Obligations to the Wounded

Timely and at times wrenching stories about contemporary Zambian women fighting to establish their identities.

These stories! They are opulent, clever, and ingenious.

Obligations to the Wounded is a marvel of a collection. Kalimamukwento joins the likes of Deesha Philyaw, Edwidge Danticat and others whose short stories signaled breaking boundaries of the form and creation of space for a wide range of Black women’s experiences committed to making noises louder, sights sharper, and feelings linger with us.

The stories in Obligations to the Wounded have a universal appeal. Kalimamukwento’s characters face daunting odds while trying to do the right thing, in a way that feels so familiar, so compelling. Everyone can use a little help, human or divine. We feel that obligation, reading these stories.

Kalimamukwento's syntax is as selective as a poet’s, allowing the reader to sit in the spaces so often filled with unnecessary words. Obligations to the Wounded is a sensitive work of compelling juxtapositions: neat and raw, soft and tough, victimized and empowered.

These thematically linked stories deliver an intricate study of Zambian women living both in Zambia and abroad who are weighing their options for whom to love, where to live, where to work. The author, with a poet’s restraint, has written stories that deftly negotiate the challenges and tribulations women face when they feel the pressure and duty to yield to the will of family, community, customs, country, and spiritual beliefs. Obligations to the Wounded is a graceful, touching, and generous collection.

Obligations to the Wounded is extraordinary—a powerhouse collection of stories that give voice to a dozen Zambian girls and women. Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s prose crackles with sharp observations and searing images. Her characters sing their truths, listing the horrors of misogyny—yet she empowers rather than victimizes them via her loving lens and protective fury. A stunning book that should not be missed!

Rendered in rich, rolling, and riveting prose, Obligations to the Wounded is written with great care, pacing, and hard-won wisdom by one of Africa’s most talented writers. This collection of short stories, which uses Zambian womanhood as its contextual exploration point, offers the reader something approaching a universal understanding of the challenges women face in contemporary African and world societies. With these perspicacious stories, Kalimamukwento has compiled a collection of tales that will shock, awe, and delight readers and lovers of stories wherever they are found. Obligations to the Wounded is the work of a writer in the full flow of her storytelling prowess.

In this innovative collection, Mubanga Kalimamukwento finds mesmerizing new ways to tell the stories of women navigating a world that is pitched against them. Each story is a deftly realized portrait of a woman insisting on her individual humanity while contending with the expectations of her family, community, religion, and history. Moving elegantly across decades and continents, Obligations to the Wounded showcases a rare talent and rich sensibility.