‘Nation Is A Skin Stretched Over The Bones Of The State’
Jon Soske struggles to pin down Hamid Parsani, the elusive, mercurial Iranian archaeologist, first for an interview, then in the interview. It took me nine months to contact Hamid Parsani, after an audience member approached me following a talk I gave in Berlin and suggested that I find a way to interview the notorious – […]
A Letter from Laura Bush
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 05:43:12 -0700 (PDT) From: “Laura Bush” <laurabush@hotmail.com> Subject: URGENT!!! To: chimurenga@panafrican.co.za Most Esteemed Sir, I write this day to offer you an unrivalled opportunity. If you avail yourself of it you will be a rich and famous man: this I guarantee. The information I am about to impart to […]
A Letter from Home
by E. C. Osondu My Dear Son, Why have you not been sending money through Western Union like other good Nigerian children in America do? You have also not visited home. Have you married a white woman? Do not forget that I have already found a wife for you. Her name is Ngozi. Her parents […]
Homeless in the Afterlife
Death in the diaspora remains a difficult part of the immigrant experience. Bodies long departed can take longer to return. Myriad and alienating bureaucratic procedures often delay the passing of souls in a tortuous passing of time. Florence Madenga recalls the way back home. On the morning of 3 December 2012, Winlaw Muzirwa walked into […]
I Travel with the Dead
Sudirman Adi Makmur spends an inordinate amount of time alone or in the company of strangers no longer living. It’s a waiting game, with myriad rules and regulations, in which the deceased, otherwise tagged as baggage, is not often the winner. Would you believe it if I told you that I travel with the dead? No, really, it’s actually […]