International Women's Month is an excellent opportunity to talk about the achievements of women in various areas of life. Here at Iko, we have amazing storytellers, so for Iko Selects, here are some of the finest stories by women on Iko. 

Love in all its transcendence is showcased in Ms. Desire’s “Infinities.”  “I'm always seeing you in other people,” She writes, “In my friends, the way they love me. In the color blue. In Nissan Almeras. It's no wonder I don't like Ibadan. You're in everything, sunce moje.” A whole and heartbreaking story. 

In “Woman: Built to Suffer”, we follow the world a woman lives in, all she is expected to do and the things she does in all aspects of society and all the bears. Kudi Msughter’s essay sheds light on the realities of women all over the world till this day. 

“My lungs screamed for air and I let go. Instead of death, I was confronted with a rush of air in my lungs”.

Adedoyin Ademola’s  “This Woman who couldn’t”  is a remarkable story of a woman with a gift she discovered at the age of nine that has altered her life, a gift that meant she had to give up the things she loved most. 

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." 

Everyone imagines what their first love will be like and it was no different for Nwaduito, but she eventually finds her lover someone to call hers. “That’s when I met Him,” Chiamaaka Esther writes,  “He told me that he liked the sound of my voice and that if I closed my eyes any harder my eyes would pop out” Is he all Nwadiuto envisions him to be? Read “Our Love Story” by Chimamaka Esther here 

In Ruth Andem’s Asa, the titular character lives in two worlds. She basks in the euphoria of a world she desperately craves and is unable to know what is real and what isn't. All she wants is for her world to be complete again, even if it means living with ghosts and voices in her head. This writer blurs the lines between grief and reality for a gut-wrenching tale. 

In “I Went to Church Today”, a story about unresolved feelings, Betini Udo explores religion’s weight. “I open my eyes to see it is not me they are looking for,” she writes “God is not looking for me today. There is another girl on the floor - the ushers fight to hold her down. They do not care that her head might break the concrete floor. Instead, they worry that more people might catch a glimpse of her blue lace panties.” A poignant read everyone here at HQ loved. 

Irenosen Akharele’s Abo follows a young lady who grew up with her church loving and homely aunt who battled cancer and left her way too early.  She muses on the person she has become - “My mother says the works of my two hands are always going to be blessed,” Ire writes, “but when I hold the dead remains of my career and social life in them I think she just says these things because she has to”

Over generations, humanity has internalised many ills and prejudices,  and this is perfectly depicted in Talitha Etta’s “The Office. Set in a matriarchal society, we follow a man who is sexually assaulted by his boss. In its subversion, Talitha Etta’s “The Office” offers a riveting story that confronts society’s “norms” with every line.

How far are we willing to go for love? Chioma Okoli’s  “Sharp Knives” is an exploration of silence that binds and the lengths we must be willing to go for ourselves and the people we love.

For every woman writing, from essays to articles to poems, Thank you all for your words.

Happy Women’s Month.

Tarinabo Diete.

Iko Editorial