Issue: Raging Waters: Stories and Poems on Climate Change

With compromised food security, and heightened community tensions as these violently compete for greatly reduced natural resources, climate migration is no longer a new phenomenon. These are but a few glimpses into the “new normal” for over 3 billion people in developing countries who face the brunt of the climate crisis. Stark reminders of the urgent need for decisive and comprehensive global climate action and the need for increased meaningful inclusion of African voices in the global discussions to address climate change.

For these reasons and more, we felt it pertinent to have Climate Change as the central theme for the BOLD 2023 Continental Call. We are aware that the voices of those most profoundly affected by climate change have historically been unrepresented in global discussions on climate action and firmly believe that storytelling possesses the power to connect us in a continental and global resolve to address this global human challenge. 

The submissions we received demonstrate this. While most centred on current events some used these to project futures that were at times hopeful but mostly dire for the continent. While the Climate Change conversation now permeates our collective consciousness, resonating in the halls of schools, corridors of power, conversations in our homes and workplaces, and among the passionate voices advocating for change, it still remains an abstract concept often shrouded in the mystical, mythical or conspiratorial. Nonetheless, this talking point has evolved into an undeniable and formidable reality for those in the Southern Hemisphere, who are particularly vulnerable to its effects. The lack of immediate seismic change in global and government climate policies, coupled with the insufficient government-backed initiatives to protect and support the most vulnerable, paints a grim outlook for the everyday African. Exacerbated by their exclusion from meaningful dialogue on climate change responses and interventions for those most affected. 

Raging Waters

The waters are raging and it is affecting all of us. The last decade has seen an extraordinary increase in and widespread occurrence of extreme climate conditions globally. Floods, wildfires, prolonged droughts, hurricanes and more repeatedly batter the world around us with seemingly no place left unscathed. In their wake, a deluge of destruction and […]

An Ark on the Confluence

We are surrounded by water but we cannot drink it. My throat is parched from two days of thirst. Last night, when everywhere was quiet and the moon was a mermaid preening her reflection on the water, my mother took out a rusty tin and scooped some floodwater for me. She said if I could […]

No Water For Lemonade

Her cell phone had been ringing constantly throughout the day. She was sure it was her micro-managing editor with more ‘quick notes’ or the overtly flirtatious director of a business forum she had interviewed a few days before. “Why bother having an email address when no one uses it for its very clear and necessary […]

Black Swan

1  I.  A BRIEF HISTORY Nigeria 1994: Flash floods break out in multiple states. 400,000 citizens are displaced, 180,000 are left vulnerable to death; entire neighbourhoods are lost, communities broken apart, businesses drowned, and families scattered asunder. Over 100 corpses were recovered from the flood. Causes: Heavy rainfall due to climate change.   II. THE […]

The Soot of Death

ONE My mother believed that courage in one’s heart only woke when others found strength and hope in you. * I’m sitting underneath one of Mama’s lab benches. A spot she had come to accept as my own. Whenever I came to visit her she would find me sitting on the floor underneath the table, […]

Rain Dance In The Wasteland

Marauders “Where do you hide the grain!” the brute roared at me. His sunken cheeks were a pair of pits, his lined skin sagged, and he had the glassy, protruding eyes of a famished vulture. The pockmarks that riddled his face stared back at me like a thousand raging eyes. He was a vagrant, long […]

A Rain Cloud is a Ballot Box

A Rain Cloud is a Ballot box Of our unanswered prayers. It’s the evening news bulletin In the living room of our fears. Of blood-stained headlines And men without heads walking The thin lines of poverty.   Today’s weather forecast Says the sky will rain bodies Of men Dying of thirst a scattered thunderstorm Of […]

Labour Pains

The day I got my first period, Miss Nabirye was teaching us about the human uterus. She spoke of it with such intensity, I wondered if mine could feel Miss Nabirye’s energy. She gave me a fresh new introduction, A lesson in reproduction, I stopped being afraid of ‘-cooties-‘ And learnt how I would make […]

Litany of Ruin

The sky           smouldered           with thick soot from burnt gasoline       bleeds charred rain       and in a grove,       a fuchsia scent of dead gardenia   smoke into the heavens.         A flock of birds         […]

Hostage

The second wave is reportedly worse And as the families come dragging into the camp Faces weary and frozen in disbelief It remains clear That the elements remain undefeated. Each burdened by what they could save from the floods Their footsteps heavily dragging With shoes drenched in mud The kids hungry, the parents angry So […]

Africa in Ashes

Africa was an incandescent scenery, as fresh as cantaloupe, Whose innate aesthetics, like in utopia, marvelled the globe; A beaming lantern paradise whose owners lived in bliss And the voice of the friendly earth was their guide. Now, rising heat waves from the mouth of the Sahara The cracking of a hungry fire Robs Africa […]

Meet the Judges

The Judges behind the Bold Call are no ordinary folks; they’re storytellers, artists, and passionate defenders of the African narrative. They’re the guardians of African awesomeness, and they’re ready to shape the stories that will define Africa for generations. These are the judges of the 2023 Bold Call, the people who helped to shape this […]