On whose face do the shadows of a divided history fall? This short story by Asghar Wajahat – translated from Hindi by Aditya Vikram – observes a refugee camp set up in the aftermath of the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat, India, haunted by the spirits of lost loved ones. Writing in an unabashedly Muslim voice, the story is narrated similarly to a dastaan, an oral form of Urdu storytelling from North India, and examines the psychic wounds of marginalisation based on faith, class, and gender pervading a rotting democracy. With an illustration by Simone Khanyi Hadebe. 

Ramallah-based poet and playwright Dalia Taha offers three poems that bear close witness to the occupation and genocide in Palestine — 'The sound of trees and children riding bikes through the windows. / The towers they blasted.' Originally written in Arabic, these poems meditate on the intimacy of objects, faces, and daily scenes amid an atmosphere of loss, grief, and destruction. The text's spare, beautiful English translations are by Sara Elkamel. 

In this interview, academic Dr Paula Teixeira Moláns speaks to interdisciplinary artist Sol Mussa – both are from Galicia, 'a non-state nation known for its waves of migration' – about Mussa's artistic practice and personal experiences of migration. Across her work in film and visual art, Mussa thoughtfully explores her Galician-Mozambican identity, speaking the Galician language (known as galego), representation in the art world, finding comfort in the cosmopolitanism of London, trash and hierarchy, and more. This is an extract from Wasafiri 126: Impossible Returns — The Spain Issue.