February 2015 - Institute of Current World Affairs

Portrait of an Improbable Politician

Posted on February 28, 2015 (August 24, 2018) by Allyn Gaestel

By Allyn Gaestel AG-1 / NIGERIA / FEBRUARY 2015 LAGOS – Comrade Agbodemu Ishola Musbau strode through Ebute-Metta, a bustling neighborhood of concrete block homes interspersed with fading colonial houses, their deep brown, mint green and mustard yellow stucco walls stained with watermarks and exhaust fumes. Weaving between bright yellow vans and golf carts—the […]

A West African protest novel

Posted on February 12, 2015 (January 12, 2018) by Robbie Corey-Boulet

ABIDJAN – Thiossane and Moctar meet in classic West African fashion. Trying to send a text message one day to an old friend from school, Thiossane, an educated but unemployed resident of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, enters the number incorrectly and instead reaches Moctar, an uneducated grave-digger who has recently lost his job. Moctar […]