Two came from Botswana

Lauri Kubuitsile and Wame Molefhe flew down (or it is up?) together from Botswana to Lagos to participate in the Farafina Workshop. My interviews with the duo - published today. Excerpts below.

Lauri Kubuitsile: ready for the big time
Lauri Kubuitsile's short story, ‘In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata' was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize, bringing to new height a writing career forged doggedly for the last seven years from Mahalapye, a town north of Gaborone, Botwana's capital.

The story is set in Nokanyana, a village "named after a small river that no one had yet been able to discover," where a legendary lothario, McPhineas Lata has just died, leaving married couples in a tizzy, as hapless husbands plot to win back the attention of unfaithful wives. Kubuitsile had written the piece for ‘The Bed Book of Short Stories', an anthology published in 2010 by Modjaji Books... The writer was not sure of the story's chances when it was entered for the Caine. "I told [the publisher], this story has no chance. It's a bit of an oddball," she recalls. "Humour can sometimes be undermined - they think literary fiction has to be serious."


Wame Molefhe: writing to the sun
Molefhe's new book is titled ‘Go Tell The Sun' because, "The sun is always present in Botswana." But there is a deeper resonance. "The society in which I live has set standards that come from culture and tradition," such that many issues cannot be discussed openly. "If you have issues and you can't tell anyone, tell it to the sun." The stories in the collection deal with one single female character, Sethunya. One of the stories, ‘Sethunya Is Our Bride' was published in the Africa Portfolio of the US journal, Agni, late last year.

"Sethunya means ‘Flower' in Setswana," her creator explains. "What I've always wanted to do is take this Flower and plant it in different soils and see if it flowers or dies. That's what I've done in this collection." In one situation, Sethunya is married; will it work? In another, she is placed with another woman; can she love a woman?

New Caine Anthology

Congratulations to Jude Dibia whose short story, A Life in Full, written at the Caine workshop in March, provides the title for the 2010 Caine Anthology, published July 1.

The anthology also contains this year's 5 shortlisted stories, available to read online now.

Here's an excerpt from shortlisted writer Namwali Serpell's short story, Muzungu - about an expatriate child's sudden jolt into an awareness of racial difference...

Ba Simon was singing softly under his breath. He’d probably picked up some nasty song from the shabeen, Isa thought emphatically, repeating in her head a condemnation that she’d heard a thousand times from Ba Gertrude, the maid. There are three kinds of people in the world: people who unconsciously sing along when they hear someone else singing, people who remain respectfully or irritably silent, and people who start to sing something else. Isa began singing the Zambian national anthem. Stand and sing of Zambia, proud and free. Land of work and joy and unity. Ba Simon gave up on his quiet song, smiling down at Isa and shaking his head while he flipped steaks he wouldn’t get to eat. Ashes from the brai drifted and spun like the children playing in the garden.

• Read Muzungu

The other shortlisted stories

• The Life of Worm by Ken Barris (South Africa)
• How Shall We Kill The Bishop? by Lily Mabura (Kenya)
• Soulmates by Alex Smith (South Africa)
• Stickfighting Days by Olufemi Terry (Sierra Leone)

Namwali Serpell is Zambian. Winner of the 2010 Caine Prize will be announced in Oxford on July 5.

Caine Prize 2010 Shortlist

And so the 2010 Caine shortlist is out. From 115 entries from 13 African countries, the panel of judges have whittled the stories down to 5 writers. Here are the 5 writers who’ll go for the big prize and £10,000 this year.

Ken Barris (South Africa) for ‘The Life of Worm’ from New Writing from Africa 2009.

Lily Mabura (Kenya) for ‘How Shall We Kill the Bishop? From Wasafiri 53

Namwali Serpell (Zambia) for Muzungu’ from The Best American Short Stories 2009.

Alex Smith (SA) for Soulmates from New Writing From Africa 2009

Olufemi Terry (Sierra Leone) for ‘Stickfighting Days’ from Chimurenga 12/13.

