Sweet Medicine

“We can give the world beauty, band for band" - Oluwakemi Agbato

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 16:00:39 GMT

For my final guest episode, I’m with the researcher and designer Oluwakemi Agbato who lives by the question: “How can we make good things to live with?” And explores that question through her research and design studio, Studio GB and her jewellery brand RENIKEJI. This conversation was full of passion on both sides for how history continues to live with us in the objects around us.

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04:41 James Baldwin on Suffering and Achieving One’s Own Authority

15:06 The Rich History of Nigerian Silk

19:34 The 1960 Nigeria Exhibition

22:16 “It becomes real, you’re the one pursuing knowledge, knowledge is not pursuing you.”

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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"It's not if I can, it's how I can." - Mobolaji Otuyelu

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 16:00:00 GMT

Today’s conversation is with Mobolaji Otuyelu, the founder of two startups—a kitchenware company AGBO ILÉ and Ọjà Wellness Foods, a beverage company. As an entrepreneur focused on black innovation and social change, Mobolaji is also deeply involved with the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisations of Nigeria (FIWON), where she collaborates on member-led initiatives to provide tangible support like health insurance, mortgage opportunities, and pension schemes for informal workers. In this conversation we discuss the ties between economic development and healing—the two need each other—, the gift of now and the power of the contemporary.

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04:02 FIWON: A Model for Informal Workers

08:48 Resourcefulness in Nigerian Entrepreneurship

16:15 Healing Through Money and Economic Capital

25:34 The Gift of Now/Culture is Dynamic

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Mentioned in the episode:

https://www.mondragon-corporation.com/en/

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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Consider joining or supporting Kwanda

From the founder of Kwanda, Jermaine Craig: "I'm focused on making the world a more generous place. I'm interested in the potential of the collective, not the individual. I want to get future philanthropists started earlier by gathering as 'Micro Philanthropists'. A blocker to generosity is a lack of transparency and trust, so I'm building Kwanda. This platform brings diasporans together to pool capital and fund local-led projects in Africa. The platform is financially transparent and allows members to decide how funds are spent."

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Chapter 6: Why Take Ownership? What Are Our Bodies Good For?

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:40:53 GMT

I've spent the past seven weeks discussing why social healing, why the humanities when people are starving, what do we do with History, what are Nigerian nervous conditions, what kind of society is Nigeria and why was Nigeria made in the first place. I set up these questions to give a sense of what the problem is, and how the centuries before now led us here.

With all this information, how can we work towards these resilient, compassionate and responsible futures? My suggestions: take ownership and pay attention to our bodies.

This episode includes an excerpt from this talk, What Kids Can't Do: Youth, Historical Agency, and Authority, by Abosede George (Associate Professor of History, Barnard College and Columbia University) at Wolf Humanities Center's 2020-21 Forum on Choice, March 17, 2021.

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03:21 Is agency all that matters? Abosede George on foregrounding other dimensions of being human

10:04 Connection comes with risk of loss and failure, connect anyway

12:47 My body’s my buddy / Body go tell you

18:24 Denying our self-sovereignty

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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"How do we practice landscape democracy?"- Tobiloba Akibo

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 08:47:50 GMT

In this episode, Tobiloba and I talked about transformative environmental justice in Nigeria, Lekki as prime example of land dispossession in Lagos in the name of capitalist modernism, the challenges that come up in translating and applying current popular Western frameworks of social justice in Nigeria, and why we need more Nigerians, individuals and institutions alike, to fund social research.

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01:19 Lekki, Lekki, Lekki

07:29 Wetin concern me concern government property?

11:56 ‘We were only four in my Landscape Architecture class.’

20:54 Landscape for the people by the people

29:49 Elsewheres: Transformative environmental justice practices in Nigeria

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Mentioned:

Dispossess: Evictions for ‘Development' (Immaculata for Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2021)

Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI)

hFactor

Fabulous Urban

Folu Oyefeso

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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"Conflict always leaves people transformed." - Gbope Onigbanjo

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 10:45:14 GMT

In this episode, I speak with Gbope Onigbanjo, a researcher and consultant working in the fields of international affairs, peace studies, and political economy with a geographical focus on Africa. Our conversation centred around Nigeria’s role as Big Brother in West Africa and how that has bred skepticism among other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This is a unique episode in this project in that it zooms out a bit from the individual and communities of individuals to look at Nigeria’s relationship with its mates: other countries in West Africa.

