Buru Buru
Billy Kahora reflects on the state of the ‘estate’ of his Nairobi childhood and finds its decay symptomatic of the malaise of a middle class that’s lost its mind. My younger brother, James, tells me another Buru Buru Phase 5 story when I make my habitual Saturday phone call and ask him what’s happening in the old neighbourhood. My question is […]
Out of sight and out of mind in High Care
Mike Abrahams recently spent seven weeks as an involuntary patient at Valkenberg Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Cape Town. The following is his account of time under observation in a secure unit. Sitting alone in the reception area of Valkenberg Hospital’s High Care Unit, I am trapped in silence. I am waiting, I don’t […]
Palestine Journey
In February 2005, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s novel The Silent Minaret, won the first European Union Literacy Award for first novel by a South African writer. The novel ends at Israel’s Apartheid Wall in Qalqilya. Here, in his first essay following the award, Shukri travels to The Wall in Palestine to see the fact that informed his fiction. London, Sunday 11th September 2005 […]
Searching for Augusto Zita
From the Namib desert to an interrogation room on US soil, Victor Gama tracks Augusto Zita and inadvertently uncovers South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme. In March 2012 I travelled to Chicago to premiere my recent work, Vela 6911, composed on a commission by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. On arrival at Chicago O’Hare from Portugal I was stopped at immigration. Despite […]
Visioncarnation
by Orijit Sen Orijit Sen is a graphic designer and comic creator based in New Delhi. He is co-founder of People Tree. Visioncarnation previously appeared in print as part of Chimurenga Vol.9 (Conversations in Luanda and Other Graphic Stories…) which is available from our online store.