Aside from the fact that Sierra Leone’s Olufemi Terry has a Yoruba first name that will make a few Nigerians look twice, there’s no Nigerian on this year’s shortlist, I'm afraid.

I remember having read Lily Mabura’s interestingly titled ‘How Shall We Kill The Bishop’ in Wasafiri some 2 years ago, even went as far as loading the opening page (see image) from the journal on Wordsbody, back then. Mabura’s notable writing nods back then were good showings in the Fish & Glimmer Train competitions. The Caine may be a giant leap…

It’s also interesting to see a shortlisted story for ‘African Fiction’ from ‘The Best American Short Stories’ anthology…

Chair of judges Fiammetta Rocco said of this year’s shortlist: “Africa has so much to be proud of in these five writers. Not only are their stories all confident, ambitious and skillfully written, each one boasts an added dimension – a voice, character or particular emotional connection – that makes it uniquely powerful.”

All on the panel of judges are: Ellah Allfrey (Deputy Editor at Granta), Professor Jon Cook and Samantha Pinto.

The shortlisted writers will read at the Royal Over-Seas League in London on Friday July 2; and at the South Bank Centre (as part of the London Literature Festival) on July 4.

The winner of the 11th Caine Prize for African Writing will be announced at an award dinner at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on July 5.

• Related story

Connections

Three by the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Gill Schierhout (left) is so humble one almost forgot that her debut novel 'The Shape of Him' was on the 2010 shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region). Plus there's her shortlisting for the 2008 Caine Prize for her short story The Day of the Surgical Colloquium. Mamle (middle) I've talked about in related posts. Then there's me (right).

Ovo Adagha (left) and I worked on the One World Anthology together; he now lives in the UK. Clifford Oluoch has published several books for children; and Nick Elam is famously of the Caine Prize, of course.

Caine Workshop participants by the Great Rift Valley. Samuel Munene works with The Kwani Trust in Nairobi; Valerie Tagwira currently lives in Britain while her fellow Zimbabwean, Novuyo Tshuma, is based in South Africa.

Sammy and Ignatius, nice guys

Here in the middle is Sammy, one of the key officers on the Gallmann Memorial Foundation conservancy. Here he's flanked by Mamle Kabu and MW. The amiable Sammy was a lovely presence at Ol Ari Nyiro, attending to the participants' needs with good humour. We in turn made him into an avid reader of our writings; he read many of our draft stories and engaged with the themes therein.

Sammy's here flanked by Mamle Kabu and Jude Dibia. Kabu who lives in Accra, was shortlisted for the 2009 Caine Prize for her short story, The End of Skill. Dibia is the author of two novels, Walking With Shadows and Unbridled. The pavillion in this photo was one of the best spots for internet reception this end of the resort.

Ignatius (seen here with Nick Elam) also works at the resort, acting as guide on game drives and providing lots of invaluable service and advice with equanimity. He gave a wonderful lesson in astronomy under the stars one night.

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The Conservancy

Pit stop on a game drive: Valerie Tagwira (Zimbabwean writer of 'The Uncertainty of Hope') and Kenyan Samuel Munene.

A tale told without bitterness

When the conservancy's founder Kuki Gallman visited the writers at the Mukatan retreat (this place has many names it seems, depending on your mood), she staged her own tale at dusk, sharing with participants her remarkable life story, including how her husband and son died in Kenya (the former in an accident and the latter killed by a snake). Yet she managed to construct an inspiring life's journey from it all. Participants listened with rapt attention.

The conservancy borders Kenya's Great Rift Valley and is run by Kuki Gallman (2nd left) who first came to the country in the early 70s. She is herself a writer, with 3 published books to her name; one, 'I Dreamed of Africa' was made into a film starring Kim Basinger. With Gallmann in this photograph are: writer Jude Dibia, Nick Elam of the Caine Prize and his wife, Helen.

The Caine workshop took place at the Ol Ari Nyiro Wildlife Conservancy, in Laikipia, managed by The Gallmann Memorial Foundation. The conservancy spreads over 100,000 acres of woodland with elephants, warthogs, and lions roaming free (thankfully, we never saw the lions, phew!) - not to mention snakes (which luckily I didn't see either). We wrote to the trill of all manners of exotic birds - a birdwatcher's paradise, this was. You'd come out of your room and see up to 30 impalas right outside, even zebras. Inspired.

