If you have been following this blog you probably know that every week for the rest of the year, a story will be released from the second volume of How to Spell Naija in 100 Short Stories. It will be published on the okadabooks platform which enables you to take the stories around on your phone. Last week’s tale was CowGirl. This week’s,  FiveColour Sisi (No.55, themed on the lost talents of the countryside), was published this morning.

Yet, over the weekend, something strange happened: story no. 96, Fish, was not only released, it was translated into Pigin English by the Nigerian multi-dimensional artist (and now translator) Victor Ehikhamenor and published here.

You can blame Bibi Bakare and partner in crime, Emma Shercliffe at Ankara Press for this inversion of the laws of mathematics. The means by which my collaboration was procured is a tale for another day, but even if you want to respect mathematical laws, you probably should look up that volume: six other writers (Binyavanga Wainana, Sarah Ladipo-Manyika, Toni Kan, Hawa Jande-Golakai, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, and Edwige Renee Dro ) have been blended into an anthology that not only features flash love in PDF, translations into seven African languages and audio clips of the stories. A feast for the ears and eyes, say nothing of the heart. The Pigin Fish was read by Eghosa Imasuen

It all happened on Saturday the 14th of February, a day whose peculiar significance seems to have skipped me for the moment…