Send us a textIn Only Big Bum Bum Matters Tomorrow, Damilare Kuku introduces a protagonist, Témì with big plans for a drastic change to her appearance in the form of a BBL. In her debut novel, Damilare examines familial relationships, beauty standards and the quest for desirability in modern day Nigeria. Témì is a young university student, grappling with her body image all while navigating loss and complex family dynamics including her older sister’s sudden disappearance prior. ...
Send us a textIn a collection of 12 short stories, Damilare Kuku demonstrates the almost Sisyphean task that is navigating love, relationships and life in Lagos. Damilare deftly uses humour and wit to explore the difficult themes of love, loss, friendship and romance, often catching the reader unaware. As a testament to the universality of these stories, as reader you or someone you know may have encountered one of the mad men Damilare has written about. Of course the women are...
Send us a textColoured as an ethnicity and racial demographic is intertwined with the creation of today’s South Africa. Yet often coloured communities are disdained as people with no clear heritage or culture – as not "black enough" or "white enough". Coloured by Tessa Dooms and Lynsey Ebony Chutel, challenges this notion and presents a different angle to that narrative. It delves into the history of coloured people as descendants of indigenous Africans and a people whose identity was sh...
Send us a textIn a once majestic but now decaying mansion, itself a potent metaphor for the current state of Durban where it’s set, we meet the characters of Shubnum Khan’s latest novel. Originally developed as an ode to beauty, culture and heritage by its owner Akbar Ali Khan, who came to make his fortune in South Africa. In its current incarnation, the mansion has been converted to weary looking apartments with an assortment of residents each haunted by their own tragedies and pas...
Send us a textIn this novel, Busisekile asks what it means to be a young woman asked to make difficult decisions in impossible situations.Centred around Vimbai, a young Zimbabwean woman navigating young adulthood amid an economic crisis. She faces significant childhood trauma and we see its subsequent manifestation in her overachievement, detachment and other relational issues. These issues are compounded by the complexity of dating and navigating those additional layers. Both of her love int...
Send us a textHoney& Spice is a sweet, evocative and humorous coming of age debut novel from Bolu Babalola. We first encountered Bolu in the short story collection “Love in Colour.”In her debut novel set in a PWI in the UK, we are introduced to a cast of characters so relatable that you will find yourself or your friends in at least one of these individuals. The protagonist, Kiki is a seemingly self-controlled and focused young woman who is adept at playing the romance long game and ...
Send us a textIn this immaculate study of father-son relationships and the black masculinity, Okechukwu introduces to two Black, gay British-Nigerian men. Achike and Ekene find themselves wading through the existential phenomena of being alive, Black and gay while navigating life, ambitions and family.The story begins with these two but then traces back to the fathers of these men, and their forefathers, in doing so examines a lineage of brokenness, unavailability and abuse.Who is man and how...
Send us a textIn this enthralling debut collection of short stories by Arinze Ifeakandu God’s Children Are Little Broken Things is a collection of 9 short stories set in Nigeria that examine queer identity, relationships, family and societal isolation.Arinze writes stories with characters whose lives are layered, complicated by youth, love and grief. He asks of them and by extension, the reader; difficult questions around the relationship between truth and honesty, disappointment and resilien...
Send us a textIn this intriguing debut by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, we are introduced to two young girls Ozoemena and Treasure, whose coming of age takes place in a boarding school in Nigeria. Their meeting is set against the backdrop of familial loss and tragedy. We watch them try to navigate the realities of coming of age and into themselves in a society that doesn’t always give them space to do that.Treasure has experienced the violence of patriarchy and the institutions which suppor...
Send us a textThis book begins with a curse put on the house of Zulu and her family, the Mhlongos, by Nandi Mhlongo, mother of Shaka ka Senzangakhona for the disrespect she endured from them.Weaving through the lives of three women living in different historical ages who in their own ways attempt to get restitution for Nandi.Through the eyes of three female protagonists, each who experiences a different loss and heartbreak, Dr Mazibuko-Msimang explores African spirituality, disappointment and...
