Is ordinary food slowly growing out of reach? Not imported delicacies or fine dining experiences. We mean the everyday meals many Nigerians grew up with – jollof rice at family gatherings, beans and bread, soup with enough protein to go round. The things that once felt routine are increasingly being discussed with the language of budgeting, compromise, and survival.

Recently, The Guardian explored how even jollof rice is becoming too expensive for many households to prepare consistently, citing rising food costs and the growing need for ingredient substitutions. But what makes this culturally significant is that food in Nigeria has never just been food. It’s memory, hospitality, celebration, and identity. It’s Sunday rice after church. Fried plantain beside smoky jollof. Extra meat for guests. Small rituals of care and community.

Which is why it feels important that many people are now modifying recipes, reducing portions, or quietly abandoning certain meals entirely. At the same time, Nigerian food culture is becoming more globally visible than ever. Across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, local dishes are being elevated, aestheticized, and celebrated internationally, while many locals are simply trying to afford the ingredients consistently.

That contradiction says a lot about the moment we’re living in, because, I think that when staple meals begin to feel luxurious, culture itself starts shifting too. People don’t just lose affordability, they lose rituals, spontaneity, and the comfort of everyday availability. So what happens to our shared identity if the basics become too expensive?

Taiba Akhuetie’s *The Tone* explores the intersection of hair, identity, memory, and Black cultural expression through sculptural contemporary art. Image courtesy of Taiba Akhuetie / The Guardian.

What’s On The Moveee?

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How Locari Is Changing the House-Hunting Experience in Nigeria

Nubian Is Rewriting Africa’s Research Future Through Its Digital Repository

The Eagle at 20: Fally Ipupa’s ‘XX’ Project Redefines Modern Rumba

Opportunities

ChatAfrik
If you’re a writer with bold ideas, it’s time to share them. ChatAfrik is currently seeking contributors to help amplify the African narrative. Whether you have sharp cultural commentary or compelling personal essays, this is your chance to reach a wider audience and build your digital footprint.

African Writers Awards
If you have a short story or poem that reflects this year’s theme of Belonging, the African Writers Awards is currently accepting submissions. This is a premier platform for recognizing outstanding creative writing from across the continent and the diaspora. It’s a low-barrier, high-impact way to get your work in front of an established panel of judges and gain continent-wide recognition for your craft.

Recommendations

Taiba Akhuetie — The Tone
If you want something that sits right at the intersection of Black identity, hair, sculpture, and cultural memory, Taiba Akhuetie’s latest exhibition is a fascinating one. Her work turns hair into object, installation, and commentary, blurring the line between beauty, tradition, and art in a way that feels both intimate and striking. It is one of those shows that makes you think about how much culture lives inside the things we wear, touch, and carry.

Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific
For a broader art-world recommendation, this is a beautiful one to keep an eye on. The V&A’s new exhibition brings together over 70 works from 25 countries and runs through January 2027, offering a sweeping look at contemporary art, politics, spirituality, and material culture across the Asia-Pacific region. It is the kind of show that reminds you how global contemporary art really is.

Companion Playlist

This month, World Cup fever is slowly getting closer. Jerseys drop, squads announced. The tournament is still weeks away, but culturally, the build-up has already begun. And while Nigeria unfortunately won’t be participating, our sonic exports are still making sure we’re represented on one of the biggest global stages possible.

I’ve genuinely been enjoying FIFA’s official 2026 World Cup song, Dai Dai, which features Burna Boy alongside Shakira. It has that familiar World Cup formula: energetic, celebratory, stadium-ready, but what makes it interesting is how naturally Afrobeats now fits into that soundscape. A decade ago, Nigerian artists appearing on official FIFA releases still felt like an exception. Now, it almost feels expected.

Rema also featured in another track for the official FIFA World Cup 2026 album titled Goals with LISA and Anitta, which will be performed live for the first time during the spectacular opening ceremony. This reflects how African music has taken its position in the center of global music. Afrobeats no longer exists as an international addition, but rather as a huge core in itself.

And beyond official soundtrack appearances, FIFA’s wider music ecosystem has increasingly leaned toward Nigerian artists too, from Kizz Daniel and Patoranking joining the Qatar 2022 FIFA Fan Festival lineup to Tems later performing at the FIFA Club World Cup final halftime show. It’s becoming harder to tell the story of modern global football culture without African music. It also says something bigger about cultural export. Even when the national team is absent from the pitch, Nigerian artists still manage to occupy space in the atmosphere surrounding the tournament itself. The sound still travels.

So this week’s Companion Playlist is dedicated to Nigerian artists and songs that have either appeared on official FIFA/World Cup projects or existed closely within that space over the years.

This Week’s Companion Playlist

Dai Dai — Shakira & Burna Boy
Official FIFA World Cup 2026 song. It serves as a flagship track for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund.
Goals — LISA, Anitta & Rema
Part of FIFA’s official World Cup 2026 album rollout and another reminder of how global collaborations increasingly orbit African artists naturally now.
Hayya Hayya (Better Together) — Trinidad Cardona, Davido & Aisha
Still one of the strongest recent World Cup songs emotionally. Davido’s presence on the Qatar 2022 soundtrack felt like a major cultural moment at the time and honestly still does.
TMRW’S GOAT — Nour x Yarden
Official FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025 song featuring Nigeria’s Yarden. A smaller inclusion, but still another interesting sign of Nigerian artists steadily entering FIFA’s wider musical ecosystem.

And that’s the interesting thing about football music generally. The best World Cup songs are rarely just songs. They become timestamps and cultural snapshots. Like how you hear ‘Waka Waka’ years later and immediately remember where you were, who you watched with, what that particular era of football and life felt like.

To Close…

Did we miss any Nigerian songs or artistes in the World Cup orbit?

Reply and put us on.

Moveee Along

Before you go, here are a few things happening inside the Moveee community:

• Missed the last issue? We explored the question of what’s truly worth building, from cultural preservation and intentional creativity to fashion and internet culture. Catch up here.

• If you loved the last edition, the next edition of The Platform, our monthly culture panel, promises to be even better. Stay tuned.

• More features and interviews are on the way. If you’d love to feature on The Moveee, or share your story, get in touch with us today.

If you’re a writer, artist, filmmaker, creative or cultural enthusiast with a story to tell, we’d love to hear from you.

Stay curious, stay creative, and as always, stay inspired.
And if something in this issue made you think, laugh, or fall down a new rabbit hole – my job here is done.

See you in the next issue.

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