SHORT PIECES

Essays and articles

• Tales of Resistance in the Sahel, an essay that examines the present of the Alliance of Sahel State countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) through the lens of their historical fiction, drawing on works by Massa Makan Diabaté, Abdoulaye Mamani and Norbert Zongo. Published in Skin Deep: Anthology, 2025. Republished in Italian in Internazionale magazine.

• Being an artist is a mission, in conversation with choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly on the Manden Charter and art in Sahara: A Thousand Paths into the Future and on the Culturescapes blog, 2023.

• The future will prove us right, in conversation with Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim on climate change activism, in Sahara: A Thousand Paths into the Future and on the Culturescapes blog, 2023.

• It could Happen to us, an op-ed on the COP 27 conference in Africa is a Country, November 2022. Republished in The Elephant (Kenya) and ZAM Magazine (Netherlands).

• Reframing Population, a critical look at demography in Africa and in low-fertility countries such as China, Japan and Italy in The Republic (Nigeria), August 2022. A Best-of-2022 selection and a recommended read by Foreign Policy (US).

• Integrity Always Pays on the Thomas Sankara trial in Africa is a Country, April 2022. Republished by Mail & Guardian (South Africa), Portside (USA), Africa Positive (Germany), Izuba (Rwanda) and cited in French in Journal d’Afrique. Widely shared on Twitter and a recommended read in Italian magazine Internazionale’s newsletter.

• Hair as Freedom an essay on the history and the present of afro hair from a continental African perspective in Lolwe (Kenya), June 2021. Republished in Portuguese by Buala (Portugal).

• Burkina Faso: Nothing will be as it was before a chronicle of Burkina Faso's 2014 uprising in Africa is a Country, October 2019. Republished by Barricades Journal (US) as part of its elections series in the aftermath of the US 2020 election.

• Dear The West, why do you find it so hard to say sorry? a reflection on the restitution of African artefacts published in African Arguments, January 2019. Republished by Courrier International (France), Welt-Sichten (Germany), All Africa (US) and Culture Crime News (Netherlands). Commented on at length in a Finnish blog.

• East Africans Resettle the African Imaginary a review of Jennifer Makumbi's Kintu published in So Many Stories Uganda, February 2019 and reprinted in the print version of Ugandan newspaper New Vision.

Poetry

• “The Playground” in The Weganda Review. 2025

• “Black Friday” in Poets Reading the News. 2024

• “Blood in the Water” in The Weganda Review. 2024

• “A Question for the Musketeers” in Binary Bisecting: African Writings on AI. Brittle Paper. 2023

• “It Brought Us Here to the Brink” (unpublished). Shortlisted for the 2023 Sevhage Literary Prize (Nigeria)

• “Fool’s Glitter” in Poda Poda Stories. 2021