The bottom line is we have to fix the earth or Earth will fix us. Fixing is always effective when it starts on you, me, the individual. No one can really fix you but only you. How can we as humanity fix the earth each person fixing their relationships with earth? In other writings I noted God is Earth, and Earth is God. And God in the bible is clear he will punish those who destroy earth. In the Shona tradition and spirituality the earth is a sacred living being. There are places we are not allowed to visit or desecrate, there are trees we are not allowed to cut down, there are utensils we were forbidden to use e.g. when fetching water we were disallowed from using a can that is snoot smeared after it has been used on the fire, or washing them in the river. What has always worked is when ordinary people are co-opted to be the decision makers, to be the protagonists, to be the stories that harness a movement’s goodness and propel it to change the human course and direction and that’s why I feel the climate issue needs to be framed from each individual, from the bottom up, from the subalterns, from the real interlocutors of real change, you and me fixing our relationship with earth. This anthology wants to focus on the individual actions that build the collective, how can we as individuals create, innovate and change our interactions with earth and the other living beings so as to create a healthy earth for us and our futures. We are always open to any type of inspirations and muses whether its fictions, stories, poetry, essays, plays, songs, letters etc…., from writers residing in these regions Africa, the UK, and Ireland, and their diasporas. This is a continuing interaction between writers in these regions, the first volume that came out in 2018 was focused on Politics and knowledge production, find it here: https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/africa-uk-and-ireland.
We are looking for work that investigates and propose a way forward to fixing earth. It could be historical precedents, it could be religious and spiritual, it could be empirical scientific, it could be looking at modern commodification ideas to see how they can be done in a way that replenishes earth. We also want work that grapples with climate politics, climate warfare, climate racism, climate holocaust…
For prose/mixed genres and plays, I piece per writer of not more than 10000 words. For poetry, not more than 5 poems per poet, preferably short poems.
Include a bio note of not more than 100 words highlighting your previous publications. Send entries (including bio note and address) as one word doc to mwanaka13@gmail.com before 15July 2022.
This book will be published by Mwanaka Media and Publishing and distributed by African Books Collective UK, Due to budget constraints we can only offer contributors pdf copies of the book for now. We are not able to pay royalties neither to offer free print copies.
No simultaneous submissions. Authors retain copyrights to their work and are free to republish in the future.