Latest Essays

In late 2019, I visited the village of Sabuli in Upper West Ghana to conduct interviews for a book I’ve been “working on” for seven or eight years. (Time is irrelevant now.) For Ghanaians, it is customary for a visitor to bring a gift for the host. I’m sure the same convention applies to other […]

Much has been written and discussed about the devastating effects that the pandemic has had on mental health outcomes across populations and demographics. Towards the middle of last year, pediatricians reported record spikes in kids suffering from depression and anxiety. In older populations – a group already susceptible to involuntary isolation – national lockdowns and […]

The locals in my town have a saying: “If you don’t like the weather in George, just wait ten minutes.” Nestled between a mountain range and the south Atlantic Ocean, the city’s weather mirrors the mercurial nature and migration patterns of the denizens of the Garden Route. That’s why I did not hesitate to grab […]

“Amuga! Amuuuuga!” This is what the children would shout after school during our long treks homeward in the blistering Accra heat. When emboldened, I would sometimes shout the word with them, and if the spirit – or whatever force guided the actions of the intended target – moved that day, a man would emerge from […]

Hello and greetings. Welcome to my new project! The Western Cape of South Africa boasts some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. From azure blue ocean waters to mountains that rise suddenly from the planes like plumes hewn from ancient rock, there is a seemingly endless stream of visual delights for the eye. […]

“Mom? Do you have a minute?” Please ask me for help getting juice out of the fridge. Please as me to pour you a bowl of cereal… Of course, the voice asking me for my attention was many years past the need for such assistance. My Lord, I long for the days when the primary […]

The mystery of religion is its mercurial nature, its plurality. It is a tool that both harbors and wields incredible power. Religion has inspired the pursuit of scientific knowledge and been used as a mechanism to demonize that same pursuit. Religion has been used to dehumanize and marginalize, and has also been relied on to […]

I’m just going start this post off by professing my love for T. You make my world a livelier place and you bring animation to already colorful days. You are a gift and I love you. Speaking of gifts… During a recent two-hour long catch up wherein we discussed myriad topics, the subject of gift-giving […]

Romans, friends, countrymen, lurkers and M.O.M readers; I come to you this day with the heat of blue flame coursing through my veins and the resolute determination of the water bear. Fear not! I come not with corona in my throat, but a question: Is there a fiscal cap on the expression of your devotion […]

Valentine’s Day doth approacheth! *cue ominous theatrical score* Every year right around this time, an abundance of articles and think pieces appear on different corners of the Internet exploring the increasingly negative feelings people associate with Valentine’s Day. Mind of Malaka is no exception. I have been a longtime (and loud) hater where this holiday […]

The Wax “What brings you in here today?” I gazed into the green eyes of the svelte brunette, barely visible above her mask as she snapped a pair of plastic gloves on her delicate porcelain hands. Hands that were soon about to deliver a peculiar sort of pain on my own delicate flesh. I thought […]

Forgive me if this is clumsily expressed. I have been misty eyed all morning, reflecting on the life of Ms. Tyson. The first time I ever saw a Black woman give birth on screen was in the movie The Color Purple. I was 8 years old and spending the summer in the Detroit with my […]

“Mom?” Crap. I had been summoned by my child. The pitch of her voice and query-tinged timbre with which my pseudonym had been uttered meant that the next words out of her mouth were going to cost me something. What was it this time? Money? A ride to the mall AND money? Only one way […]

The child who was once small enough to fit in the palm of my hand stood towering over me, tears brimming her eyes. “Are you crying?” “No,” she said. A renegade tear plunked down her cheek. She brushed it away, but that only opened up the wellsprings to near bursting. What had brought this on? […]

“Aging is inevitable. Getting old is optional.” – Some wokeness I read somewhere online once. What is occupying your thoughts at the beginning of this year? (The raging global pandemic aside.) This is normally a time for resolution and goal setting, but in light of the how the last ten months has shown how much […]

Cast your mind back to December 2019. It seems impossible to fathom now, but it’s fair to say most people began looking forward to the new year – 2020 – with optimism and enthusiasm. 12 months later, a quick poll might reveal that the majority of us are looking forward to putting this year in […]

“When I go to the movies, I go to escape reality… not to be confronted with more of it.” – Frances Scarlett When I relocated to Atlanta in 2000, I was coming into the discovery of my Blackness. And what better place to do so than in the nation’s Black Mecca? For the opportunities afforded […]

I rolled out of bed just before midday on Saturday, driven to the bathroom by a coughing fit. Saturdays are the only days in the month I permit myself the delight of complete mental barrenness; the days where I ignore emails, watch old episodes of Gummy Bears on YouTube and eat Kit Kats for breakfast. […]

Before ‘ally fatigue’ set in, back when brands across the globe believed in earnest that the best way to demonstrate their solidarity with marginalized groups was to post a black square on Instagram, or combat racism by renaming the ‘master bedroom’ the ‘main bedroom’ (not like massa was raping anyone in his private quarters anyways), […]

Close your eyes and think about the future a hundred, maybe a thousand years ahead. What’s the worst thing you can imagine? What event would you consider utterly catastrophic? Nnedi Okorafor puts forward an unutterable possibility. This week on my best friend’s podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, LeVar Burton (who is my best friend in the […]

Happy World Food Day! I love food. I love the taste of it; the sight of it; the preparation of it, and (when I could) the smell of it. I love how thousands of years of human history  – wars, migration, accidental discoveries and stingily guarded recipes – nest themselves on a plate before what […]