The Storytellers: Nigerians Changing How The World Sees Africa

Stories have always shaped the way people understand themselves. Long before social media, streaming platforms and global publishing houses gave Nigerian creatives access to wider audiences, stories were passed down through music, theatre, literature, oral traditions and everyday conversations. They preserved history, challenged authority, celebrated culture, and helped communities make sense of the world around them. Today, Nigerian storytelling has taken on more forms than ever before. A filmmaker can transport audiences into forgotten periods of history. A novelist can examine the complexities of family, identity, and belonging. A musician can turn the realities of everyday life into lyrics that resonate across continents. Meanwhile, comedians, digital creators and visual artists are finding new ways to capture the humour, contradictions, struggles and extraordinary energy of being Nigerian.

These storytellers do more than entertain. They hold up a mirror. Through their work, we see our families, ambitions, traditions, frustrations, relationships, and dreams reflected at us. Sometimes, the reflection is beautiful. At other times, it is uncomfortable. But that is the power of a compelling story: it can make us laugh, question, remember and, occasionally, see something familiar from an entirely different perspective.

As Nigerian creativity continues to command global attention, the people telling these stories have become increasingly influential. They are shaping conversations about who we are, where we come from, and how the world sees us. Yet their impact extends beyond international recognition or commercial success. Their work contributes to a larger cultural archive, one that records the changing experiences of Nigerians across generations.

In this cover story, we celebrate the writers, filmmakers, musicians, and cultural voices whose work continues to define, challenge and expand the Nigerian narrative.

Wole Soyinka

Few Nigerians have used storytelling to interrogate society as profoundly as Wole Soyinka. Playwright, poet, novelist and essayist, Soyinka became the first African recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. His extensive body of work has explored power, injustice, freedom, tradition and the complexities of human existence.

Soyinka’s storytelling is deeply connected to Yoruba mythology, ritual and performance, while simultaneously engaging with political and social realities. Works such as The Lion and the Jewel, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Man Died and Aké: The Years of Childhood demonstrate the breadth of a writer unwilling to separate art from the questions confronting society. For generations, Soyinka has shown that storytelling can be both creative and confrontational. His work does not always offer comfortable answers; instead, it challenges audiences to think critically about authority, culture and humanity. Within this cover story, Soyinka represents one of the foundational voices through which Nigerian experiences entered global literary conversations, and through which Nigerians have repeatedly been challenged to examine themselves.

Mo Abudu

Mo Abudu has become one of the most influential figures in African media by recognising that controlling how stories are told is as important as telling them. A media entrepreneur, producer and CEO of EbonyLife Media, she first gained widespread recognition as the creator and host of Moments with Mo, before building EbonyLife into a major platform for African entertainment. Through television and film, EbonyLife has focused on telling contemporary African stories to audiences at home and internationally. The company has produced thousands of hours of original programming and feature films while pursuing collaborations with major international studios and platforms.

Abudu’s significance to this cover story lies in her role as both storyteller and builder of storytelling infrastructure. She has created platforms through which African experiences can be presented on a larger scale and with greater ambition. By consistently championing stories rooted in African identities, she has helped change how Africa sees itself—and how the world sees Africa.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Few contemporary writers have shaped conversations about Nigeria, identity, and womanhood as powerfully as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Through acclaimed works including Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, and The Thing Around Your Neck, Adichie has transformed distinctly Nigerian experiences into stories with global resonance. Her fiction explores family, migration, race, love, Politics, and belonging, often prompting readers to reconsider the assumptions they hold about themselves and others.

Her influence, however, extends beyond literature. Her landmark ideas on feminism and the dangers of reducing people or cultures to a “single story” have generated conversations across generations and continents. Adichie represents the extraordinary power of the written word to shape cultural understanding. She has not merely told Nigerian stories to the world; she has challenged Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike to see those stories with greater complexity.

Nike Davies-Okundaye

Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye, widely known as Mama Nike, has spent decades building spaces where Nigerian art can be seen, preserved and celebrated. While she is internationally recognised as a textile artist and master of traditional Adire, her greatest contribution to this cover story lies in the cultural institutions she has created. Through the Nike Art Gallery network, with locations including Lagos, Abuja, Osogbo and Abeokuta, Davies-Okundaye has built platforms for artists and audiences to encounter Nigerian creativity. The Lagos gallery alone houses an extensive collection of artworks and has become a major cultural destination.

Beyond exhibiting art, her centres have supported artistic education and helped empower generations of creatives. Her textile work remains central to her personal artistic legacy, particularly her commitment to preserving indigenous techniques and cultural knowledge. However, Mama Nike’s larger achievement is that she has created spaces where countless stories can live. She is not simply telling Nigeria’s cultural story herself; through her galleries, she has given thousands of other artists a place to tell theirs.

Tunde Onakoya

Tunde Onakoya is best known as a chess champion and founder of Chess in Slums Africa, but his place in Nigeria’s modern storytelling lies in his ability to change the narrative around possibility. Through chess, he has created opportunities for children from underserved communities while bringing their individual journeys to wider audiences. Founded in 2018, Chess in Slums Africa uses chess alongside educational and developmental programmes to support young people.

