In a time of mass migration

Guest edited by Brian Chikwava

In a time of mass migration

‘Mass migration has intensified with world wars, the collapse of empires and decolonisation. Climate change will cause further acceleration. The writers here reveal that the migrant story is also personal, leaving some to feel like squatters in a world they do not own.’
First published in May 2022

Brian Chikwava - In a time of mass migration

You can’t breathe water – Olumide Popoola

Transhumance – Henrietta Rose-Innes

Rokel Dees - Delia Jarrett-Macauley

Odili - Chika Unigwe

What Enid Blyton did to me - Billy Kahora

Portrait of a life - Amaal Said

Brian Chikwava

‘The migrant feels that she is a squatter in a world she does not own. The migrant story, which speaks to what is wrong with the world we already have, is used to make us feel afraid of the possibility of changing that world.’

Olumide Popoola

‘You can’t breathe water. You can’t announce your drowning. You know full well that mobiles don’t operate well under water.’

Henrietta Rose-Innes

'One thing the coronavirus plague has impressed upon us all is how we humans do not travel alone. A multitude accompanies us on our migrations, passing through us, microbial, viral, fungal, benign or malign.'

Delia Jarrett-Macauley

‘As I stood there in Leicester with my shiny patent leather shoes glistening like diamonds in a coal seam, Lagos bustle greeted me. Ours was a vigorously international household.’

Chika Unigwe

‘Odili would tell whoever asked that he left because he grew spikes on his backside. So what if he'd sold his sole inheritance, the land where his parents were buried?’

Billy Kahora

‘Blyton’s popularity in my Nairobi childhood came from her ability to capture white childhood worlds and project them into different pockets of privilege across the world.’

Amaal Said

‘When words became difficult, I hoped I could use a camera and tell the story that way. The photos that say "We are alive", and also, "We have children now".’
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