ISSUE ONE

July 31, 2022

ISSUE ONE

COVER ART CREDIT

Anje Cronje

EDITOR'S NOTE

For the August 2022 issue of OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review (our first issue call), we curated works based on their aesthetic and thematic qualities. Although, couched on an unthemed call for submission, we had a sum total of 22 contributors and an interview. This surpassed our expectation as we didn't anticipate such volume of brilliant works.

The beauty of an unthemed call is such that the works for themselves create pathways which form nexuses with others, often with circumspect to open-endedness. A pointer that art cannot be exhausted, but rather abandoned. From the selected works we see such connectivity within the frame of topicality. Examining Ariyo Ahmad's poem “Portrait of a Boy Haggard in the Hands of Grief” brings to mind the idea of “setting” and it's import to literature. We find in this poem a setting which transcends the physical to an otherworldly psychological awareness where events are initiated. Dovetailing this idea of setting is Ojo Olumide Emmanuel's “on a black street: memories sheave into a pastiche” where the poet persona lugubriously croons of a dystopian society with each lines progressing with shuddery images.

The parallelism of themes also runs in Bidisha Chakraborty's “My Portuguese Gentleman” where Chakraborty thrusts her persona within a melded consciousness of what love is and what it isn't. This existential questions becomes debatable when we consider Gideon Emmanuel's “(Ir)rational,” where he (Emmanuel) juxtaposes questions regarding death, God and other inadequacies.

Afrofuturistic and mythopoeic possibilities are portrayed in Joy Matiri's “Chepsuma in the Great Library,” where Chepsuma must conquer her worst fears. Alex Nderitu in “Almost a Virgin” responds to the numerous harrowing cases of mistreatment - and in some cases murder - of migrant African workers in the Gulf States. Using two fictional female characters, he shows how unsuspecting migrants are attracted to the Gulf, some of the experiences they go through, the failure of systems that would protect them, and some of the things that can be done to stem this modern-day, perfumed, slave trade.

In “Black,” Enit'ayanfe Ayosojumi Akinsanya, shows he isn't afraid to take up the bold narrative of sexuality, colourism, and discrimination against albinism and it's dynamics, as he weaves a beautiful narrative around Somidotun, Seteminikan and an array of powerful characters as he limns the internalised homophobia suffered by queer albino people.

Also on the list is our conversation with John Chinaka Onyeche, whose poetry collection “Echoes Across the Atlantic” (2022) was published by Dumpster Fire Press. The interview was centred on publishing and the African landscape, where we tried to weigh the pros and cons of writers publishing manuscripts, at least from his own perspective as a published poet.

We have curated what we deem the best works for this issue and the works have in turn shown laudable brilliance and exuberance in aesthetics and content. Like I said before, the works curated are brilliant, and as the editor-in-chief, I have never been more proud. Though, being our very first issue call, we are not afraid to spearhead the quest to curate the best literary oeuvres from all over the world. Do enjoy our first literary offering.

Prosper Ifeanyi