None among the shortlisted is more deserving.
Im getting excited in advance!
OAA
-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 31/03/2021 17:04 (GMT+00:00)
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ⚡Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Makes History
| 
| Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. TWITTER | | | | RxNews
#LiteraryGiant📚
Dear Toyin,
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has been nominated for the International Booker Prize.
The 83-year-old Kenyan writer and translator, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, has become the first writer to be nominated as both author and translator for the International Booker Prize. Yesterday, the judges of the 2021 International Booker Prize announced the 13 novels longlisted for the award.
The International Booker Prize is widely regarded as a prestigious prize that is awarded every year to a book of fiction in any language that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. At £50,000 for the winning novel, the prize money is shared between an author and their English-language translator. This year, Ngũgĩ is the first listed writer to translate his own novel—from Gikuyu, a language spoken by just over 6 million Kenyans—and the first nominee writing in an indigenous African language.
According to Quartz, Ngũgĩ's book named The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and Mumbi, is a blend of folklore and mythology that tells the origin story of the Gikuyu clan. In describing the book, the judges said: 'Ngũgĩ masterfully sings us through an origin story written in verse. This book is a magisterial and poetic tale about women's place in a society of Gods. It is also about disability and how expectations shape and determine characters' spiritual anchoring.'
Ngũgĩ has written plays, novels, short stories, and essays. He has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He renounced writing in English in 1977 saying that he wished to express himself in a language that his mother and ordinary people could understand. In promoting more engagement with African languages, Ngũgĩ has said: 'If you know all the languages of the world and you don't know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, and add all the other languages of the world to it, that is empowerment.'
Background reading: Ibrahim Anifowoshe on Who is the African Writer?
Below, you'll find highlights and further reading on other stories we published today. Also, we're currently hiring an Associate Editor (Digital), to join our Lagos team. The deadline is today at 23:00 WAT. Come work with us!
Enjoy reading,
Mayowa Akeredolu
Business Associate, The Republic | | | | | | #OnSite⚡️
COVID-19 could push 87 million Africans into poverty.
In our latest online essay, writer, Chimezie Anajama, highlights how COVID-19 will affect jobs and change Africa's socio-economic landscape.
According to Anajama, lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic had 'devastating impacts on the business activities and livelihood of people operating in the informal economy'.
Citing the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, Anajama notes that unemployment in Nigeria rates rose to 33.3% in the second quarter of 2020, with potential job losses of around 39 million. Anajama citing the OECD, estimates that COVID-19 could push an 'additional 87 million people into poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa'.
Further reading: Chimezie Anajama on Africa's Growing COVID Debt. | | | | | | RxHistory
Today 1797, writer and abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, died in London. Equiano was a former enslaved African and writer whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become heavily involved in the British abolition movement. According to his autobiography, 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano', Equiano was born in the village of Essaka in the interior of modern-day southeastern Nigeria. He was kidnapped with his sister at around the age of 11, sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia.
In Virginia, he was sold to a Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant Michael Pascal, who renamed him 'Gustavus Vassa' after the 16th-century Swedish king. Equiano travelled the oceans with Pascal for eight years, during which time he was baptized and learned to read and write.
After years of working as a slave in the West Indies, America and Britain, Equiano bought his freedom in 1766. In 1786 in London, he became involved in the movement to abolish slavery. He was a prominent member of the 'Sons of Africa', a group of 12 black men who campaigned for abolition. Published in 1789, Equiano's memoir was so popular that in his lifetime it ran through nine English editions and was translated into Dutch, German, and Russian. It was one of the earliest books published by a black African writer.
Equiano is often regarded as the originator of the slave narrative because of his firsthand literary testimony against the slave trade. Despite the criticism around the authenticity of his account, The Interesting Narrative remains an essential work both for its picture of 18th-century Africa and for its eloquent argument against the slave trade.
Background reading: The Life of Writer and Abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano. | | | | | Before You Go
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