New Reads

may the fire seeds you sow in Darfur
consume you and your damned bands.

Poems are not usually included in the 'New Reads', but when it's Tanure Ojaide's To The Janjaweed, exceptions can be made. Click on the above excerpt to read Ojaide's divine curses heaped in poetry upon the Janjaweed - in the current issue of Per Contra.

In Jude Dibia 's Among Strangers, a young man goes to the funeral of the father from whom he has been long enstranged. He has to confront his stepmother, his past and his own sense of isolation. The story is published in the 2nd issue of Black Biro Online.

Excerpt
Mother had confronted them, but I knew nothing of what they said. Grandma spoke rapidly in Igbo, and so did father. And mother, in tears, responded in Igbo – even though she was not one of their own. Many times they all pointed at me and I just sat still, listening to all the strange words being hurled about and feeling so out of place and helpless. I didn’t share their language with them. It was the language that bound them together; the same language that severed me from them. Even at that age, I worried that there was no place for me in their world or this world.
Read on...