“Mandela was not the only head of state taken in by Koagne. Le king kept snapshots of himself with many a man of power, among them Mobutu Sese Seko and Denis Sassou Nguesso […] He took Mobutu for 15 million dollars. Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso lost 40 million to him. Sassou, Etienne Eyadéma of Togo, several high officials of Gabon, Tanzania and Kenya, a member of the Spanish government and an ex-operative of the Israeli Mossad were bamboozled as well.” – Dominique Malaquais (Blood Money: A Douala Chronicle).
Bantu Serenade by Ntone Edjabe (featuring Nah-ee-lah) (read excerpt)
Santu Mofokeng: Trajectory of a street photographer (part1) (read excerpt)
Binyavanga Wainaina: Hell In Bed With Mrs Peprah (read excerpt)
Dominique Malaquais: Lindela (the winnie suite) (read excerpt)
Boubacar Boris Diop: Myriem (read excerpt)
Cover:
Neo Muyanga
‘Rutang bana ditaola, le se ye natšo badimong’
Gather around these ditaola and feel into what we, proud custodians of hearth, have inherited, what we choose to steward and intentionally wield in these uncertain times. Sensuous Heirlooms dances with other lineages of knowledge, aesthetics, being, and doing unrecorded by official archives. It breaks out of the enclosures of traditional notions of inheritances by singing innate, intimate, intuitive, relational, sensuous, spiritual, and queer heirlooms underwritten by matrilineal stewardship and communal well-being.
Uhuru Portia Phalafala (Ed.), Kabelo Malatsie, Maneo Mohale, Toni Giselle Stuart, Wanelisa Xaba, Deirdre Prins-Solani, Mathapelo Mofokeng, Unifier Dyer (Ndaukhadzi), Milisuthando Bongela, Koleka Putuma, Mehita Iqani, Sibonelo Hlanganani Gumede, Pralini Naidoo, Sethembile Msezane, Julie Nxadi, Sharlene Khan, Bronwyn Katz, Makhosazana Xaba, Rhoda Isaacs.