The Elegy of Almosts

The Elegy of Almosts

There are stories that end in triumph. There are stories that end in ruin. And then there are stories that almost became.

The Elegy of Almosts is a chamber within the African Myths of Utilitarian Magic -but its tone is softer, more elegiac, more intimate. These are mythic tales steeped in African cosmology and civilisational wisdom, written not for spectacle but for ache.

In this collection, desire meets duty, memory meets loss, and love meets its limits. Not all healing succeeds. Not all oaths hold. Not all futures bloom. But in the realm of almost, something else takes root: grace, endurance, and the subtle kind of power that comes from restraint.

These are not broken tales. They are sacred ones.

What makes an almost?

In African myth, utility and meaning are never separate. Actions have weight. Choices birth consequence. This collection explores those moments when people do almost everything right—but time, rhythm, or the world itself shifts beneath them.

Many stories use utilitarian magic —real, grounded, civilisational tools of repair: timekeeping, medicine, balance, naming, memory. The kind of magic once used to steady empires.

But even such magic cannot always guarantee happy endings.

Tales of The Almosts

Some loves nearly were. Some lives nearly became. Some victories nearly bloomed, but did not.
This is the elegy of those moments. Of those people. Of those nearlys.

In the The Elegy of Almosts, the collection of mythic tales drawn from African memory, written in the register of ache and wonder. These are not stories of defeat. They are stories of deep beauty, restrained fate, and haunting proximity to the life that could have been. In the world of Afromantasy, almost is not failure. It is another kind of sacred.

This collection belongs to the African Myths of Utilitarian Magic but occupies its own tonal sanctum: a softer chamber, filled with longing, ritual, shadow, and silence. Here, duty and desire rarely align, and love is not always allowed to become, yet what grows in their place is no less true.

Each tale is steeped in African civilisational philosophy: the laws of rhythm and consequence, the necessity of balance, the architecture of memory. Many use utilitarian magic—applied, moralised, grounded. The kind of magic used to hold society together, map time, soothe birth, or coax a harvest from angry soil.

• The Griot's Shadow – A woman who follows a man sworn to memory, never quite his apprentice, never quite his wife.

• The Girl Who Named the Wind – A child born with silence in her lungs, who tames the wind by listening more deeply than anyone has ever dared.

• The Weaver Who Waited – [coming soon]

• The Physician’s Cure – [coming soon]

• Balance’s Compromise – [coming soon]

Each story is a vessel. A vessel for restraint. A vessel for what Africa remembers.

Quick Answers

What is this?

A collection of African mythic tales that dwell on loss and longing.

Who wrote it?

What themes appear?

How can I read it?

Is this for everyone?

Stories crafted by voices inspired by African cosmology and wisdom.

Desire meets duty, memory meets loss, and love reaches its fragile limits.

The elegy is available online at afromantasy.org for quiet reflection.

It’s for those who cherish stories that ache with almosts.