Send us a textIn this beautiful memoir, Safiya Sinclair writes about her childhood and adolescence in Jamaica with parents in the Rastafari faith. In an act of personal excavation, she brings forth the hidden histories of a people pushed to the margins by colonisation, oppression, and religious intolerance, all exacerbated by patriarchy. Raised in difficult socio-economic conditions by a father who increasingly becomes more militant in his practice of Rastafari, Safiya and her siblings f...
Send us a textIn My Life as a Chameleon, Diana Anyakwo explores the themes of identity, family and memory with a tender hand. Centred around the experiences of Lily, a teenager of mixed race background growing up in Nigeria and England. Lily’s experience is further complicated by her birth order as the youngest of four children with a significant age difference between her and the others. Interestingly, the novel is written in a diary like format flitting between different time periods w...
Send us a text"1. Unwelcome Reunion Unwelcome ReunionWhen I was twenty-eight, my stepmother Anabel came to New York on vacation. She was living, at the time, in Pakistan, where she worked for a UN agency. At a restaurant a few blocks from my Chinatown apartment, we ate noodle soup and drank red wine. That night, Anabel told me my father did not die of cancer as I believed. He died, she claimed, of AIDS."Aftershocks are smaller earthquakes that occur in the same general area during the days to...
Send us a text"And in breaking news, convicted serial killer and rapist, Napoleon Dingiswayo, escaped from Pretoria’s C-Max Prison at twelve-fifteen this afternoon, along with serial rapist and armed robber Andries Mathe, and heist kingpin Sifiso Khumalo.’ The voice of the newsreader rings crisp and cool while announcing the earth-shattering news."Angela Makholwa is one of South Africa’s more eminent crime writers. In Red Ink, we were introduced to the characters of Lucy Khambule and Napoleon...
Send us a textIn this refreshing tale about Black love and the self-discovery, we are introduced to Zola, a young woman in her 20’s thrashing out what it means to reckon with disappointment. We meet her as a new arrival in South Africa, following an extended stint in Germany which ultimately falls apart. In the face of the disappointment of a dream shattered, she also has to navigate family politics and a complicated love life.This is when Mbali enters the story, a gorgeous man from the right...
Send us a text“In Violet’s bedroom, most of the furniture had been moved, except for the bed whose mattress lay on the floor and carried the weight of an unconscious Violet. The wardrobe had been moved to the corner of the room and the table that had been near the window moved to the sitting room. There was a small mound where the table had occupied space, a small grave where Violet’s baby would be laid to rest. Uncle Sontaga had dug the grave with the help of Andzani and Neo. He had used his...
Send us a text“He stared back at her, unconcerned. She had always marvelled at his calm assurance that everything good in his life would either remain the same or get better. He took good fortune for granted. As though it were impossible that it would abide only for a spell. She had never been able to shake the sense that life was war, a series of battles with the occasional spell of good things.” - Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the ripti...
Send us a textSet over the course of one weekend, Christopher introduces us to Vuyo, one of a long lineage of headstrong January women. Vuyo, pregnant with twins is mourning the death of her Scottish-born husband and has come home to her family home in the rural Eastern Cape.Paying homage to matrilineal lineage, the January women take centre stage in this book. Written from each of their perspectives, Christopher offers a look at the interior lives of these Black women, their tragedies, relat...
Send us a text"With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness." The Cheeky Natives sat down with Warsan Shire following the re...
Send us a textAccording to the NYT, The Prophets’ is an exploration of Black Love and Memory in a Time of Trauma. What an apt description of this powerful debut by Robert Jones Jr. In a novel moving across time and space, we are introduced to Samuel and Isaiah, who are two enslaved young men on a plantation named Empty. Despite a betrayal by another one of the enslaved men, their love burns brightly. Moving back in time, we are introduced to the Kosongo people and meet Kosii and Elewa who ar...