Onakoya’s own story—and the stories of the children he works with—challenge familiar assumptions about poverty, talent and potential. His global visibility also grew through his record-breaking chess marathons, including the officially recognised 64-hour Guinness World Record achieved in New York in 2025. For this cover story, Onakoya represents a different kind of storyteller: one who tells stories through action. By giving young people platforms, opportunities and visibility, he is helping to reshape how Nigerians see communities that are too often defined solely by their circumstances.

Kunle Afolayan

Kunle Afolayan is one of the defining filmmakers of contemporary Nigerian cinema, known for bringing history, culture and imagination together on screen. As an actor, director and producer, he has built a body of work that includes The Figurine, October 1, Citation and Aníkúlápó, films that demonstrate his interest in stories rooted in Nigerian experiences.

Afolayan’s storytelling is particularly significant because of the worlds he recreates. Whether exploring the tensions surrounding Nigeria’s independence, examining contemporary institutions or drawing from Yoruba mythology and history, he consistently reminds audiences that Nigerian stories can be visually ambitious while remaining culturally grounded. Aníkúlápó, for instance, brought a Yoruba-language period story infused with mysticism and moral complexity to a global streaming audience. In the context of this cover story, Afolayan represents a generation of filmmakers expanding how Nigerian history and culture are imagined on screen. His work invites audiences to look backwards, question the present and recognise the richness of stories that have always existed within us.

Bolanle Austen-Peters

Bolanle Austen-Peters has built her career around a powerful belief: Nigerian stories deserve grand stages. A lawyer by training, she became one of Nigeria’s most influential cultural entrepreneurs through Terra Kulture and BAP Productions, creating platforms for theatre, film, art and cultural expression. Her productions have repeatedly drawn from Nigerian history, literature and cultural memory. From stage works such as Saro the Musical, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens and Moremi to films including 93 Days, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and House of Ga’a, Austen-Peters has demonstrated a commitment to transforming significant African stories into compelling experiences for contemporary audiences.

Her contribution to The Storytellers goes beyond the stories she directs or produces. She has also helped build the spaces and institutions through which other stories can be told. Through theatre, cinema and cultural advocacy, Austen-Peters continues to make Nigerian history feel alive, accessible and relevant. In doing so, she reminds us that storytelling is not only about preserving the past; it is also about deciding how future generations will encounter it.

C.J. “Fiery” Obasi

C.J. “Fiery” Obasi represents a bold and unconventional voice in Nigerian filmmaking. His work challenges the idea that African cinema must look or sound a particular way, choosing instead to explore mythology, spirituality and identity through visually distinctive storytelling. His acclaimed feature Mami Wata is perhaps his clearest statement of intent. The striking black-and-white film draws from West African folklore to tell a modern fable about faith, power, tradition and change. The film premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where its cinematography received the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award.

For Obasi, storytelling is also about expanding possibilities. He has spoken about the need for African filmmakers to root their work in authentic perspectives while resisting narrow definitions of what African cinema should be. Through his daring visual language and imaginative approach to indigenous mythology, Obasi is not simply telling familiar stories differently; he is encouraging audiences to imagine entirely new possibilities for Nigerian and African storytelling.

Femi Odugbemi

Femi Odugbemi is one of the important forces behind the evolution of Nigerian film and television. A filmmaker, writer and content producer, his career has moved across documentaries, drama and television, reflecting his belief in the power of the camera to shape how societies understand themselves. He was a founding producer of Tinsel and has been involved in acclaimed productions including Battleground, Brethren and Gidi Blues. His documentary work has also explored Nigerian people, history and cultural life, with Bariga Boy winning the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Beyond his own productions, Odugbemi has contributed significantly to the development of African storytelling platforms. As co-founder and executive director of the iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival, he has helped champion documentary filmmaking and conversations around African narratives. Odugbemi represents the storyteller behind the lens who understands that the stories a society chooses to document can become part of its collective memory.

Asa

Bukola Elemide, known professionally as Asa, has built a remarkable career by making music that values storytelling as much as sound. The French-Nigerian singer-songwriter emerged with her self-titled debut album in 2007 and quickly distinguished herself through a sound shaped by soul, folk, pop and jazz influences.

What makes Asa particularly relevant to this cover story is the intimacy of her songwriting. Across songs such as Jailer, Fire on the Mountain and Bibanke, she has explored love, social realities, personal struggles and the complexities of human emotion. Her music often asks listeners to pause and reflect rather than move to a beat. In an era increasingly driven by fast-moving musical trends, Asa has remained committed to a deeply personal artistic language. Her stories are sometimes political, sometimes emotional and often universal. Yet they carry the perspective of an artist shaped by Nigeria and her experiences beyond it. Through her music, Asa demonstrates that some of the most powerful stories are not shouted; they are sung, felt and quietly remembered.

