Namibian literary magazine Doek! has a new issue out this May titled “The Struggle“. Exploring the everyday struggles of writers and artists, the 10th issue features exciting new African voices in a range of genres.

Founded in 2019, Doek! is a free, independent, and Pan-African online literary magazine produced in Windhoek, Namibia. It publishes short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from Namibia, Africa, and the African diaspora.

The powerful cover is designed by Daisy Serena and Sérgio Silva, and depicts a woman with her face covered by a scarf. Read an extract from the editorial note by Rémy Ngamije explaining the theme below:

For every artist there are two truths: how things are and how they happen. Sometimes we are new songs, and sometimes we are a painful mess, a mutilation, a slow death. Sometimes–perhaps tonight–we are the ocean, and sometimes we are what was left beneath the sea. To tell stories–to share the voices in our heads, and the voices in our souls–is hard. It takes time; it requires patience. Sometimes we are found lacking.

And yet we persist.

We take technicoloured taxis from Windhoek to Khartoum and through our archived memories. From early morning to almost midnight we travel from Mussulo, in Angola where the birds whisper secrets to each other, to sunny days in Mbabane, in Eswatini, where we dream of more. We realise, with each day, week, month, and year that we are changing seasons–our bodies, our feelings, our friendships, our families, none of these things are finite. Neither is our art, nor those who shall encounter it.

This issue of Doek! sounds like an exciting read!  See the content list for the issue below.

Check out the new issue here.

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Table of Contents

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

Visual Art

Editorial