We live in a world where women are often expected to be our consciences – absolving men of responsibility for their own behaviours and choices. However, rarely are women allowed to choose for themselves what it means to be good or moral. We hold women to higher standards yet we do not reward women for meeting them, nor does society ever hold such baselines for itself. Rather, goodness is defined as whatever behaviour will benefit men and thus is always malleable.
So what happens when women define goodness for themselves? Well, in this edition we bring you tales of women and girls making choices and behaving badly – but not always in ways that you might expect. In Mirette Bhagat’s “A Bridal Shroud” a young girl takes control of her destiny; while in “Memento Mori” by Tiah Bautement, a woman decides the path of her happiness – with the most unexpected of partners; in H.J. Golakai’s “Lee-ah (Sister)” two friends determine the boundaries of their friendship on their own terms; while in Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s nerve-tingling “In the Garden Watching Nim Noms” a girl must decide how far she’ll go to become the thing she most desires.
It’s been a long, exhausting road to this edition. Between illness, unemployment, and new employment, we’ve had to make our own decisions about how to balance our unwavering passion for this project and our need to buy groceries, sleep, and pay rent. It hasn’t been easy. We’ve had to watch as our publication schedule, carefully crafted at the beginning of the year, was blown out of the water by the grenades of the daily demands of life. And you, dear readers, have had to bear the brunt of that.
We are deeply sorry.
We can only continue trying our best and limping along as we can. Sadly, this means we can only commit to one more regular edition this year. However, we leave open the possiblity of collaborations to come – particularly in celebration of our 4-year anniversary.
We want to thank Joseph Omotayo whose last-minute review brought this edition together, as well as Wole Talabi for his generous donation to this edition, and a continued thank you to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for making this year possible.
But our biggest thank you goes out to you, our readers, for sticking by us through our ups and downs. Your loyalty is beyond our capacity to repay. We humbly ask that you continue to bear with us.
Thank you.
Chinelo Onwualu
Editor, Co-founder
Omenana Magazine