Lola Shoneyin

Lola Shoneyin is a writer, poet, publisher and cultural activist whose influence extends beyond the books she has written. She is best known for her acclaimed novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, a compelling exploration of womanhood, marriage, family and the complicated lives that often exist behind closed doors.

However, Shoneyin’s contribution to Nigerian storytelling is also institutional. Through the Book Buzz Foundation and the Aké Arts and Book Festival, which she founded and directs, she has helped create important spaces for writers, artists, thinkers and audiences to meet, exchange ideas and celebrate African creativity. This makes her particularly significant to The Storytellers. Shoneyin tells stories herself, but she also helps create the platforms through which countless others can tell theirs. Her work demonstrates that shaping a cultural narrative requires more than producing art; it also requires building spaces where ideas, experiences and perspectives can be shared. In doing so, she continues to expand the ecosystem through which Nigerians and Africans encounter themselves and one another through stories.

Ayobami Adebayo

Ayobámi Adébáyó belongs to a generation of Nigerian writers who use fiction to explore deeply personal experiences that often reveal broader social realities. Her debut novel, Stay With Me, examines marriage, love, family and the painful pressures surrounding fertility within a Nigerian setting. The novel earned significant international recognition, including the 9mobile Prize for Literature, and has been translated into numerous languages. Her subsequent work, including A Spell of Good Things, continues her exploration of the complex ways personal lives intersect with broader social structures.

For this cover story, Adebayo represents the quiet but powerful storyteller who finds meaning in the lives people often consider ordinary. Her characters confront love, loss, expectation and difficult choices, allowing readers to recognise familiar human experiences through distinctly Nigerian settings. Her work demonstrates that changing how we see ourselves does not always require grand declarations. Sometimes, it begins with a carefully told story that makes us look again at the lives, families and communities we thought we already understood.

Falz

Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz, has built a distinctive career at the intersection of music, film and social commentary. A trained lawyer, rapper and actor, he has consistently used humour, satire and sharp observation to examine contemporary Nigerian life. His music often moves beyond entertainment, addressing issues including political leadership, social inequality and the everyday frustrations of ordinary Nigerians. Songs such as This Is Nigeria demonstrated his willingness to use popular culture as a mirror, adapting satire into a direct commentary on the country’s social and political realities. His acting career has further expanded his ability to tell stories through different mediums.

For this cover story, Falz represents a generation of storytellers unafraid to make audiences uncomfortable while making them laugh. Whether through lyrics, film or public commentary, he captures the contradictions of modern Nigeria and transforms them into conversations. His storytelling reminds us that music can entertain while still asking difficult questions about the society in which we live.

Femi Kuti

Femi Kuti has spent decades proving that music can be both a cultural force and an instrument of social reflection. The saxophonist and singer is the eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, but he established his own musical identity after forming his band, Positive Force, in 1986. While his music carries the rhythmic and political spirit associated with Afrobeat, Femi has developed his own voice, using songs to address corruption, inequality, violence and the struggles facing Africans. Albums including No Place for My Dream and Stop the Hate reflect his continued engagement with social and political realities.

For The Storytellers, Femi Kuti serves as the musician-witness and commentator. His songs do not simply provide a soundtrack to Nigerian life; they confront the conditions shaping it. Across generations, he has continued the tradition of using music to challenge power and encourage audiences to examine the society around them.

Korty EO

Korty EO represents a new generation of Nigerian storytellers who have found freedom outside traditional media. A filmmaker and digital creator, she has developed a distinctive visual language through documentaries, interviews and personal projects that explore the lives, ambitions and experiences of contemporary young Africans. Her popular series Flow With Korty takes viewers beyond carefully constructed public images, creating space for prominent personalities to discuss their journeys and experiences more candidly. Her work has also extended internationally, including directing a documentary project connected to Victoria’s Secret’s 2023 World Tour.

What makes Korty particularly relevant to this cover story is her curiosity. Rather than simply documenting celebrity, she explores the people and stories beneath public success. Her relaxed, unconventional approach reflects how a younger generation increasingly consumes and creates media. Through digital platforms, Korty EO is demonstrating that storytelling no longer requires a traditional television studio or major production company. Sometimes, a camera, a distinctive perspective and the right questions are enough to create stories that connect with an entire generation.

Tope Oshin

Tope Oshin is one of the important creative forces behind contemporary Nigerian screen storytelling. A director, producer and filmmaker, she has an extensive career spanning television, film and documentary, giving her a significant role in shaping the stories audiences encounter on African screens. Her directing credits include productions such as Tinsel, MTV Shuga, Hotel Majestic, Hush, Castle & Castle and the feature films Journey to Self, New Money and Up North. She has also worked as a producer, using documentary filmmaking to examine the experiences of women in Nigeria’s film industry.

For The Storytellers, Oshin represents the often-overlooked power of the director: the person responsible for transforming words and ideas into visual experiences. Through her work across different formats and genres, she has helped bring contemporary African stories to life while demonstrating the growing influence of women behind the camera. Her career is a reminder that the people changing how we see ourselves are not always the ones standing in front of the lens.