THE BLOGLINDA IKEJI · NIA-07

In 2006 a Nigerian could not assume a connection at home. Linda Ikeji began blogging that year as a hobby, writing from cybercafés — the hours bought by the hour, on machines shared with whoever came next. By 2007 she was posting actively on a Blogger subdomain, lindaikeji.blogspot.com, on exactly the stock template you are looking at.

What she proved is the thing this room is really about: that one person on a free subdomain could out-read the newspapers. She was not alone — BellaNaija, Notjustok, 360nobs, Ladun Liadi and a hundred others ran the same template, in the same font, with the same sidebar hit counter. But by August 2012 her name was the most-searched term by Google users in Nigeria.

The comments were the real medium. Threads ran to hundreds, overwhelmingly signed Anonymous said…, arguing with each other under the same name. That part is recreated below — invented, because those commenters were anonymous then and are not identifiable now.

Sources: Linda Ikeji — Wikipedia ↗ · lindaikejisblog.com ↗