You probably know by now that Nigeria’s E.C. Osondu has won the 2009 Caine Prize for African Writing, for his story Waiting. This year there were no Zimbabweans on the shortlist for the £10,000 prize which is Africa’s biggest literary award for the short story form. Question is what does it take to win this coveted prize?

Second time lucky. E.C. Osondu is the 10th recipient of the Caine Prize.

This was the 10th anniversary of the prize and there seems to be no common string attaching the winners, except that they wrote stories that the judges loved (and the judges, in case you were wondering, change every year), or is there?

Does it Take a Particular Background?

The winners have come from six different countries and from different backgrounds. Some, like Helon Habila (2001), Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008) and Mary Watson (2006) have formally studied creative writing (The latter two both studied under notable African writers. Rose-Innes studied under Nobel Literature Prize winner J.M. Coetzee and Watson did her Masters Degree in Creative Writing under the legendary André Brink at the University of Cape Town).

The first prize was awarded in 2000, at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare. It was won by Leila Aboulela, an Egyptian born Sudanese writer living in Indonesia, for her story "The Museum". Born in 1964, she moved to the UK in her twenties to study at the London School of Economics and went on to teach statistics, but soon decided that this was not her vocation. She started attending writers’ workshops and apparently only started writing in 1992.

Binyavanga Wainaina won the award in 2002. He studied commerce at the University of Transkei in South Africa. Born in 1971, he is the founding editor of the literary Magazine Kwani?, which has opened doors for many other new writers, including the 2003 winner.

This was Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor whose story was published in Kwani?. She holds a BA degree in Linguistics, English and History from Jomo Kenyatta University and an MA (TV/Video Development) degree from the University of Reading in Britain and went on to work as Executive Director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival. Zimbabweans may liken her to Tsitsi Dangarembga who has received international kudos for her work both in literature and film. Owuor’s first novel (currently titled: A Season of Dust and Memory) is yet to be published.

Writer and musician Brian Chikwava, from Zimbabwe was relatively unknown in literary circles when he won the prize in 2004.  His first novel only came out this year (2009). So was S.A. Afolabi who won the prize the following year. Ike Anya wrote of the Nigerian author’s win: “When the nominations for the Caine Prize [2005] were announced, in Nigerian literary circles, there was the sense of S.A. who?”

2007 winner Monica Arac de Nyeko has a degree in Education from Makerere University and a Master’s degree in Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Groningen (Netherlands). She was the first Ugandan to win the award though fellow countrywoman Doreen Baingana, who has won numerous other literary awards, has been shortlisted twice.

10 YEARS OF CAINE PRIZE WINNERS
Year	Name (Born)		Story	Original Publication	Country
2000		Leila Aboulela (1964)	The Museum	Opening Spaces, Heinemann, Oxford, 1999	Sudan
2001		Helon Habila (1967)	Love Poems	Prison Stories, Epik Books, Lagos, 2000	Nigeria
2002		Binyavanga Wainaina (1971)	Discovering Home	G21.Net, 2001	Kenya
2003		Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Over 35 years ago)	Weight of Whispers	Kwani?, 2003	Kenya
2004		Brian Chikwava (1972)	Seventh Street Alchemy	Writing Still, Weaver Press, Harare 2003	Zimbabwe
2005		Segun A. Afolabi (1966)	Monday Morning	Wasafiri, issue 41, spring 2004.	Nigeria
2006		Mary Watson (1975)	Jungfrau	Moss, Kwela Books, 2004.	South Africa
2007		Monica Arac de Nyeko (1979)	Jambula Tree	African Love Stories, Ayebia Clarke Publishing 2006.	Uganda
2008		Henrietta Rose-Innes (1971)	Poison	African Pens	South Africa
2009		E.C. Osondu (ZimboJam could not verify year)	Waiting	Guernicamag.com, October 2008	Nigeria

This year’s winner E.C. Osondu worked as an advertising copywriter before leaving for New York to study creative writing at Syracuse University. He had his first taste of Caine Prize glory in 2007 when he made the shortlist for his story “Jimmy Carter’s Eyes”.  

Does it Take a Particular Kind of Story?

What did the judges like about his story? When the 2009 chair of judges, New Statesman Chief Sub-Editor Nana Yaa Mensah, announced Osondu as the winner at a dinner held on Monday 6 July at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, he praised Osondu’s story as “a tour de force describing, from a child’s point of view, the dislocating experience of being a displaced person. It is powerfully written with not an ounce of fat on it – and deeply moving.”
And the panel’s thoughts about the 2008 winning story: That year’s lead judge, Jude Kelly, commented that the story had “a sharp talent, a rare maturity and a poetic intelligence that is both subtle and deeply effective. It is writing of the highest order.”

The year before that the judges thought Monica Arac de Nyeko’s winning story “Jambula Tree” was "witty and mischievous”. The story told the tale of the lesbian relationship between two young girls in Uganda, a country where homosexuality is illegal. And before that in 2006 the judges commented that Mary Watson’s  “Jungfrau”, a story from a child's point of view about social relationships in post-apartheid South Africa was "powerfully written". S.A. Afolabi’s “Monday Morning” in 2005 was “poignant” (Chair of judges, Baroness Young).

The fifth Caine Prize went to the author of a story about a prostitute in Harare trying to make a living and dealing with the challenges of government bureaucracy. It was said to be: "A very strong narrative in which Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe claims the English language as his own, and English with African characteristics."

In 2003 Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s story got this accolade from chief judge Dr Abdulrazak Gurnah: “The great strength of Weight of Whispers is the subtle and suggestive way it dramatises the condition of the refugee and also successfully incorporates so many large issues.”
Dr Ahdaf Soueif, the Egyptian born author of the Booker-nominated The Map of Love was the chair of judges in 2002. He said of Binyavanga Wainaina’s story: "It is an accomplished and subtly imagined story. It shifts between different African locations with wit, wisdom and originality. It is a brilliant augur of future work by this author."

Helon Habila’s story the year before that: "impressed the judges, especially by its qualities of intensity and alertness to some of the most sinister aspects of Nigerian life under military rule." The chair of the judging panel was Professor Dan Jacobson. The story is set during military rule in Nigeria. It’s protagonist is a poet in prison whose jailer falsely claims his poetry to be his own.

Different judges, different stories, different reasons. A few similarities about some of the winners’ backgrounds? Perhaps. A few similarities in subject matter and the view points from which some of the stories are told? Yes. It’s only been 10 winners though, so perhaps it’s too early to start pointing out any trends.

Does it Take Coming from a Particular Country?

Is there an equal chance for any African writer to win the prize regardless of which country they come from? Theoretically yes, but statistically- perhaps not.

The stories are picked from submissions made by publishers. According to the rules there are no limitations as to how many publishers from any one country can make submissions. So if there are countries that have many regular submissions from their publishers- or countries that have a lot more published fiction, this puts them at a quantitative advantage.

Quality is ultimately what matters though- and as we have seen from E.C. Osondu- persistence counts too.

And The Conclusion?

So, what does it really take to win the Caine Prize? That’s the £10,000 question, ain’t it? Now you have the facts. Go figure.

- By Fungai Tichawangana

Facts and figures used in this article sourced from Caine Prize Website, BBC, Guardian Newspapers, Wikipedia, Weaver Press and other sources.

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Website: Title:     Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Waxman   |2009-07-21 03:22:53 Luck! It's all a matter of luck! Reply 0   0

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."