Journalist, writer and curator of the Wall of Great Africans
South Africa’s Nadia Davids recently won the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “Bridling”, published in the US University of Georgia’s literary journal The Georgia Review in 2023.
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best short story by an African writer, living and working in Africa or elsewhere in the world, and published in the English language. Among other things, the fictional story must be more than 3,000 words and less than 10,000 words.
East Africa has tasted the Caine Prize many times. Kenyan writers have won it five times, the second highest after their Nigerian peers, who have cleaned out seven times. Uganda has done it once, and Ethiopia has done it once.
If we are to stretch the scope of East Africa, Sudan too has won it once. In fact, the inaugural prize winner in 2000 was Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela for her short story “The Museum”. All that makes the 2024 prize notable: No East African writer made the shortlist for the first time in a while.
Looking back over the last six years, in 2023 Ugandan writer Yvonne Kusiima made the shortlist for her “Weaving”. In 2022, Kenya’s Idza Luhumyo made the shortlist for her “Five Years Next Sunday” — and took home the prize.
In 2021, Ugandan writer Doreen Baingana made the cut for “Lucky”, and Rwandan-Namibia writer Rémy Ngamije got on the shortlist for his “The Giver of Nicknames”, and Ugandan-Canadian Iryn Tushabe for her “A Separation”.
In 2020, Kenya-based Tanzanian writer Tana Erica Sugo Anyadike made the shortlist for her “How to Marry an African President”, and Ngamije made his first appearance on the Caine shortlist for “The Neighbourhood Watch”.
In 2019, Kenya’s Cherrie Kandie got the nod for “Sew My Mouth”. In 2018, Kenyan writer Makena Onjerika was shortlisted for her “Fanta Blackcurrant” and ran away with it.
One could argue that East Africa’s absence from the 2024 Caine Prize shortlist is a bleep, but the Nigerians showed up big. Though they didn’t win, three of the five finalists were Nigerians.
That could represent the reality that Nigerians, as they have done in the past, are writing more fiction, and good stuff too, than any other Africans.
East African stand-alone fiction, seems to have levelled off. That is not to say the region is not telling stories. On the contrary, there has been an explosion of long-form storytelling; just that it is not fiction.
In the last 18 months, two wonderful world-class literary journals have launched in East Africa; first The Weganda Review in Kampala in mid-2023 and Debunk Quarterly in Nairobi early in 2024.
If you are a hippie, Weganda Review might be your thing. It is more eclectic, quirky, and full of surprises. If you are a rebel and iconoclast, Debunk is for you. Of the two, Debunk is the more gut-wrenching. The dark realism of some of the essays in the first issue isn’t for the faint of heart.
It might be that the horrors of East Africa, its wars; the ravages of climate change; the heart-breaking politics and corruption; and the depredations of modern slavery East Africans are enduring in the Gulf states (there is a long and disturbing essay by a Gulf slavery survivor in the first issue of Debunk); and possibly the toll of Covid-19 have blunted the wild imagination, calculated levity, and playful cynicism that have served many a fiction writer well.
Why would an East African, Franz Kafka, have to write “The Trial” when, like Josef K., so many people are being arrested, abducted or kidnapped by shadowy state agents never to be seen again, or end up facing strange charges in courts hundreds of kilometres away from where they were arrested, or being tried in kangaroo military courts?
Additionally, there has been a lot of “memefication” and “TikTokisation”, and some of the best fiction and commentary by young East Africans is being produced as memes on social media, and short creative clips on TikTok.
Kenya and Uganda are turning out a lot of these, and a new generation of digital-era comedians, cartoonists, and video mashers are blowing online audiences away with their brilliance.
Social media offers both massive reach and exposure, but also some protection from the menacing arm of the state. They will still get you, but you won’t be creating in a media office along the main street where balaclava-wearing state security agents will budge in and seize you. A prize that seeks to reward the best fiction, will have to look at both the books and digital offerings.
Peering ahead, normal business could soon be restored. In June-July, there were the history-making Kenya Generation Z protests, which inspired similar actions in parts of East Africa and the continent.
From its ashes, we can expect reflective fiction, a counting of the losses in the battlefield, and a coming to terms with the loss of innocence.
In Tanzania, as the wave of euphoria over the prospect of a more liberal politics and society under the watch of President Samia Suluhu Hassan dissipates, a new democracy movement might emerge with its narratives.
Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and DR Congo might just be able to channel the pain and give us fiction with titles like “Days of Doom”, “The Hangman’s Delight”, and “The Slaughter of the Lambs”.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer, and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”. X(Twitter)@cobbo3
