CM30: West Africa

Yovanka Paquete Perdigao and Henry Brefo navigate the rich cultural and political geography of West Africa by telling the Lion’s story, Shanka Mesa Siverio relates her experience of architecture, culture and identity, Henry Brefo laments that we were once friends, Jean-Ann Ndow explores West Africa’s history through the song and dance of Griots, Peter Griffiths takes a tour of West African Cities, Hafeez Burhan Khan thrills with tales of book smugglers in Timbuktu, Estrella Sendra is at the cinema with Ousmane Sembene, Kalaf Epalanga gets his Afrobeat groove on, Hang Zhou sees potential in the African Yuan, Nouriah Bah finds evidence of the legacy of Pan-Africanism today and Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed has the perfect answer to the endless questioning of her identity.

Also in this issue: Tam Hussein on his encounter with Jihadis, Ngadi Smart introduces us to faces of Abissa, Shanon Shah decolonises the book of Kings, Samia Rahman learns about giants of an Islamic past, Natasha Koverola Commisiong finds Africa in Homsert House and Gemma Edom goes fishing in Akure, short stories by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Dzekashu Macviban, poems by Victoria Adukwei Bulley, the Last Word on my generation by Oluwagbemileke Joy Jegede. And, Yovanka Paquete Perdigao has some stern words of advice on what not to do when visiting West Africa.