In a Time of Boko Haram
by Elnathan John. I. DRESSES Beneath the oil-stained, flattened pillow that Mansir sits on lies the fulfilment of a promise; the source of a joy no one can understand but this young bright-eyed man. His veil and black bra and red dress are folded neatly beneath the pillow. Sitting on it helps, since there hasn’t been […]
Re-Membering the Name of God
Wendell Hassan Marsh maps the trajectories of Islam as it evolved in the New World and the limited definitions of Muslim communities in the African-American consciousness. My father was not a simple man even if his job was. After a high school education, for a living, he stirred paint that would be used on aeroplanes. […]
The Power of Green Crayons
Agri Ismaïl recalls growing up off the map – his Kurdish identity omitted from the centuries of topographical evidence of real life in real places. Rendered cartographically void and literally stateless, belonging to one of the largest diasporas on earth, but seemingly out of step with his state of being, he spent years collecting evidence, […]
Secret Countries
This map features in the new Chronic, an edition in which we ask: what if maps were made by Africans for their own use, to understand and make visible their own realities or imaginaries? How does it shift the perception we have of ourselves and how we make life on this continent? To view […]
How to Eat a Forest
Billy Kahora recounts a journey into Kenya’s Mau Forest, where he confronts the interface between the ideal and the real, the disputed and the disparaged. It is a schizophrenic geography as mapped, as inhabited, and as marketed by the dispossessed, the landless, the landowner and the broker. 1. How to eat a forest Almost everywhere, […]