The ceremony of the presentation of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature was as entertaining as it was blissful.
Once the business of the evening was done, that of entertaining the distinguished guests started. The soulful music of Evelle, Nigeria Idol 2014 winner, thereafter rent the air, putting the guests in the mood.
Then came Angelique Kidjo, who electrified the arena with a very impressive performance that left the guests helplessly on their feet dancing the night away. But before the performance, there was a short film clip on how the power of words can change lives.
There was also the dramatisation of aspects of the three shortlisted works, so the audience that have not read the books would get an idea. First on the bill was a performance of the story ‘Fairness’ from Okparanta’s collection, Happiness, Like Water. Actors, Bimbo Akintola and Bimbo Manuel, starred in this performance. Omono Shomolu gave an impressive performance of an excerpt from Nadia David’s An Imperfect Blessing, while O.C. Ukeje handled the one of an excerpt from Songeziwe Mahlangu’s novel, Penumbra.
This was before the chair of judges this year, Prof. Manyika Ladipo, announced Penumbra as the winning work. The teacher of literature at the University of Los Angeles, Berkley, said she believes the prize is “the most innovative, the most exciting prize, not just in Africa but the whole world”.
Etisalat CEO, Matthew Willsher, said: “We are here to celebrate books. We are here to celebrate stories. But how long does it take to tell a story? Our expertise is not to tell stories but to carry them. We really care about stories. We help so many people tell their stories every day. We congratulate the writers for their beautiful stories. Today, one of you will walk away with the prize although all of you are winners in a sense,” he had said.
Earlier in the evening, the Flash Fiction Prize, a component of the prize, was awarded to Neema Komba.
This is the second edition of the award. The first had South Africa-based Nigerian, Yewande Omotoso, author of Bom Boy, and a South African, Karen Jennings, author of Finding Soutbek, trailing U.S.-based Zimbabwean writer, NoViolet Bulawayo, who won with her critically-acclaimed first novel, We Need New Names.
