Black Man in the White Suit
A Letter from Cape Town by Kiluanji Kia Henda. In 2008, the South African artist Ed Young invited me to take part in a three-month residence programme in Cape Town funded by two Swiss cultural institutions. I had been to South Africa twice – first to Johannesburg, where I had lived from1996 to 1998, during […]
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 […]