The House
"Afia mma, leave the bathroom now. Let someone else come and take their bath." Someone was always waiting for something in our house. The bathroom, the toilet, a cup someone else had used, a book that…
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My House Is Not A Home
The collection explores the complicated relationship between home, care, and safety. Across four essays, it examines how a house can offer shelter without offering peace, and how affection and violence can coexist within the same relationships. Moving from childhood into adulthood, the essays consider what it means to belong somewhere, to leave, and to build a life of one's own. Rather than presenting home as a place of guaranteed safety or the collection as a straightforward journey towards healing, the work examines how our understanding of home changes through experience, and what it means to inhabit a space on our own terms.
by Blessing Inyang Johnson
Part 1
Part 2
Other House
"Come back home. There is enough room in the house. I have a shop for you to keep your machine. There is water heater, bath tub. Whatever you need," my father said on the phone. "Okay, Daddy." It took…
Part 3
Still House
The first thing I do when I enter a new house is check the bathroom. I don't know when I started doing this. Maybe it was because, growing up, the bathroom was never really mine. Someone was always in…
