Culture is integral to how any community sees itself and how it is perceived by the larger communities in which it exists and being able to control the narrative around how is perceived or at least contribute to it is vital. This is in part, why The NATIVE exists and why we continue to push out the best possible content about the artists, music and subcultures that would otherwise be misrepresented or ignored. But we’re not the only ones shaping the narrative around Africans at home and in the diaspora and how we have come to be this way; there is also The Republic.

The brainchild of economist and social pundit Wale Lawal, The Republic was spawned out of a need to contribute to the intellectual narrative around being Nigerian and by extension, African. Our idiosyncrasies, our ideologies, our colloquial culture and the very things that endear us to other and separate us from them are the meat of The Republic, the things they intend to scrutinize and celebrate, critique and exult. The Republic’s charge is simple, and best articulated in the inaugural forward  for the journal’s first issue:

At The Republic, we will always prioritize the meaningful exchange of ideas. Always, we will find ourselves tasked with pressing forward: on the most critical of social, political and economic issues; by innovating through dead ends; and by providing guidance through thickets of opinion, ignorance and misinformation—three main features of our time—in search of glades of insight⎈

It’s doubly important that the first issue is about gender and women. We won’t pontificate any further, that we’ll let you do yourselves after you check out the magazine.

Congratulations The Republic, long may you serve.

Read The Republic here. 

To Know Maki oh is to know Lagos