USA Africa Dialogue Series - Finalists of the Inaugural Edition of the Toyin Falola Prize

For the inaugural edition of the Toyin Falola Prize, we hereby unveil a shortlist of eight entries.  These 8 finalists, selected out of a total of 784 eligible submissions from the length and breadth of Africa, have inched closer to picking up the $1,000 along with a fully-funded travel trip to attend the BIGSAS Festival of African and African-Diasporic Literature in Bayreuth

Their names and the titles of their entries are:

1. A History of Celestial Body by Ani Somtochukwu / Nigeria
2. Eskia by Nyakallo Maleke / South Africa
3. Evacuation by Ebele Mogo/ Nigeria
4. Facing Our Ochred Selves by Mlamli Tyulu / South Africa
5. The disappearance of Sergeant Donkey by Samuel Kolawole/ Nigeria
6. The Last Shot of Ahmed Bey' Cannon by Fayssal Bensalah / Algeria
7. The Windsor Academy by Julian Nii Kpakpo Anum / Ghana
8. This is My Body by Faraaz Mahomed / South Africa

This prize specifically solicited from Africans between the ages of 18 and 35, short stories that creatively imagine the history of a place, people, time, or event on the continent. As you must know, the person for whom this prize was named, Toyin Falola, is one of the world's most distinguished historians. A proud African, he has about four decades of productive activity as a historian and a public intellectual behind him. As judges for all literary competitions say, we got so many good entries that it was hard to come up with a final shortlist. For this prize, we too faced a similar challenge of selecting the finalists. Being a judge in this competition meant that we were introduced to such a broad array of stories from every corner of the continent. These stories delightfully brought the diverse experience of being Africa in contemporary times quite close. However, the vastness of the entries presented several challenges as various writers interpreted the theme of the competition from broad perspectives. In judging these works, we were quite mindful that our decisions in judging these prizes would go a long way in setting the tone for the future of this competition, and likely how creative African writers will engage their history in the long term. How, therefore, can one best judge short stories that were written based on a narration of history without shortchanging either the content or the form?

We are excited about the prospects of the prize, the stories that we got as well as those that have made this long list. We also look forward to the shortlist. Congratulations to these writers.

Cheers!

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