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The National
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Eunice Olumide on living a life full of contradictions
She's harnessed the lessons from growing up in one of Edinburgh's most challenging areas to help young people conquer the limitations of poverty; she's made a major impact on the world of fashion despite initially having zero interest in clothes; she's passionate about the inspiring power of music but kept her own musical life quiet for years. Next month, she's involved in a number of shows at the [[Edinburgh]] Fringe, including screenings of her debut documentary Secret Lives: The Untold Story Of British Hip-Hop, which she directed and produced. The film is also being shown at the Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick. She also has a fashion and sustainability event – Why Do You Wear What You Wear? – at the Fringe. She wrote a book about fashion in 2018, has contributed anonymously to seminal hip-hop records and is planning to release the first album of music under her own name next year. She's also a V&A Dundee design champion, an actress, a masters graduate and was awarded an Open University honorary degree. READ MORE: Police Scotland issue terror charge for man with 'Palestine Action poster in window' As if all that isn't enough, she's spent years working with a range of charities, many aimed at inspiring young people to build better lives. If there is a common thread running through all her work, it is a determination to inspire and motivate people from under-privileged areas and give them a voice. Eunice Olumide's story begins on the streets of Wester Hailes, an area on the outskirts of Edinburgh which has long been afflicted by social deprivation. It was one of the five most deprived areas of Scotland in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) published in 2020. 'I just grew up in a really strange time in Scotland where it was nuts,' Olumide tells me. 'Living in a council estate was kind of fun in a weird way, but it was like Lord Of The Flies. In those days, people would meet from one scheme and have a pagger, we'd call it. A fight in a big field. 'It was like a battlefield and I'd go down there on my scooter and just whiz through everyone watching it in what seemed slow motion. I remember growing up around loads of people with really serious drug and alcohol dependency issues.' Olumide has talked before about the pressures of growing up as one of the very few black children in her community. Her strict mother made sure she didn't go off the rails herself. She had been born in Scotland after her parents had moved here from Nigeria when her father accepted a posting to Rosyth with the British navy. She later moved to Wester Hailes. 'My mum was a hardcore African parent,' she says. 'You could get away with nothing. You couldn't sneak out the house. She was really strict, which was a lifesaver. 'I'm first generation born in Scotland, and so when I was in my house, everything would change. The food would change, the language would change, the sense of humour. 'And I was always travelling to West Africa from a really young age and remember trying to work out why I could just pick fruit there and eat it, but when I was in Scotland, I had to pay money for it. I remember being bamboozled by that.' Instead of being drawn into a culture of drink and drugs like many of her contemporaries, she became involved with various charities helping young people who had been attracted to that lifestyle. 'Coming from that kind of background, that kind of a circle of deprivation, you can feel like there's nowhere else for you to go,' she says. READ MORE: Brian Leishman: 'Anas Sarwar hasn't spoken to me in six months' 'I think that people perceive Edinburgh as a place where there is no danger and no bad things happening, which is not true. I would probably say Edinburgh is worse [than Glasgow], because the city's housing schemes are more isolated and there is a stronger sense of community in Glasgow.' She came to see hip-hop as a way of reaching and teaching the young people from her community. 'I felt it had a remarkable way of galvanising young people. And when you're in a situation where people feel like they don't count, or they're not important in society, or don't have a good example or support at home, I felt this music was a means to help people in my community. 'Hip-hop was the music of my generation. To me, it was literally about saving people's lives. It was something that we could all do that would take our minds off our reality. 'There are different aspects of hip-hop culture. There's the graffiti aspect, which has been widely adopted worldwide by people who are not into hip-hop and by people who are. 'You've got the breakdancing, because the dance was a huge part of the culture when it was invented in New York City. Then there is the rap, which is the poetry of it. 'But what I tend to find is that outside of the Afro-Caribbean community, another element is always erased. That missing element is consciousness. "When you study the history of hip-hop, it was a cultural art form that was created by Afro-Caribbean people predominantly in the United States of America, by black people who were coming out of the Nixon era and the war on drugs, who were coming out of almost apartheid and getting their civil rights. It was also a peaceful means of protest against police brutality. 