Cover Photo: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, "Before Now After (Mama, Mummy and Mamma)"/JR P/flickr
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, "Before Now After (Mama, Mummy and Mamma)"/JR P/flickr

The Things We Never Say: A Family History

My mother traded her independence for the fullness of a family, tied it to a post for the confines of marriage.

Elements of this essay have been fictionalized to protect identities.

Love is in the hands.

Apple Hair FoodThis

This

Jeopardy

Does it hurt when you walk?

gelechin-chin

Nne

normal

a life-changing thing

trickhigh-high low-low

This one thing!

moi-moi

Anene!!

If love was a walking human I would have killed it a long time ago. I would have stabbed it in the throat, sliced an artery and ceased oxygen to its heart. Love is stupid, amongst other things.

St. Louis

This was the moment of tears and blood, isn’t it? Is this the moment you are going to save her again, not because you love her, but because you are afraid?

will

crackThis was normal to her.

The only death that can kill a woman is death to her spirit.

moringa

Gwa m.

Amara Nicole Okolo is a lawyer and writer from Nigeria. Her novel, Black Sparkle Romance was published by Ankara Press, an imprint of Cassava Republic (2014, Nigeria, Africa; 2016, UK/Europe) and her second book, a collection of short stories, Son of Man by Parresia Publishers (2016). She was amongst the participants of the 2015 Farafina Workshop by Chimamanda Adichie. In 2017 her short story "The Colour of Teeth" was published in an anthology by Afreada and translated to Spanish by Afribuku. She currently lives in the US where she is working on her second and third novels.