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Every time daddy issued her flowers, It wasn’t the sweet scent that kept her waiting. It was her waiting for the slightest sound of his voice, His noisy throat clearing And his deep voice that [...]

Many travelled far to see him like the great Ogotemmeli of Dogon he was a towering library of tales and like Akuku Danger of the East he was the patriarch of a vast clan children milled around [...]

Bucketing down Fragile soul knocks the wrickety door His ragged clothes drenched, feet swollen Wrinkled, brittle hands clasping flour and bread Sunken, narrow faces of my siblings bleam Humbled [...]

I sat there in silence, scared out of my wits with my heart thundering in my ears. This was what stage fright felt like, I thought to myself. The crowd cheered as they waited for my performance [...]

The flesh cracks and breaks free from its skeleton, And falls back to the ground where it belongs, Perhaps that is why I like mud houses; mud on mud, Not the stones from below imposed above. [...]

The still waters of the night seas Many a time a harbinger of calamities But today they carry the noise of nature A gift from the deities. With the fading sirens of the deep waters, Our knees dig [...]

You are the largest redwood tree in the oldest forest in all the land. hot and humid and unpredictable the wild may be, but cool and calm you stand. With a bark too thick to succumb to critique [...]

Interview by Frank Njugi (Kenya) Edited by Lise Kiberwa (Rwanda)   1. Hello Mapenzi. It is a pleasure talking to you. You are someone who wears many artistic hats; the principal ones being [...]

They say your friends are your chosen family just a phrase we use to cover it all, Because in the end, family is all we’ve got. All these connections are draining – We claim forever but [...]

Kaniaga kaondoka, kaamba huku hafai, Motoni pana mashaka, peponi ndipo tamrai, Mechoshwa na wahaka, kule yeye tafurai, Kaibwaga etu mila, mesafiri utumwani. Maskani masikini, ulaya tapata mali, [...]