Childhood
“Playing Bàtá in My Poetry”: A Conversation with Ifeoluwa Ayandele
Born in Tede, Nigeria, Ifeoluwa Ayandele is a poet with work in Callaloo, Poetry London, Magma, Michigan Quarterly Review, among other publications. Besides being shortlisted for the Wisconsin Poetry Series’ Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prize and the 2024 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Poetry, he has received the 2026 Pink Poetry Prize from Great […]
before the glorious return
there we perched at the heels of the rock, as we watched the dramatic retreat of the sun. with trembling limbs crying guts and misty balls, in silence, we prayed. caught between wala’s fall and nosi’s rebound, we saw nothing save the glimpse of our glorious return. Mohammed Yusuf-Unyomo is a Nigerian poet, […]
Boy in a Gèlè
The mythology goes – my father’s unruliness earned him a place at the Ransome Kútì School: Straight into that institution, don’t pass go, don’t collect N200, he went. Abeokuta Grammar School was known for the severe corporal punishments and beatings administered to pupils. Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the world-renowned Afrobeat pioneer, once wistfully reminisced on the […]