This year’s winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing was announced in Oxford, UK. The US$10 000 prize is Africa’s richest prize for short story writing and was first awarded in 2000. Rotimi Babatunde’s short story, Bombay’s Republic was picked from a shortlist of five writers who included Melissa Tandiwe Myambo (Zimbabwe), Constance Myburgh (South Africa), Stanley Kenani (Malawi) and Billy Kahora (Kenya).
In Bombay Republic, Babatunde tells of the experiences of Colour Sergeant Bombay during the WWII in Burma.
Chair of judges, the novelist and poet Bernadine Evaristo, praised his “vivid” descriptions. “It is ambitious, darkly humorous and in soaring, scorching prose exposes the exploitative nature of the colonial project and the psychology of independence,” she said. Evaristo had previously spoken of her desire to avoid the “stereotypical narratives” of African fiction when finding a winner, saying she wanted to “show there is a bigger picture” than the “familiar tragic stories” that come from the continent. Guardian
Congrats to Rotimi Babatunde.
Related Posts via Taxonomies
Comments
Admin @ogaoga
Naijastories.com was created to connect readers to Nigerian writers online, providing an avenue for networking and critique. We really hope you enjoy reading their stories and are inspired to be more creative and productive. You can register to be part of this site and our community. The administrators will be regularly sharing stories, writing news and opportunities, contests and announcements.Go to Admin's profile, and read more of his/her posts.
Yes oooo! Naija’s got the prize again. Everyone sit up, write write write and let’s keep it here till kingdom come!
Maybe not till thy kingdom come, but we could have it just the way we had the prize money for Big brother Africa for 3 consecutive years and still counting…
Congrats to Mr Rotimi…
Great Stuff! Congrats to Mr Rotimi.
Another big lit prize smiles at Naija. Congrats to him
another positive coming to Nigeria….as writers have put us in the spotlight positively…
just a thought i was watching Naruto shippudeen and i remembered that Naruto was inspired by the novel of his sensei….why i mention it is because people(even I ) complain about the country yet we are doing little or nothing about it…as writers we can decide to write up inspiring novels and books to encourage the upcoming generation and then we should also stand against all forms of evil in the country..i feel we can do a lot to help this country
I envy the dude.
Me too @kaycee
Congrats Mr. Rotimi. Send my share o!
this is great for naija literature- the seed of greatnez is in us and we will unleash it on the world