Fiction

The Gift that arrived at Night | Nande T.S Kamati

Not so long ago, in a time when salt was as precious as gold, there once was a family whose story whispered through the winds of time. They lived in Shamba, a land of secrets and wonders, where every stone…

Petrichor

Petrichor.  That’s the word he used—the one he called the scent you said you perceived outside. The scent of rain, soil–the one curling into your nose right now. “I can swear,” you began. “Swear?” you remember, he said, interrupting you…

Famished – Ikechukwu Henry

A young person navigates a deteriorating market while reflecting on their abusive home life.

I.T. People – Doug M. Dawson

We enjoy our birthdays until they make us feel old, remind us of our mortality or portend something unpleasant. Jack Adams had his one month earlier. He had mixed feelings the day he turned 47. When he got home from…

ISSUE 1 Fiction

He Still Believes – Mike Chin

“Don’t take too long washing these dishes,” Gary said. “Santa’s coming soon.” He gave his mother a squeeze from behind at the sink and kissed Sierra’s neck. He rubbed his hand over her stomach, too, before heading back to the…

Venn Diagram – Abasi-maenyin Esebre

It wasn’t there. When Victor Akan cut through the small passage just behind his rented apartment and greeted his neighbours in a bright tone underscored by a neutral face, he never imagined his broken-headlamp, paint-bleached, cracked-windscreen, always-breaking-down Audi 80 would…

Drowning Myself – Haliru Ali Musa

This is my seventh day in the shower, attempting to wash away the sorrows of losing my lover. The hot water streams down, but it can’t cleanse the memories. It wasn’t always like this. I remember the first time I…

Say My Name When The Crow Call – Oluwabunmi Adaramola

Sisi Jókò began bringing me leftover Ofada rice morsels wrapped in Agidi leaves–perhaps remnants from what her mother had managed to sell that day–in the third hour since Uncle Túndùn locked me away. The walls holding me captive were as…

ISSUE 1 Fiction

Nanny Burrows’s Potions – Ian Douglas Robertson

The summer holidays had come at last and I couldn’t wait to get out on the farm. Jimmy Comerton had commandeered three of the men to help him dip the two hundred and fifty sheep we had at the time….

Catching the Wind – Theophilus Mshelia Sokuma

1 Bolaji showed me pictures of his mother the first week we started dating. We were seated side by side on a blue sofa in the living room of his flat in Surulere. The sky had been holding imminent rain…