Fiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort The Monks of Iwu by Jude Idada he monks live in the monastery’s seclusion, its walls painted a deep ochre to match the earth, roofs a monochrome of ash-coloured slates to rebuff the sun, windows large and nearly always open with net meshing to welcome the breeze while keeping the malaria wielding mosquitoes at bay. The large compound in which the monastery sits is ...
Read MoreFiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort The Pledge: Noka's Story by Keamogetswe Bopalamo n the curb, she is alone. In a scoldingly cold, familiar place. Before this moment, she was considered “risen”. People who had once looked down on her and compared her to the Messiah they demonised now looked at her in awe and venerated her. But, as with the Messiah, whose truth they had massacred, telling him he was ...
Read MoreFiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort The Mess by Olukorede Yishau During the years when we were both Demola’s women, the one thing I marvelled at was how Idera and I never ran into each other. The bus 472 route from Thamesmead went through Woolwich where she lived with her children. I boarded it nearly every day. We lived a mere 25 minutes apart and I’m certain that we ...
Read MoreNonfiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort All in the Detail by Franka-Maria Andoh y young doctor, Joel, opens the door to his consulting room. “Hello ma’am,” he says to me. Above his mask, I notice that his eyes are tired and, being very fond of him, I worry. I know he is working back-to-back shifts in two hospitals, so to cheer him up I say, “I can see from ...
Read MoreNonfiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort Drugs vs. Medicine by Araba Ofori-Acquah took drugs to heal the pain of the drugs they prescribed me to heal the pain, and to catch the bits of crazy the prescribed drugs couldn’t quite reach. That’s when I learned that, really, anything can be a drug. It’s less about the thing itself and more about how you use—or abuse—it. My skin fizzled as I ...
Read MoreFiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort Mamas' Bodies by Chinaza Ebere Eziaghighala hioma was flipping through the Pilot newspaper, relaxed in her chair, hair packed in a bun at the nape of her neck, in her red suit and trendy mule sandals, when the same overwhelming discomfort she had felt for days now welled in the pit of her stomach, again. It was like the feeling that comes with ...
Read MoreEditorial Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 Letter from the Editor: The Golden Thread: The Value in Sharing Our Stories Across Continents by Tracy Granzyk n July of 2021, I had the honor to serve as faculty for the University of Iowa International Writing Program. The 2021 students were journalists, physicians, artists, filmmakers, and authors who live and work in six different time zones across the African continent. The common thread was a passion for writing about ...
Read MorePoetry Summer Supplement 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort 2021 September 26th, 2022 September 23, 2022 blue for boy by Nkateko Masinga blue for boy name given umbilical cord ligated ink drying on baby's birth certificate first cry pending apgar score: one baby not breathing normally panic news from neonatal intensive care unit: skin colour blue low muscle tone heart rate abnormal reflexes absent no effort at respiration ...
Read MorePoetry Summer Supplement 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort 2021 September 26th, 2022 Collars of Worry by Ololade Ajayi Collars of Worry Today is the day that I deny the god of sorrow a visa into my heart. In years past, it strolled in and took whatever possessions I held dear, so I drove around chasing the crumbs of happiness left in life. I got no affirmation, for even in the University of Life, I failed woefully in Grief 101, ...
Read MoreEditorial Summer Supplement 2022 September 23, 2022 Letter from the Editor: Unravelling the Golden Thread by Nkateko Masinga ur quest for healing is universal. The differences lie in the paths that we take towards it. I do not believe that we can ever be in full control of the attainment of healing in the bodies or lives of others, but as healthcare providers we crave the ability to do more than what is in our power: ...
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