NEWS
11 Things to Leave Behind in 2025 for a Better 2026
Stop acknowledging crises only as hashtags or trending topics. Take the time to learn the context behind struggles in Sudan, Congo, Palestine, Haiti, and elsewhere.
Women dressed in black take part in a demonstration against gender-based violence and the rising number of femicides, holding placards denouncing violence against women, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on November 21, 2025.
by Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu via Getty Images
2025 marked 15 years of OkayAfrica. Over a decade and a half of documenting life and culture across Africa and its diasporas, feeling the pulse of the times, and helping to shape it. Growing our website and community has been, and continues to be, a constant learning experience. What new genres are emerging across the continent? What are young people’s hopes and fears? Who are the artists to watch?
At the same time, it requires us to shed outdated beliefs, adapt our language, and leave behind practices that no longer serve us. As we enter 2026, OkayAfrica’s 16th year, here are 11 things our team wants to leave behind in 2025.
1. Mentioning real-life struggles of real-life people as an afterthought
2025 continued to be a year of heartbreak and war, both on the continent and beyond. The world is becoming more and more aware of different people’s struggles and how they’re all interconnected, but there’s still so much we need to learn, and that’s okay. What is not okay is virtue signaling - “Free Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Haiti…” — and conflating these issues without giving them the time and respect to understand their context.
2. Femicide
Enough said.
3. Uninformed music opinions, and an ecosystem that prioritizes an artist’s streams/Spotify monthly listeners over the actual music
Like, who cares?
4. Believing success abroad carries more weight than success at home
There’s nothing like coming home to your local airport filled with people who know and support you.
5. Asking AI to undress women/make them modest.
How about ‘no!’
6. Fighting those who are on the same side/cancel culture
If we want to create meaningful communities, we have to be willing to educate and forgive each other. Call in instead of out, give others the benefit of the doubt instead of burning bridges we so desperately need.
7. Homophobia, or saying homosexuality is un-African
There is nothing African about homophobia.
8. Governments banning anything that’s dissentive to their oppressive authoritarian rules and moves
Shutting down the internet, blocking social platforms, banning protests, and silencing journalists. These are not security measures. They are control tactics. When governments fear citizens communicating, organizing, or documenting reality, that tells you everything. Cutting people off from information does not create stability. It hides abuse. It delays accountability. And it always backfires.
9. Xenophobia towards fellow Africans
It doesn’t make sense. Also, our governments do in fact have the means to meet everyone’s needs - they’re choosing not to and putting the blame on those in a similar position. We need to start fighting up and not across.
10. Treating international shows and audiences better than audiences in our home countries
Looking at you, Nigeria.
11. Allowing others to profit from our culture and heritage
After watching Ghana successfully secure Geographical Indication protection for Kente cloth, it was a powerful reminder to Africans that our culture holds real value. We must guard it, support it, and make sure it benefits our own people.
