Between 5th and 7th October 1967, in the first year of the Nigeria-Biafra War, Nigerian soldiers reportedly killed several hundred people (one estimate puts the number at 2,000) in Asaba. Fifty years later, photographer Obuh Christopher Nelson returned to the town in commemoration of what is now known as the Asaba Massacre.
The world of these photographs is one inhabited by the amorphous. These photographs appear unsure of themselves; they evince a certain uncertainty on their surface, and they do not readily tell us anything, not even a single phrase—which is a given in a world such as this, since shadows do not speak.
When looking in Lagos, I was full up from beauty. I saw new blues: the color of early morning light on UV-protected windows, on white plastic chairs, on gleaming tile. I experience coastal cities as frenetic. One gets the sense everyone might decide it’s better to walk into the water someday but not today.
Our deference to paper, if that is what our first print issue suggests, comes from an early impulse: to treat the magazine as an aesthetic object, so the reader dives into something of beauty—a lingering touch, a returned gaze, a felt presence.
We have gathered writings—reportage, short stories, travel essays, poems—befitting of our foray into print. Our contributors are writers you should be reading, and visual artists whose images are compelling.
We are pleased to announce the release of an anthology of new nonfiction by ten writers from Cameroon and Nigeria, edited by Dami Ajayi, Emmanuel Iduma, and Dzekashu Macviban.
Saraba, the acclaimed literary magazine based in Nigeria, calls for applications for a new editorial team, including an Editor, Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, Nonfiction Editor, and an Assistant Editor.
Every morning, Sanni Garuba wakes in this room to the ticking of the clock and the sound of breathing from his roommate. Slipping out of bed, he steps outside and lays his prayer mat under the tree. He commits his plans to God with his knees bent and face turned to the east. Then he sets out for the day.