'It was in opposition to the lifestyle of drugs and illegality. It was probably the only thing other than the church that really spoke to people in a positive way, taking them away from dangerous lifestyles. 'But pretty much after the 1990s, that [element] kind of got hijacked. Rap became extremely commercial, and the focus was more on gangsterism and the glorification of material possessions and the consciousness was lost.' Olumide sees parallels between the wider adoption of hip-hop and elements of traditional Scottish culture. READ MORE: Rachel Reeves says she wants to help first-time buyers. It won't work 'It's a colonisation and the loss of folklore … this idea that it doesn't matter, because it's not written down. With a lot of Afro-Caribbean cultural institutions or creations, they're not seen as Afro-Caribbean. They're seen as just something that anyone can use in the same way that I could do with Scottish dancing or playing the bagpipes. 'I personally think – and I'm not forcing this on anyone, or saying that that other people are wrong – that if I want to play the bagpipes or if I want to do Scottish traditional dancing it makes sense that I should have some understanding and knowledge of the culture of Scotland, and possibly respect for the history of this dance or this instrument, and an understanding of what it means. I think that's quite important, but it's not in the world that we live in today.' Olumide got involved in collaborations with a wide range of hip-hop and reggae artists, including Roots Manuva, Mos Def and Damian Marley. She also teamed up with Glasgow reggae and dub outfit Mungo's Hi Fi on an album which earned a place in a list of the seminal albums in the 50 years of hip-hop, the only Scottish album mentioned. While she was making music anonymously, she was also carving out a reputation in a very different world as one of Britain's top models, walking global catwalks for the top designers and appearing in the pages of the world's most glamorous magazines. "I was never into fashion. I was definitely not a girl who wore make-up or was particularly girly. I loved sports … football, basketball and athletics. I didn't like fashion until I found a new appreciation for it. What I do like about it is that it is creating art. 'I just used to get scouted a lot everywhere I went. And eventually, when I was around 15, I was like, 'oh, give it a go'. Honestly, it was so simplistic when I was really young. I worked in this luxury high-end store but eventually I thought it didn't make sense. 'If I worked in the shop, I needed to get dressed up and wear makeup and stand for eight hours a day. I earned less money than I did at a fashion show where I only had to dress up for a few hours that day.' READ MORE: Scotland's most photographed street targeted by vandals as police launch probe It must have been difficult reconciling the glamorous world of fashion with the more 'roots' world of conscious hip-hop and reggae, where Olumide says she would very consciously 'dress in the most unattractive ways possible' as an antidote to the way many women are portrayed in the more commercial world of successful hip-hop, which she describes as ''hypersexualised''. She kept the two worlds apart because she believes music should be more about talent than appearance. 'The fashion industry is one where I can understand if someone says, 'I want this type of look, this specific look, this is my customer … so I need someone that looks like this.' 'Whereas with music, there has traditionally been quite a strong sense of discrimination. You could look at any kind of pop music, standards for females are totally different than for men. Males can get away with wearing anything and doing anything, whereas females have to be a certain size, have a certain look. 'For me, music was never something to make money with. It was always something that I really cared about and something that I felt helped people. I didn't really want to do anything that would change that even if it meant turning down deals, very good deals, which people think is crazy. They're like, 'if you could be a multi-millionaire and be a British Rihanna, why would you not do that?' I love talents like Rihanna but do you think the world needs more of that? "That's not to criticise you if you're a female and you want to use your body ... that's nothing to do with me. I believe in free will. But for me personally, I just felt like there were too many examples of that. 'There has only been one properly successful female rapper who was conscious, and that was Lauryn Hill. Look at the abuse and cancellation she's had to put up with in her career. 'People tell me that I've been way ahead of my time, that I'm doing stuff when no-one else is doing it, and it's just too much for them, they just can't handle it. Life is about timing, you know, and you could be the best thing in the world, but if people are not ready, there's not much you can do about it.' Olumide's determination to campaign for social awareness is also apparent in her fashion work. which has embraced sustainability campaigns, a tribute to the Windrush generation at London Fashion Week and even a much-praised book, How To Get Into Fashion. 