Pulse Nigeria Independence Day Feature Story

On Thursday, October 1, 2020, Nigeria celebrated her 60th Independence Day. In a bid to create something beautiful to mark Nigeria’s Diamond Year on Pulse’s media platforms, my colleague and I collaborated on the project. The goal of the project was the tell the riveting story of Nigeria’s Independence Day in 1960 when she became a sovereign country free from British rule.

​

However, we knew people were tired of reading it from the history books and lecturers so wanted witnesses to tell the story of the life-changing moment from their perspective. My partner and I ended up contacting about five potential interviewees but interviewed only three of them in the weeks leading up to Independence Day. We went to their homes and set up video and audio and we asked them only one question: What was life like before, on, and after Independence Day?

​

Needless to say, they were absolutely brilliant. They were articulate, impassioned, and crisp as they all told their individual stories of what Nigeria was at that time and why their freedom was so important. They expressed their grief over the state of the nation currently but relived the times before, during, and after British rule that they cherished. Another video editor and I did the post-production of the video that was eventually posted to Pulse’s media platforms.

​