In his review of Okey Ndibe’s ‘Foreign Gods, Inc.’ (2014), Ronald Adamolekun writes, “There has been much fuss in the media regarding the credibility of Okey Ndibe’s prose style. His debut novel, ‘Arrows of Rain,’ shares a close title with Chinua Achebe’s 1964 novel, ‘Arrow of God.’ His deployment of the nuances in the ethical…
Kabu Okai-Davies is an Australia-based Ghanaian poet, playwright and novelist. He studied at University of Ghana, Rutgers-Newark, and NYU School of Continuing Education. Founder and producer, African Globe TheatreWorks, Newark, NJ: 1992 -2005. He moved to Australia in 2006 as a Playwright-In-Residence, Street Theatre and Producer National Multicultural Festival. He studied at Oxford University’s Creative…
We introduce ‘And the Rainbow Twisted’, a new short story by Belkacem Meghzouchene, an Algerian author (born October 18, 1979 in Aït Hamsi.) A geneticist by training, he has published his first novel, SOPHIA IN THE WHITE CITY (Editions l’Odyssée, Algeria, 2010), a premiere in French-prone Maghrebi country. In June 2011, he won the first award of…
We present ‘The Keeper of Family Peace’, a new short story by Rufaro Gwarada, a US-born Zimbabwean who spent the formative years of her life in Zimbabwe before moving back to the United States for college in 1999. She earned a bachelor’s degree from University of the Pacific and a master’s in Gender and Development…
The Jaguar Bus pulled up by the sides of Immigration offices at Katuna border post in Kabale District. Nancy, who was seated at the rear, got up from her seat as the bus turn-boy ordered everyone to make haste. She was now closer to home. She had replayed this scene in her mind countless times in the…
Mama wanted the hospital visits to stop, so she grumbled about this for days. At first, it seemed nobody in the family was listening to her. Then her youngest son Nwachi died. She grumbled louder. The hospital-going had to stop, she moaned, it had to stop. One morning, after breakfast, she slapped the hand of…
“This country is fucked up. What shit are they celebrating?” Mbatu nods towards the noisy bunch of students who have occupied every table in this open-air bar. They are singing and dancing as if someone just won a million dollars in the lottery. These are the boys and girls who say they have ‘swag’. Girls…
It was always the most complete kind of feeling. Her head underwater, deaf to everything above the surface. Her ears opened to her own heartbeat and the residual of another from years ago, thrumming above the womb she nested in. She sucked water in and out of her mouth. It was her childish triumph, to…
Fear has a taste. It is this metallic tang that floods my mouth as I quicken my steps. My heart is a frantic tattoo, my mouth impossibly dry. I swallow. My tongue glues itself to the roof of my mouth. I squeeze Fatima’s hand and feel her answering squeeze. My breaths slow. And then the…
It was a pleasure to read all the stories on the long list. The themes of the stories were varied however many reflected in different ways the realities of life in our societies. Spousal abuse; the apathy of civil servants; the torment of living to a very old age; were some of the themes tackled…
