New Read

Petina Gappah's award winning story, Oration for a Dead Hero, is published in the current issue of Prospect Magazine.

The widow of a powerful man thinks back on her marriage. She schemes to secure herself a future and to get the better of the government and her stepsons, in a story that should give Mugabe the pause. In this excerpt, the widow-narrator remembers her late husband's odd ways....
“I named the first child Rwauya, meaning ‘death has come,’ and the second Muchagura, to mean ‘you shall repent,’ and the last Muchakundwa, ‘you shall be defeated.’ They are messages for the white oppressors, warning signs to the white man.”

Thus had he stamped his patriotism on his children, leaving them with names that could mean nothing to the intended recipient of the messages, to the white man who chose to live in ignorance of native tongues. The white man has been conquered now, twice over, first in the matter of government, and now in the matter of the land that has been repossessed, but the children remain with their ominous names. I got to know them well because I replaced their mother after their father divorced her.

Farafina's Woman Issue

The current edition of Farafina Magazine (vol. 9) is the ‘Woman’ Issue, and marks a refreshing departure from recent outings, design wise. The cover is simply stunning.

Edited by Toni Kan, Farafina 9 boasts an army of women contributors including poet Nike Adesuyi (making a welcome Farafina debut); the late Lynn Chukura; Kaine Agary - author of ‘Yellow-Yellow’ (who co-wrote an interesting piece with Kan on the Ogogoro Women of Lagos’ 3rd Mainland Bridge. Kan’s review of Agary's book is also in this issue); talk show host Funmi Iyanda; and Chika Unigwe (now a regular contributor, her story Sugar in my Bowl is part of the short-fiction content); and there’s an excerpt from Marie Fatayi-Williams' book, For The Love of Anthony.

Conmpleting the trio of males who get a look-in in this 'Woman' issue, are writer/artist Victor Ehikhamenor who contributes a humorous photo-essay on a dancing female, Ariya Unlimited; and Tolu Ogunlesi, whose well appointed short story, Husbands Abroad Anonymous, completes the fiction.

But with other pieces including one on breaking the ‘glass ceiling’, etiquette (presumably for women) and a whole 5 pages devoted to light-and-frothy pictures of Nollywood starlet Dakore Egbuson - Farafina no. 9 strays dangerously into the realm of ‘lifestyle/pep-talk fare' beloved of women’s mags like Genevieve. What with Farafina being a 'Culture' journal and not Marie-Claire. But because it’s the ‘Woman’ issue, Farafina no.9 pulls it off. But only just.

Farafina’s Website is currently being redesigned, but it should up and running, soon.