A collection of poems that wrestle with memory, place, and the weight of a Nigerian homeland, Ashes will be published under the prestigious African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) and Akashic Books’ collaborative series.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
Nigerian poet, storyteller, and journalist, Rahma O. Jimoh, is set to release her debut poetry chapbook, Ashes. A collection of poems that wrestle with memory, place, and the weight of a Nigerian homeland, Ashes will be published under the prestigious African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) and Akashic Books’ collaborative series, Kumi Na Moja: New-Generation African Poets, A Chapbook Box Set.
Jimoh joins an esteemed list of African poets whose work has previously been curated and published in the series, including Safia Elhillo, Ladan Osman, Gbenga Adesina, Victoria Adukwei-Bulley, and Romeo Oriogun.
The 2025 set will feature ten emerging voices from across the continent: Tjizembua Tjikuzu, Roseline Mgbodichinma, Aria Deemie, Leano Debra Ranko, Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, Adesiyan Oluwapelumi, Timi Sanni, Michael Imossan, Hauwa Saleh Abubakar, and Jimoh herself.
This milestone comes after multiple achievements by the poet, who has already established a strong presence on the African and global literary scenes. Jimoh is a 2021 Hues Foundation Scholar and a joint winner of the 2022 Lagos-London Poetry Competition, which led to her 2023 fellowship with the Poetry Translation Centre’s Undertow Writers Development Programme.
She was a resident at the Ebedi Writers Residency in 2024 and was recently named a fellow of the 2025 World Writes Multi-Lingua Creative Exchange Programme. She is also a Sprinng Writing Fellowship mentor, a poetry editor at Olumo Review, and a prose reader at Chestnut Review.
Jimoh’s work has appeared in a wide range of acclaimed platforms, including HarperCollins, The Guardian UK, The Slowdown Show, Salt Hill Journal, Al Jazeera, Agbowo, Ake Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Lucent Dreaming, Isele Magazine, Kalahari Review, Brittle Paper, Tab Journal, and more.
Reflecting on Ashes’ thematic resonance and imagery, Poet Safia Jama, notes: “Rahma Jimoh’s visions of smoke and ash show us that before reform can happen, there must be a faithful rendering of the truth, as well as a necessary razing of untruths. Jimoh’s verses burn with a purifying smoke. Out of ashes, what can be reimagined? Remade?”
Pre-orders for the chapbook are available here.