The Old Drift

by Namwali Serpell

During his time at university, Ronald had learned that ‘history’ was the word the English used for the record of every time a white man encountered something he had never seen and promptly claimed it as his own, often renaming it for good measure. History, in short, was the annals of the bully on the playground.

She had never imagined that to be a woman was always, somehow, to be a banishable witch. Now, as her baby wept for hunger and as she herself wept distractedly – weeping was just what she did now, who she was – Matha felt that dawning shock that comes when you look at yourself and see a person you once might have pitied.

Don’t get too carried away now! It’s true that freedom can fling you too far, that ambition can burn too bright. Just ask Nkoloso’s star Afronaut Matha. Launch too quick, fly too high, and you might perish in the calamitous sun!