Essays & Reviews

‘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,...
Poetry

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...
Fiction

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...
Fiction

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,...
Poetry

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...
Poetry

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...
Fiction

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...
Poetry

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...

LAST MONTH...

B. Guserwa | A silent affection

B. Guserwa -

Samuel Kozah | Facing West

Samuel Kozah -

Nadia Ahidjo | Na Wetin Dat?

Nadia Ahidjo -

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...

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...

The Permanence of Loss | A Conversation with Ìfẹ́olúwa Àyàndélé

Ìfẹ́olúwa Àyàndélé’s debut poetry collection, My Father Paints His Dreams on My Body (2026), was published by Moon City Press at Missouri State University...

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...

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...

RANDOM CONVERSATIONS

Gender in African Literature Today: A Conversation with Asante Lucy Mtenje

Asante Lucy Mtenje is a Malawian academic, creative writer,...

Jesutomisin Ipinmoye: Dreaming Outwards

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

Namwali Serpell: Planting Seeds in a Garden of Intention

Namwali Serpell. Born in Lusaka, Zambia. The ethereal forms...

A Hero of his own Myth | Lawrence Winkler in Conversation

"What is your final destination…?" asked the South African...

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

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

Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún: Renaissance is Badly Needed in African Language Literature

36-year-old Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún is a poet, blogger, linguist and...

The Mystique of Maxim

(for Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Boroja I, Obi of Ikate,...

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu: The Legend of Ben Tomoloju

The arts scene of Lagos, nay Nigeria, owes a...

E.C. Osondu: A Writer must come to the blank page with humility

E.C. Osondu is the author of Voice of America...