This House

Rehema Njambi unpacks identity, faith, womanhood and – above all – agency, in poems partly inspired by conversations with the Black, mostly African, women around her.

Imbued with quiet resistance to patriarchal societies, Njambi's debut collection is an ode to the women who have raised her, and their strength and their ability to hold, sustain, and be rooted in their faith. The poems resound with their idea of home, and belonging they wish to pass on to their daughters.
GHOSTS IN THIS HOUSE
There were footsteps in the dark all night,

almost every night, and we were scared —

but we didn't say a thing.
She called us to prayer in the morning, every morning.

With our small hands and smaller faith
we asked the Lord for protection —

but He didn't say a thing.

Rehema Njambi is a Kenyan-born, British-raised poet and writer whose work centres on womanhood, agency, faith and family. She has been a performance poet for over ten years and has performed broadly in the UK, Nairobi, and the US. In December 2020 she was longlisted for the Merky Books New Writers' Prize. She divides her time between Oxford and London. This is her first collection.