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.

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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Caine Workshop 2010

12 writers from 6 African countries participated in this year's Caine Prize Workshop, held Kenya from March 13 to 23. Here's a picture of some of the group taken after a dinner reading of works in progress.
L-R Front: Clifford Oluoch (Kenya), Vuyo Seripe (South Africa) Veronique Tadjo (one of the 2 'animateurs' whose task it was to challenge the writers to better and better stories) and Samuel Munene (Kenya).
L-R Back: Gill Schierhout (South Africa), Mamle Kabu (Ghana) - then the Nigerians, Ovo Adagha, Jude Dibia and MW.

Dinner was lit by hurricane lamps, attracting moths and such like. After dinner writers read from their works in progress and their colleagues commented on the stories. In the foreground in this picture: Nick Elam (organiser of the Caine Prize and these annual workshops, which always take place at an African location), Jamal Mahjoub (animateur) and Stanley Kenani (Malawian, currently based in Nairobi and previously shortlisted for the 2008 Caine Prize for his short story, 'For Honour').

Serenading us after dinner: Kenyan writer/participant, Alnoor Amlani.

• The 12 stories from the workshop will be published along with this year's 5 shortlisted stories (yet to be revealed) in the next Caine Anthology, to be published in time for the 2010 award dinner in July.