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The early morning sky brooded at 3am and Ojotule’s heart was a beehive of activities. For 30 years, she had wallowed in confusion, anger, and now a deep-seated sadness; weariness that nothing [...]

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 [...]

All the children in Class 6A could read and write except Nora! Nora was quiet, withdrawn, and easily distracted. At break time, she sat alone under the big orange tree to eat her lunch and never [...]

They say when you’re about to die, your life flashes before your eyes in a myriad of pictures. For me, there are no flashes—just the inner voice of my mother saying, “Be organised, dammit. And do [...]

I heard the hooting of a barn owl on my thatched roof this morning. People said seeing an owl in the morning was a bad omen. The sky was tar black, blotting out the old blue ambiance. At a [...]

In hidden wars, we fight alone Battles rage, though none may know The scars we bear, the tears we’ve cried The weight of secrets, we cannot deny The masks we wear, the smiles we fake Conceal the [...]

It crashed on its back, its legs up and wriggling. I found myself envious of its natural voluptuous gaster—my body was eager to fill out in the right places—as it twisted its thin waist this way [...]

It is day three hundred and sixty-five of being a thing that hurts in the life of the one person I love. Fernando Pessoa was right when he said: the inventor of the mirror poisoned the human [...]

I have a blazing smile, and a penetrating gaze. When we were young, my brother liked using some words in his sentences. We could be having a reason to celebrate and he would go, “I hope this will [...]

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 [...]