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…
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…
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…
Sane Sundays
cliquez ici pour lire la version en français Where the sun is brightest, where all the main roads in Kimboh meet, the man sits and glares into thin air. The Harmattan breeze has come with great gifts: pieces of papers…
Spittle Royale
Image Credit: Crazy nook (via shutterstock) Translated from the French by Nchanji M. Njamnsi and Nfor E. Njinyoh cliquez ici pour lire la version en français The country is anaemic, I’m told Its blood drained by…
How to Learn a Language
Isabella Morris “How to learn a Language” is the second and final story of a two-part prelude to Bakwa 08, the “Pain issue”. The first was Sturdy Man with Shaggy Beard by Ucheoma Onwutuebe. The first thing the teacher writes on…
A Reversal by Imbolo Mbue
A short piece on the theme of Belonging, read by the author at the 29th Annual PEN Faulkner Celebration in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 2017.
Memoir of a Journey Home
After two years away from home, the journey back to Nigeria comes with its own story. Most important is the story between a mother and her daughter, the love that exists between them and how they interact like sisters.
Imbolo Mbue: Cameroon’s literary gem and Africa’s first million-dollar novelist
Who is Imbolo Mbue? What does it mean to write a million-dollar novel? Nkiacha Atemkeng explores these questions and reviews “Emke“, Imbolo Mbue’s first published story. When I first heard that a US-based writer from Cameroon, Imbolo Mbue, had…
Bakwa Magazine Short Story Competition
Cliquez ici pour lire la version en français UPDATE: the deadline has been extended to August 15 Bakwa magazine, the leading online literary and cultural magazine in English in Cameroon, which has been at the forefront of cross-cultural exchange, intends…