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Tolani Alli

@tolanialli

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Visual Storyteller & Creative Strategist serving Kings & Queens 👑 📸 🎥 🎬: @abiolaajimobi @profosinbajo @drakinwumiadesina @worldbankgroup

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Sarki Mai Oil is NextThe first time I documented Alhaji @aliko_dangotegcon , we were in Oyo State, Nigeria.It was a party. The King Sunny Ade was on the mic. The moment Alhaji walked in, KSA stopped everything and called him out the way only KSA can. Alikooooooooo Dangooooo. Alhaji Dangoteee. Sarki Magaida. Sarki Macaroni. Sarki Suggggar. Seriki Spaghetti. The room did not just react. It erupted. I was standing there behind my lens and I could not believe what I was watching.I remember thinking recently, next time KSA sees him, it will be Seriki Oil.That same light came alive in me last week when he walked into World Bank President Ajay Banga’s office, then the IFC with its MD Makhtar Diop in Washington D.C. 🇺🇸 , and then got announced as the surprise keynote for Water Forward. When it was over, the room surrounded him. Ministers, delegates, people who had crossed oceans to be in that building. One minister said it for everyone. We are all here to see Aliko Dangote.Later that evening, Time named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.Nobody was having a better week. And he carried all of it like it was just another Tuesday.As Nigerians we move fast, we dream big, we normalise the extraordinary. But the rest of the world stops and stares. That day I watched them stare and I felt something I could not put into words.But here is what got me most. Through all of it, he was already on to the next thing. Talking about Africa. Talking about legacy. Talking about hiring the best and still studying every layer of the work himself. And his memory. The man forgets nothing. Not the small things. Not the quiet acts of kindness. Not the people who showed up for him before anyone was watching.Someone in the room was surprised he knew who I was. He turned to them and reeled out my career history. That made my week.Beyond being Africa’s richest man, he is human first. No airs. No protocol. Just vision, audacity and a heart that says if you are not with me get out of my way, I have something to build.Some men build empires. Alhaji Aliko Dangote builds people too and that is the rarest thing of all.#TolaniAlli #Storyteller by @tolanialli

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From Darden on Friday to Harvard on Monday. Still surreal: “Foto” spoke at Harvard.The term “Foto” is often used casually, sometimes carelessly, to describe photographers. It rarely captures the depth of the craft or the weight of the responsibility behind the lens.But this moment, sitting alongside @azzacohen and @pollyirungu at the @harvardiop for Split Screen: Feminist Global Perspectives, felt like a quiet reclaiming. A reminder that it is not what they call us, it is what we answer to.As someone who works behind the lens, this conversation was deeply personal. The stories we choose to tell, and how we frame them, are not just reflections of the world. They are tools that shape it.Even more humbling is knowing that in that same room, just days apart, world leaders like former President Joe Biden, the Prime Minister of Ireland, and my boss also shared their voices.I take it as a quiet but powerful affirmation. This camera 📸 , this work, can take you places they never imagined you would go.For women, especially in Africa and across the West, representation is not just about visibility. It is often the frontline of power.So yes, “Foto” spoke at Harvard. And she will keep speaking, through frames, through platforms, and through every story that demands to be told.Grateful for the invitation, the insight, and the responsibility to keep reimagining storytelling as a force for equity and transformation. 🎥: @mikegbos_ #TolaniAlli #TheHat #Storyteller #HarvardUniversity #Harvardiop #SplitScreen by @tolanialli

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Never let anyone tell you, your dreams are not valid. Getting ready to speak at a global institution in 5 minutes @ifad_org @hatricksbytolani live in Rome, Italy!God did!Wish me Luck! by @tolanialli

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#HerQuote | “The truth is, when all is said and done, there are some things hard work cannot explain.There are doors that open, opportunities that come, moments you experience, and miracles you witness that remind you there is a God in heaven actively involved in the affairs of men.” - @TolaniAlli 💖 Happy Birthday, Queen! 👑 Photo Credit: @tope_horpload #WomenOfImpact #HerBirthday by @tolanialli

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The older I get, the less impressed I am by accomplishments and the more amazed I am by grace. The truth is, when all is said and done, there are some things hard work cannot explain. There are doors that open, opportunities that come, moments you experience, and miracles you witness that remind you there is a God in heaven actively involved in the affairs of men.You can prepare. You can pray. You can work. You can do everything within your power. But when certain things happen, you know. The hand of God was there.As I reflect on another year of life, I find myself in awe of God’s undiluted mercy, grace, and favor.If I had written the script of my life, it would not be this good. Only God could have written a story like this.And somehow, He is still writing.Omotolani, Happy Birthday 🎩🎊 Mo dúpẹ́. Mo rí àánú Olórun gbà.HOSANNA EHHHHHHH.📸: @tope_horpload by @tolanialli

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For the first time ever, The Hatricks comes to Rome.What started as a classroom, a conversation, and a belief that stories matter has now brought us here. Over the next couple of days we are partnering with @ifad_org for something we designed specifically for them. A curated session, followed by a practical, bringing together senior leadership, advisers, and communicators, the people who set direction and the people who carry it out.We will talk about how to find the stories hidden inside the work, how to tell them with honesty and conviction, and why the stories we choose so often decide whether people understand, support, or act.It is an incredible privilege to be invited into rooms like this, and an even greater responsibility to contribute to the conversation.From an idea to Rome.Glory to God. by @tolanialli

