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Super Rich Africans | The Soft Life & Hard Truths of Class
We turn our gaze to the glittering world of Africa’s super rich - and ask what wealth really means in a world built on inequality.
Beginning with the BBC documentary From Lagos to London: The Rise of Nigeria’s Super Rich, we unpack the rise of “soft-life” culture, the myth of meritocracy, and the emotional price of Black excellence. From oil money and old elites to Instagram entrepreneurs and Dubai Bling escapism, we explore how class divides shape not only who gets to live well - but whose stories get told as success.
From there, we widen the lens. Tamanda reflects on growing up between Botswana, South Africa, and Britain - seeing wealth, domestic work, and dignity collide inside her own family history. Aiwan recalls her first reaction to the From Lagos to London BBC documentary in 2016 - the thrill of representation, the absurdity of diamond-encrusted phones, and the unease of celebrating excess while living through austerity.
Together, we map the fault-lines between aspiration and accountability, asking how we can enjoy the good life without reproducing the hierarchies we claim to resist.
Along the way, we confront the paradox of privilege: the soft-life that depends on someone else’s hard one; the excellence that excludes; the success that can’t always look itself in the mirror.
🎧 In this episode:
- From Lagos to London: BBC’s portrait of Nigeria’s new elite and what it revealed about class pride and cultural cringe
- Soft-life vs. survival: how social media turned aspiration into performance
- Oil, old money & influence: why most wealth isn’t as self-made as it looks
- Private schools, “area boys” and the classed accents of belonging
- Dubai Bling & Young, Famous & African: when representation becomes replication
- Cuppy, Amosu & the entrepreneur myth: grit, guilt and gold-threaded suits
- Respectability politics in Black spaces: how class mimics colonial etiquette
- What does accountability look like when we’ve “made it”?
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube
🔁 Share with someone thinking about wealth, class or “soft-life” culture
📬 Reflections or stories to share? [email protected]
⚠️ Content note: discussion includes class inequality, elitism, and structural violence.
Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.
Connect with us on:
- TikTok
- AiAi Studios
- Roots & Rigour
This is an AiAi Studios Production
©AiAi Studios 2025
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
View all episodes
By Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and TamandaWe turn our gaze to the glittering world of Africa’s super rich - and ask what wealth really means in a world built on inequality.
Beginning with the BBC documentary From Lagos to London: The Rise of Nigeria’s Super Rich, we unpack the rise of “soft-life” culture, the myth of meritocracy, and the emotional price of Black excellence. From oil money and old elites to Instagram entrepreneurs and Dubai Bling escapism, we explore how class divides shape not only who gets to live well - but whose stories get told as success.
From there, we widen the lens. Tamanda reflects on growing up between Botswana, South Africa, and Britain - seeing wealth, domestic work, and dignity collide inside her own family history. Aiwan recalls her first reaction to the From Lagos to London BBC documentary in 2016 - the thrill of representation, the absurdity of diamond-encrusted phones, and the unease of celebrating excess while living through austerity.
Together, we map the fault-lines between aspiration and accountability, asking how we can enjoy the good life without reproducing the hierarchies we claim to resist.
Along the way, we confront the paradox of privilege: the soft-life that depends on someone else’s hard one; the excellence that excludes; the success that can’t always look itself in the mirror.
🎧 In this episode:
- From Lagos to London: BBC’s portrait of Nigeria’s new elite and what it revealed about class pride and cultural cringe
- Soft-life vs. survival: how social media turned aspiration into performance
- Oil, old money & influence: why most wealth isn’t as self-made as it looks
- Private schools, “area boys” and the classed accents of belonging
- Dubai Bling & Young, Famous & African: when representation becomes replication
- Cuppy, Amosu & the entrepreneur myth: grit, guilt and gold-threaded suits
- Respectability politics in Black spaces: how class mimics colonial etiquette
- What does accountability look like when we’ve “made it”?
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube
🔁 Share with someone thinking about wealth, class or “soft-life” culture
📬 Reflections or stories to share? [email protected]
⚠️ Content note: discussion includes class inequality, elitism, and structural violence.
Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.
Connect with us on:
- TikTok
- AiAi Studios
- Roots & Rigour
This is an AiAi Studios Production
©AiAi Studios 2025
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.