Seripe Sunset

The dreamy landscape of the Caine Workshop... I could not resist capturing these images of participant Vuyo Seripe silhouetted against the sunset.

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SB on Caine Prize 2008

Many thanks to SB who sent me the following about this year's Caine Prize.
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Caine Prize 2008 Winner

This year's Caine Prize has been won by Henrietta Rose-Innes from South Africa, with her story ‘Poison’ from ‘Africa Pens,’ published by Spearhead, an imprint of New Africa Books, Cape Town, 2007.

The winner of the £10,000 prize was announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford on Monday, 7 July.

The short story by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, ‘Cemetery of Life’ which was first published in issue 52, autumn 2007 of Wasafiri was on the shortlist for the Caine Prize.

The Caine Prize is awarded to a short story published in English by an African writer whose work has reflected African sensibilities. With over 90 entries coming in from 17 African countries, the writers on the shortlist were:

Mohammed Naseehu Ali (Ghana) ‘Mallam Sile’, from ‘The Prophet of Zongo’, published by Amistad, an imprint of Harper Collins, NY, 2005
Stanley Onjezani Kenani (Malawi) ‘For Honour’ from ‘African Pens’, published by Spearhead, an imprint of New Africa Books, Cape Town, 2007
Gill Schierhout ( South Africa ) ‘The Day of the Surgical Colloquium’ from ‘African Pens’, published by Spearhead, an imprint of New Africa Books, Cape Town , 2007
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu ( Nigeria ) ‘Cemetery of Life’ from ‘Wasafiri’ No52 Autumn 2007

This year’s panel of judges was chaired by the Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly OBE, who is responsible for creating a unified artistic vision for the whole 21 acre site. An experienced director of over 100 productions, she was awarded an OBE for services to the theatre in 1997 and is Chair of Culture, Ceremonies and Education at the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

Joining her on the panel were Jamaican poet and professor of English, Mark McMorris, Hisham Matar, the Libyan author of the internationally successful first novel, In the Country of Men, Eritrean-born Hannah Pool, a Guardian journalist, and the previous 2007 judge, South African poet, novelist and lecturer Jonty Driver.

For further information please visit the Caine Prize website.

• Words by SB; image by MW

New Reads - Caine Special

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One of the niggly things about the Caine Prize season at times is that shortlisted stories aren't always widely available. So you'll be at a reading by the writers who read excerpts and engage in discussions around stories which half the audience havent read, which must be somewhat frustrating for both writers and readers alike. Especially when the story in question is not available online. Not so this year.

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Thanks to New Internationalist, publishers of the Caine anthologies, you can read of all 5 stories online (downloadable in pdf format).

One of these stories will win the Caine Prize tonight...

• Read Mallam Sile by Mohammed Naseehu-Ali (Ghana).
• Read For Honour by Stanley Onjezani Kenani (Malawi).
• Read Poison by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa).
• Read The Day of the Surgical Colloquium by Gill Schierhout (South Africa).
• Read Cemetery of Life by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu (Nigeria).

A Caine Reader

I ran into Sade Adeniran yesterday and I remembered pictures from this reading of hers in April (Wednesday 16th April) I always meant to post. She read to a small but not insignificant audience at the Holborn Library, London. Sitting cross-legged on the right is Farafina (and Kachifo) publisher, Muhtar Bakare.

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Sade Adeniran will read from the works of shortlisted writers in this year's Caine Prize at today's award ceremony at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Yes, a new Caine winner will be unveiled tonight!

• Images by MW

God of Poetry, God of the Caine?

Congratulations to Uzor Maxim Uzoatu who's Nigeria's flagbearer for this year's Caine Prize. His story, Cemetery of Life, published in Wasafiri 52 earned him the nod for the author of 'God of Poetry'.

