The Question Marker, Issue 9, September. Cover by Sef Adeola.

The Nigerian literary and journalism magazine The Question Marker has released its Issue 9, inspired by the Suicide Awareness month of September. Co-founded by Solomon Elusoji and Ikechukwu Onyewuchi in order to “tell Nigeria’s most important stories,” and debuting in January of this year, the magazine’s “work is built upon a relentless curiosity about the spaces, the people and the ideas that swirl around us” and “stands on the tripod of language, context and detail.”

The Issue 9 features pieces by Adachioma Ezeano, Zainab Omaki, Mbasughun Ukpi, Elusoji, and the magazine’s editor Olisa Eloka. Here is the Issue 9 editor’s note:

“I raised the knife to my throat and this voice from nowhere told me to slit it,” she said. Somewhere on Lagos island, Ms. Ogo Maduewesi, the completely unapologetic vitiligo activist, was telling me about those few moments she had been seconds away from committing suicide. As I listened to her story, the importance and urgency of the campaign against self-destruction hit me hard than ever before.

All over the world, this September emerged as the Suicide Awareness month. It is a theme we explored in this issue. Amongst others, Adachioma captured a particularly bleak phase of her life, Zainab bore testimony to paranoia, and for the first time video content was integrated into the magazine; you can see the experimental short film made in partnership with Tori Africa Media here. Sloughing through the fog is a daunting task, but it is our great hope that these highly personal accounts help bring mental rejuvenation to the downtrodden.

Olisa Eloka,

Editor.

Visit The Question Marker to read this issue.