Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa

Dissent, disease, disaster. This genre-spanning anthology explores the many ways that we grow, adapt, and survive in the face of our ever-changing global realities. These evocative, often prescient, stories showcase new and emerging writers from across Africa to investigate many of the pressing issues of our time: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more. In Disruption, authors from across Africa use their stories to explore the concept of change-environmental, political, and physical-and the power or impotence of the human race to innovate our way through it. From a post-apocalyptic African village in Innocent Ilo's "Before We Die Unwritten," to space colonization in Alithnayn Abdulkareem's "Static," to a mother's attempt to save her infant from a dust storm in Mbozi Haimbe's "Shelter," Disruption illuminates change around and within, and our infallible capacity for hope amidst disaster. Facing our shared anxieties head on, these authors scrutinize assumptions and invent worlds that combine the fantastical with the probable, the colonial with the dystopian, and the intrepid with the powerless, in stories recognizing our collective future and our disparate present. Disruption is the newest anthology from Short Story Day Africa, a non-profit organization established to develop and share the diversity of Africa's voices through publishing and writing workshops.

1. 'A Defiant Departure' by MacSmart Ojiludu – Nigeria 2. 'Another Zombie Story' by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola – Nigeria 3. 'Armando's Virtuous Crime' by Najwa Bin Shatwan translated into English by Sawad Hussain – Libya 4. 'Before the Rains Came' by Nadia Ahidjo-Iya – Cameroon 5. 'Before We Die Unwritten' by Innocent Ilo – Nigeria 6. 'Between the Hard Earth and Dry Heaven' by Melusi Nkomo – Zimbabwe 7. 'Dɔrə's Song' by Victor Forna – Sierra Leone 8. 'Enough' by Nicholas Dawn – South Africa 9. 'The Fishtank Crab' by Genna Gardini – South Africa 10. 'The Girl Named Uku/phaza/mi/se/ka' by Philisiwe Twijnstra – South Africa 11. 'The Girl Who Always Laughed' by Doreen Anyango – Uganda 12. 'Kin' by Masiyaleti Mbewe – Zambia 13. 'Laatlammer' by Julia Louw – South Africa 14. 'Lycaon Pictus' by Liam Brickhill – Zimbabwe 15. 'The Mother' by Jacob M'hango – Zambia 16. 'Objects in the Mirror Are Stranger Than They Appear' by Kevin Mogotsi – Botswana 17. 'Shelter' by Mbozi Haimbe – Zambia 18. 'Five Years Next Sunday' by Idza Luhumyo - Kenya 19. 'Static' by Alithnayn Abdulkareem – Nigeria 20. 'Waiting to Die' by Yefon Isabelle – Cameroon 21. 'When the Levees Break' by Edwin Okolo – Nigeria