Do You Remember?Mercy Mkhana Simiyu We meet every Thursday to dance and type furiously in the comments section. The DJ is spinning records from his basement in Delaware, his phone camera perched up high but trained on him and his equipment. His Facebook page is the...

The Burden of Loss Nzube Ifechukwu 22 July, 2014I came in with Olisa that evening, a rucksack strapped to his back, to find Ọlụa on the phone, pacing up and down. From the inflections of his voice and his choice of words I could tell it was a family member...

Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King Is a Powerful War Song Fifi Bat-hef “She does not want to remember but she is here and memory is gathering bones.”Maaza Mengiste’s second novel tells the story of the second Italo-Ethiopian war when Italy invaded Ethiopia...

Things We See on the Road Zenas Ubere I had visited the Onitsha International Textile Market and was now in a minivan heading back to Imo. I sat in the front passenger seat, so I could see the city properly as I left. It was my first time in Onitsha, this...

Sister, Sister Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu On the day my sister got married, I found myself occupying an emotional space similar to the one I felt years ago, when I stood over her fresh-out-of-surgery body; panicky, sad, wanting desperately to keep her safe and...

Good Boy Aress Mohamed My mother used to shave me as a young boy, and I hated it. She would also shave my elder brother Issa. At the time, this was the late 1990s, there were no barbershops in our village, Bula Adaan, and the only barbershops were in the...