'Even in my fashion career, I only work with brands that I really believe in, with that kind of social justice background,' she says. 'All the work I do is influenced by my core beliefs.' READ MORE: Here's why Reform are issuing threats to firms over renewables But all this activism comes with a price tag. 'I think most successful artists avoid saying anything remotely political,' she said. 'Most people are not going to do or say anything which could result in them losing an income. Artists that really stand for things and have a cause can lose their label, they can lose their deal. They get dropped by agents. 'In the world we live in today, it's OK to make music that's not in-depth, music that is more about just enjoying the moment and hedonism. That is acceptable in society. It's not really acceptable to talk about serious political issues. People don't really like it. If you don't do anything that rocks the boat or stand for anything, you're likely to become much more successful. I really have suffered in my career ... you do when you actually stand for something.' Other factors have also made life difficult on occasion. There aren't many Scottish rappers and even fewer of those are women. And Olumide has also faced racism. 'When I started booking concerts, and I brought everyone from Busta Rhymes to Coolio to Scotland, people used to rip down my posters and give me abuse like the N word and 'go back home to your own country'. That really affected me, mentally and physically. It was really intense. It was like, you're Scottish, you're a female, you're Afro-Caribbean … I basically had all the things.' She's seen big changes in Scotland over the years. 'Scotland, 20, 30 years ago, was totally different to how it is now. In terms of supporting people from difficult backgrounds, or issues of race and racism, or equality, I'm quite proud of where Scotland is now. It is actually a leader in Western society for how to do things properly. 'When you look at geopolitics, and you look at the reality of some of the actions larger nations are engaging in, I don't think that those are the same values or the same agendas that most Scottish people are interested in or want to be involved in. I think we're living at a certain time where there's some really serious political issues. 'It could be argued that the world might be going into a third world war. When you're a nation that doesn't have sovereignty, you don't have control over certain things. Scotland is such a small country that it's not in its interest to be in a situation where it can't take actions that benefit its people. 'If someone says to me, 'do you think Scotland could be independent?' I say of course it can. Why could it not?' As for the future, there is no sign of her easing off on that work any time soon. 'I feel like I'm operating at about 10% of my potential and always have been. I've never really felt like I've had enough opportunity to kind of actually show how much I have to give and share. 'But I'm now old enough to say: If no-one else wants to allow me to demonstrate and show what I can do, then I'll just do it on my own. 'It's not necessarily that I always want to do everything on my own. It's more that I'm not going to wait for people to give me opportunities. 'If I've worked hard enough and I'm experienced and professional enough to do a job, then I'll just do it. I don't really believe in kind of sitting around waiting.'
Business Insider
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Lagos Startup Week turns 10: Celebrating a decade of Africa-led innovation
Fast forward to 2025: Lagos is not just participating in the global startup narrative, it's shaping it. From Dealroom to Partech, Lagos is consistently ranked among Africa's most active startup cities, attracting founders, VCs, and global tech operators. Born in 2015 under the vision of Prime Startups, Lagos Startup Week was launched to spark a movement: one that would not just showcase startups, but shape the very future of innovation across Africa. That vision has now become a reality. In 2025, as LSW celebrates its 10th edition, Lagos has earned its place on the global tech map. According to and Partech reports, Lagos is now one of the most active startup ecosystems on the continent, with Nigerian startups attracting over $3.5 billion in venture capital funding, launching globally relevant startups , and fostering a new wave of digital pioneers redefining what's possible ahead of Istanbul, Turkey and Pune, India. having created five unicorns and grown its ecosystem valuation 11.6x since 2017 despite having a smaller economy,' the report stated. According to the report, Lagos is home to five unicorns, comprising Interswitch, Flutterwave, Jumia, OPay, and Moniepoint, which makes the state stand out and the major acquisition of Paystack by Stripe for over $200 million. The event organisers have curated a range of activities for over 5,000 attendees. