Kisumu had been good to us but we couldn’t stay there forever. Before we embarked for Bungoma though, we decided to squeeze in two early morning shoots. What I like most about my team is that Cindy has created a space where all ideas are welcome. This makes Sebastian the lead dreamer with Mulwa and […]
The sun is a fussy performer at dawn and dusk. It promises everything, and nothing. Though we left Vic Hotel at 6:00am, Wanzalla had been awake well before that. Stirred to an anxious wakefulness every hour since he’d retired to bed. He peered at clock and sky before making for the lobby, raring to go. […]
Amid grey and black clouds, the sickle-shaped moon hung like a comma in the sky. Then, white and red lights flashed like lightning. Flickering faster and faster, the metal bird with a belly full of humans cut into the night. We were headed to earth, to sable grounds glittering like studded mattresses, stilled fire flies.
White t-shirt on scraggy chest, Jean Pierre pulls on levers that turn bank notes into lager. The frothy piss flows into slim glasses that are quickly lined up before the small crowd of revellers hanging around the counter. His dark hair is licked silver at the temples. His eyes, two dark strobes that shine out […]
I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Farafina Creative Writers Workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. It was taught by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina, Eghosa Imasuen and Aslak Sira Myhre. I had intense and enlightening conversations, lots of laughter and a crash course in pidgin. But this post isn’t about the trip, per se. It […]
Memories hang loosely in my mind. I let them slip like loose change into some back pocket somewhere. There’s more freedom than despair in that. A man sits across from me on the U-bahn. He has dark skin. I can tell this from the corner of my eye but what is it to me? I’ve […]