Akunna Danugwu
Published works
9 pieces
Beyond Currency: The Enduring Lives of the Cowrie Shell in Igbo Cosmology
A shell once carried from hand to hand as currency, became a vessel through which history, spirituality, and identity continue to speak
9/18/2026 · 6 min
Ijapa: this is the world. Now how do you move through it?
Nobody takes a tortoise seriously. That is exactly how he wins.
8/2/2026 · 5 min
Why the Chameleon Changes Colour
A favoured messenger loses both his colour and his place through pride.
7/30/2026 · 5 min
Dada: The Child or the Story?
What Igbo tradition says about dada children.
3/21/2026 · 4 min
Esu: Rethinking the “Satan” Label in Yoruba Thought
Misunderstood for centuries, Esu is really life’s way of saying, “Look what you just did.”
3/12/2026 · 5 min
Osun the River Goddess and Her Sacred Duty of Preservation in Osogbo
Osun is the Yoruba river goddess, whose myth and covenant with the people of Osogbo reveal how spirituality serve as a framework for environmental preservation. Through the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and the enduring reverence for her waters, the narrative uncovers how myth function as a powerful tool of conservation still relevant in today’s world.
10/24/2025 · 6 min
Crafts Meets Culture: Tracing the Legacy of Hausa Precolonial Artistry
The Hausa turned clay into culture, raising the earthen walls and intricate plasterwork that still define cities like Kano. Shaped by the demands of climate and faith, their buildings made ordinary tools and spaces into works of art.
10/24/2025 · 6 min
Initiation Rites and the Transition to Adulthood Among the Senufo of Côte d’Ivoire
Among the Senufo of Côte d'Ivoire, a boy is not yet a man simply because he has grown. Only after seclusion, where he learns courage and responsibility and is symbolically reborn, does the community accept him as an adult fit to take part in its decisions.
7/5/2025 · 8 min
African Foundations of Brazil's Martial Art Capoeira
Brazil's dance-fight of music and disguised blows did not begin in Brazil. It grew from Engolo, a combat-dance of Angola that enslaved Africans carried with them across the Atlantic.
5/8/2025 · 7 min