I was five years old when I visited Ghana for the first time. I don’t remember much, but the few memories I have are strong. The smell was the first thing I remember noticing when we came off the plane. It’s a warm, tropical, almost smoky smell that’s hard to describe, but it smells like home. I remember seeing myself …

Wáwòyí had been defeated. They say that Life is mysterious and that she chooses to bless and curse on a whim. For the entirety of Wáwòyí’s life, he had only experienced curses. From birth he had been unfortunate; to bring him into this world, his mother had sacrificed her life. If Life was kind, she would have made him a …

Dear Vabereke (Elders), I am certain that I do not have to introduce myself, but I feel some formalities may be in order. I am you, all together in one form, I am Zimbabwe, but I was known by other names in your time and the time before. I must acknowledge our family ancestors, tribal ancestors, and national ancestors of …

This grief is limitless. She sees it extending endlessly into her future, she recognises it in her past. There’s a sadness she used to find impossible to explain, but now she recognizes it as this very grief. It is out of her control, a force from within that has formed into a partner she finds herself in some sick marriage …

In stacks of one-dirham notebooks with plastic covers, Haboba keeps track of things. Accompanied by a classic CASIO calculator, scrap paper from knitting print-outs and a pen, she documents anything that can be quantified. She has kept track of her life as our family expanded in numbers and scattered across countries. At some point, the calculator became redundant. She says …

For centuries, Africans have used patterns, discovering and manipulating geometric concepts to make them symbolic systems. So, mathematics wasn’t far from being a language. They transformed abstractions into knowledge. Ideas from their human minds were then communicated in a highly artistic manner. The significant geometric patterns are visible on decorations covering architectural styles: buildings, traditional monuments, and temples.

It’s 2016, and I’ve been swindled into a math competition. I’ve always been “good” at math. The monotony of it suited me; the rote memorization of formulae and obvious pattern recognition, while anxiety- inducing in others, came to me instantly. It also meant that, once I understood something, I also didn’t care to spend an hour and a half doing …

I wonder. What purpose would I serve if I had a different religion, and if I wasn’t forced to practice the one I do? Right about now, you’re wondering too: which religion is he talking about? Is it mine? Am I forced too?! Or maybe you’re not anxious, and you’re just going to keep on reading to find out. Go …

in the beginning: there is water; the world is without form, an empty void; a hen scatters sand poured from a snail’s shell as a god watches on; life is breathed into clay figurines; the sun emerges from a mound; order unravels from chaos; a great flood recedes from the land; matter coalesces from a big bang; there comes a …

1100 years ago, a mask was created to bind Earth and the underworld together. The humans of earth and the demons of the underworld formed an agreement that the mask would be kept safe by the Sato family. Generations later, the humans and demons are at war, and a new child of the Sato family must end the war. “Hey, …

Plot: ‘The Gravedigger’s wife’ is a film that revolves around Guled, a man who has been earning money as a gravedigger in order to provide for his son, Mahad, and sick wife, Nasra. As Nasra’s health declines, Guled is seen to go through many difficulties to earn money and ensure his wife’s Kidney surgery and treatment.  Review:  In his debut …

Growing up, I often felt lost, endlessly searching for unfathomable answers and some kind of purpose. The question of “who am I?” would ring loudly in my head and sometimes, it still does. In my attempts to understand my own being, I would find myself stuck in cycles of denial and hesitancy, struggling to come to terms with my seemingly …

The pandemic exhausted me mentally, physically and emotionally. There were and, in many ways, continue to be no breaks from trauma on personal, societal and ecological levels. I’d never in my life looked for peace and comfort as much as I did and continue to. At a critical moment in life, when there was so much loss and unknown, all …

Tuesdays are for the Ocean. Sundays are for the universe. Mondays are for peace. Wednesdays are for the spider. Thursdays are for the earth. Fridays are for fertility. Saturdays are for God. When we look to Ghanaian naming traditions, a name marks a person’s place and signifies belonging to a spirit, to a history, to a circumstance. You may find …

Boycotts, protests, towns burned to the ground. Hundreds of deaths, and hundreds of thousands displaced. Separatists, militia, and journalists impinged by an authoritarian presidency. The struggle for power in Cameroon is one of majority and minority, French-speaking and English. President Biya’s 38th year in office is marked by another year of infighting prompted by the marginalization of the English-speaking population …

When Uncle Sunny asked Ogbonna to come home for Easter, it was not a request, and there was no talk about human sacrifice. Now he is kneeling here, in the middle of a forest, beside his family house, with a sharp cutlass piercing through his chest, a gallon of blood gushing through his veins, and he cannot help but know, this is exactly where he is supposed to be.