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from tech experts and business leaders, gain valuable advice on scaling or starting a business, and network with high-profile entrepreneurs,regulators and investors. Lagos Startup Week is undeniably the destination for anyone seeking to forge connections within the global tech industry. 'This is more than an event. This is where Africa's future gets prototyped,' says Olumide Olayinka, Partner, Prime Startups and Convener of Lagos Startup Week. What began as a grassroots gathering has evolved into one of the continent's most consequential platforms for innovation, venture, and ecosystem development. The 10th edition of Lagos Startup Week marks more than a milestone; it signals a new era. Under the bold theme 'DND – Disrupting the Next Decade,' LSW 2025 will examine what it takes to build in complex markets, elevate African-led innovation on the global stage, and define the next 10 years of entrepreneurial impact. From resilience to radical thinking, this year's event will spotlight founders who are not just building products but rewriting narratives. LSW is proudly powered by Prime Startups, an ecosystem builder supporting African founders beyond the event stage. Through year-round founder support, cross-border ecosystem partnerships, and policy engagement, Prime Startups is helping to lay the foundation for Africa's next wave of high-growth ventures. According to Olumide Olayinka, Co-organiser and Partner at Prime Startups. ' Lagos Startup Week was never just an event; it was always a declaration. Olumide said that 'the city needed a platform where founders could breathe, build, and belong. Ten years later, we are still doing that at scale, and with global attention.' THE LSW EXPERIENCE– 2025 AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS 📅 Dates: July 7–12, 2025 📍 Venue: Civic Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🌍 Theme: DND – Disrupting the Next Decade To accommodate the expanding scope of this landmark edition, the event will span seven floors of the iconic Civic Centre for three unforgettable days. This year's edition promises to be even more spectacular, featuring 4 stages and Demo Days, all designed to showcase the visionary technology that will shape our collective future. Expect: Previous editions have welcomed visionaries such as: WHY THIS MATTERS In an era of global realignment and digital acceleration, Lagos Startup Week is more than a timestamp. It's a bellwether for how emerging markets will define the future of commerce, connectivity, and capital. It's where Africa builds and the world watches. Join us in Lagos this July. The future isn't coming. It's being built here. Watch 2024 recap: Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned industry leader, or an enthusiast looking to stay ahead of the curve, Lagos Startup Week is the ultimate destination to witness the cutting edge of innovation. See you there!
Zawya
29-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: Dangote Refinery gets physical planning advice on proposed gantry
LAGOS State Government through the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Oluyinka Olumide, has advised Dangote Refinery on the application of integrated transportation planning and the maintenance of physical planning standards within the facility and its proposed gantry. He gave the advice when he led an inter-agency team on a tour of Dangote Refinery in the Lekki Free Trade Zone. The commissioner, who spoke during the tour, said that its aim was to assess physical planning-related issues in the facility and give appropriate advice. 'Our presence here today with other Lagos State MDAs underscores the importance the government accords the Lekki corridor, whose development must be well coordinated in line with the state's blueprint,' he said. He added that the preparation of two Development Plans, Ibeju-Lekki Model City Plan and Lekki Comprehensive Master Plan, to address the needs of the axis was in recognition of the important growth pole that the area is fast becoming. He said that Dangote Refinery was a very significant investment in Lagos State, whose smooth operation for an orderly and sustainable environment was the watchword of the state government. Considering the impacts of the refinery and its proposed gantry on Dangote Road, Olumide advised on the application of integrated transportation planning and the maintenance of physical planning standards. He explained that the involvement of other MDAs in the tour would facilitate inter-agency collaboration, promote a comprehensive understanding of the refinery's impact, and support informed decision-making for future development. Earlier, the CEO Dangote Projects and other management staff of the organisation briefed the delegation on the mode of operation of the refinery. MDAs involved in the tour, according to the spokesperson of the ministry, Mukaila Sanusi, were Office of Physical Planning, Office of Infrastructure, Office of Surveyor-General, Ministry of the Environment (Office of Drainage Services), LASIMRA, Lands Bureau, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, and Ministry of Transportation. Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
