Doek! Literary Magazine has released its 13th issue, and it features nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from writers and artists from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK.
Doek! is independent online publication based in Windhoek, Namibia. Launched in 2019, it features short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from Namibia, Africa, and the African diaspora. The magazine fosters diverse literary culture in Namibia while connecting local and international voices with a global audience. In 2020 it was awarded Brittle Paper’s Literary Platform of the Year, and the magazine’s contributors have been awarded various other prestigious literary awards.
The current issue is titled Dala, a Namibian term that Rémy Ngamije, in the editorial notes describes as meaning “to do, to hustle, to get it done, to make it happen.” Ngamije explains that the pieces in the collection capture the bittersweet cycles of a life that moves between striving, uncertainty, and hope for change: “We continue working despite all of the disappointments we have encountered and will continue to face. We squeeze our eyes shut, waiting for the crack, the rumble, the boom, the disaster that will end all of our efforts.”
The experience of being always in the hustle can also be a space of questioning:
In this moment one encounters uncomfortable truths: that when a man has loved a woman he will do anything for her, except continue to love her; or that the word casualty means not only those who have died, but those who have disappeared; or that when you have lost you learn to speak in measured, subdued tones—one of grief’s many lessons. One learns to question who really benefits from land restitution. We learn, too, that not all dreams are ours. Some of them come from the acoustic pasts and echoed futures, brought to us by voices carried on the winds and vinyls of history, or by the powers of misunderstood goddesses.
In this sense, the new issue captures the experiences that define our on-the-go culture of constantly being on the grind. It looks at what it means to be caught up between busy lives and the busier world around us. But it also centers literature and art as spaces for relief, thought, as well as deep questioning. Few things are better guardians through daily stressors than poetry, stories, and art.
The cover was designed by award-winning visual artist Jean-Claude Tjitamunisa, who won the 2023 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Award for Visual Art. He has also been featured in Doek! twice before, in issues “Unseen” and “Oviruru.” Dala features a cover of a man lounging on railroad tracks which the editors say “perfectly sums the feeling around the Doek community as a busy August rolls around: despite the mounting responsibilities, sometimes one has to take a carefree moment for themselves amid the chaos.”
This issue includes:
FICTION:
Storm Chasing by Aba Amissah Asibon
Visgif by M. A. Kelly
The Mayor And The Parsley-Loving Gorilla by Kiprop Kimutai
Untethered by Jason Kooper
10 Missed Calls That Haunt Us by Xavierie M
NONFICTION
The Necklace: Auralgraph from Omaruru, 1954 by Anette Hoffmann & Renathe Tjikundi-Meroro • Curated by the Basler Afrika Bibliographien Archives
Where Reason Ends by Akal Mohan
All I Wanted Was To Be Beautiful by Awuor Ouma
My Bed Misses You by Serena Paver
Anansa by Zenas Ubere
POETRY
Portrait Of My Grandfather & Fig Tree by Tjizembua Tjikuzu
VISUAL ART
Plaza by Sumayya Mohamed
Bittersweet by Bongeka Ngcobo
EDITORIAL
Dala by Rémy Ngamije
Go here to read the full issue.
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