“This edition is coming at the time of a completely different pandemic, COVID-19, which the late Steve Chimombo has been fortunate to miss. Yet the stories remain entirely relevant, especially those about death related to HIV&AIDS. Just as the characters suffering from HIV&AIDS were stigmatized, so now again we are witnessing the stigmatization of people suffering from COVID-19. Just as during the height of the AIDS pandemic, before the advent of anti-retroviral therapies (ARVs), fake news and fake treatments or even cures proliferated, so now we are seeing a repeat of the same issues. Some of these issues were not mentioned in the original introduction, even though addressed in certain stories, such as gender-based violence and child abuse, but they are proliferating during the current pandemic too. Truly, good literature remains timeless in its relevance.”
