A Long House

A new frontier for African and black expression, literature, and critical discourse.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Khosa Chambalo's story “The Roofless Days of Bwalijo” in our “Homelessness” issue, a story in which one homeless man's words and deeds become an inspiration and a portal for reflection.
(@KcKhosa65697)
https://t.co/YBZiwBeXjo

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Khosa J. K Chambalo (@KcKhosa65697) qis an up-and-coming writer born in Kalikumbi, Embangweni, Mzimba, Malawi. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation and is currently working on two books entitled: The Culture Between and The Road to Kalilumbi.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“He was nothing but the fellow who slept against the market wall, covered by a jacket that had seen more rains than blessings. But once, he had been a man of name and reputation.”
—Khosa J. K. Chambalo, “The Roofless Days of Bwalijo”
https://t.co/au7S21W9rw

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Duncan Mwangi's “Pigeon” in our “Homelessness” issue, a story about a life on the edge of things.
https://t.co/vJ6on3KOOo

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Duncan Mwangi is a fiction writer, poet and a graduate of the Nairobi Fiction Writing Class 2020. He is a graduate of Northwestern University with a BSc in Journalism, a minor in Creative Writing and a certification in Leadership.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“Kobe remembers the exact moment when the verdict came in. It was eleven in the morning, the sun was bright against the windowpanes.... The verdict was unanimous; guilty on both counts, stalking and burglary.”
—Duncan Mwangi, “Pigeon”
https://t.co/vJ6on3KOOo

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Michael Oladosu's “Manual for Surviving Without a Door” that lists all the small but heavy ways that homelessness impacts the individual.
(@Garricologist)
https://t.co/NUeUBKkieo

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Oladosu Michael Emerald (@Garricologist) is a writer, artist, photographer, and actor. He is the author of Every Little Thing That Moves and serves as an editor at Uncanny Magazine and Surging Tide.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“7. Dreams cost nothing, but they don’t take you anywhere without shoes.
...
9. Every night has its own choir: rats, rain, & the sound of vending machines.”
—Oladosu Michael Emerald, “Manual for Surviving Without a Door”
From Issue 3: Homelessness
https://t.co/sV46K2wXph

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Yaw Atuobi's “Of Houses and Homes” in our “Homelessness” issue, which uncovers the various meanings a home can assume, in familial, political, and philosophical contexts.
https://t.co/cKFDwuZmOl

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Yaw Atuobi is a writer and researcher currently based in Accra. A co-curator of littoral: an undisciplined project and the former critic-in-residence at the inaugural Black Atlantic Residency (2024) of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD).

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“It is strange to me to think directly about the home even though spates of my homelessness should define home’s edges.”
—Yaw Atuobi, “Of Houses and Homes”
From Issue 3: Homelessness
https://t.co/ZcStzCmTdC

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Doreen Masika's “Fogbow” in our “Homelessness” issue. It's a story that reminds us that home is not only a place but also a memory, a memory of where used to be home, of those we have lost, and of those who hold us close.
https://t.co/ZGESVq9rpW

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Doreen Masika is a writer and filmmaker from Kilifi, Kenya. A Daystar University alumna, she works across multiple forms of storytelling. Her short stories have appeared in Isele and Lolwe, among other publications. She serves as an Assistant Editor at Wallstrait Journal.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“I sit down on the mkeka and close my eyes, wailing like a child with my entire body and without shame. Suddenly, memories surge in...Bititi in a red dress, holding Kovu’s hand. He had just begun to walk.”—Doreen Masika, “Fogbow”
From Issue 3: Homelessness
https://t.co/ZGESVq9rpW

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Olaore Durodola-Oloto's “desideratum” and “roulette” in the “Homelessness” issue. These poems straddle the intersection of what it means to be a refugee and a person.
(@olaore_philip)
https://t.co/YknHfDqHlg

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Olaore Durodola-Oloto (@olaore_philip) is an imagist from Lagos, Nigeria. His works appear in Brittle Paper, OtB, Kalari Review, Blue Flame Review, The Crossroads Review, Anthropocene Poetry, Inverse Journal, ANMLY, The ShallowTales Review and elsewhere.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“& somewhere in this night, Èṣù will come
for a calabash at the crossroad &

a man’s life would become a loose canoe,
drifting off the shores of the living.”
—Olaore Durodola-Oloto, “roulette”
From Issue 3: Homelessness
https://t.co/2frPkjNxL5

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Read Flourish Aikodion's story “We Who Walk Without Belonging” in our third issue, of a girl denied home and belonging at every turn and forced to hold onto herself amid a harsh reality.
(@aikodionn)
https://t.co/ZxSehJrdj8

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

Flourish Aikodion (@aikodionn) is a medical student with an interest in psychiatry and mental health, and the human stories that exist beneath diagnoses and symptoms. She is deeply drawn to understanding people—how they think, feel, cope, and make meaning of their lives.

[A Long House @aLongHouse]

“‘Where am I?’ There is a kind of homelessness that is not about sleeping outside. It is when your body has a roof but your soul has nowhere to sit.”
—Flourish Aikodion, “We Who Walk Without Belonging”
From Issue 3: Homelessness
https://t.co/ZxSehJrdj8