These Bodies of Water

''Sabrina Mahfouz is a tidal wave of truth swallowing the banks of empire with a torrent of information which will not be damned'' Lemn Sissay

''A bold, brave look at the ways imperialism affects us all, from the universally political to the insightfully intimate'' Riz Ahmed

''Impossible to put down while you''re reading, and impossible to forget about when you''ve finished'' Glamour

Are you not made of Suez silt?
How do we know you won''t
shore our boats
by making yourself bigger
than we made you?

Sabrina Mahfouz once sat in a Whitehall interview room and was interrogated about everything from her political leanings to her private life. It was ostensibly a job interview, but implicit in their demands was the unspoken question: as a woman of Middle Eastern heritage, could she really be trusted?

Years later, Sabrina found herself confro