a.magazine

By the time you pick this magazine up off the newsstand, fetch it from your mailbox, or read it online, it will have traveled further than you might expect. It will have gone from Paris to Cairo; from Lagos to Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth; from urban Johannesburg to rural Lilydale. It will have illegally crossed the South Africa-Zimbabwe border and been evacuated from war-torn Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will have crossed the Atlantic at least four times, the Pacific twice; it will have ventured to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Created by an international editorial team based in remote South Africa, filled with the words and art of a vast continent, this is a magazine that crosses borders every day.

Borders define our lives, help tell us who we are, hold us in or keep us out. They shape our history, opportunities, and expectations. But they are not static. They are not just countries and nations, passports and visas. In this increasingly “flat” world, race, socio-economics, religion, politics, and legal systems all act as boundaries, replacing the physical borders that have historically divided us. It is today’s larger, less tangible barriers that we hope to cross in the following pages.

So much of the reportage out of Africa is disaster, disease, or famine related, and yet there is so much more. a.magazine works to highlight the modern, the beautiful, the unexpected and complex sides of Africa, while not shying away from writing or art that confronts the work still to be done.

We’ve been privileged to work with some of Africa’s greatest writers and artists on this premier issue, as well as some of the most knowledgeable Western writers focusing on Africa. As editors, we thank them for lending us their names, their words and art, and—most of all—their support.

As readers, we thank them for tackling the big questions. Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores what it means to be an African on foreign soil. Zakes Mda talks about the challenges of being split between two homes and the benefits of being an outsider. Colbert Mashile creates art with a modern aesthetic to explore his traditional Sotho roots. Stephanie Nolen uses the story of a heroic nurse to discuss the greater history of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Pulitzer Prize winner Greg Marinovich looks both critically and sympathetically at the Zimbabweans flooding into his home country. Other contributors take us inside South Africa’s crowded prisons, a kitchen in Cairo, and one of the most important days in the fall of apartheid.

We hope you enjoy this first issue and keep coming back for more. We’re just getting started!

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