Author Archives: Shubnum Khan

This is how we dance pantsula style

It was my last night in London and I was lost that night. Too much fear around the edges, too much waiting, too much creases in the paper. Barely eating, barely thinking, barely being. The fear finally easing. I ask to go alone. I took the tube back home only […]

“Although it seemed to be the end of the world to me – it wasn’t.There was a lot more world: cause roads that look set to take you in one direction will sometimes twist back on themselves without ever seeming anything other than straight, … many things get forgiven in […]

To be a forgotten person means to wander the earth as a ghost.  The forgotten feel the loss of remembrance everyday. It hangs on them like perfume. They sit in parks and remember the moments when they were remembered. They run their fingers over each moment like a rosary strung […]

When I learn to talk again When I relearn the words When my mouth begins the right story I will open all the windows Let in all the light I will be ablaze A flame in the night Running across the sky

I’ve been getting lost in Glenwood quite a bit recently but it’s one of the nicest places to get lost in; the roads are wide and quiet and there’s always interesting shops and eating places popping up everywhere.  Also the small roads always lead back somehow to the main roads […]

Taken at ILM’S Eid with a difference event in Durban. Eid salaat in the morning and then a party for children from different townships.

March in the CBD, Durban Friday, 25 July 2014

A short story of mine set in the future in Hillbrow appeared in a special ‘South Africa in 2034’ edition of The Sunday Times in April 2014. Hillbrow  03:10             There are always people in the stairwells now. People who cough and sneeze and reach out their hands for you. You […]