Bald Dandelions with their Wishes Blown Clean Off

BOOK DESCRIPTION

These ten stories, emerging from Rwanda, Kenya, Somaliland, Somalia and Ethiopia, highlight new African voices that share bold combinations of openness and curiosity, nuance and bravery. From fiery femme tongues, broken colonial languages and tender queer subjectivities, to the complexities of embracing and rebelling against tradition via a young girl’s battle to attain education, and a story about chronic illness, their narratives revisit old themes in radical and experimental ways.

Engaging with love and hate, crime and domestic Violence, passion and myth, resilience and family, this anthology illuminates and enacts the unbound commonality of African lives in spite of exaggerated national boundaries.

This is a wonderful collection by a group of writers from the breadth of Eastern Africa. It was an honour to wonk with them and to read their stories full of beauty and tragedy Nadifa Mohamed.

table of contents

Seeds of Jannah by Mona Liban
Jinni Boy by Aisha Ali Haji
Children of Cirsankayeedh by Hamdi Ali
Huub by Nebila Abdulmelik
Before the Malice Began, There was Beauty by Lucky Grace Isingizwe
There is a Place where Love has Boundaries by Jimcale Abdi Faarah
To Save a Life by Salma Ismail
Survivor’s Sacrifice by Abdihakin Ubahle
Your Shift Ends at Eight by Gary Layn
Bald Dandelions by Alexis Teyie

CONTRIBUTORS

Written by:
Abdihakin Ubahle
Aisha Ali Haji
Alexis Teyie
Gary Layn
Hamdi Ali
Jimcale Abdi Faarah
Lucky Grace Isingizwe
Mona Liban
Nebila Abdulmelik
Salma Ismail