• eSwatini issue,  Photography & Art

    Sinenkosi Msomj

    Sinenkosi Msomj, born in Eswatini, has an Associate degree in business management from Limkokwing and is studying towards a Bachelors of Commerce at UNESWA. He is founder of Swag syndroam, a photography movement which uses conceptual photography to narrate stories, and has three years experience in the photography industry. He is a self-taught creative director.

  • eSwatini issue,  Poetry

    They Call me Shangaan, but I’m Hlengwe

    You “original Swatis” as you call yourselves what poor  ignorant creatures you are! The verge of foolishness has covered your faces you call me Shangaan because you think you are insulting me   Don’t you know that the Shangaans are an ethnic group of Africans just as you too are an African with your own ethnic group? I know where I come from, and it is not from the Shangaans   I am a descendent of Chauke the seed of Bhangwana, the father of my clan I am one with the blood that runs in the Mabaso and Xahumba, the Hakwana, Muhlengwe and Xinyori I come from the Hasani and…

  • eSwatini issue,  Poetry

    The Unbearable Blackness of Being

    Nietzsche saysit has alreadyhappenedthat it willhappen againad infinitumin factthis heavinesshe says isunbearably unavoidable but the sophistknows i ammade of stardustthere willonly, ever beone of memy life isnot cheap i am beautiful and i am black i know whyi frighten youwhen i steponto the elevatorso from timeto time imust remind myselfthat my blacknessis too brightto gazedirectly into ask the greeksabout the unbearableblacknessof my beingthey thoughti was a godas plato andherodotus walkedamong us, theythought myskin was otherworldymy head, wondrouslywoolly or smoothas the faceof the sunmust have beencrowned in celestial glorythat as my handstretchedto the sky, itheld the whatand the whyas i circumscribedthe heavens inthe palm ofmy hand, thatmy fingerpointed to wherewe came…

  • eSwatini issue,  Photography & Art

    Roadside Memorials

    Roadside memorials mark geographical points of departure in a landscape that is generally devoid of real human interaction or activity. They are almost always built in the no man’s land bordering our country roads, interstates and highways. We pass them at 60 miles an hour, sometimes glancing back but are never afforded the time to actually see them. This project is about slowing down. Polaroid was a natural choice. Early in its development, Polaroid film was widely used by police officers and other law enforcement, because it produced an unalterable instant photo – irrefutable evidence of a particular event. These photographs are evidence of something greater – an unspoken need…

  • eSwatini issue,  Photography & Art

    Moletsane Mzwandile

    Moletsane Mzwandile is a self-taught artist who does realistic drawings using different mediums like pencils, colored pencil, and ballpoint pen. He started drawing in November 2017; since then, he has sold over 100 pieces of art to people in Eswatini on commission. For more information, contact him at moletsanemzwandilem@gmail.com or visit him on social media: Facebook Twitter Instagram

  • eSwatini issue,  Poetry

    Black Hoodie (for Trayvon Martin)

    Trayvon, the week the jury foundGeorge Zimmerman “Not guilty”for killing you, I had traveled to Oregonall the way from Catskills. The morningof the verdict I hiked into redwood forestwith a man I first met when I was notmuch older than you the night you died.I wanted to walk up to the mountain laurel trailbecause I love wild laurel even when it’s notblossoming. Perhaps you had heard ofenchanted forests when you were a little boy …the redwood forest was like that,a greening deepness shawled with moss,the great-girthed trees seeming to touch sky.The immense agate of forest shimmeredwith blues among leaves lit to emerald,roots rising up like runes over the trail.Near a…

  • eSwatini issue,  Poetry

    Joan Little

                Joan Little     The wind in Washington County carries.No one keeps to themselves. Rumorssoil. A caterpillar looks like a worm, and a worm, like a snake; fact is everything that crawls ain’t looking to be a butterfly. But, whytake a garden rake to a bird? It’s no secret, cops welcome a reason to kill anything. Ask the people they cage. Only crows bred in captivity collectthings. Corvids, they say – nature’scompulsive hoarders. Whatis a jeweled ring in the beakof a thief? A confession. Whatthey come to call a hoard of crows? A murder. We are not the only ones to speak over our dead. How she carried on…