by Temitayo Olofinlua    “Is there anything to eat in this house this evening?” Barbara asked. “There’s porridge,” I replied. “Porridge is not food. Porridge is just something that I will drink with the main meal,” Barbara announced. We were both confused on our definitions of porridge. She told me that porridge is made from corn or millet. From her [...]

 by Ikhide Ikheloa   Brother – teeth flashing in the cant of compliments Brother – gold-rimmed glasses Across eyes that go blue at a word from the Master Poor brother in your silk-lined tuxedo Chatter and whisper and swagger through condescending drawing roomes We pity you The sun of your land is no more than a shadow Across the calm [...]

by Abimbola Adelakun A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike…. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. - John Steinbeck _____ I have set before you an open door which no man can short. I read the sticker pasted on one of the cracked windows of [...]

By Michael Odejimi  MICHAEL: You left. Suddenly. No goodbyes. Why? IFY:             I said my goodbyes a few times. You just weren’t listening. These days, it seems the world only listens to what it wants to hear. Infact, my works and, most importantly, my poems spoke loudest. It’s funny no one heard. MICHAEL: So I guess you are resting now. IFY:             Sure. From the struggle, pain [...]

by Ayodele Olofintuade   Tonight I deleted Ify Omalicha’s phone number from my contacts. The number has not been on my phone for long, just barely 3weeks old. It’s strange actually because I’ve known Ify for longer than that. She was one of my missed opportunities. I still beat myself up over that, because on several occasions I’d been given the [...]

 by Ikhide Ikheloa I am hungry. Very hungry. And hunger drives my brain cells to a certain point of brilliance, that hell-nirvana that my adversaries, and quite a few friends, call stark raving, certified lunacy. And as always happens when hunger places my growling stomach under house arrest, I commence esoteric ruminations, thinking deeply profound thoughts, or as my detractors [...]

by Emmanuel Iduma Do we agree that ‘revolution’ is the wrong word for the events of last January? Do we agree that the events were too ordinary to herald change? Karen Press begins Monument to the South African Republic rather bleakly: The long dry grass collects our history and every few years burns it off in a frenzy of memory. [...]

Láti parapọ pẹlú àwọn abánisèdè mi, n’go kọ gbogbo àwọn “kádàrá kékèké” l’énìí l’édè wa tó l’éwà, Yorùbá. —Teju Cole (March 1, 2012)   1 N’ílùú Èkó, Peter fún arábirin kan l’óyun l’áìbèèrè. Pèlú pèlú, ó fúun l’óògùn láti b’oyún náà jé l’áìbèèrè. Èjè sì n’sun l’ára arábìnrin náà. 2 Ní Ọbádòré, onílé kan, Comfort, àti ọmọ rè arábìrin, Nwaka, [...]

by Ikhide Ikheloa -       Ring! Ring!! Ring!!! -       Hello! Who is that? -       Papa! It is me! Your son! -       I say who is that? -       It is me! Your son! Calling from America! -       Ah! Is that my son? Wonderful! Thank God! You will live long, my son! I was flashing you and you were not picking up your [...]

By Temie Giwa   Be like the road itself, a long slithering tar in the sun. Burn the midnight ointment in the wick of questing.   It is all in the road. Rwanda’s renaissance all lay on top of her sprawling roads zigzagging through the edges and horror of genocide to create an amazing infrastructure that is set to create [...]