Joining him on the shortlist are Ghanaian Mohammed Naseehu Ali (for Mallam Sule); Malawian Stanley Onjezani Kenani (his story: For Honour); South African Henrietta Rose-Innes is shortlisted for the second time (for Poison); and she's joined by her compatriot, Gill Schierhout (for The Day of the Surgical Colloquium).

Judges are (1) Chair Jude Kelly (who is the artistic director of the South Bank Centre - where the Caine writers will read on July 6); (2) Hannah Pool; (3) Mark McMorris; (4) author of In the Country of Men Hisham Matar; and Jonty Driver.

The 2008 Caine Prize winner will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on July 7.

Discussion with Monica Arac de Nyeko

Yesterday I anchored the 'In Conversation with Monica Arac de Nyeko' session during the Word Power Book Fair. Above right, the winner of the 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing - reads from her award winning story, 'Jambula Tree' - about the so-called 'taboo' lesbian relationship between two girls, and the price they have to pay in their unforgiving community. After her reading I engaged the Ugandan writer on her writing. She also took questions from the audience.

Among the audience were writers including: 2004 Caine Winner Brian Chikwava, Chika Unigwe (who was on the 2004 Caine shortlist with de Nyeko & Chikwava), ANA President Wale Okediran (on a visit from Nigeria, he attended both days of the book fair), Koye Oyedeji, Delia Jarrett-Macauley (author of 'Moses, Citizen and Me') and Dr. Vincent Magombe (earlier in the day I sat with Magombe on a panel, 'Focus on African Literature' - chaired by Jarrett-Macauley).

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Q & A With the Audience

Dr Wale Okediran: Monica I’d just like to say: Congratulations. Like you I’m from Nigeria where the issue of same sex relationships is being hotly debated. My question is whether you wrote the story [Jambula Tree] with the Caine Prize in view, like some do when they want to write for a Western audience, they try to write what [Western readers] like. Would you have been able to publish this in Uganda?

Monica Arac de Nyeko: I believe good stories are always being published, and sometimes good stories do not get published. So in that sense, yes. When we [FEMRITE members] first started writing, people were saying: ‘You’re women for God’s sakes, what do you think you are writing?’ But, NO, I did not write the story with the Caine Prize in mind. I think if you write with competitions in your head then you’re going to be one very sad writer because they’re not very easy to win anyway.

Dr Vincent Magombe [exiled for over 20 years from Uganda because “I dared to write a play about Idi Amin”]: Noted de Nyeko’s reticence about being a ‘voice’ for community or nation, but suggested that in recognition that fellow scribes have suffered for a better society, there ought to be conviction in today’s writers to say: I have to do something about this situation [MW paraphrases Magombe].

Monica Arac de Nyeko: I think it’s a very difficult thing, to take on a voice and to defend a particular community, because the assumption has been that people who are suffering do not have voices. But I do not think that’s always true. For instance, in Northern Uganda people are telling stories. You have kids who are painting; you have people who are very vocal on radio stations. People are talking about it and people are not silent. But [as for me taking on their voices] NO, I do not think I can because, you know, it would be a pretence, to understand, or to feel completely that I can represent... Unless you’ve lived it, every minute, unless your legs are being chopped off, unless you’re being raped. It’s a reality, and you cannot pretend to be in someone’s shoes. I do not want to pretend that it’s something I can do, because I can’t. What I can do is try to understand it; and writing is my way of doing it.

South African writer in the audience: Asked if the writer feels it’s necessary to defend ‘Jambula Tree’ or any other story, to let readers know what the intention is, in writing the work [paraphrased].

Monica Arac de Nyeko: I don’t think it’s necessary to defend a story. Once you ask people to read your story, I think you have to understand that they have different experiences and maybe their reading of [the story] is completely different. If I wanted to, I could go around writing Reading Guides saying: this is how you ought to understand it, but it’s much more complex. I think part of the joy of whole thing is that people take it and are free to choose, to interpret or misinterpret it however... that is much more interesting, to me. Another thing is that when I write, I am very sure this is what I want the character to do sometimes, but when people interpret it, then I’ll say: that’s interesting! So I think it’s a sort of learning and re-learning.

