One of the stories I heard about her growing up was the women’s communities she fostered, creating solidarity networks and systems of care for those who didn’t have the privileges of protection in her village. She saw the world end and created pockets of new worlds, visions of something else. If she could do that, then I often think how can I not? You know?

“I think it’s such a unique place in which to come of age, all those multiple cultural influences, that sense of being at the edge, even marginal, but also not completely cut off from the country & world. And then that Pwani aesthetic of being fiercely private but open. The unspoken morality, that sense of manners, respectability, slowness, proud resignation, the casual vulgarity, etc. I could go on. I don’t know. It has a hold on me. I’ve stopped questioning it.”