Next Scheduled Update: 27 December, 2006
G21 FICTION: Ashes of Our Dead Hopes (Conclusion): MPHUTHUMI NTABENI completes the serialization of his new short story, our unprecedented second nomination for the 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing.
"Who the fuck are you really?" he asked, getting visibly irritated.
That caught me by surprise. I didn't think, of all things, he'd be irritated with finding out I was his sister, half-sister if you like.
"Tando," I tried making my voice firm and dead serious. "The man whose photograph hangs in your lounge was my father too." I did not know what to say after that. Silence blew a chilling wind between us. He was the one who eventually broke it.
"What brings you here? Who the fuck are you? You come to our house pretending... " His voice sounded a mixture of anger and disappointment, almost tear-choked.
I wondered if it was stunned resentment or just the shock of surprise. "No." I interrupted him. "I've just found out myself when I saw his photograph on your wall. Of course I came to Tanzania to try and find out about his life. He never told us he had a son here; then again they lost contact with my mother when I was only six years old."
I felt trapped, crouching in the airless centre of Phaks' dead life. I could feel his rubble pressing down on me. More silence ensued. ... READ MORE
RADIOACTIVE - THE HOLIDAY WHIRL: RAHEEM returns to his column to offer his traditional reflection on family and the Holiday Season.
Oakland, CA, USA - I guess it was six years ago now that I wrote about a bad chittlings experience brought on by the fine cuisine provided by my relatives from Louisiana at a Thanksgiving gathering. I am the one writer here who has never shied away from talking about the Holiday Season and family get-togethers. I figure it's too late to change now. So we are lurching toward Christmas again right now and I'm scared this year because two people, a writer whose name I don't remember and our Publisher, over ten years ago, make we wonder what I think about Christmas.
I have a very tight-knit family and, like many Black families here in America, you can find multiple generations of us living within miles - if not blocks - of each other. It depends on the state you look at though. Some of us is down around Houma, Louisiana, and some of us is up here in northern California and then the rest is spread out in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland area. After that, the people that are left are living pretty solitary in places like St. Louis, Harlem, and Compton. Yeah, that Compton. None of us see much of those latter solitaries. I can't remember the last time they even responded to an invitation to a family reunion. It's probably just as well. ... READ MORE
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