The Black Atlantic

Returning to Myself When Beauty Becomes a Guide

Tritima AchigbuFebruary 2, 2022

There’s a perception that people use makeup to hide, but for me, it marked a return to my face. Read more.

February/March 2022The Black AtlanticUnited States

Looking for God To Find God, I Had to Leave Religion Behind

Ugochukwu Damian OkparaJanuary 19, 2022

I grew up wanting to get closer to God. But to find God I had to leave religion behind. Read more.

December 21/January 22NigeriaThe Black Atlantic

This photo is for Andile Zulu's Black Atlantic Essay

On Being Black and Other Lies Unravelling My Blackness in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Andile ZuluDecember 22, 2021

I had always been anxious about returning to South Africa. Besides awkward puberty, an awakening awaited me in South Africa, sparked by a dizzying confrontation with the reality of race. Read more.

December 20/January 21South AfricaThe Black Atlantic

Upon Mount Zion, There Shall Be Deliverance The Church and My Political Awakening

Eileen GbagboDecember 8, 2021

The church was where I had my political awakening. For nearly five years, weekly sermons, prayer sessions and testimonies, gave me an education, about being African in the UK, that I couldn’t get in school. Read more.

December 20/January 21GhanaThe Black AtlanticUnited Kingdom

Love and War The War That Stood Between My Ex and Me

Salem AfangidehNovember 24, 2021

Our ‘us’ dissolved into thin air because the trauma of war that haunted our fathers shaped our view of love and without a conscious awareness of it, led us to make impossible demands of each other. Read more.

BiafraNigeriaOctober/November 2021The Black AtlanticUnited States

Grieving From a Distance A Transatlantic Memorial for My Grandfather

Damilola OyedeleSeptember 15, 2021

My grandfather passed away from COVID-19. Not being able to grieve physically with my family due to the pandemic’s lockdowns was cruel irony. Read more.

August/September 2021The Black Atlantic

There’s No Place Like ‘Home’ Migration, Like Horticulture, Is a Delicate Process

Desola OlaleyeAugust 23, 2021

Moving to the UK was her parents’ dream; and leaving Nigeria was her loss—until she ditched the concept of ‘home’. Read more.

August/September 2021The Black Atlantic

Everything I Desire Is For Me I Discovered Who I Was When I Stopped Trying to Lose Weight

Oreoluwa George-TaylorJuly 12, 2021

Looking back at how my body has changed over the past 15 years, I realized that I already had all the things I was waiting to be ‘thin enough’ for. Read more.

Best of 2021: EssaysJune/July 2021The Black Atlanticvol5-no4