Mpho watched me through the windows of the sky-blue phone booth outside our school gate. She twirled the handle of an open bright red umbrella to the left, to the right, to the left again and leaned in. “Remember what I said,” she told me, in a low, slow voice, as if to a child. […]
Until I Come Home
I was born Cudjoe, but my father called me Champion. He was away at sea on the Monday I was born. Four weeks later, when he held me for the first time during my Akan naming rites, I did not cry when our elder put his index finger into my mouth and poured cold water […]
Beneath This Skin
Dad said the best way to know what a person is truly made of is to cut them open. Despite being the disciplinarian in our home, he was fair and kind-hearted, unlike some of the aloof men my cousins called father. I used to think my dad was made of starch because his frame reminded […]
Conflict: A Battered Life
“Mawu! Run!” “Run fast, Mawu!” “Faster!” Ladan, Mawu’s best friend, shouted impatiently while holding out his hand to pull Mawu onto the rickety old truck meant for transporting animals. This was their only chance to escape and leave this godforsaken place. The scorching savannah sun blurred Mawu’s vision as he ran. The land was as […]
Aunty Joyce
“Pack and go! Pack and go!” The man in the house next door was shouting at his wife — the third time this week — and she rattled back profanities in high pitched Bemba. The first time we heard it, I was with my sister, Nomsa, and we’d giggled nonstop. Dad, after hearing what had […]
Crocodile Tears
Imam Ibin Saud wore a grey business suit and matching tie, instead of a traditional Islamic attire. He was a tall, sturdy man who had been born in the Bronx to a working-class African-American family. He was well-known to the African and Caribbean residents who lived in Le Petit Senegal, as the Harlem neighbourhood was […]
Moon Secrets
She sits down on the sofa, exhausted, and turns on the TV. Much against her character, Goitsemang has grown to like reality crime shows, especially ones about serial killers. So she’s happy to see one is starting. She doesn’t dig too deep as to why she enjoys learning about killers. Maybe it’s a break from […]
Green Shirt
You are eight years old, Nonso is twelve and you both live with your Grandmama inside her small flat where the walls are unpainted, and the floors are rough, gray and untiled. The flat is one of four in a house with no running water. And every morning there’s a race for who gets to […]
The Monkey in the Middle
Even after I explained twice, Matome still didn’t get it. He tried, though. But he struggled to grasp how someone could be both lively and suicidal at the same time. He violently coughed before saying, “So it was you?” “Yeah,” I said. “I mean…yeah.” “I still think it’s strange. Maybe you should explain one more […]