A Different World Has Brought A Nigerian Student To Hillman

Entertainment

Lagos · Thursday 1 October 2026

Netflix's sequel to A Different World, which released all ten episodes on 24 September, includes a student named Kojo Achebe, played by Chibuikem Uche, among its new generation at Hillman College. CNN has highlighted how the series brings the African diaspora onto the fictional historically Black campus.

university campus students walking Photograph by Meredith Spencer via Unsplash.

The new Hillman

Who	Role
Deborah Wayne	Daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, starting as a freshman
Kojo Achebe	Played by Chibuikem Uche
Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison	Back as Whitley and Dwayne
Debbie Allen	Producer, director and Dr Langhorne
Richard Mofe-Damijo	A brief, much-praised appearance

The original ran on NBC from 1987.

Why it matters to a Nigerian audience. The original A Different World was almost entirely African American in its world. A sequel that puts a student with an unmistakably Nigerian surname in the class, and casts a Nollywood star, reflects how large the African, and especially Nigerian, presence on American campuses has become. Nigerians are among the largest groups of African students in the United States.

Thirty-nine years ago Hillman was a different world. Now part of that world sounds like Lagos.

What to watch for

Whether Kojo is written as a full character or as a type. African students in American television have often been the punchline: the strict parents, the accent, the jollof joke. A series made by people who clearly care about representation has the chance to do better, and Nigerian viewers will notice either way.

Reporting: CNN, Premium Times and The Source.

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