Dotun Ayobade

A few weeks ago, some disturbing comments appeared on the official Instagram page of Wizkid, Africa’s most successful musician of the streaming era. The social media post, which tagged @bigbirdkuti, the official Instagram account of Seun Kuti—the controversial musician and son of Fela Kuti—was a frontal weigh-in on the recent back-and-forth between Seun Kuti and Wizkid FC, Wizkid’s fanbase.

Across Africa, censorship bodies—relics of colonial-era laws—restrict artistic expression and suppress dissent, stifling the transformative potential of art to challenge injustice and inspire collective progress. We are in a unique moment where reforming censorship bodies is both vital and achievable. We are witnessing the rise of digital platforms—a tool for both communication and silencing—and social movements across the continent.

It was while in school that Khalid Albaih first realized the universal appeal of political satire: I noticed that we all have the same jokes. So the Palestinians joked about Arafat, and we joked about al-Bashir. Each one made a joke about their president, of course, whispering it, but it was all the same jokes, just different presidents. So that really made me feel that it was politics and/or the corruption of it, that really connected a lot of people, especially my generation.