By Anote Ajeluorou
and Greg Austin-Page Nwakunor
It’s not often that
you find three Caine Prize winners on the same podium. But this happened at
Port Harcourt Book Festival 2014 that ended last week. The three writers Rotimi
Babatunde (Nigeria- 2012), Tope Folarin (Nigeria - 2013) and Okwiri Oduor
(Kenya – 2014) were part of the ‘Africa 39’ writers that added excitement to
this year’s book festival, writers under 40 Africa south of the Sahara,
London-based Hay Festival partnership with UNESCO Port Harcourt Book Capital
2014.
The Caine Prize (10,000) is perhaps Africa’s
biggest literary prize for the short story, bigger than the Commonwealth Short
Story Prize (USD$2,500) and prides itself as celebrating new writing from the
continent. Although the biggest prize on the continent, it’s ironically
administered from outside the continent - London, in fact. This fact has attracted
the attention of many critics, who are skeptical about the true intention of
prize and its administrators. They see it as another cultural imperialism with
dubious intention, one that expects African writers to dredge up Africa’s many
ugly sides for the entire world to stare at, and laugh.
Elnathan John it was, who, shortlisted in
2013, with his story ‘Bayan Layi’, had
expressed the wish that it would have been better if an African capital was
playing host to the biggest short story prize honouring her sons and daughters
rather than in London or any other foreign capital. But such sentiment does not
fly in the face of philistinic economics of a continent that pays little regard
to cultural productions of whatever hue. Critics of the
Caine Prize say that the selection criteria are slanted towards stereotypical
African images of poverty, war, child soldiers, prostitution and desperation.
Others have, however, argued that since the
prize is sufficiently competitive to bring out the best on the continent so be
it, as it has since inception brought about a remarkable change in the fortunes
of the winners, 15 in all so far, to tell a different story through their
engagement in creative writing.
These three writers are the latest addition
to the list of winners since 2012 till date. Ibadan-based Babatunde won with
his short story ‘Bombay’s Republic’ in 2012, a harrowing story of a Nigerian
who fought in World War II in the dense jungles of Burma, and how the war
changed him for all time; U.S.-based Folarin won with ‘Miracle’ in 2013, a
story that treats miracle-peddling fad in church, and how it could all be a
sham. Current winner and U.K.-based Oduor won with, ‘My Father’s Head’, of what
a young girl remembers about her father, who died suddenly and how she begins
to re-imagine what her father’s head looked like, as a way of dredging up
memories of the man who left too soon, and thus conjuring him from the dead.
Babatunde, Folarin and Odour all sat in
conversation with Caine Prize jury Vice Chairperson, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey,
also of Hay Festival, last Saturday, the closing day of events at the book
festival at the Tent, Hotel Presidential. It was a fitting climax to a weeklong
festival that had several panel discussions, seminars, workshops, residency and
a showcase of young talent in creative engagement.
Babatunde recounted that the most memorable
part of the prize was the grand ceremony around it, which usually held at Oxford
University’s Boldein Library. Also, he noted, “The connection between the
writers is unbelievable. You won believe they are competing for the same prize,
the camaradiere”. He recalled how the ‘Africa 39’ writers at the festival
easily blended as if they’d known each other all their lives. “It’s amazing how
the 39 have been working things among themselves. We’re just a single family,
and it just happens.”
For the only female, Oduor, “You get to meet other
writers, and it’s incredible. The Caine Prize is intense, nerve-wracking
situation, but you feel a sense of solidarity from the other writers”, and
added that she didn’t know if the prize had wrought any changes in her since
winning it a few months back in July. “I don’t know if anything has changed,”
she said in her sonorous, romantic voice. “But I’ve received marriage proposals
on Facebook!”
For Folarin, who was born in the U.S., and
has lives there, the Caine Prize experience was simply awesome. Although he’d
written a couple of stories, ‘Miracle’ became the real miracle turning point in
his life. He expressed how a single story turned him from an anonymous
individual to the status of a star overnight. “I went completely from being
anonymous to being known, and people were saying, ‘who the hell is the guy?’ I
had to quickly adjust to being a public figure. The prize confers legitimacy on
you as a writer. All of a sudden I was being called upon to speak on writing at
important events! I’m incredibly glad I won the prize. And there’s a lot of
pressure here, too, because everybody wants more, a book from me.”
Babatunde also had his own share of pressure
just after wining, with journalists crowding out his space eager to have him
share his unique experience with the public. “What I felt was exhaustion
because of the pressure,” he said, “it took a while to decompress. Meanwhile,
it was the story that won, not me.”
Like every writer, Oduor devotes a lot of her
time reading other writers. But it is fellow female writers like America’s
Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morison among others that appeal more to her “because
they speak to me and show me the light. I find their writing rich…”
Already, Babatunde and Folarin are hard at work
for their debut novels. Like his Caine Prize story ‘Bombay’s Republic’,
Babatunde is still fascinated with material history; his new work is on
historical fiction, and it’s situated in the Niger Delta. The three writers
read excerpts from Africa 39, an anthology of new writing.
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