For this month of September, we compiled a list of reads from around the Internet that we find thought-provoking, and essential to understanding the literary conversations shaping our moment. This month, we have selected four pieces, each offering unique insights into culture, identity, and the power of storytelling.

Our selections include a fascinating exploration of how everyday objects become embedded in cultural memory, a deeply personal meditation on hidden truths and self-discovery through the lens of Ethiopian poetic tradition, a rigorous examination of literary erasure and rehabilitation, and a powerful testament to the lived experience of navigating racial dynamics in contemporary America.

While numbered for convenience, this list is unranked. Each piece stands as a vital contribution to the ongoing conversations about how we tell our stories and understand our place within larger cultural narratives.

1. How Nigerians reinvented an Italian tinned tomato brand by Femke van Zeiji | Al Jazeera 

In Lagos markets today, when customers ask for “a derica” of rice or beans, few realize they’re invoking the name of an Italian tomato paste brand that once dominated Nigerian kitchens. This fascinating Al Jazeera feature traces how De Rica, originally from a 1912 Italian tomato processing factory, became so ubiquitous in southern Nigeria from the 1960s-1980s that its empty tin cans evolved into a standard unit of measurement in food markets.

2. Go Tell It to White People by Chibueze Darlington Anuonye | Portside Review

In this powerful Portside Review essay, Nigerian writer Chibueze Darlington Anuonye chronicles his encounters with American racism through a series of unsettling but everyday interactions; from being mistaken for the owner of an incorrectly filled form at a conference to having his qualifications questioned at a prestigious writing program. Drawing on insights from James Baldwin and Chinua Achebe, Anuonye explores how racism functions as a system that “muddies everyone,” making both victims and perpetrators complicit in ways they may not fully understand.

3. In Search of Ouologuem by Vamba Sherif | Guernica Mag

This compelling Guernica essay follows writer Vamba Sherif’s decades-long fascination with Yambo Ouologuem, the Malian author whose 1968 novel Bound to Violence won France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot before being destroyed by plagiarism accusations that forced him into lifelong exile. Through personal reflection and literary analysis, Sherif makes the case for rehabilitating Ouologuem as “a true chronicler in the African tradition” whose voice deserves to be heard again after decades of literary erasure.Through personal reflection and literary analysis, Sherif makes the case for rehabilitating Ouologuem as “a true chronicler in the African tradition” whose voice deserves to be heard again after decades of literary erasure.

4. Wax and Gold and Gold by Mihret Sibhat | The Paris Review

This Paris Review piece by Mihret Sibhat draws its title from the Ethiopian poetic tradition of “wax and gold,” where “wax” represents the obvious surface meaning while “gold” represents the hidden, deeper significance. Mihret Sibhat uses the Ethiopian poetic tradition of “Wax and Gold”, where surface meaning conceals deeper truths, to unpack a memory of searching for Elsa, a sex worker she had befriended while attempting to “minister” to her as a fifteen-year-old evangelical Christian. The essay becomes a meditation on how we hide truths not only from others but from ourselves, and how sometimes the most important discoveries are the ones we’re not yet ready to make.