Boluwatito Sanusi

Self-care has grown into a $1.5 trillion dollar industry, with products and services that play into the same message: individualism is in, and community is out. Instagram femininity coaches tell us that in order to attract high-value men, we need to reduce our friend groups. TikTokers tell us alpha men don’t run in packs, and Twitter gurus tell us to cut off friends who don’t give off good vibes. These posts make it easy to think that the self-care and wellness culture is just another capital...

I was born on 28 February, meaning that my Zodiac sign is a Pisces. Pisces, and other water signs like Cancer and Scorpio, are said to be elusive; the ones who belong to some other mystical time and space. They’re emotionally sensitive and extremely self-aware. My whole life, I thought I was this way because of the month I was born in.

Until the day I was officially diagnosed with autism, I even believed that I was from another planet. It had to be the only reason why this world felt out of p...

On 22 January 2022, Indian journalist Rana Ayyub tweeted in solidarity with Yemen – a country where children, men and women are currently being killed. Within hours, she was labeled a ‘white collar terrorist’ by trolls who claimed to owe allegiance to the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. On the 25th and 26th of January alone, she was the subject of a combined 50,500 tweets, most of them hate speech. Twitter users threatened to kill and rape Ayyub and her family. And some others stated that they...

Neema Iyer is an artist and a technologist. She is the founder of Pollicy, is the co-host of the Terms and Conditions podcast, a Practitioner Fellow at Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab and is on Facebook/Meta’s Global Women’s Safety Advisory Board. In this edition of Hello I Am, she discusses the origin story of Pollicy.

Edwin Madu is the Editor in Chief at Zikoko. His musical alter ego, Dwin, the Stoic, is a singer-songwriter and composer based in Lagos. In this edition of Hello I Am, he discusses the origin story of Go With Me.

Garnett Achieng is a data and digital rights researcher working at Pollicy. In this edition of Hello I Am, she discusses the origin story of Afrofeminist Data Futures: Exploring Data Use by Feminist Movements Across Africa, the award winning research paper she co-wrote.

I just noticed just how much western literature I consume while I was reading Frances Chu’s If I Had Your Face. There I was reading this absolutely amazing book and wondering why I hadn’t read it sooner, when it occurred to me that I probably would never have read it if a friend hadn’t recommended it to me.
Ask my friends, and they’ll tell you I read like my life depended on it. When I first started reading, the only books that were available to me, except for a few ones by authors like Mabel...

Last month, I got to watch Tiwa Savage perform live during a Global Citizen Live concert. While her entire performance was amazing, it was Savage’s final performance, and latest hit, Somebody’s Son that left the entire audience breathless. I watched as the atmosphere became electric and she passionately crooned the ballad. At some point, all instrumentals stopped, allowing her the full spotlight while she mused, ‘Tired of getting it wrong / This won’t be another heartbreak song’ in her signat...

About 30 minutes ago, I thrust my phone into my sister’s hands and demanded she read this story. I was practically vibrating with excitement, and started pacing around the room as a way of releasing (and containing) the wayy too much energy that excitement came with. I watched as the emotions on Tife’s face switched from boredom to mild interest, then disbelief to awe. I nodded my head when she gasped, and giggled when she started shaking her head. After a few minutes, she put my phone down, ...

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Around May last year, I started to make a “things i learnt at 21” list. just for fun + documentary purposes. The list currently includes random facts like, “the singer, akon, is building the world’s first wakanda city.” Principles I decided to live my life my life by like, “intent or impact; choose which matters most to you and act accordingly.” And the most interesting discovery I made this year, “I deserve to be loved.”
I, Boluwatito Sanusi, deserve to be loved.
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I love the phrase gbogb...

There was so much to cry for, so much to mourn, but in my heart, I felt exalted knowing there was much to celebrate.
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Maya Angelou wrote those words in All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes about her last days in Ghana and the women she met.
Further down the passage, she says, “through the centuries of despair and dislocation, we had been creative, because we faced down death by daring to hope.”
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I wanted to start this essay with a story about a day I was happy this year; as in pure, una...

When I was in secondary school, I was obsessed with planners. I got every type I could find: the pink ones, the ones with padlocks. My entire life was in those planners. Secret letters to crushes, lyrics to songs I loved and most importantly, plans for my life. I had everything planned out. How my life would look like when I was 18, 20, 30. I had short term and long term goals. It was a swit ting.
I like planning. I like feeling like I’m in control of things. Unfortunately (or fortunately, de...