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01:32 Exploring Liberal Peace-Keeping

03:50 ‘Healing’ as Peace and Security

05:59 Understanding Peace in African Contexts

12:25 ECOWAS and Nigeria

23:18 Elite-based/State Peace vs Local Peace

27:30 Russian flag in Kano?

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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Chapter 5: Why Nigeria in the first place? (Guns and Spirits)

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 20:59:46 GMT

This episode is six years in the making. Many of us know the Berlin Conference of 1884, otherwise known as the scramble for Africa which was where European leaders decided how to share Africa like moi moi among themselves. But a lesser-known but equally important conference was the 1890 Brussels conference that King Leopold II organised as an anti-slavery conference. The agreements made at the conference were enshrined into an act titled: The Convention Relative to the Slave Trade and Importation into Africa of Firearms, Ammunition, and Spiritous Liquors.

This episode is about firearms, ammunition and spirits–what these objects that were so central to the slave trade can tell us about why Nigeria was made. It follows the line from the Transatlantic slave trade to the Scramble for Africa, down to the Prohibition in the US, to the Iva Valley massacre in Enugu and general police brutality in colonial Nigeria. And it takes the ‘social life of things’ route to get from point A to point Z.

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01:28 The lesser-known 1880s B* conference

03:39 ‘Firearms, Ammunition, and Spiritous Liquors‘

08:50 Negotiating power and identity/Local Agency vs. Colonial Control

15:11 The Iva Valley Massacre

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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"I think that art should live and die." - Obayomi Anthony

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 20:01:49 GMT

In this episode, I speak with Obayomi Anthony, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Our conversation began with a discussion about his background and journey to becoming an artist, with a focus on the project that put him in the limelight: Bonafide Squatters. Then we went on to talk about his recent research project on Nigeria’s colonial origins where he went into the archives at the Lagos Museum to ask what motivated the Nigeria-creation project. I believe with him that art is a space for conversations, and that art should live and die. Art should live and art should die.

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01:07 Living with Graphic Designers, Becoming an Artist

09:39 Becoming a Documentary Photographer

13:17 Bonafide Squatters: Addressing Student Housing Issues

20:15 Art is a Space, not a Thing, a Space where Souls Connect

30:06 Cognitive Dissonance in Nigeria

35:12 Technology for what?

43:20 The birds that left home; seeing Nigeria from top to bottom

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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“There are no small roles, only small actors.” - Israel Meriomame Wekpe

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:37:55 GMT

In this episode, I speak with Mr Israel Meriomame Wekpe, an all-round theatre practitioner. He is a lecturer in Theatre Arts at the University of Benin and directed a play I was a part of in secondary school in memory of the 60 students that died in the 2005 Sosoliso plane crash.

This was a conversation about the challenges of teaching in Nigerian universities today, the art and spirituality of theatre, theatre as a reflection of society, the role of play in education and stories from his past as a student, including a stint as Maggi Cook of the Year in 1995 as a 300-level student.

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Chapters

03:36 Meeting Mr Israel/in memory of the 60 Angels

05:56 Challenges in Nigerian Higher Education

12:30 The Art & Spirituality of Theater

20:16 The Role of Theater in Society

22:06 Personal Tragedy and Its Influence

25:05 Socialization and Responsibility in Nigeria

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Chapter 4: Nigeria, the family

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 15:18:28 GMT

This episode is best summarised with the following quote from an essay by adrienne maree brown in YES! Magazine:

"The way I think of it now is in the framework of the imagination battle: there is a war going on for the future—it is cultural, ideological, economic, and spiritual. And, as in any war, there is a front line, a place where the action is urgent, where the battle will be won or lost. The world, the values of the world, are shaped by the choices each of us makes. Which means my thinking, my actions, my relationships, and my life create a front line for the possibilities of the entire species. Each one of us is an individual practice ground for what the whole can or cannot do, will or will not do.”

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03:48 Denzy’s ad

06:29 The Role of Individual Responsibility in Social Healing

12:06 Cynicism and Hope in Nigeria

16:22 Individual Practice Ground For the Whole

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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“You owe other people a duty of care.” - Gbemi Adekoya

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 09:43:22 GMT

In this episode, I speak with psychotherapist Gbemi Adekoya (@gbemisoke on X) to explore the complexities of trauma, healing, and personal responsibility in interpersonal relationships. I consider this essential Sweet Medicine listening because all social change begins with the individual and this is the one episode in this project that focuses exclusively on the individual. We discussed Nigeria as a metaphorical abusive parent, the necessity of acknowledging one's feelings and experiences as part of the healing process, the vitality of hope and agency, and what unconditional positive regard looks like in Gbemi’s psychotherapy practice.