2007 Caine Prize

Monica Arac de Nyeko on her Caine shortlisted story, Jambula Tree...
"Jambula Tree is about loving against a very strong tide - society. Its just one of those stories that chooses you, you don’t choose it."

- read the interview.

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E.C Osondu on his shortlisted story, Jimmy Carter's Eyes....
"Blindness, or the subject of blindness in fiction, has always fascinated me. From Jose Saramago’s novel of that title to Raymond Carver’s awesome short story, ‘Cathedral’. By the way, Carver used to teach here at Syracuse University and his ghost still roams the Hall of Languages. I also happen to have had a neighbour who is blind and I remember chuckling when I was moving into my apartment and there was this sign that said “Blind Person Area”. Still on this neighbour, he was anything but your typical blind man, if any such exists. The first time we met he told me a joke that was, to put it mildly, risqué - where did the 85-year-old man who just got married spend his honeymoon? At Viagra Falls! The story itself - ‘Jimmy Carter’s Eyes’ - is an attempt at allegory, which is all I can say about it."

- read the interview

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• Also shortlisted are Uwem Akpan, Ada Udechukwu & Henrietta Rose-Innes. Shortlisted writers will read @ the Purcell Room, London on Sunday 8 July (7.45pm) - as part of the London Literature Festival.
• Caine winner is announced on Monday 9 July.

New Reads

This week's new reads are all about the Caine. Naturally, since we now know 3 Nigerians are in the running for the 8th Caine Prize for African Writing (Ada Udechukwu for Night Bus; EC Osondu for Jimmy Carter's Eyes, and Uwem Akpan for My Parents' Bedroom). Completing the list of 5, are Uganda's Monica Arac de Nyeko (first shortlisted for Strange Fruit in 2004), this time for Jambula Tree, a lesbian love story published in the Ama Ata Aidoo ed. Anthology, African Love Stories (Ayebia; 2006); and South Africa's Henrietta Rose-Innes for the story, Bad Places.

Excerpt from Uwem Akpan's My Parent's Bedroom - narrated by nine-year-old Monique, who unfolds a horrific tale set in Rwanda in 1994, yet manages the feat of not once mentioning the word 'genocide'...
I don’t understand why Maman is saying she wants to be with me when she won’t even look my way. I see dirty water dripping down the white wall beside me. It is coming from the ceiling. At first, it comes down in two thin lines. Then the lines widen and swell into one. Then two more lines come down, in spurts, like little spiders gliding down on threads from a branch of the mango tree in our yard. I touch the liquid with the tip of my finger. Blood. - Read on.


Excerpt from EC Osondu's Jimmy Carter's Eyes, in which a blind girl suddenly sees better than anyone, in an old-style fable for a globalised world...
One day a little girl went missing in the village. Sometimes children would go missing but they would normally be found within a few hours. This was different. No one had seen the girl. When a child went missing, the mother of the child would tie her headscarf tightly around her waist and go around the village crying and asking Who has seen my child? It was generally believed that by the time she lost her voice, the missing child would be found. By the second day the child was still missing. The mother had lost her voice but the child was not yet found. When the mother walked past the woman frying bean cakes, crying and screaming, “Who has seen my child?”, the blind girl spoke for the first time.

“I know who stole the missing girl.” - Read on

EC Osondu's A Letter From Home (also published in AGNI) has been revealed as one of the Notable Stories of 2006 in the Million Writers Award. A cursory glance at the longlist also shows Crispin Oduobuk (for Maiduguri Road) and Petina Gappah (for Something Nice From London - published in Per Contra & in print in Farafina vol. 8). Gappah recently placed second in the SA PEN award, judged by JM Coetzee.


Excerpt from Monica Arac de Nyeko's Jambula Tree...
Sanyu, after all these years, I still imagine shame trailing after me tagged onto the hem of my skirt. Other times, I see it, floating into your dreams across the desert and water to remind you of what lines we crossed. The things we should not have done when the brightness of Mama Atim's torch shone upon us - naked. - Read more excerpts here.