By Adedayo Odulaja Reporter, Lagos
• Wilsher, Jennings and Omotosho flank Bulawayo (2nd left) as she displayed her prize
Held on Sunday, Feb 23, the Etisalat Prize for Literature, began on a cool note before spiraling into the exciting event it was meant to become. Held at Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, one would be forgiven to forget it was just the maiden edition of a classy event that leaves writers with a sense that it is all worth it after all.
According to the Acting chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher, the Etisalat Prize for Literature was designed to recognise and reward debut writers of fiction in Africa, with the objective of discovering new creative talents from Africa and promoting the growing publishing industry on the continent.
“As a rite of passage, published and unpublished literary works of art have been passed down from generation to generation in Africa. Etisalat Nigeria is indeed pleased to celebrate all authors in the African literary spectrum. As such, Etisalat Nigeria is proud to use its maiden pan-African Prize for Literature to recognize and celebrate the amazing work done by these unique individuals.” He said.
He added that the company believes in the ambience of quality, development, innovation hence their interest in an award that celebrates the African culture through various genres of literature.
Devoid of much of the distracting rhetoric that infuses boredom into most events, the event smoothly went to the first business fo the day, the award for the Flash Fiction category.
Ghanaian author and poet, Ama Ata Aidoo, who was present at the event, despite her advanced age, expressed her delight at being physically present at the event. She said flash fiction has been practiced for years by notable writers like Ernest Hemmingway and others but the advent of internet brought it much more recognition and acceptance.
She summed it up say saying “Telling a complete story in just 300 words is the hall mark of flash fiction” as the audio-visual board announced the names of several constants including Chiamaka Igili, Olugbega Ogunbowale, Eric Aruthr with Life is just funny, Tee Jay Dan with The Seamstress and Nnaemeka Ugochujwu with Unforeseen.
In the end, it was Uche Okonkwo, a young woman with a story titled Neverland, who emerged the winner, bagging a certificate, Samsung Galaxy notebook and 1,000 dollars in the process.
For accomplished South Africa based Nigerian writer, Kole Omotoso, it was with pride that he presented the session for the write of passage, with rich symphony.
As the performance went on, names of J. Casely Hayford, Sol Plaatje, Thomas Mofolo, D.O Fagunwa and Naguib Mahfouz were announced as being among the first generation of writers while the likes of Chinua Achebe, Nadine Gordimer, Ngugi Wa Thino’go, Flora Nwapa, Camara Laye, Bessie Head, Nuruddin Farah were grouped into the second generation.
In the 3rd generation are names like Helon Habila, Chimamanda Ngozi, Adichie, Tsitsi Dangaremba, Ben Okri, Alien Mabamku.
A citation of most of them briefly run through, accompanied with a mixture of African and Western symphonies, made the night one of an even more remarkable spectacle.
Soon, it was time to dwell on the best emerging fiction category, which had Yewande Omotoso’s Bom Boy, Finding Soutbek by Karen Jennings and We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo in the running.
But before moving on along that lane, it was time to take a dose of music as offered by one of Africa’s international music legends, Youssor N’dour, to thrill guests. Pretty much an exciting evening already, Youssor N’dour made it even better with an electrifying performance.
Performing in the country for the second time, the flurry of excitement in the hall as the iconic African performed was remarkably striking. Standing in front of an 8-member band, N’dour came out smoking, as his free flowing blue brocade Agbada showed during every step of his performance.
With a set of drums, three-piece African drums, three guitars, another small drum and two keyboards cooking things up really much, N’dour unleashed the universality of music once more on a particularly interesting Nigerian audience. Delivering about four songs of his including ‘New Africa’ plus an eclectic mix of Bob Marley’s widely-acclaimed ‘Redemption song’ with a tune of his already, the Nigerian audience began to appreciate him more seeing he is unlike the two tracks only-performing bunch of young Nigerian musicians they are familiar with.
Profusely sweating but undaunted, N’dour was a delight to watch, and the mastery of his craft was all the more conspicuous with his manner of yielding the spotlight for members of his band to display their dexterity, staring with the small drum similar to the omele brand in Nigeria and moving on to the big drums and all others bit by bit.
In the end, with the excitement of N’dour performances yet to fully die down, events moved back to the award and it was NoViolet Bulawayo who emerged winner, with her sensational novel, We Need New Names. And with the win, she has banned the ghosts of her failure to win the Man Booker Prize this year, which she lost to Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries recently, in the process.
“I am a fan of writing prizes as it is hard enough to write and that is the reason I am always excited when I see writers rewarded,” Bulawayo said, commending Etisalat for the prize which she considers very significant. While calling for more writing prizes and awards, she thanked her family members, friends and associates who helped her in the voting stage, stating that it really takes a village to write a book on account of the teachers, her late grandmother and others she met along her journey who influenced her as a writer.
She equally praised those she was nominated along with, saying she really learnt through writing the winning novel that.
With the win, Bulawayo walked away with a Samsung Galaxy Note, $15,000 and a book tour to University of East Anglia to be mentored by Giles Foden, author of Last King of Scotland.
Runners-up, Yewande Omotosho and Karen Jennings were presented with Samsung Galaxy notes and also won book tours to two African cities.