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02:54 Nigeria as an Abusive Parent

06:03 Hope and Agency in Healing

12:00 The Role of Unconditional Positive Regard

15:04 Navigating Personal Responsibility and Accountability

17:57 The Dilemma of Victimhood and Perpetration

23:46 Tools for Emotional Intelligence and Healthy Relationships

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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"Memory will break your heart, memory will also heal you." - Didi Cheeka

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 19:02:54 GMT

Didi Cheeka is a filmmaker, archivist and critic. In this profound conversation, we explored shared values as the glue for true belonging, Nigerians’ collective trauma, engaging history and archival studies with a psychoanalytic lens, one problem with the concept of ‘post-colonialism’, and much more. There’s a place where he says: “Each tear that is shed, that could have been avoided, is an accusation.” The spirit of apathy hates to see this one coming.

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04:57 How he came to memory work

08:02 Taught to forget, to be numb, to fear difference, to avoid our internal truths

12:48 Values

19:18 Is dialogue enough?

21:19 Belonging and Community, how Nigerian Marxists coped after the fall of the Berlin Wall

27:52 Post-Colonialism vs. Post-Nationalism

34:57 The Healing Power of Archives

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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“Resilience is when people have the tools to change.” - Aaliyah O. Ibrahim

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 03:39:38 GMT

In this episode, I spoke with Aaliyah O. Ibrahim, a multidisciplinary artist and international development practitioner about the complexity of Nigerian identity, resilience as a practice of change and unity and freedom as practices of difference. Anchoring our conversation was Professor Bedour Alagraa’s concept of ‘The Interminable Catastrophe’.

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01:19 Exploring the Interminable Catastrophe

09:57 The Otherways, the Otherwise

12:36 Making History and Self-Awareness

16:46 ‘I’m not a healer as much as I am sensitive and I want to be well.’

18:57 Interruption

22:56 Land, Indigeneity, Language and other claims to Nigerianness

34:49 Resilience and Change

38:51 ‘Our intellectual class is getting too comfortable with its nervousness.’

43:38 Afrobeats to whose pockets?

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Mentioned in the episode:

How can Nigeria make Afrobeats pay? (Eniola Olatunji, African Business)

'Afrobeats to the World' gets its biggest challenge (Joey Akpan, Afrobeats Intelligence)

“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? … Just so’s you’re sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you're well.” - Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters

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“i don't pay attention to the

world ending.

it has ended for me

many times

and began again in the morning.”

― Nayyirah Waheed, Salt

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

Newsletter: studiostyles.substack.com.

Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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Chapter 3: Nigerian Nervous Conditions

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 23:15:00 GMT

I can trace the kernel of this chapter to February last year when I was asked this question by The Republic for their First Draft series: “The bulk of your work (as a writer, researcher, and visual artist) explores how Africans are making a living. Why is this important to you?”

And I replied: “It is important because life can be very hard and a lot of us get really tired. I’d like for us to be less tired, or at least for us to not have to work through exhaustion and onslaughts against our nervous systems. But we often have to work through all of those because we lack security, social protection, secure means of livelihoods, homes where we can relax, strong community structures, or on the individual level compassionate senses of self.”

This episode is a reflection on alienation, catastrophe, random acts of violence, cognitive dissonance, self-denial, brain fag syndrome, and some of the -isms at the root of these Nigerian nervous conditions today. It includes the voices of the film archivist Didi Cheeka, the international development practitioner Aaliyah Ibrahim, the artist Obayomi Anthony, and the founder of Pax Herbals, Fr Anselm Adodo.

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01:57 Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions

05:03 Historical Context & Brain Fag Syndrome

07:55 Crisis of Meaning and Cognitive Dissonance

11:19 Alienation in Nigerian Society

15:09 Marx's Theory of Alienation

19:51 Understanding Nigeria's Political and Economic System

22:40 Catastrophe- Interminable and so, Interruptable

Website: sweetmedicine.me

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"Half of our problems will be solved by knowing what our problems are." - Adefolatomiwa Toye

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:24:41 GMT

Adefolatomiwa Toye is a PhD student researching how the architectures of Nigeria’s first universities reveal the politics of nation building in our early post-Independence era. This was a fun conversation on the optimistic spirit of the Nigerian ‘60s, ethnic and class divides in Nigeria, challenges faced in accessing educational resources, the disconnect between universities and their surrounding communities, and the need for honesty and historical consciousness in addressing societal issues.

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01:54 How is your archival research going?

