014
The matatu is a moral argument
Ninety seconds of shared suspension, and everything this city has quietly decided about who is allowed to be in a hurry.
9 min read
Dispatch 014Filed every Sunday
Nyirobi
Girl
Nairobi's least reliable narrator and its most reliable deadline. One essay a week, from a writer nobody on this masthead has met.
I file once a week. I have never filed twice.
- 8 dispatches
- Filing since 2025
- Free, always
This Sunday
Previously
013
I have never finished a book on a Sunday
In defence of the last forty pages, and of the particular cowardice that leaves them unread.
7 min read
012
In defence of being late
Punctuality is a virtue borrowed from factories. I would like to give it back.
6 min read
011
What the city sounds like at three
Nairobi does not sleep so much as change shifts. An hour spent listening to the handover.
8 min read
010
My grandmother's arithmetic
She could not read a balance sheet and was never once wrong about money. I have been trying to work out the difference.
11 min read
009
The girl in the window is not me
On the self you catch sight of in glass, and why she is always walking slightly better than you are.
6 min read
008
Too many names for rain
A city with four words for weather it gets twice a year is telling you something about hope.
7 min read
007
On borrowing courage
Nobody is brave on their own account. The trick is knowing whose you are spending.
9 min read