This contribution includes an original poem, “Benediction” in tribute of Valentin-Yves Mudimbe and the first translation in English of selections from Les Fuseaux, parfois (1974). Mudimbe authored several collections in the 1970s, and this translation is intended to draw more scholarly attention to his poetic output.

This article reconsiders V.Y. Mudimbe’s contribution to “decolonial” impulses that are central to current preoccupations in fields such as postcolonial studies. It argues that key concepts developed by Mudimbe, such as the “colonial library,” have been overlooked in these discussions. Further, the article provides insight into important aspects of Mudimbe’s thought on the colonial library by reminding readers of the genealogy he excavates in describing the contours of the colonial library and its continued influence (likened by Mudimbe to a lingering odor) that is still to be dismantled.

This article studies the origins of Jafr, an apocalyptic, eschatological and occult book attributed to the first Shiʿi imam, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661). While it remains unclear whether Jafr was ever physically composed, it became associated with lettrism (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in medieval Sunni and Shiʿi literature. Jafr gradually evolved into a crucial component of Islamic occult traditions and influenced various cosmological theories as well as the letter-magic practices of prominent Sunni and Shiʿi occultists. Despite its historical significance, confusion regarding Jafr’s roots, authorship and content in Shiʿi sources from the third to fifth centuries ah persists in scholarship. This article examines various aspects of Jafr in early Shiʿi tradition and sheds light on its status as a key text of messianism, prognostication and apocalypticism.

After nearly two decades of documenting Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s life and work, this reflection situates my conversations with him within a broader canvas—one that allows us to hear him in dialogue with fellow writers, activists, and global artists.

Pregnancy scams or fraudulent representations of pregnancy – a situation where a woman who knows that she is not pregnant, or has no reason to suspect that she is, deceives her spouse or sexual partner into believing that she is, usually for her own self-interest – have become a common phenomenon in Ghana, and the media is replete with such episodes. However, even though these media publications are useful in bringing this practice to the attention of the public, an analysis of the legal ramifications of, and the criminal justice response to, the phenomenon is virtually non-existent in the academic literature. Drawing on pertinent judicial decisions, statutes and academic literature, the present study offers an exposition of the legal implications of the pregnancy scam phenomenon in contemporary Ghana. It explores the extent to which this type of fraud is (un)actionable, highlighting important legal principles and controversies.

This article examines women’s storytelling and nanga (harp) performances in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury western Uganda to investigate how these songs shaped community identity and norms. Drawing on musical recordings, archival sources, and interviews, this article demonstrates that these performances functioned as important public histories, teaching audiences about past famines, droughts, climate change, and cattle events. These narratives both chronicled regional histories and provided the shared intellectual material from which community norms and a shared identity could be articulated. Extant scholarship has focused overwhelmingly on how male intellectuals contributed to ideas of race, nation, or ethnicity. This article thus provides an important alternative by showing how women produced histories that contributed to group identity—yet this historical production occurred through musical performances rather than in books, tracts, or petitions. In doing so, this article reintegrates western Ugandan women into narratives of imperial encounters and intellectual history.

This article presents the first study of an oath-letter (sawgand-nāma) from medieval Anatolia. It is drawn from the recently rediscovered Qiṣṣa-yi Salāṭīn, an anonymous inshāʾ work from the mid-thirteenth century. This text exemplifies a typical bottom-up oath in which the oath-taker pledges loyalty to Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kay-Khusraw II (d. 644/1246), while the oath also ensures a clear line of dynastic succession in favour of his son, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Kay-Qubād II (d. 655/1257). A comparison with similar texts from Iran reveals the extent to which Turkish states in Anatolia adhered to the norms established under the Great Saljuqs, although the Rum Saljuq version is noted to be more severe in ideological terms in cases of perjury, yet less demanding in practical aspects. This sawgand-nāma also highlights how the Qiṣṣa-yi Salāṭīn might have functioned as a sort of “para-archive”, potentially supporting the claims of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, who was sidelined after his father’s death.