KARAPI was hand-knitting a pink skirt for Kambakete. Grandma nicknamed her Kambakete because she kept the baby inside a pram-like box of washing powder. Granny sewed up the miniskirt from pink and white textile discards. A minute later, she strolled towards the yellow pee pot behind the purple curtain. The snooping baby, couldn’t hear the...
The princess of Musarakuumba stood 2.7 metres from head to foot, and weighed 150 kilogrammes. Recently, she lost so much weight that her needle-thin legs couldn’t carry her lorry-size upper body. Her legs had become toothpick-thin, and she emptied food through the watery stool. Immediately, the grey-haired woman placed her on a magic carpet. They dragged...
Maendo spread a raincoat on the sponge-soft sand and yelled, “I’ll sleep under the twinkling stars.” Soon, his dog licked his onion-smelling feet. By now, the moon flashed a bright, confusing light into his eyes. The boozer listened to the beats of drumming frogs, while the clicking lizards played the guitars in the background. “Sweet...
Kaningandu was chopping firewood when a chip shot into his left eye. Soon, he covered his left eye with a loop of leaves to soothe the burning pain. His misfortune did not, however, stop the moon-size-eyed Kasukona from falling in love with him. The girl’s nephews blamed Kaningandu for confusing her with the use of...
Long ago, when freshwater was soupy thick, two sky-high mountains stood between the teeth-grinding hills. They were separated by clouds of bubbling water. The two red stones on Mama Mountain’s chest hang loosely like emptied breasts. Now and then, the she-mountain smeared her lips with sunbow lipsticks. Soon, the midnight sun mirrored a chain of white...
Tjimariva tiptoed into his ex-girlfriend’s garden, and pressed his strawberry-like eyes at the sweet-smelling roses that had flowered overnight. Inside the plant pot, sky-blue flowers of smiling ten dollars saluted him, and he picked them. Soon he knelt before the indigo rose buds. Later, he lifted his chin and spotted crimson roses of twenty dollars...
Murise and a crowd of churned-milk tummy teens strolled to pick the wild berries and sugary treegums. The drifting rainclouds protected them from the skin-baking sun by spreading a cooling blanket over the children’s naked backs. Soon, Murise spotted a girl with bushy eyebrows, and adored her pencil-sharp nose. She, upon seeing Murise, flashed her...
Long ago when hairy roots used to grow atop the bushes, there lived Kangombo. Every reddish-yellow sunset, he hid in a moon-blocking cave, and swallowed white spider mites. One day, he looked at the stones and wished they could turn into goats. That morning, he hiked on a finger-like stone and shouted swear words. “I...
Chief Karuru cried against the fabricating of a hotel near the skeletal dock at Shark Island. However, the exotic tycoons had started with the construction of the hotel at the sand-buried concentration camp. Strangely, the red bricks and glass-wall rooms looked a lot like gravestones. A pack of moguls booked online to enjoy their fantasy...
Chief Tjiruru was 107 years old when the Odendaal Plan brought oil-soaked poles to Omusarakuumba. However, he refused the electrification of the oil-sand village. The magician feared that the streetlights would stop him from practising his charms in an eclipsing darkness. Last year, a flashlight between the clouds revealed his charm bracelet. Soon, the blue...