Glissade

What We Talk About When We Talk About Pirating Books

March 7, 2026

“Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise. . .” — Ecclesiastes Nigeria’s literary X comes alive a few times every year. And it’s a carnival. You feel a thrill just following the thing. But it’s even more exhilarating to join, to have an opinion—you feel triumphant, like Ulysses after he cut up …

Instant Coffee

March 4, 2024

You grow up in this interior village in Kakamega, and the only time you hear the word coffee is when you’re playing the rope game of tea and coffee. Two girls swing the rope on each side, singing in Swahili: between tea and coffee which one do you choose?And you say tea every time as …

Waiting for Abuja

February 15, 2023

The phone rang. I picked it up at the first beep. “Waziri, how are you?” “Fine sir. And you?” “Have they called you?” “No sir.” “These people! Don’t worry, I will sort it out.” The conversation ended within thirty seconds. This was around noon on Tuesday, 23rd February 2016. I did not have to probe. …

Mourning

July 18, 2023

A few hours later, you were trying to rebuke grief. You smiled, leg-working, lori iro…

My Loneliness Is Killing Me

February 13, 2023

He smokes until he sees something moving in the smoke, remembers Joy like blindness: swimming at Jazeera Beach, gorging on belonging, barwaaqo, iftiin. He remembers riding through Suuqa Bakaaraha on a motorbike, held onto by women with hair trailing behind them like black smoke. It’s raining in London again, Hassan Aden Samatar sings from a …

A Tender Affair

January 16, 2025

You’re becoming an angry feminist and I’m worried for you.

ISSUES

Subscribe to the Efiko Newsletter

Subscribe

From the Archives

Join Us