From the Latin radiantia, meaning “shining” or “beaming,” Radiance, to me, is the act of retaining one’s inner light amid a world that so often seeks to dim it. Some of us do the work of the world on ourselves—an unintentional self-sabotage, born not of malice but of habit. I’ve long wondered why humility is the word we reach for when we downplay our own brilliance. Why is there fear in speaking proudly of ourselves, in naming our light without apology?

When I think of radiance, I think of fire. And here, we choose—provocatively—to overlook the myth of Prometheus, with its infamous theft and divine punishment. Instead, we turn to the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who offer a rare myth of co-operation between gods and mortals. After the goddess Tsetse is expelled for her chaotic tendency to set things ablaze, fire disappears from the world. It is Bumba who then teaches humans how to harness it, revealing its source in the trees. This myth invites us to ask: where do we, as poets, harness our own fire? How do we keep it alive? What does it mean to be radiant?

Sometimes, our light returns in places we’ve forgotten to look—often just at the corner of our eyes. Our continent is vast, yet the literary spotlight seems to linger on the same regions, the same countries. How do we illuminate those nations that are present in the discourse but remain peripheral, overshadowed by the dominance of others?

It is in this spirit that we introduce RADIANCE, a chapbook featuring five poets of African origin: Esther Karin Mngodo (Tanzania), Sandra Nadege (Rwanda), Faswillah Nattabi (Uganda), Vuma Phiri (Zambia), and Yasmina Nuny Silva (Guinea-Bissau). Each poet, whether based on the continent or in the diaspora, offers intimate and moving reflections on what radiance means to them. Through their words, we hope readers might discover what the word means to them, too.

In Dedication by Vuma Phiri, we encounter a manifesto for Blackness—bone-chilling in its awe, haunting and thrilling in equal measure. In Ballad of Nantabuulirirwa, we find more than a meditation on womanhood; it is a declaration of presence, a defiant insistence on being. And in the lines “Do not let them fool us, the moon, the moon is ours. Near the moon we do not burn, oh, we do not burn,” Yasmina Nuny Silva offers a glimpse into radiance as reclamation—an act of mindful resistance. One cannot help but feel inspired by the courage and clarity that pulses through every poem in this collection.

Dear reader, I invite you to sit with these words and reflect: what does radiance mean to you? How do you move through a world that will, inevitably, test you? And when it does, how will you protect your light from being dimmed?

Malikhanye!

Sihle Ntuli

Artwork by TIBEB SIRAK
The Weight of the Unseen, 2025
Woodcut Print and Acrylic on Canvas
140 x 90 CM