The Mamba Journal, published by the Africa Haiku Network, is the place to find beautifully presented haiku about Africa. The Mamba is an online journal that features haiku by writers from across Africa, plus some writers from other countries.

Founding Editors, Adjei Agyei-Baah from Ghana and Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian from Nigeria, have now produced six issues of The Mamba Journal. All six issues can be found on the website of the Africa Haiku Network. Some examples from the most recent issue:

savannah heat
the caws of vultures above
an impala carcass

(Michael Kang’a, Kenya)

ardent sun ‒
an umbrella
on the ice cup

(Sarra Masmoudi, Tunisia)

The Mamba Journal shows how the Japanese genre of haiku can be just as effective when writing about African plants, animals and weather as it can when writing about cherry trees and peonies. For example, the following poem refers to the ‘harmattan’ which is a dry, dusty wind that blows in West Africa from about December to February:

last day of harmattan
an orange leaf plastered
on my window

(Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian, Nigeria)

I was pleased to have one of my haiku included in The Mamba Journal:

rhinoceros ‒
his horn
some place else

Of course, on reading this haiku, one might be encouraged to consider for a moment those animals destroyed by poachers as part of the trade in rhinoceros horn. Equally, though, the poem could refer to a rhinoceros who has had his horn removed humanely by game managers in order to deter poachers from targeting the animal.

Some more haiku from Issue 6 of The Mamba Journal:

hot dry season ‒
the fighting goats topple
a pail of water

(Anthony Itopa Obaro, Nigeria)

African rain harvest
grasshoppers
in the frying pan

(Ingrid Baluchi, Uganda)

cracked pot ‒
water finds its way down
the gutter of my spine

(Adjei Agyei-Baah, Ghana)

Please visit the Africa Haiku Network and enjoy the fresh, new African haiku on offer in The Mamba Journal.