Saraba issue 17: Survival – now out

By Rebecca Jones on 27 April , 2015 • ( 0 )

A quick heads up that the latest issue of Saraba Magazine is now out, and available to download for free here: http://www.sarabamag.com/the-survival-issue

This issue is themed around ‘Survival’, and as Saraba puts it:

“A word from the 1590s, “survival” implies the “act of surviving,” of “continuation after some event.” To “survive” suggests to outlive, and to continue in existence after the death of another. From Latin supervivere, “live beyond, live longer than”; from super “over, beyond” + vivere “to live.” In our recent issue, we put together poems, stories and portraits that articulate the nature and expediency of survival…Our contributors are from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and U.S.A.”

It’s a beautiful issue: many of the introspective, seemingly autobiographical poems, stories and essays are about love lost and found, surviving marriages and childbirth, and cycles of life and death.

It’s also about transcendence – dirt, grime, death, stench, hunger and violence feature in a few of these pieces, but so too do the means to overcome them, such as the ‘Ireti’ (Yoruba for ‘hope’) of Damilola Yakubu’s melancholy story ‘Ireti’. As Paul Wairia writes of a dancer in his poem ‘Escape’:

But while we share these notes, he and I are
transmuted, forsaking this grime for the
jewelled corridors of dreams.

Kate Hampton’s poem ‘Learning’ reflects on survivals and transformations of language between the US and Kenya, across histories and between loves:

…He surprises me with my own tongue learned

from prison guards. My language from his mouth
sounds like hard, cold floors sounds like survival like

hope breathing dark places like five kids and a wife
all six years stranger like loving me anyway

But there’s also humour; this stanza from Omukuvah Otido’s ‘Self-portrait as morally flexible gentleman’ made me laugh out loud:

She went up the stairs
and when she trod
the air thickened considerably
like a Le Carré plot

Meanwhile, Logor’ Muyiwa Adeyemi’s intense monochrome photo portraits will demand your attention.

In The Survival Issue:

Poetry

Kelechi Nwaike—An autobiography
Tonye Willie-Pepple—Cut
Adeyinka Elujoba—Death is not the end
Paul Wairia—Escape
Aisha Nelson—Fear of the ‘morrow
Jen Thorpe —Injured on Duty
Kate Hampton—Learning
Sarah Haughn—Notes upon returning to a marriage / From Bugembe
Omukuvah Otido—Self-portrait as morally flexible gentleman / Proof by induction