What a Night Held by Ifeoma Ogiji

A hand crept behind Dozie. I saw it; a bloody mass of fingers and veins. Dozie walked faced up oblivious of what I had seen. It was gone. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and anxiety and swallowed hard. I wanted to tell Dozie, but the words wouldn’t form. It was already dark and we…

If Men were Housemisters by Chisimdi Ikechukwu

Nnaemeka glanced at the clock and sighed. It was 6:30, almost time for his wife to come home. He wished she’d get into an accident, or get kidnapped—anything to prevent her from coming home. The thud of the door opening reached his ears. He took a deep breath to brace himself, then stepped into the…

Her Future by Dorcas Akobundu

They told her this: the future is bright. Oh, they said this: you’ll make it, you’ll be someone special, just believe. She stares at the crack in the wall, at the hole in the ceiling. This is her future: stuck in the rot of poverty, aiding the cycle her parents began. They told her this:…

Complete Woman by Precious Moses

She refused, she was going to give birth like a normal woman, she would give birth to her son like a real woman.
I remember the smell of the hospital, a mix of blood, bleach, air freshener and something else.
I also remember the doctor approaching us in his sparkling white coat, our angel coming to break the good news of a male child.

Anniversary II

Even when Mama had come and asked for the test result, when she had sneered her ugly nose and told her son that I was lying, I hadnt even felt any need to reply her. Instead, the vomit had rushed to myt mouth and I got to the toilet in time.
When I came back, I saw the regret in her face before she hid it. Mama was not a bad person, this I knew from personal experience. She was just one of the women in that circle of abuse and stigmatization of barrenness.

CIRCLE

I had learned that abuse equals to love. And why wouldn’t i?
I had watched my mother wipe her tears and continue to love a man who threw insults at her regularly, a man who abused her so much that in the end, she died a timid, voiceless woman who had lived her life in the shadow of a man. My father was the god of the house and his moods dictated our lives. If he was happy, then mother would smile and talk with a loud voice. If he was angry, then mother would hide and scurry about to make sure everything was in place so he would not explode. If he was sad then mother would bear the blame for all his failures.

Anniversary

It was hard, keeping all this excitement bubbling inside of me, hidden from my husband. It was especially hard, seeing his slumped and resigned shoulder every day for the last two weeks, when I held the keys that could make him happy, that could lift up those shoulders and make him cry tears of relief.
But no, I had been waiting for two whole weeks and now, the perfect time had arrived.

PAPA by Deborah Akataobi

Papa was laid to rest today in a flamboyant way. Papa’s younger brother Nnamdi who Papa had tried severally to reach while he was yet alive showed up today, with enough money to cater to all papa’s burial needs – money that would have been used in his life.

Novels Vs. Books

I know novels are books but for clarification, i used book in general to classify motivational, self-help and business books. Even in the world of Bookies, there are still divisions and factions. Let me introduce them. First, we have the studious, education and knowledge oriented readers. These are the ones that love reading motivational and…

Damona

Angela had always seen them, things she couldn’t explain, things no one else could see. The first time she had seen one of the creatures hanging on the roof of a building, she ran to tell her mother. ‘It’s only a dream’ her mother had said. But it wasn’t a dream. Nobody believed her, they…