The animating impulse for the literary magazine When Three Sevens Clash was to celebrate the Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo. Along the way, and perhaps realising that no man is bigger than his clan, it became another beast, encompassing Zimbabwe and beyond.

Featuring non fiction, photography, and comic art, the project drew several generations of artists. The oldest, the Zimbabwean poet and retired university lecturer Musaemura Zimunya (City Lights and Country Dawns, Thought Tracks, And Now the Poets Speak), was born in 1949, while the youngest, the Zimbabwean doctoral student at Oxford Rutendo Chabikwa, was born in 1994.

Contributors include the novelist Brian Chikwava (Harare North), Durban photographer Rafs Mayet, Zimbabwean cartoonist Tony Namate, writer Farai Mudzingwa, Stanford doctoral candidate Geraldine Mukumbi, Cape Town journalist Atiyyah Khan, Bulawayo photojournalist Kb Mpofu, American historian Brooks Marmon, and Russian-born South African illustrator, Anastaysa Eliseeva.