Felix Omondi: Maybe the Nyayo Era Wasn’t That Bad

I mean, people (still) woke up  dead Others disappeared then reappeared dead Our soon to be parents Still met up in disco (matangas) For a moment, swung their bell-bottom trousers To the rhythm of the wind. While they drank the konyagi of their time They spoke in low tones Of the man. of the man. of the man. of the […]

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo: Jacaranda as Love

These months the city purples with love: delicate, blooming all around to fall gently on the earth. These months we marvel at the beauty of decay, love persisting in the rains and their failure— purpling anew to fling itself off the tree again for glory. These months it seems love can endure.

Tizzita M Tefera: How Does the Mother Come from the Child

They tell me that I am a descendant of Arabs & Greeks,  They tell me look at your caramel brown skin, You are mixed. Then they come back and tell me that from my loins came humanity, They dig to find the oldest human skeletons in my land, They dig to find mitochondrial eve, They tell me 85% of humanity […]

Bertha Odawa: Voices

Click, Clack, Bang, Boom! The sounds, loud and explosive, The screams, the weapons, the silence, the death, Ching, Chang, cling, clang, The music drowned out as the joy fades, Bing, bang, boom, The stories fading out as the narrative changes, Shh, Ahh, Ohh, Huddling, survival, the native camps, now homes, Mama, Baba, Baby, The pain of loss, the disintegration of […]

Ray Mwihaki: And to You, Many Returns

When you hear whispers in this part of town, it’s either hot gossip that you must partake in with an arched back, hands cupped around your ears, widening eyes and standing akimbo. Rarely do they come from the abyss yet there were whispers coming from the tree no one should touch. It had not been much of a tree for […]

Felix Omondi: To Rescue a god

When he woke up that morning, Lempei knew it was going to be an interesting day; but how exactly, he still did not know.  First, he had woken up earlier than usual and when he got to the school bus park, he was the first student there — something that had never happened before. In fact, when the other students […]