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Some lessons arrive from places that have no business being in the same sentence. Mine came from Michael Jackson, Matthew 5:16 and Apostle Joshua SelmanI saw the Michael Jackson Biopic 3 times. Each time I brought a notebook and a pen. Not to study the music, but to understand what happens when someone takes a gift seriously.One moment caught me. His mother reminded him of Matthew 5:16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. I have heard that verse my whole life. Yet sitting in that cinema, I heard it differently.For years I thought it was about the light. This time I found myself thinking about the responsibility that comes with it. If God places something in your hands, He expects more than admiration for the gift. He expects you to grow it. To work at it. To honor it. To refuse to leave it where you found it.A few days later, I found myself documenting a leaders meeting in AJS’s living room the night before SOR UK. As stories were shared and conversations unfolded, I found myself thinking about that verse again. Not because anyone was talking about Matthew 5:16, but because I was watching what it looks like when someone takes seriously what God has placed in their hands.It was not the length of the night. It was the seriousness. The seriousness with which he approached the assignment. The seriousness with which he approached people. The seriousness with which he approached details. The seriousness with which he approached the thing God had entrusted to him.Perhaps Matthew 5:16 is not only about shining. Perhaps it is about refusing to be casual with what God has given you. About doing the work a gift demands. About honoring it enough to keep growing, keep learning and keep becoming.Because when people encounter the fruit of your life, the goal was never for them to stop at you. The goal was always that they would see God. Which is why giving your best to God and giving your best to the world were never two different things. They were always one.The meeting ended at 3:40am. by @tolanialli

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We talk about leaders as the ones who endure. We rarely admit they are still being formed too.That kept crossing my mind throughout SOR UK. Not a single message, not even the conference itself, but the people. Everywhere I turned there was someone gifted carrying something remarkable. The worship leaders, the musicians, the ministers, the creatives, the teams serving quietly behind the scenes. It felt endless. And it made me think about something I am still learning.Building people is one of the hardest things anyone can commit to. If you do it long enough, you will meet disappointment, ingratitude, people who misunderstand you, people who leave, people who criticize the very thing that once helped them.But here is what we do not say often enough. The fault is not always theirs. Sometimes you misjudged the moment. You held on too tightly or let go too soon. You taught from a place you had not yet outgrown. Building people will expose your own gaps long before it exposes anyone else’s.That is why the best builders never stop being students. They keep learning. They keep retooling. They keep sharpening what they know, because the people in front of them deserve a better version of you than the one who started.And so you keep building, only now you are building as someone who is still being built.In Abuja, Zaria, London, Canada, USA, Manchester, Glasgow and most recently Liverpool, I saw the fruit of that. One of the most remarkable things Apostle Joshua Selman has built is people. Gifted, but disciplined. Excellent, but humble. People who understand service and stewardship. That does not happen by accident. It takes years of consistency. It takes a vision larger than any personal disappointment.There are so many diamonds in that house. Some are already known. Most are not.And if what I saw at SOR UK is any sign of what is coming, the world is not ready for them yet. Because the leader who raised them kept growing, so they would never be limited by the person he used to be. And the truth is, he is still being formed too. That may be the most remarkable part of all. by @tolanialli

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There are moments in certain atmospheres where you stop watching ministry and start witnessing the architecture of a heart.That was Worship and Warfare for me, watching Pastor @nathanielblow .He invited @joyoluchi_official to lead the praise party after the Word. If you have listened to Hosanna by Apostle Joshua Selman the number of times I have, you already know what Joy and Blessing carry. Man. Those ladies are powerful. The way they sing Hosanna, it is truly the heralding of a King.That was Abuja. But I have known this about him for years. Last week was just the first time I got to photograph it in real time.Just days later at the SOR UK in Liverpool, Pastor Nath signaled again during his set on stage. “Call that saxophonist… @officialhenrywind_feel that brother is anointed.” Within seconds, an atmosphere was ushered in that I genuinely think many people are still trying to recover from.Then watching him do the same thing later that night with @kaestrings , @pastorwilliammcdowell , and Minister @officialdaviddam , SOR UK became a testimony in real time. A living portrait of what happens when leadership understands that the Kingdom is not built by one shining light but by many lamps being lit.He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30.There is something deeply powerful about people who are secure enough in their calling to celebrate the emergence of others without feeling threatened by it. How many people have found courage because he handed them a microphone. How many gifts are being sharpened because he made room. That kind of leadership cannot be manufactured. It is too genuine. Too selfless. Too rare.Apostle has a phrase for moments like this. And by the end of that night, it was the only thing left to say. This is Koinonia. by @tolanialli

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The Child Who Remembers“Ọmọ tó bá fún àgbà ní ọlá, á gba ìbùkún.”In Yoruba culture, respect is never measured by what you own. It is measured by what you remember.At the Sound of Revival UK in Liverpool , I watched @awoniyi18 prostrate fully while greeting AJS. A footballer who has known fame, success, and everything that follows, lowering himself to the ground the way he was raised to. That is the thing about where we come from. It does not leave you. And if it was planted well, you do not want it to.In Yoruba land, prostrating is not ceremony for its own sake. It is recognition. It says: before the goals, before the world learned your name, there were people praying for you in quiet rooms. Shaping you into someone worth knowing. The gesture is the acknowledgment that you have not confused your achievements with your origins. The temptation of success is not always arrogance. Sometimes it is simply forgetting. Slowly, quietly, without meaning to. Which is why our elders have always tied honor to blessing. A person who remembers where they come from carries something that cannot be bought. And those who poured into them recognize it when they see it returned.“Ọmọ tó bá fún àgbà ní ọlá, á gba ìbùkún.”The child who gives honor to elders will receive blessings. I have seen enough to believe it.#TolaniAlli #Storyteller #TheHat #SORUK #SorLiverpool by @tolanialli

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