african stories

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Features June 29, 2016

Port Harcourt | by Bura-Bari Nwilo | An African Story

It was not past midnight. Maybe it was but there was nothing indicative of the time. Moonlight lit the country. Women lined up the street, seated behind coolers and makeshift tables selling alcohol, condoms and information to divergent customers. Behind the sellers, taxi drivers sat on car bonnets and cracked a joke when a drunken […]

Sjambok! | by Pravasan Pillay | An African Story

sjambok (ˈʃæmbʌk; in South Africa -bɒk) (noun) Arms & Armor (excluding Firearms): a heavy whip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide Arms & Armor (excluding Firearms): a stiff synthetic version of this, used in crowd control (Verb) -boks, -bokking or -bokked [transitive] to strike or beat with such a whip [C19: from Afrikaans, from Malay samboq, […]

International Fisherman | by Dedi Seyi | An African Story

Ma told me this when I said I wanted to become a fisherman. She said like my Pa, my life will be short and wasted. I will drown in liquor, philander with uncouth village women and bring my future wife unmentionable diseases. The good homely woman will suffer and God forbid, have this same conversation […]

Tears for Dare Amuda | by Omoya Simult | An African Story

Somehow, as I lie supine on this bed tonight, with my head propped up by a pillow, I remember the first time I cried because of you. And no, on that day, the tears did not fall in torrents. It was a noiseless sorrow: no whimper, no wail.I was on this same bed, in this […]

Fangs and Furs | by Adeosun Adams Abayomi | An African Story

The door creaks as you push it open, and you step out of the warmth of your hostel into the harsh cold of the midnight. You have invited Pemisire to watch the moon with you. She is to meet you under the cherry tree. The tree from which you fell and broke an arm when […]

No Time | By Nnamdi Nwaigwe | An African Story

He ran out of luck in seconds before he could merge with the crowd of Christmas shoppers, before my mouth could even form a half O from the shock of what I saw. The woman’s reaction was so quick for someone her size. She turned swiftly, her feet still rooted to a spot and grabbed […]

One Year | Adesuwa Iluobe | An African Story

Finally I got to my destination. I looked down and used the edge of my blouse to clean my sweaty face. The sun felt harsh on my skin, and my tongue was dry. Either way, my body lost water, via my tears and the sun. I had been walking for the past thirty minutes, not because […]

Tangled | by Kay Greins | An African story

I felt like an alien from Uranus whose flying saucer crashed over the earth. I felt strange, so surreal like a character in Salvador Dali’s paintings. Who am I? I asked myself silently, my brain going on overdrive trying to find an answer to the puzzling question. The answer did not seem within reach, but my […]