Nigerian poet, storyteller, and journalist Rahma O. Jimoh is set to make her mark on the global poetry scene with the release of her debut poetry collection, Ashes.
The chapbook will be published in 2025 as part of Kumi Na Moja: New-Generation African Poets, a special box set curated by the African Poetry Book Fund in collaboration with Akashic Books.
With this, Jimoh joins a growing list of acclaimed African poets such as Safia Elhillo, Ladan Osman, Gbenga Adesina, Victoria Adukwei-Bulley, and Romeo Oriogun, who have all had their chapbooks published through the same series.
In recent years, Jimoh has continued to gain attention both locally and internationally. She was selected as a fellow of the 2025 World Writes Multi-Lingua Creative Exchange Programme. In 2024, she was a resident at the Ebedi Writers Residency and was part of the Poetry Translation Centre’s Undertow Writers Development Programme in 2023. Her other wins include being a joint winner of the 2022 Lagos–London Poetry Competition and a 2021 Hues Foundation Scholar.
Her work as a poet and journalist has appeared in a wide range of publications including HarperCollins, The Guardian UK, Al Jazeera, The Slowdown Show, Ake Review, Agbowo, Isele Magazine, Kalahari Review, and Brittle Paper, among others.
In Ashes, Jimoh uses strong images of smoke and ash to explore themes of truth, memory, and renewal. Poet Safia Jama, commenting on the collection, says:
“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?”
One of the standout poems in the collection, also titled Ashes, addresses political failure and environmental damage in Nigeria:
I imagine the President’s shady
promises about compensation.
Trucks ply broken roads.
Afar, gloomy smoke levitates
toward heaven.
Throughout the collection, Nigeria often appears as a central figure, sometimes as a place full of struggle, and other times personified as a woman dealing with harm and loss. The poet’s language is direct and emotional, pointing to the deeper issues people face in the country.
Jimoh’s Ashes will be published alongside nine other chapbooks by other African poets, including Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, Hauwa Saleh Abubakar, Aria Deemie, Michael Imossan, Roseline Anya Okorie, Adesiyan Oluwapelumi, Leano Debra Ranko, Timi Sanni, and Tjizembua Tjikuzu.
To pre order your copy, click here
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
