By Rémy Ngamije, Editor-in-Chief of Doek!
The sun gets down on hands and knees, and peers at how unremarkably the year is spent. It would be easy to lay around in guiltless grief, watching everyone else get their skylines while we remained flightless birds, taking city drives to nowhere as the wind crashes against the sky.
Yet again we have been taught about the hunger of absence and loss, coping and surviving, living and trying to thrive. This year has been a muted bride. It seems like the right time for pity parties when love, loved ones, and the goals we set at the start of the year depart or fall by the wayside. Some might say we are strong until affection weakens us, that resurrection is possible but improbable.
This cannot be true.
We continue to construct new African worlds through apertures and shutter speeds. From Namibia, Barbados, Kenya, Iran, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Switzerland, the United States of America, and Zambia, we say and reaffirm, now and forever: siyah zibast—Black is beautiful.
Notice the veins that run through you; we are unicorns in plain sight. Past, present, and future—all is undetermined. True. We know we have to work twice as hard to feel the warmth of the sun.
There are many thanks to be given to the editors who have shown us the way so far: Kay-Leigh De Sousa, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Mutaleni Nadimi, Zanta Nkumane, and Ibilola Odunlami; the writers, poets, and visual artists whose victories have inspired us: Namafu Amutse, Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo, Pauline Buhle Ndhlovu, and Natasha Uys; the trustees who have guided us: Jakob De Klerk, Bonita De Silva, Cara Mia Dunaiski, Louis Kato Kiggundu, and Heike Scholtz; and our patron: the Honourable Justice David Smuts.
Thanks to them and so many others, we look to the new year and think: the plans I have for you.
O! The dreams. The steps. The paths. The journeys.
The work!
Let them all come.
And soon.
This is Doek!—a literary magazine from Namibia.
