Alvin Kathembe
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akathembe.bsky.social
Alvin Kathembe
@akathembe.bsky.social
670 followers 29 following 7 posts
writer, thinker, lover
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Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
somtoihezue.bsky.social
Here’s a link for friends who’d love to read it. Hope it brings you the joy it brought me🫶🏽✨
We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue
Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.
clarkesworldmagazine.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
shingai-be-like.bsky.social
psychopomp.com/next/
Some news: Issue 99 of Fantasy will be the last issue... (For now)
Read our publisher, Sean's statement for more.
As heartbreaking as this news is, I'm incredibly proud of the work we've put out this year & I'm grateful for our team, esp. my co-editor @arleysorg.bsky.social!
what's next for Psychopomp - PSYCHOPOMP.COM
what to expect from Psychopomp (and The Deadlands and Fantasy Magazine) in 2026.
psychopomp.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social
All Issue V stories are now free to read on our website until December 12th!

Perfect for your end-of-year reading list and for readers who’d like to explore the incredible award-eligible works featured in our fifth anthology. Spread the word!

🔗 willthisbeaproblem.co.ke/issue-5/

#africansff
A promotional graphic for Issue V of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology. The background is a warm reddish-brown pattern with stylised shapes and the WTBAP logo at the top. Below it, large text reads “FREE TO ACCESS.” A short message states that Issue V is now available to read for year-end reading, awards eligibility and recommendations. At the centre is the book cover, featuring a man in an orange suit standing beneath a massive, otherworldly figure emerging from clouds. At the bottom is a green button-style banner with the website link.
November 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
wtalabi.bsky.social
Its SHIGIDI paperback release day, US & Canada! Its been a long, lovely journey but my award-winning novel about African gods on a supernatural heist at the British museum finally hits stores in a new format, with a new cover + a bonus short story! Get it y'all🙏🏾
Art by @stephenembleton.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
nanjala.bsky.social
Humans of New York has been running stories of medics and journalists in Gaza for the last few weeks. This is from the latest instalment.
A young woman in a hijab sits on top of a pile of rubble, holding a camera in her hands. humansony "At one point, I hated Gaza. I just wanted out. I wanted to study in America and be this big director. I wanted to win an Oscar. All my dreams were overseas. I think I was just mad at how besieged Gaza was-it limits you in so many ways. Some of the men here are so narrow minded. I wanted to throw them all out of Gaza so that they could see the world, and then bring them back, with different views, and different thoughts. But there's also a brilliance to the people here. Because it would take decades of research to learn what our trauma forces upon us at a very young age. You don't have the privilege of disassociating from reality. You cannot ignore this shit. The drones, the rubble, the blood, the children fighting for food and water. It's all around you. A white person living in Europe is able to say they don't care about politics, because they're not exposed to the firsthand effects. But if even one of the things that happen on a daily basis in Gaza, was to happen in the West, it would move nations. In political science class we used to learn about things like ethics, and human rights, and international law. But life in Gaza will teach you that these things are just propaganda. Propaganda that fooled us into believing that if only people knew what was going on, they'd stop it. It was this naive notion that led us, at least me and all of my friends, to film and document and speak and share on our stupid Instagrams. But I've lost the will. It's too exhausting. Everyone has disassociated from our reality. We have nothing to eat, but we have these phones. We get to watch our international friends going about their days normally. Who are we even talking to? You cannot rely on the conscience and moral compass of those in power. We've tried for so long. It doesn't work. You have to put pressure on them. You have to disrupt their systems. You have to move and mobilize and obstruct and protest and cost them things. It's the only thing they listen to. Life in Gaza… Nour Alsaqqa is the communications officer for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza. When I first decided to do this series, the MS main office warned me that the entire Palestinian staff was exhausted and traumatized. They told me: 'Let's try one interview and see how it goes.' By that, they meant: 'Let's try one interview and see what Nour decides.' Because Nour was the only member of the communications team in Gaza. It was Nour that decided to dig in and turn this into a full series. It was Nour that was able to source all of these interviews, in the most difficult of conditions. And it was Nour that took it upon herself to take beautiful portraits of all the interview subjects, so their stories could be presented in the same style as those collected in New York City. For these reasons Nour is, and will always be, the cocreator of this series. @humansony
September 2, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
wtalabi.bsky.social
That said. I'm a little bit stunned that Shingai Njeri Kagunda's "We Who Will Not Die" didnt make the shortlist. I think its one of the best stories published anywhere last year and has been damn near criminally underappreciated so far.
August 19, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
jennahanchey.bsky.social
THIS.

