by Frank Meintjies Even if you don’t like dogs, you would soon or eventually warm to Jack. With his distinctive colour, Jack stood out among neighbourhood dogs; his coat was reddish brown and the pupils of his eyes, though a deeper brown, had the same red tint. Jack...
Fiction & CNF
The Silence of Roaring
by Warren Jeremy Rourke My thoughts are pooled on the young black girl that my personal assistant brought to my Edwardian hotel last night. I’m engrossed in the nuances of my memories of her when the convoy arrives at my gate to my private five-star game reserve....
These Aren’t Mine
By CL Farley Sean paces a tight circle in the bathroom. His legs jerk forward in a hurry to get nowhere, rushing through each stride like the arms of a metronome. It’s too cold to be barefoot on tiles but the discomfort distracts him from the large mirror. He can...
Weeds
by Mpumi Cilibe There were moments when I felt that Sissy was far stricter and harsher with me than with the rest of my siblings. But there were also times when I felt her tenderness seeping through the tough shell that encased the molten toffee that oozed out of her...
African Feeds
by David Kerr The stretcher bearers, too late, pull the blood-stained woman from the rubble. Garikayi closes the file, drags it into his Somalia folder, and mentally slots it alongside the Kenyan bombings. He feels the warmth of creative work rising. Yes, he is...
Wallpaper
by Abbey Khambule Before you left you asked me to move a small vine of bougainvillea inside until winter had passed. It’s now inscribed an arch over the window, creeping over the graffito “Ek Is As Gevolg Van Jou” sketched above it; drooling and draping over the old...
Water
by Abbey Khambule The tide grows. A charm of firefinches flies over the promontory, breaks open and tumbles on the wind like roller pigeons; retreats inland, fleeing the ribboning tongue of the sun setting in the ocean. I imagine it to be of fledgling Cape...
Victoria Falls
by Confidence Seleme +++Hurry up Buti, make it quick. I don’t have all night!” +++He was her sixth and final client for the evening. After this, she would hurry to her flat to take a long shower and try to wash off all she had seen and done. Some people...
Weeds
by Mpumi Cilibe There were moments when I felt that she was far stricter and harsher with me than with the rest of my siblings. But I must admit that there were also times when I felt her tenderness seeping through the tough shell that encased the molten toffee...
His eyes were blue
by Abigail George “God took you out of my life for a reason.” Arms as pale as milk, black eyes, little foal, innocent and tender as Zelda Fitzgerald, genius wonder boy of the family – in this dark house we celebrated his birth in the same way my mother...