Foreword
Are our existential questions what lead us to the doorstep of nothingness? When we encounter it, do we confront it or become one with it? Everything is nothing, but there is so much potency in nothing, so much that everything is made from nothing. As we are reminded in โWide,โ โEverything matters…Nothing is impossible.โ Even in our creative endeavours, like Angela Townsend, we seek validation, not only of our potential but of the myriad possibilities that surround us. So, we make proclamations: โโLet there be light,โ and there was light.โ But the complexity of life is also embedded in its possibilities. So, we strive for harmony: โThen he separated the light from the darkness.โ
We consider ourselves privileged for the vast narratives and (story)worlds we encounter; from those that caress us to the ones that jolt us into disbelief. Such is the antithesis of life, or as Abdullah Jimoh puts it, โLife is a gathering of small deaths.โ As the Yoruba proverb teaches, ona kan o woja, there is no single path to the marketplace. This notion is vividly illustrated in CS Crowe’s poetics of many roads, where the complexity of life’s journeys is laid bare. In the depth of these narratives, we reach for belongingness and search for a place to claim as home, โFor what is home but the voice of a storyteller?โ
The narrator in โEyo Adimuโ evokes Toyin Falolaโs reflections in Counting the Tiger’s Teeth, particularly his encounter with Iya Lekuleja at Ode Aje in Ibadan. Both narratives explore the intricacies of African cultures and spiritualities, which are often misunderstood. One that leaves the ignorant smirking โsavages,โ like the British journalist who would lose half his sight days after he refused to offer appeasement. โEyo Adimuโ is a Kulturroman, relating the protagonist’s awakening to a collective cultural and spiritual consciousness, and their significance. The complexity of life, trauma, time and its transience resonate throughout this issue. This collective reverberates with the struggle and succour we all succumb to. Abdullahi Jimoh thoughtfully observes in โMorning Rituals,โ that โAll that kills is dying,โ reminding us that we are โnever without scars and wounds.โ As always, dear readers, we invite you to immerse yourself in the profundity of these narratives, to remind you that in the face of nothingness, we find not only voidness but also beginnings and boundless possibilities.
Tolulope Oke
Publisher, Lunaris Review
