Esther Yahaya's Intellectual Record

Beyond the Glimpse

What We FoundIt had been a long time since the African heritage presentation.Long enough for life to move on from that day, for new memories to gather, and for whatever had begun between Aderemi and her to become ...

Roots of two, hearts as one.

They had become close without ever deciding to.It happened in pieces.Lunches that were supposed to last twenty minutes and somehow became two hours. Walks across campus that took longer because neither of them seemed ...

The Stories He Carried

She had begun to think she knew what kind of person Aderemi was.Quiet.Thoughtful.Perhaps a little too serious.It was an assumption she had built from small things.The way he spoke.The way he listened.The bracelet around ...

The Encounter

She had been hoping to see him again.Not that she would ever admit it.She had simply begun taking the longer route to wherever she was going. The one that passed through the places she had seen him before.Coincidence, ...

The Things I Began to Notice

After that day, she began to look for him.Not intentionally, she told herself.At least, that was what she liked to believe.She would walk through the same places a little slower, glance across familiar faces a little ...

A glimpse of him.

She was not looking for him.That was perhaps the most beautiful part of it.It was an ordinary afternoon, the kind that asked nothing of her except to be present. She was busy with her own little world, her hands ...

A Love Rooted in Home

There is something about the way love used to feel.It was slower.More deliberate.Before love became a notification, a read receipt, a disappearing message or a conversation that lasted for months without anyone knowing ...

The Burnout Generation II: What Happens After the Burnout?

When I wrote about the burnout generation, I thought I was writing about exhaustion. I wasn't. I was writing about grief, the quiet grief of becoming strangers to ourselves in the pursuit of becoming everything else....

She is a woman.

"She is a woman."Four words.Simple.Ordinary.Familiar.Yet for centuries, they have been used to build invisible walls around visible lives."Cook. She is a woman.""Clean. She is a woman.""Endure. She is a woman.""Be quiet....

The Spirit of Africanism

The spirit of Africanism is the rhythm of our ancestors echoing through time. It is the heartbeat beneath the talking drum, the wisdom hidden in our proverbs, the stories whispered beneath moonlit skies, and the colours ...

Selective activism is not always hypocritical.

The Burnout Generation

The Protection of Women’s Rights Under International Law: A Critique of Gender-Based Oppression in Certain States