Baba (father) has been sitting on the rocking chair for close to an hour and I am sure he is lost in his thoughts with Simon Chimbetu’s song Samatenga on repeat. He hasn’t touched his coffee and l bet it has turned into a cold coco-cola beverage. My father’s life will never be the same […]

There is a cloud of pressure that hangs over black women in our society. The pressure to be strong, independent, confident, among other things. We are ‘queens’ if we do not break down when something saddening happens to us, or if we do not fight back and take it elegantly. We are applauded for acting […]

This story begins with the disco hall near my residence (residence because apartment is too generous and rental is too modest). It is 2AM in the morning and because it is a Public Holiday, the entire neighbourhood is treated to a generous supply of loud rocking music. The first time I noticed the disco hall […]

Losing someone is one of the biggest tragedies to ever happens to mankind. Like a thief, so does loss occur. It’s unexpected, and usually never do we think that at a certain time, it will have to happen to us.  Our hearts are usually broken beyond repair and like most of us, we take off […]

19 years ago I lost a parent. I was 7 so I did not really understand what was going on. I knew what death was and knew it meant I would never see my father again but I did not understand what it really meant. It took a while for it to sink into my […]

2020 was a hard year in Zimbabwe. When the first lockdown hit, the economy was already worn for wear and many people felt their livelihoods being clinched by the austere measures in the country and the rising difficulty in earning a decent livelihood. Covid-19 caught the world unprepared, but for a little teapot-shaped country bedeviled […]

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1967 and now lives in Manchester. Her first novel, Kintu, was longlisted for the Etisalat prize in 2014, and she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in the same year. Her first short story collection, Manchester Happened, was published in 2019. She was awarded the prestigious […]

Do you pay attention to how you interact with people? Or the different mannerisms that you display when you are around different people? Most people do not give it much thought. However, recently an article surfaced where the current female Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu revealed why she knelt before her husband as a sign of […]

It was one fateful evening when Samia Suluhu Hassan announced the demise of their beloved president Dr. John Pombe Magufuli. Grasping her breath with anxiety written all over her face, she announced that the president had died due to a cardiac failure. What a dark hour it was for Tanzania and Africa at large. Citizens […]

Mental health is yet to be a prominent conversation in African communities. In the African culture, there are various perspectives on mental health and mental health conditions that are a hindrance to those affected. Some believe mental illnesses to be the “devil’s attack,” or “witchcraft.” While others claim mental illnesses to be just madness. Mental […]

How many times do we do the same things we vowed we’d never do? How many times do we go through the same experiences that gave us sleepless and tearful nights? Do we ever find ourselves dating the same person, only having a different face, name and address from our last traumatic relationship? Could it […]

The path to recovery after loss is certainly not the same for all of us. I have learnt a few things (mostly the hard way). Though saying that I expect anyone to find my experience exactly compatible with their situation would be a bad lie, if there is even a slight possibility that my experience about death, loss, and grief may be helpful to another living soul, here goes.