director of the Puebla International Literature Festival, should he not want writers to take an ethical stand?
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Ikenna Okeh. Credit: Puebla Literary Festival.

November 18, 2025

“Little Did We Know”: How uHlanga Press Disrupted South African Poetry

Nick Mulgrew started a publishing outfit to bring “dismissed or ignored” voices to print. Ten years later, it has landed notable prizes, invested in indigenous languages, and grown a dedicated readership.
Iheoma Uzomba
uHlanga-published poets Francine Simon and Megan Ross at a reading. Supplied.

November 5, 2025

Chude Jideonwo Is on the November 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag

At 40, the culture curator, co-founder of The Future Awards Africa, and host of #WithChude is the youngest to appear on our cover.
Otosirieze
Chude Jideonwo Is on the November 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag.

November 3, 2025

In Great Grief, Mubanga Kalimamukwento Saw Her Country

As a child, no one told the writer and attorney how her family died. She has since compressed her resilience into acclaimed novels, nonfiction, poetry, and Ubwali, a magazine shaping Zambian literature.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Mubanga Kalimamukwento, a lawyer, sees fiction as her “final form” of storytelling. Original image credit: Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún.

October 31, 2025

In a Time of Fire, Chuma Nwokolo Protects His Purpose

For decades, Nigerians looked to writers for moral authority. As the country deteriorates further, and more writers become “hooker intellectuals,” the short story writer, attorney, and digital publishing pioneer hopes to maintain his courage.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
Chuma Nwokolo by William Bazington

September 19, 2025

Iheoma Uzomba Wins Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for Poetry

The Nigerian poet, a staff writer at Open Country Mag, will receive $1,500 for three poems in English and in Pidgin. It is the renowned magazine’s top honor.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Open Country Mag staff writer Iheoma Uzomba wins Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for Poetry 2025

August 26, 2025

An Igbo Painter Awakens the Native Imagination

The philosophical art world of Chiagoziem Nneamaka Orji.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
Chiagoziem Nneamaka Orji

August 25, 2025

“Shatter That Silence”: A Nonfiction Prize Honours Stories of Women’s Lives

The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction is “not just about beautiful sentences and essays” but also “a world where girls and women are equipped and empowered.” Founder Mofiyinfoluwa O. and 2024 Award winner and runner-up Mariam Tijani and Ifeoluwa Ajike Williams reflect on courage, contemplative exploration, and catharsis.
Ada Nnadi
Abebi Award founder Mofiyinfoluwa O. and the honoured writers.

July 8, 2025

Taiwo Egunjobi’s Cinema of the Trapped

In grave dramas of styled minimalism, the Ibadan-born director constructs harsh worlds of dangerous dreams, in which characters are caught up in greed and violence.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Taiwo Egunjobi profiled in Open Country Mag

June 24, 2025

His Style Is Symbolist: “Afro Contemporary Symbolism”

Grief led Uwana Anthony to make his short film Everything Must End. His style is “a movement and a cause for change in our approach to pursuing knowledge.”
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Uwana Anthony. Supplied.

May 27, 2025

She Makes Humane and Horror Shorts

As founder of the Africa International Horror Film Festival (AIHFF), the first such platform in West Africa and second in the continent, Nneoha Ann Aligwe believes that the genre “allows us to confront” the “darkness within us.” And courage matters to her, hence her documentary Born Different.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji
Nneoha Ann Aligwe for OCM. Supplied.

October 9, 2026

Adedayo Agarau did not think of himself as coming from a family of artists because none in their bloodline had claimed the word publicly. Supplied.

What Adedayo Agarau Got from His Fathers

The Nigerian poet did not necessarily plan for his first full-length collection, The Years of Blood, to confront his boyhood in a stark way. But the layers of memory and spirituality it unpeels go back to the Yoruba verses of his direct ancestors.
Iheoma Uzomba

October 8, 2026

Hakeem “Effects” Onilogbo has a prominent place in awards lore, holding the record of wins in makeup and special effects at both of Africa’s two biggest film awards, the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs) and the African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs). Supplied.

In Nollywood, an SFX Master Earned His Audience

Before his award-winning work in big dramas Oloibiri, Shanty Town, The Milkmaid, and Jagun Jagun, Hakeem “Effects” Onilogbo, the most decorated makeup artist in the industry, wanted to be an actor. Two decades later, he expresses his craft with the ambition of one.
Oluwatobi Adedayo

September 30, 2026

Maaza Mengiste, onstage at Labone Dialogues, Accra. Credit: Labone Dialogues.

Former Open Country Mag Cover Star Maaza Mengiste Awarded 2026 MacArthur “Genius” Grant

The Open Country Mag cover star is now the third African writer and second Ethiopian to receive the grant, after Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dinaw Mengestu. She gets $800,000.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

September 18, 2026

The 12 Eritrean writers disappeared in 2001. Images courtesy of PEN International.

12 Eritrean Writers Were Disappeared 25 Years Ago. Now, 176 Writers & PEN International Are Calling for Proof of Life.

The advocating writers, including Tsitsi Dangarembga, J.M. Coetzee, Olga Tokarczuk, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Anthony Doerr, Colm Tóibín, and Kamila Shamsie, signed an open letter to President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea.
PEN International

July 9, 2026

As a poet, performer, and journalist, Iheoma Uzomba has built a reputation as one of the most versatile young writers on the African scene, scooping a host of prizes.

