FORTUNATE TRAVELLER

Welcome to the travel theatre/ where transition is key. — Dami Ajayi, 'On Airports I'
Non-fiction

Brisbane: Memories of Migration by Uzo Dibia

April 12, 2019

First the seduction, then the beheading: Holofernes! John the Baptist! Maybe I am next in line, I pondered as Magda gave me the spiel. Recruiters will seduce you with their words, and when you succumb, you find you’ve been sold a dud or sent to the backwaters of an unknown country. This script was well-worn, often followed and almost always seen to its contrived conclusion. Magda’s words were smooth, enunciated…

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Interviews

Reminiscing Travels: A Conversation between Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún and Adédàpò Treasure

December 28, 2018

Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún is a Nigerian linguist and travel writer born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. His writings and language advocacy have earned him a variety of recognitions including the 2009 Fulbright Scholarship, which initiated the experience that formed the backdrop of his new book, Edwardsville by Heart (2018); the 2016 Premio Ostana Prize, becoming the first African to be so-honoured, and recently, the 2018 Miles Morland Scholarship. Apart from KTravula.com,…

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Non-fiction

A JJC in Lagos by Cynthia Adaobi Okpala

December 14, 2018

In other states, you will see a bold signboard with a welcome greeting as soon as you get to their boundaries. But Lagos will not welcome you with anything like ‘Welcome to Lagos’. What you will find is a brusque statement that is figurative of the unwelcome salutation that awaits your arrival. Something bold and specific, something uninterested in unnecessary friendliness and frivolities, something close to the hustle and bustle,…

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Poetry

Reinvention by Uche Nduka

July 27, 2018

REINVENTION I The rope of distance broke you sat there reinventing Lagos islands got drenched inside us black crows torched our scars the lessons of attraction the avalanche might actually get kinder wandering in all capes but the death of desire is not what you keep hearing about II Soon all this will be memory stitching yourself into a blue sky, an open door that’s what it says in get-aways…

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Photography & Art

Prague is for Dancers by Ranka Primorac

July 13, 2018

Prologue [The Dancing House, Prague] On 21 June 2018, after returning from my first ever visit to Prague where I went to attend a conference, Africa, local cosmopolitanisms and the world, I tweeted two pictures I’d taken in that city, with the caption ‘#Prague is for dancers’ and a heart-eyed emoticon. The tweet was inspired by the Dancing House – an iconic building on the Vltava waterfront dreamed up by…

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Essay & Review

Of Roads and Crossroads by Tade Ipadeola

July 6, 2018

Title: If Only the Road Could Talk Author: Niyi Osundare Publisher: Africa World Press Number of pages: 126 Year of publication: 2017 Category: Poetry   Old, never aged, Once golden apple of an Empire’s eye, London never sleeps (but sometimes snores) Still methodically English, with some brown now In the watermark of its Union Jack…  – London (p 106) Of all African poets writing in English today, without a doubt Niyi Osundare…

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Poetry

Owerri Revelation by Michael Akuchie

March 30, 2018

I We move out from the park, through a circle of chairs, And pass a sleepy-eyed attendant from whose mouth Igbo language moulds concepts like chunks of meaning. Ikpoba hill Descends on us as a woman seductively unwrapping her dress. The landscape still spells Benin with red sand and Perfervid sun. Suddenly, it becomes green with envy That I am leaving. I too feel guilty that I am abandoning Home for another home…

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Non-fiction

An Artist’s Diary III: The Homeward Journey by C. Krydz Ikwuemesi

March 16, 2018

The border was as tough as it had been when we passed the previous Saturday, though not the same officials except one. This time the police openly requested 3000cfa before they would touch our documents. Whereupon we interjected that we had almost exhausted our funds and were just managing to get back to our country. Besides, we had paid 6000 cfa when we passed the other day and it was…

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Non-fiction

An Artist’s Diary II: The Long Road to Abidjan by C. Krydz Ikwuemesi

March 2, 2018

Elubor is Ghana’s border town on the road to Ivory Coast. It is about two hundred kilometers from Cape Coast. By the time we got there around 7.30pm, both the Ghanaian and Ivorian border posts had closed for the day. We had no other option than to check into a hotel nearby and wait for daybreak. Hotel Cocoville was noisy and rowdy with a disco party and a throng of…

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Non-fiction

An Artist’s Diary I: Negotiating West African Borders by C. Krydz Ikwuemesi

February 23, 2018

‘Halte!’ It was the voice of a leather-faced Beninois policeman, shocking us to a sudden realisation that we were at the border once again, the Benin-Togo border. We had crossed the Nigeria-Benin border unchallenged. In fact, it had been like a VIP. affair. The place had been busy with Nigerian and Beninois policemen standing on either side of the road. And they had waved us on without stopping our Toyota…

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