05:30 The Role of Universities in Nation Building

12:05 Post-Independence University Politics

27:53 Reflections on Optimism and Disconnection

32:30 Class Divide and Awareness in Nigeria

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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"The Nigerian State is very temperamental." - Amarachi Iheke

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 16:39:55 GMT

Amarachi Iheke is a doctoral researcher at Kings College London writing a dissertation on Azanian (South African) resistance anthems. This Saturday, I bring you a really powerful conversation I had with her that lasted four hours and meandered through many issues from standards of beauty, to corporal punishment, gerontocracy in Nigeria, the civil war, class and the Nigerian spirit world. It was my first recorded conversation in the series and exemplifies what I set out to do with these researchers and practitioners: get them to apply their academic expertise to everyday issues in our everyday Nigerian lives. The casual violence, the emotional repression, the cycles of harm and irresponsibility on one hand and everyday remedial acts of courage, storytelling and curiousity on the other hand.

03:04 Healing vs. Reconciliation

05:58 The Legacy of the Nigerian-Biafra War

12:00 Beauty Standards and the Burden of Appearance

17:53 Cultural Expressions and Radical Empathy

20:54 Courage and ‘Strength’ in Nigeria

36:59 The Cycle of Bullying and Power Dynamics

46:08 Biafra, the idea and symbol

50:29 Spirituality and Collective Responsibility

Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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#socialhealing #Nigeria #genocide #Biafra #resistance #ptsd #decolonisation #Africanspirituality #reconciliation #radicalempathy #gerontocracy

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Chapter 2: What do we do with History?

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 20:33:04 GMT

Often I hear young people say, “Thank God our generation is documenting now. Thank God we are only just starting to appreciate archives.” Unfortunately, we are not the first. As Mrs Kudirat Ayoola, the lead archivist at the National Film, Visual and Sound Archive (NFVSA) in Jos, said to me in an interview about the economics of running a public archive in Nigeria: “better soup, na money kill am.”

In this episode, I propose we do four things with with History, the discipline:

1: Accept that it is not the be all and end all, and that it will not prevent existential death.

2: Make it in our backyards.

3: Be transparent with it.

4: Fund It!

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02:30 Exploring my Personal History and Education

11:42 Accept that it is not the be-all and end-all

16:44 Make It In Your Backyard

18:45 Be Transparent With It

21:06 Fund It!

29:11 Conclusion

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July 6 text club: Rethinking fear, affirming life

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 18:45:32 GMT

This Sunday, I bring you a conversation I had with six people who joined the Studio Styles text club meeting on July 6, 2024. This was our third week of discussing Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

As with all our club meetings, the conversation moved from the text and into our everyday lives to explore how we can apply the ideas to action in our lives, what changes we’d like to see in the world and how we can contribute to making that change. We went on to discuss what fear is good for, feeling the fear and protesting anyway, #EndSARS and the question of whether Nigeria is a psychopathic entity not worth dialoguing with, the intelligence of plants and the potential of spirituality and plant medicine as transformative tools of change. It was from this conversation that I picked up the practice of using ‘life-affirming’ as a metric by which I now assess my actions and beliefs.

People in the episode:

Aaliyah Ibrahim, a writer and an international development practicioner

Gbope Onigbanjo, a consultant and researcher on international affairs, peace studies, and political economy

Chiamaka Dike, a journalist

Dede Israel, a writer and research analyst

Amanda Madumere, an ed-tech entrepreneur and arts administrator

Deborah Iyalagha, a writer and nursing student

Keren Lasme, an artist and researcher and the only non-Nigerian (Ivoirian) on the call.

01:10 Exploring Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

06:35 Challenging Workplace Norms and Individual Freedom

12:03 The Limits of Dialogue in Liberation

14:58 Navigating Fear in Society

18:46 Imagining a Safe World

29:13 Life-Affirming Practices/What is the 'Human'

34:08 Spirituality and Plant Medicine as Tools for Change

#SweetMedicine #PauloFreire #socialhealing #Nigeria #fear #plant medicine #spirituality

Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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"My brother, drop the mask, come let's talk." - Fr Anselm Adodo

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:32:52 GMT

This Saturday, I bring you my conversation with Fr Anselm Adodo, the founder of Nigeria’s leading plant medicine research laboratory, Pax Herbals. Fr Anselm is a Benedictine priest at the Ewu monastery in Edo State and his work exeplifies a wide range of expertise spanning education, environmentalism, social work. Fr Adodo’s unwavering commitment is to inspire individuals and promote collaboration between academia and industry, paving the way for transformative advancements in healthcare.