“Resist Containment”: Iheoma Uzomba on Interdisciplinary Poetry and Winning the Evaristo Prize

A month after her production Pretty Dangerous: Four Acts on Womanhood wrapped in Canada, the Nigerian artist took home African poetry’s top honour. Her practice is “a way of holding those in-betweens,” she said.
Oluwatobi Adedayo

May 25, 2026

Afabwaje Kurian on exploring her Gbagyi heritage: “There's a sense that you have to prove how Nigerian or African you are and that you might fail to do so with what you know or don't know about the country or continent."

Afabwaje Kurian Grows Her Gbagyi Roots

The Gbagyi are an ethnic minority in Nigeria’s vastly diverse Northern Central region, with scant representation in mainstream arts and literature. With Before the Mango Ripens, a historical novel set during a 1970s Christian tussle, an emigrant daughter shares an untold chapter.
Open Country Mag

May 3, 2026

Nollywood film editor Valentine Chukwuma is the industry's highest grosser. Supplied.

Inside the Cutting Room of Nollywood’s Highest-Grossing Film Editor

Behind Funke Akindele’s 7.2-billion-naira box office dominance is Valentine Chukwuma, her top editor at Scene One Productions. In an industry that overlooks underdog talents, the 31-year-old, who once made skits to escape poverty, has cut five of its six most profitable films of all-time.
Oluwatobi Adedayo

April 29, 2026

The Digital Crusades of Ikhide Ikheloa

The Digital Crusades of Ikhide Ikheloa

The Nigerian social critic riled up online controversies through blunt, unsparing commentary on African literature, politics, and establishment culture. His style has been criticized as abrasive, dismissive, and even unfair. But, in his persistent alarm, he foresaw a moral decay.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

December 10, 2025

Wole Soyinka Is on the December 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag

He inherited the drama of the gods and became the greatest living writer. But at 91, in the long rage of Nigerian nationhood, his deep political legacy is at a crossroads.
Otosirieze

November 29, 2025

Ikenna Okeh. Credit: Puebla Literary Festival.

Ikenna Okeh’s Quest for Authenticity

To tell their stories, the author of Yahoo! Yahoo! imitates his characters. If he writes about scammers, he wants readers to suspect him of scamming. Why should Nigerian literature not be as relatable as its music? And why, as director of the Puebla International Literature Festival, should he not want writers to take an ethical stand?
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

November 18, 2025

uHlanga-published poets Francine Simon and Megan Ross at a reading. Supplied.

“Little Did We Know”: How uHlanga Press Disrupted South African Poetry

Nick Mulgrew started a publishing outfit to bring “dismissed or ignored” voices to print. Ten years later, it has landed notable prizes, invested in indigenous languages, and grown a dedicated readership.
Iheoma Uzomba

November 5, 2025

Chude Jideonwo Is on the November 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag.

Chude Jideonwo Is on the November 2025 Cover of Open Country Mag

At 40, the culture curator, co-founder of The Future Awards Africa, and host of #WithChude is the youngest to appear on our cover.
Otosirieze

November 3, 2025

Mubanga Kalimamukwento, a lawyer, sees fiction as her “final form” of storytelling. Original image credit: Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún.

In Great Grief, Mubanga Kalimamukwento Saw Her Country

As a child, no one told the writer and attorney how her family died. She has since compressed her resilience into acclaimed novels, nonfiction, poetry, and Ubwali, a magazine shaping Zambian literature.
Paula Willie-Okafor

October 31, 2025

Chuma Nwokolo by William Bazington

In a Time of Fire, Chuma Nwokolo Protects His Purpose

For decades, Nigerians looked to writers for moral authority. As the country deteriorates further, and more writers become “hooker intellectuals,” the short story writer, attorney, and digital publishing pioneer hopes to maintain his courage.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera

September 19, 2025

Open Country Mag staff writer Iheoma Uzomba wins Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for Poetry 2025

Iheoma Uzomba Wins Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for Poetry

The Nigerian poet, a staff writer at Open Country Mag, will receive $1,500 for three poems in English and in Pidgin. It is the renowned magazine’s top honor.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

August 26, 2025

Chiagoziem Nneamaka Orji

An Igbo Painter Awakens the Native Imagination

The philosophical art world of Chiagoziem Nneamaka Orji.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera

August 25, 2025

Abebi Award founder Mofiyinfoluwa O. and the honoured writers.

“Shatter That Silence”: A Nonfiction Prize Honours Stories of Women’s Lives

The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction is “not just about beautiful sentences and essays” but also “a world where girls and women are equipped and empowered.” Founder Mofiyinfoluwa O. and 2024 Award winner and runner-up Mariam Tijani and Ifeoluwa Ajike Williams reflect on courage, contemplative exploration, and catharsis.
Ada Nnadi

July 8, 2025

Taiwo Egunjobi profiled in Open Country Mag

Taiwo Egunjobi’s Cinema of the Trapped

In grave dramas of styled minimalism, the Ibadan-born director constructs harsh worlds of dangerous dreams, in which characters are caught up in greed and violence.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

June 24, 2025

Uwana Anthony. Supplied.

His Style Is Symbolist: “Afro Contemporary Symbolism”

Grief led Uwana Anthony to make his short film Everything Must End. His style is “a movement and a cause for change in our approach to pursuing knowledge.”
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

May 27, 2025

Nneoha Ann Aligwe for OCM. Supplied.

She Makes Humane and Horror Shorts

As founder of the Africa International Horror Film Festival (AIHFF), the first such platform in West Africa and second in the continent, Nneoha Ann Aligwe believes that the genre “allows us to confront” the “darkness within us.” And courage matters to her, hence her documentary Born Different.
Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

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