Fiction Friday: Bird in Flight

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10 JULY 2026

Illustration by Kingsley Chibueze / THE REPUBLIC.

IN THE REPUBLIC TODAY
FICTION FRIDAY: A BIRD IN FLIGHT BY NOVUYO TSHUMA

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Good morning, Andy!

In award-winning author Novuyo Tshuma’s short story, ‘A Bird in Flight’, the protagonist Unathi stands before her father as he holds her form four results, a string of distinctions, reading and re-reading them with great deliberateness. It is a small, triumphant moment that also carries the weight of a girl who cheated to be seen, a household that invested in her brother’s future but gave her a kitchen, and a father whose words land like a verdict on her entire life: ‘If only you were a boy.’

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Tomi Olugbemi
Audience Editor, The Republic

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Photo Illustration by Ojima Abalaka / THE REPUBLIC.

GOOD NEWS
CHIKA UNIGWE
The first day they met, he’d nicknamed her Christmas, saying she had a face like the Christmas mornings of his childhood. Later, when she asked him what he meant, he said only that she had a joyful face. ‘Like good news,’ he added. ‘Your parents should have named you Iruoma.’

Illustration by Shalom Shoyemi / THE REPUBLIC.

THE ABSENCE OF STAINS
YASMINE ZOHDI
Tariq kisses the tiny red mark on the underside of her right breast, telling her how much he loves it, how beautiful it is. She says it really isn’t—it’s an angioma, a round-shaped collection of microscopic blood capillaries, nothing more. ‘You never fail to suck the magic out of a moment, do you?’ She laughs and he reaches under the covers, running a hand between her thighs, where she still throbs.

Illustration by Anúolúwapọ̀ Popoola / THE REPUBLIC.

EVERYTHING IN NIGERIA LEAVES A STAIN
LANAIRE ADEREMI
In my home in London, I passed Tosin strands of pitch-black, ‘colour one’ hair extensions while she excitedly shared her Lagos itinerary with me. On a sunny Saturday in July in Lagos (she dreamt that it would be sunny despite the rainy season) Tosin’s family would meet her fiancé’s family. Their introduction would be blessed and beautiful. When Tosin parted my hair into two equal parts, I asked whether she had forgotten how her fiancé looked since she had not seen him in 18 months. Suddenly, the brown wooden comb slid off her hands, but Tosin caught it mid-air gracefully, then said: ‘I can never forget his face, I can never forget his face because we are one, I look in the mirror in the morning and see his face and I know he dreams of my face in the evenings.’

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Our first season tells the story of June 12, 1993 — the day Nigeria held what is widely considered its freest and fairest presidential election, only for the results to be annulled by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. Host Wale Lawal traces the political machinations, the key players, and the lasting consequences of that fateful day.

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