(Oh you haven't read it yet? HERE'S A LINK GO NOW -- psychopomp.com/we-who-will-...)
August 21, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
soila.bsky.social
#africansff
africansffhype.bsky.social Read #AfricanSFF!🫵🏾 @africansffhype.bsky.social · Aug 14
I'm attending #SeattleWorldcon2025 virtually and I'm a panelist on 2 sessions. Hope I bump into y'all (I'm in the discord as well)
Soila Kenya is an Africanfuturist womanist award-winning data journalist from Kenya. She is an enthusiastic reader of African SFF and the curator of @africansffhype on X and Bluesky. Find her at soilakenya.com SESSIONS SFF's Role in Revolution on the African Continent Sat Aug 16, 17:30 - 18:30 The Role of African Spiritualities, History, and Mythology in Speculative Fiction Sun Aug 17, 16:00 - 17:00
August 14, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
mommunism.bsky.social
Anas Al Sharif had these words to publish if he was martyred which he was tonight as Israel starts the invasion of Gaza City
Martyrs of Gaza @GazaMartyrs This is my will and my final message. If my words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you. God knows that I have given all my effort and strength to be a support and a voice for my people since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that God would grant me life to return with my family and loved ones to our original town of Ashkelon (Al-Majdal), occupied land. But God's will was swifter, and His decree is binding. I lived pain in all its details, tasted grief and loss repeatedly, yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is—-without distortion or falsification— hoping God would bear witness against those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, those who besieged our breaths, and whose hearts were not moved by the shattered bodies of our children and women, nor did they stop the massacre our people have faced for more than a year and a half. I entrust you with Palestine, the jewel of the Muslim world and the pulse of every free heart in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its innocent children who were not granted the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart, their remains scattered on the walls. l urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward liberating the land and the people until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you with my family. I entrust you with the apple of my eye, my beloved daughter, Sham, whom fate did not allow me to see grow as I dreamed. I entrust you with my dear son, Salah, whom I wished to support and accompany until he grew strong, carrying my burden and continuing the mission. I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose prayers were the reason I reached where I did. Her supplications were my fortress, and her light my path. I pray God to ease her heart and reward her abundantly on my behalf. I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah Bayan, from whom war separated us for long days and months, but who remained faithful, steadfast like an olive tree trunk that never bends, patient and devout, carrying the trust in my absence with strength and faith. I urge you to gather around them and be their support after God Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast on my principles, bearing witness to God that I am satisfied with His decree, believing in meeting Him, and certain that what is with God is better and everlasting. O God, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path to freedom for my people and family. Forgive me if I fell short, and pray for me mercy, for I have remained true to the covenant, never changing or betraying it. Do not forget Gaza... And do not forget me in your good prayers for forgiveness and acceptance. Anas Jamal Al-Sharif 06.04.2025 This is what Anas ordered to be published upon his martyrdom.
August 10, 2025 at 10:29 PM
akathembe.bsky.social
@kaaauthor.bsky.social I’m writing a strongly worded email to the compilers of this dictionary 😄
August 8, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aprzhu.bsky.social
It was international actors in the US-led "liberal world order" who undercut popular calls during the Revolution for "100%" civilian government and applauded the power sharing of military and militia that inevitably cracked into the violent counterrevolution that is now called "a war about nothing."
August 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aprzhu.bsky.social
More vile than calling this war "a war about nothing" is attributing the humanitarian tragedy in any way to the retreat of the US, whose unmentioned sanctions (with exemptions for the American empire of Coke) shaped Sudan's extractive, militarized economy.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth
Sudan’s devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed.
www.theatlantic.com
August 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
sentencebender.bsky.social
Nisi Shawl is one of my favorite writers, a queer elder & a BIPOC icon. I hate that the state of publishing is such that the book of their dreams would struggle to find a home, but I love that we as a community can come together to make it happen!! Give/boost as you're able? 🙏

