The Giver of Nicknames Rémy Ngamije Prelude. When we were clowns, children, and things – before we sprouted personalities, individual hopes, and collective guilt; before we reconciled all aspects of our conflicting beings – there were four Donovans at our school:...

The Couch Zanta Nkumane IThe couch is a living thing – did you know? That’s why I can’t take it with me. I can take the fridge because it’s not a living thing. It breathes cold air. I can take the cutlery or maybe the washing machine for practicality and...

Hungry Days Tammi Browne-Bannister 1 I overheard this conversation between the people sitting on the strip-up van seat in front of me. The latest was about a woman who had to run for her life. I heard that she was panting, dripping sweat, snot and tears,...

Sway Sussie Anie She won’t be unseen. Her, leaning face neck and shoulders from the little window three floors up. There, waving a cerise spill of silk.  She’s seen me, it’s hard not to: my conker-shiny face and my pressed navy shift amidst so many...

Basket of Deplorables Linda Musita For six years I have functioned on weed, vodka and cocaine. I get my cocaine from a Nigerian; it's terrible quality, but everything is shit in Nairobi. My weed comes from a woman in Kariokor; she has never changed her...

Water Birds on the Lake Shore Precious Colette Kemigisha It’s the day of the ReNaming memorial parade in Home Land. Magic balloons three times the size of watermelons, drift in and out of white clouds miles above my head and change from red to...

The Journey Fatma Shafii What do you do when you earn your first pay? Abdi thought of saving the cash until he returned home so he could buy the things he and his mother didn’t have. He thought about getting back to school, but two years had passed and he wasn’t sure...