In this conversation, perhaps more than any other in this project, we kept returning to how one’s material conditions affect their ability to see the bigger picture and tap into the healing that comes from meaning-making and re-storying one’s life, a task that requires vulnerability and integrity.

00:00 Introduction to Sweet Medicine Podcast

00:59 Father Anselm Adodo: A Journey of Healing and Discovery

09:27 Education and the genius of the local

14:40 How have Nigerians been taught to think?

17:58 The Impact of Capitalism on Nigerian Society

26:10 Social Innovation and Densu in Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel The Healers

30:31 Case Studies of Integrated Living in Africa

36:41 Thank you.

Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Chapter 1: Why the Humanities and Social Sciences when people are starving?

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 13:18:08 GMT

In 2020, Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari comforted kidnapped and released school boys in Kankara, Katsina State by telling them that "You children are very lucky. I hope you will be very careful your success in the future depends not on subjects like History and English but Technology." This derision for the humanities (and the idea that one can study only one or the other, and when faced with the choice, one must study only Technology) is a widely held sentiment in Nigeria by leaders and everyday citizens.

In this episode, I make a case for why 'Humanities and Social Sciences' or 'Technology and Natural Sciences' is a false dilemma. Interdisciplinary education can provide a more holistic understanding of society and foster critical thinking and communication skills in individuals. The Humanities are critical for the well-being of a diverse, democratic and postcolonial society like ours because they help us define what 'better' means for us.

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00:00 Introduction to Sweet Medicine Podcast

05:20 Critique of Government Attitudes Towards Humanities

10:52 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education

17:40 Personal Journey and Opportunities in Humanities

21:31 The Broader Impact of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Website: sweetmedicine.me

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Instagram: @ss.studiostyles

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Intro to Guests

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 07:11:55 GMT

This episode brings snippets from the 14 conversations I had with guests working in the humanities and social sciences and oriented towards social healing in Nigeria. In these conversations, we discussed the ideas that animate their research, their career journeys and how they use their work to make tangible impact in their communities.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sweet Medicine Podcast

01:13 Personifying Nigeria: A Patient's Perspective

04:57 Nigerians' Emotional Landscape: How have we been taught to think about how to be in the world?

09:17 Innovation is responding to our reality, to the gift of now

10:56 The Complex History of Nigerian Identity

16:13 Understanding Harm and Responsibility

Guest list (in order of appearance in the episode):

Aaliyah Ibrahim, a writer and international development practitioner
Didi Cheeka, a filmmaker, critic and archivist
Amarachi Iheke, a PhD student researching radical re-imaginations of African selfhoods in South Africa
Obayomi Anthony, an artist, photographer, filmmaker and National Geographic explorer
Israel Wekpe, a theatre director and lecturer at the University of Benin
Tobiloba Akibo, a landscape architect and researcher,
Mobolaji Otuyelu, an entrepreneur and an organiser for the Federation of Informal Workers (FIWON)
Fr Anselm Adodo, the founder of the Pax Herbals https://www.paxherbals.net/about-us/
Gbope Onigbanjo, a researcher and consultant working in the fields of international affairs, peace studies, and political economy with an MA in Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies
Oluwakemi Agbato, a design writer, researcher and founder of RENIKEJI jewelry design practice
Adefolatomiwa Toye, an architect and PhD student researching the role of Nigeria’s first universities in the development of national identity
Gbemi Adekoya, a psychotherapist

Takeaways

The humanities and social sciences are crucial for social healing.
Nigerians often live in a state of survival mode.
Art can serve as a powerful medium for social change.
Understanding historical context is essential for identity formation.
Exemplary violence is a normalized part of Nigerian society.
Innovation should respond to local ever-changing realities.
Knowledge becomes real when it is personally relevant.
Trauma can perpetuate cycles of harm within families and communities.
People are complex and often face moral dilemmas.
Healing requires a collective effort and understanding of our histories.

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Chapter 0: Why Social Healing?

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:33:50 GMT

This is the introductory episode to the Sweet Medicine podcast. Here I share my understanding of social healing an orientation towards life-affirming relations with ourselves, with all beings around us, and with the world that we are all co creating. By social healing, I also mean an exercise in integrity and integration, an exercise in the kind of connection we can achieve only by accepting ourselves as new as we will be every single day.

Listen for an overview of Nigeria's social problems today, an overview of how the Sweet Medicine project was designed and how the podcast will run over the next 8 weeks. Thanks for being here.

Website: sweetmedicine.me

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