Every January 1, the world erupts in fireworks. Yet this “New Year” is an arbitrary construct, born from Roman emperors, papal decrees, and Europe’s Gregorian calendar. It marks nothing in the sky and nothing in the soil.
To reclaim the calendar is to reclaim the right to name our own time.
A calendar older than empire
Across ancient Africa, time was read in the heavens and the harvest. To celebrate September 23 is a quiet act of decolonisation: choosing a beginning that belongs to us.
