Creative Nonfiction

E. Joseph Cossman once said, “The greatest power is often simple patience.” I concur wholeheartedly, as this principle was embodied in the way my father built our home. As a child, I remember [...]

Lately, memories from my childhood have been surfacing, like fragments of a forgotten dream. One late afternoon stands out vividly. I had gone to buy Baba Dudu from a Hausa man’s kiosk, drawn [...]

My grandparents married in August 1950. They had a small civil ceremony in London, where they were living at the time as my grandfather was specializing in paediatrics. My grandmother had been [...]

We all have a set of memories that are particularly painful to tap into. We box them up and push them behind our closets simply because they are too painful to think of, let alone narrate. The [...]

Dear Amara, at the end of last year, I received the teary email you sent me, which I read and reread until my heart wept. Some situations are humorous in themselves. It is how you run to someone [...]

Dear You, A warrior in an ongoing battle, a spectator watching a struggle, or a veteran of one, does the battle ever stop? Ooh, if only we’d write about the ongoing wars. The clanking of ideas, [...]

Mingaphi iminyaka yakho?  No no no no. Why me? I Don’t Understand What They Are Saying. Sorry, I only speak English. Hayi! Ngoba? You’re black and you don’t speak your mother tongue? You should [...]

I sighed deeply before opening the door. I tried ignoring the persistent knocks, thinking that if I said all the right words like, “God knows best,” grief would realise I didn’t want to entertain [...]

Even as I stretch my mouth into some semblance of a decent smile, my spineless lips curl in on themselves, retreating towards my throat the way the ocean recoils from the shore and slithers back [...]

In China, there is a custom that has been passed down for ages. It is called the Zhuazhou where during the one-year celebration of a baby, different items, each symbolizing a career path are [...]