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In 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 not exempt from the afflictions of humanity, many of them being difficult and somewhat exhausting in a node to the realities of the women we do know in our daily life.

Most striking is the depiction of sex and agency displayed by these women particularly in the face of misogyny and patriarchy.

Damilare draws the reader in, using both humour and sensitivity as she explores what it means to live and love in a place like Lagos.

We sat down with Damilare to discuss her break out collection.

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Coloured 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 shaped by colonisation, slavery and apartheid.

Coloured as an ethnicity was again in the spotlight following Tyla’s brilliant rise to fame on both side of the Atlantic this year. In South Africa, there has been a problematic discourse that disparages the Coloured identity as inherently lacking, in culture, heritage and ultimately place in our democracy.

Tessa Dooms and Lynsey Ebony Chutel, challenge this prevailing idea and bring forth a different way to view this incredibly varied and rich community. In a powerful exposition, Tessa and Lynsey delve into the history of people shaped by colonisation, slavery and apartheid.

Spurred by the death of Nathaniel Julies, a young Coloured boy following a shooting by the police. #ColouredLivesMatter began to circulate on social media in response to this violence.

Tessa and Lynsey sought to address the cultural alienation that young Coloured people continue to experience in South Africa by looking deeply into the history of Coloured history, ancestry and political placement in South Africa. In working through the conundrum of Coloured identity, it becomes clear that it cannot be distilled in racial classification.

We sat down with Tessa and Lynsey to discuss the complexities of Coloured identity beyond the tropes and stereotypes. We spoke about the work of understanding the realities of Coloured identities, experiences and setting.

Written as a mirror to both reader and subject matter, this book is a love letter to Coloured people.

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In 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 pasts.

With the latest edition being Bilal and his teenage daughter, Sana.
In a mix of teenage angst and curiosity, Sana stumbles upon some of the houses supernatural inhabitants. In a novel that confronts the ghosts of the past and present, Shubnum weaves a magical tale of loss and becoming.

We sat down with her to discuss the magic of things lost and forgotten, the gift of memory and archiving and what it means to make amends.

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