gofund.me/3a52097a
Donate to Help Nisi Shawl write the book of her dream!, organized by Eileen Gunn
Nisi Shawl, a wise and wonderful writer of science fiction and fantasy, had a… Eileen Gunn needs your support for Help Nisi Shawl write the book of her dream!
gofund.me
August 5, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aljazeera.com
A deadly cholera outbreak adds to the misery in a region that has witnessed fighting between the army and the rebels.
‘We’re suffering’: People in Sudan’s el-Fasher eat animal fodder to survive
A deadly cholera outbreak adds to the misery in a region that has witnessed fighting between the army and the rebels.
bit.ly
August 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aljazeera.com
What does starvation do to the body? And is famine inevitable in Gaza?
What ‘starvation’ really means, for the human body and for Gaza
What does starvation do to the body? And is famine inevitable in Gaza?
bit.ly
August 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social
Still processing the incredible words from The Journal of African Youth Literature via @africansffhype.bsky.social

A beautiful in-depth review that captures the heart of the anthology.

Read the full piece here: jaylit.com/a-review-of-...
Graphic of excerpts from a review of WTBAP? The Anthology: Issue V by The Journal of African Youth Literature
June 27, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
somtoihezue.bsky.social
My story “Paths, Littlings, and Holy Things” is out today! It's a story of family & fortitude. Above all, it's one of love. I'm not one to write about love (that's a lie, I always write about love), but exploring love amidst grief & pain was a journey. I hope this story brings you on a journey too✨
June 16, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aprzhu.bsky.social
The Mennonite colony that, pushed out of Mexico by locals, has settled on diamond land in Angola.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/w...
The Mennonite Colony That Made a Deal With a Diamond Company
www.nytimes.com
June 17, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aprzhu.bsky.social
“Israeli Gas, Kenyan Tears”
A report by THRAETS and @omegarf.bsky.social on tear gas supply chains

omegaresearchfoundation.org/storage/2025...
omegaresearchfoundation.org
June 13, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
wtalabi.bsky.social
Well, I'm stunned and honored. Still can't quite believe it since I feel a lot of what I do in the SFF community tends to be under the radar and it always feels like I could and should be doing more. Thank you to all the members of the jury who said "sawubona" by nominating me! Sikhona 🙏🏾
theignyteawards.bsky.social The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · Jun 9
And finally, the #IgnyteAwards Community Award honors Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre. Congratulations:
Finalists for the Community Award for outstanding efforts in service of inclusion and equitable practice in genre AUTHORS AGAINST BOOK BANS SAMOVAR MAGAZINE WRITING THE OTHER: WORKSHOPS WOLE TALABI
June 10, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
fantasymagazine.bsky.social
congratulations @shingai-be-like.bsky.social!! 🔥🔥
June 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
akathembe.bsky.social
FORTY EIGHT
aljazeera.com Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · Jun 8
Palestinian photojournalist Abdel Rahim Khudr breaks down after discovering the loss of 48 family members in an Israeli air attack that hit his home in northern Gaza on the first day of Eid al-Adha.
June 8, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Alvin Kathembe
aljazeera.com
Paris Saint-Germain supporters displayed a giant banner saying 'Stop genocide in Gaza' during the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday.
June 1, 2025 at 2:09 PM