The news last week that two Nigerians made the shortlist for the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing was greeted with hoopla among writers and lovers of literature in the country.
Already, people are speculating that with two Nigerians on the list, there is no way the prize dedicated to the promotion of African writing will not come to Nigeria. The buzz on social media is akin to the one generated the last time the prize made a lot of noise in the country for a different reason than those shortlisted or who will emerge winner.
Two Nigerian writers, Segun Afolabi and Elnathan John, have been shortlisted in the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing, the 16th edition. Both of them are not new to the prize, as Afolabi won the prize in 2005 for his story, ‘Monday Morning’, while John made the shortlist in 2013 for his story ‘Bayan Layi’.
Afolabi got on the shortlist this year for ‘The Folded Leaf’ published in Wasafiri (Wasafiri, London, 2014), while John, who said he has never won anything, was shortlisted for ‘Flying’ in Per Contra (Per Contra, International, 2014).
But there are others on this year’s shortlist who may spoil the prediction that a Nigerian may well emerge winner after a drought last year.
Two South Africans, F. T. Kola and Masande Ntshanga, are on the list. Kola for ‘A Party for the Colonel’ published in One Story (One Story, Inc. Brooklyn, New York City, 2014), and Ntshanga for ‘Space’ in Twenty in 20 (Times Media, South Africa, 2014). They are not push-overs even if they have not won or had been shortlisted before like the two Nigerians, and Namwali Serpell from Zambia who got on for ‘The Sack’ in Africa39 (Bloomsbury, London, 2014) and was shortlisted in 2010 for ‘Muzungu’. This has led some to say that it is a year of comebacks for the Caine Prize.
With the Chair of judges, Zoe Wicomb, saying that the shortlist is an exciting crop of well-crafted stories, there, any one of the five writers could emerge winner.
“For all the variety of themes and approaches, the shortlist has in common a rootedness in socio-economic worlds that are pervaded with affect, as well as keen awareness of the ways in which the ethical is bound up with aesthetics. Unforgettable characters, drawn with insight and humour inhabit works ranging from classical story structures to a haunting, enigmatic narrative that challenges the conventions of the genre,” she said.
Since inception 16 years ago, five Nigerian writers have won the prize more than writers from any other part of the continent. First to win it was Helon Habila in 2001 with ‘Love Poems’, then came Afolabi in 2005 and E.C. Osondu for ‘Waiting’ in 2009. The next two wins for Nigeria were Rotimi Babatunde in 2012 and Tope Folarin in 2013 for ‘Bombay Republic’ and ‘Miracle’, in that order.
Whoever wins, literature will go on in Africa, with writers in the country making waves around the world and with many more prizes being endowed on the continent.
Each shortlisted writer receives £500 and the winner of the £10,000 (about N3 million) prize will be announced at an award ceremony and dinner at the Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, on Monday, July 6.