La nuit est agitée. L’eau se brise sur la falaise ; le sol tremble sous la puissance des pas des danseurs ; l’air vibre sous la voix des chanteurs ; mon sang pulse à chaque coup de tambour. Mon corps n’est plus que…
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Sugartown
Grace was not like us: she skipped goat-roasting gatherings when our children got jobs outside Sugartown; when our children were getting circumcised and we erupted in ululations on the surgeon’s final whistle; when one of us gave birth and we…
Editorial Intern
Bakwa Magazine is currently accepting applications for the position of editorial intern. Since its creation in 2011, Bakwa has published new and major writers from the African continent and the world in original languages and translations. Over the years, we…
A Glossary of Things We Need To Unlearn
Join us for a conversation between Nfor Njinyoh (editor, Bakwa Books), Mariette Tchamda (éditions Nuances) and Nchanji Njamnsi (translator) on language variations and translation as an art form. Taking as a start point Walter Benjamin in ‘The Translator’s Task’, when…
Teaching Her Father
It was she that taught her father, how to speak. He did not know the language of fathers and daughters. It was she that taught her father, how to be needed. He did not know necessity beyond daily bread. It…
Things the World Didn’t Tell You
Every evening, your father tore a page off the Bible, steeped it in water, and chewed. Every evening, he mumbled the same two-minute prayer before eating the Word of God. He chewed gingerly, steadily, reverently. It may have dropped forewarnings…
Uncle Mike
“Who is your aunty? Shift from here, let me not slap you!” Those were the words Maru, the Form Five dormitory prefect, flung at me when I greeted her with Aunty Maru a couple of weeks into my new life…
You have a fullness you need to bring out
“You have a fullness you need to bring out” interrogates and reimagines how we consume text-based art, specifically what we read and how we read, by offering an immersive approach. Drawing from a curated archive of work from Bakwa Magazine…
Bakwa at 10: Celebrating a Decade of Disruption
December 2021 will mark Bakwa Magazine’s tenth anniversary. From inception in 2011 to currently being at the forefront of African literary culture, our journey is a remarkable one. Created as a response to the dearth of critical and creative writing…
The Mwalimu Palaver
“What’s in a name?” The often-quoted question rings on in an age of post-enlightenment. When I think of the vision promulgated by the late emeritus Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, echoes of “Shall We Make or Mar” seem to continue to…
