At Iko, we believe every story matters, and we are committed to empowering African writers who we believe are deserving of improved visibility and greater recognition. Here is a selection of Iko stories you may have missed this week.

Families are everything, but sometimes they do this thing where they project an image of perfection over their murky underbelly, where the darkness exists, unseen to the outside world. A family’s secrets come to a head as they celebrate a daughter’s success in “Day 100” by Praise Hena.

“Jenny didn’t want to let him down. She couldn’t. I didn’t understand if it was because she loved him too much or because she feared him.” Hena writes of the struggle children face with their parents’ perfect perceptions of them.

Gabrielle Emem Harry offers us a revolution in "This One Will Fit You" - a story about bodies that don't fit, a mermaid, a beach, an ant's mistake, a plant's potential, and a market where skeletons sell limbs. "If I sing this song right, words rolling off my tongue, throat tight, arms drumming a steady beat against my chest, never stopping, not even a pause, not even for air…if I sing this song right, it will carry me." A story that is a triumph of African speculative fiction, "This One Will Fit You" also happens to be the most liked story on Iko Africa this week. 

In the corporate thriller “Mr Ali’s Misgivings”, we follow a new employee into a company that is not what it seems.

“It was the way men lived, complaining about their inadequacies yet doomed to repeat the same mistakes day after day. It felt hopeless, such a situation, but he had no intentions to be like other men.” Ifeoluwa Olutayo tells a gripping story of humanity and the illusion of choice.

In a reimagined world without the nourishment of the sun, Albert Nkereuwem's “New Age Gods: The First Light” shows a kingdom on the precipice of revolution and the spark it finds in the kindness of a broken warrior. “Regret was an awful thing to live with. Some soldiers under the ring felt it more than most. Any good they had was smothered by the fear and necessity that they served.” New Age Gods is a fantasy short story that offers a window into a world you undoubtedly want to witness.

Recently, the AI generation of songs using artists’ voices stirred controversy on social media, with Drake even calling out the eerie process and calling for regulation. In the “Heart on my sleeve” Saga, Chioma Ndu-akpunku detangles the web of image rights in light of emerging technology.

What have you been reading on Iko this week? What’s moved you recently? What’s changed the way you look at the world? Let us know in the responses.

Thank you for reading,

The Iko Editorial Team.