The long list for the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature has been announced today, Wednesday, 1st September 2021.
Kendeka Prize for African Literature is an initiative by Andrew Maina, a Kenyan writer through Solano Publications Limited. It aims at encouraging Africans to write and read more. In participating in this contest, new talents have been discovered and when natured, can be great writers perhaps following in the footsteps of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Camara Laye and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie among others.
The 13 stories on this inaugural long list were chosen by a panel of three Judges chaired by Lucas Wafula, a Kenyan, the Editor-in-chief, and CEO, Booklyst Press Limited. He is also a Director and Lead Facilitator at Global Editorial Centre-KE. Also in the panel is Edwige Renée Dro, a writer, a literary translator and a literary activist from Côte d’Ivoire. The third judge is Remy Ngamije, a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer, the founder, and the administrator of Doek. He won the Africa Regional Prize of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2020 and 2021. The list of the 13 long listed stories was chosen from entries from 23 African nations.
The 2021 long listed stories in Alphabetical order are as follows;
100 Little Things by Dora Achieng Okeyo, Kenya
A Town With No Name by Hajaarh Muhammad Bashar, Nigeria
Au Pair by Okpanachi Irene Ojochegbe, Nigeria
Hotel Rhodesia by Nathaniel Ziphoezinhle Mpofu, Zimbabwe
Sins of my Mother by Michelle Chepchumba Korir, Kenya
Six Days To Twenty by scholastic Moraa Nyabuti, Kenya
Time And Bodies by Ekemini Udo Pius, Nigeria
The Women of Atinga House by Fatima Okhousami, Nigeria
The Painting From A Country In Europe by Azeeza Adeowu, Nigeria
The Coffee House Patients by Ace-Ume Emmanuel, Nigeria
There Will Be Red by Udechukwu Promise, Nigeria
Vengeance Is Mine by Nyasili Atetwe, Kenya
Water For Wine by Jenny Robson, Botswana
A shortlist of three shall be released on the 15th of September 2021 while the award ceremony shall be held on the 25th September, 2021, at Fourteen Falls Leisure Lodge, Thika, Kenya, starting at 2.15 pm in FULL observance of Covid 19 Protocols. The ceremony shall be LIVE both in Facebook and YouTube and the necessary links will be shared a week before the ceremony.
The first Prize is Kshs 100,000, the second and the third prizes are Kshs 50,000 and 25,000 respectively.
Andrew Maina
Kendeka Prize for African Literature
Thika, Kenya
