When the After+Life issue was first proposed by Jalada writer Abdul Adan in January 2018, he pitched it as an opportunity to explore this hidden plane of existence in all its thrilling possibilities:

“The afterlife has been a mysterious curiosity for as long as humans can remember. Myths, stories, and even entire religions have been born out of our need to understand it,” he said.

An interrogation required probing questions regarding the transmutation of disintegrated flora and fauna and inanimate objects. It asked to wonder at the whereabouts of consciousness and even language after a passing.

We sought both philosophical and fantastical responses. Stylizing the theme’s typography as After and Life at Jalada writer Richard Ali’s suggestion expanded the imaginarium even more. Jalada’s Art Editor, Marziya Mohammedali, interpreted it variously through call-out artwork, cover art and art for individual pieces.

Authors from across the globe answered in kind. In this issue we feature 23 pieces from 19 writers based in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and the USA, among others. We thank them for sharing their work as they drew on personal experiences, reflections and near-misses, culture—such as the Dagaaba of Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso—and good ol’ inventiveness.

Each poem, each story peels back the veil in startling and exciting new ways. Death and the dead are reclaimed and unriddled as fragments of memory, errant spirits, ghosts, eccentric marketplaces, virtual reality recreations. Unshackled. Damned. Remorseful. Bitter. Lost. The characters inhabit churches and forests, haunt the bones of old mansions and attend their own funerals; some demand to cross over while some trick others to do so or urge them to stay away.