Are East Africa writers yet to appreciate Etisalat prize?

The longlist of the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature was announced on November 17, and yet again, the usual suspects, South African and Nigerian writers and publishers, dominated.

South Africa is represented by six candidates in the nine-man list.

These are Jen Thorpe (The Peculiars), Andrew Miller (Dub Steps), Jacqui L’Ange (The Seed Thief) Unathi Magubeni (Nwelezelanga: The Star Child), Mohale Mashigo (The Yearning) and Nakhane Toure (Piggy Boy’s Blues).

Nigerians in the list are Elnathan John (Born on a Tuesday), Jowhor Ile (And after Many Days) and multiple award-winning author Julie Iromuanya (Mr and Mrs Doctor).

African cities

This annual award, founded in 2013 by Etisalat Nigeria, a telecommunications firm, targets English writers of fiction from Africa, and whose books have been published in the 24 months preceding the award.

The winner takes home £15,000 (Sh1.95 million), and an assortment of gifts, including the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia.
Additionally, the shortlisted writers are taken for a book tour of three African cities, fully sponsored by the telco.

Decorated poet

The three-judge panel presiding over the award’s 2016 edition is chaired by Nigeria’s Helon Habila, a highly decorated novelist and poet.

The other two equally venerated figures are Côte d’Ivoire’s Edwige-Renée Dro and South Africa’s Elinor Sisulu.

The trio now faces the high-adrenaline task of narrowing the list to the best three, and announce the shortlist on Saturday.

The eventual winner will be unveiled in March 2017.

With South Africans running away with 66 per cent of the berths this year, this should not slacken Kenyan writers’ enthusiasm.
It’s a challenge for them to give the challenge a try.

It’s also noteworthy that from its inception, two of the honours have gone to South Africans –Songeziwe Mahlangu (2014) and NoViolet Bulawayo (2013; inaugural) – with Congolese Fiston Mwanza Mujila claiming the award in 2015.

It’s indisputable that there exists in Kenya a wealth of golden literary ideas that could be turned into award-winning books.

It is surprising, therefore, that no East African writer has been shortlisted for the accolade in its three years of existence.

Can Kenyans afford to lag behind Nigerians and South Africans in the literary world? We already trailing them in terms of the size of the economy.

It would be flattering to have Kenya’s flag fly high in the continental literary scene.

The time could not be riper for our writers to rise and smell the coffee, and jockey for their rightful position in African literature.