Yagazie Chinekotam | The Old High Gate Hotel

The set of apartments sat like the last twelve cubes in a St. Louis sugar box. I could smell the aroma of...

Michael Barrington | A Toast to Africa

The message from the Regional Director was sparse and uncompromising—no explanations, only urgency. He should leave at once. His destination lay...

Cliff Burns | First Meeting

First Meeting You are the Otherbut from your pointof view so am I Inside Schrodinger’s Boxstaring at each otheruncertain what happens next Tribal peoplemeeting...

Mark de Klerk | Playing Golf with Nelson Mandela

Playing Golf with Nelson Mandela Once again, I am in the roughfeeling inferior to the guy behind mewho keeps hitting holes-in-one.After a...

Khosa J.K. Chambalo | Memory Lane

The red earth of Malawi does not forget the footprints of its children. Even when the rain washes the surface clean,...

Abigail George | Black Vulnerability, Black Stigma

Black vulnerability, black stigma There's a swamp in his breath, swampy breathvolcanic ash in his pink nostrils, dragonThe red light from the...

Newpanther | Chapter 9

Chapter 9 yesterdays agoI saw long haired hippies in black and whitereligious groupies squatting everywheretelling fortunes under Shaman trancedrop a bit of...

‘Shèun Ominira-Bluejack | “Uneasy Lies The Head”

“I am an African! I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers,...

LAST MONTH...

Brian Obiri-Asare | in pure moonlight

in pure moonlight +++over at the chop bar, where they’re still palavering & holding onto the promise of this world, her sighs return +++from the abyss...

Scott Frost | The First Thing They Take

The First Thing They Take I. before you learn your kradinis the first thing they take.not gently--nothing sort of exciting--but like a tax, they takeeven though...

Rais Tuluka | The Lineage Behind African Eyes

I have begun this essay eight times and deleted it eight times. I keep seeing your eyes, which are also the eyes of my...

J.L. Oputa | Room IV

I Trepidation : A feeling of alarm or dread. The first time you came across this word was in your primary school classroom. Mrs. Essien, your...

Abigail George | Old Brown Sherry lullaby

He beat her black and blue when he was drunk (or) Old Brown Sherry lullaby On Friday nights, we would go to Spur and order steak,well-done. His...

Tarius Montayj Jones | Pain

“Pain” It comes every year, like the passing of tradition;there is no February’s leap year,nor is there any grey area in betweento separate Black from...

RANDOM CONVERSATIONS

Rory Kilalea: There is a growing lack of respect for kindness

Luck has played an important part in my life,...

Jesutomisin Ipinmoye: Dreaming Outwards

A while back, African Writer Magazine published this great...

Titilope Sonuga: I believe in truth-telling as a pathway to healing

Títílopẹ́ Sónúgà (she writes it as “Titilope Sonuga”) is...

Nengi Ilagha: Words are the instruments of our warfare in the spirit, as in the flesh

NENGI JOSEF OWEI-ILAGHA, fondly called Pope Pen the First,...

Nnedi Okorafor: I just have stories to tell…

Nnedi Okorafor is an important writer, period. She is...

Wesley Macheso: Fiction is greater than the reality it mirrors

Wesley Macheso teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Mzuzu...

“My repression is as legitimate as your freedom”: A Conversation with Yẹ́misí Aríbisálà

Yẹ́misí Aríbisálà, formerly Yẹ́misí Ogbe, is a food memoirist...

Prof. Monica Mweseli: Okot P’bitek’s Call Still Relevant to All African Writers

Political turbulence following Idi Amin’s 1971 coup in Uganda...

H.R. ole Kulet: Education Should Strengthen the Bonds Created by Culture

Henry ole Kulet grew up in a village called...