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Twenty Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Caine Prize for African Writing--often referred to as the African Booker Prize--this collection showcases the winning short stories of African writers from the past 20 years and reflects the vast range of modern African experience.
All of the winning short stories will be collected:
2019 Lesley Nneka Arimah - “Skinned”
2018 Makena Onjerika - “Fanta Blackcurrant”
2017 Bushra al-Fadil – “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away”
2016 Lidudumalingani – “Memories We Lost”
2015 Namwali Serpell – “The Sack”
2014 Okwiri Oduor – “My Father's Head”
2013 Tope Folarin – “Miracle”
2012 Rotimi Babatunde – “Bombay's Republic”
2011 No Violet Bulawayo – “Hitting Budapest”
2010 Olufemi Terry – “Stickfighting Days”
2009 E C Osundu – “Waiting”
2008 Henrietta Rose-Innes – “Poison”
2007 Monica Arac de Nyeko – “Jambula Tree”
2006 Mary Watson – “Jungfrau”
2005 Segun Afolabi – “Monday Morning”
2004 Brian Chikwava – “Seventh Street Alchemy”
2003 Yvonne Owuor – “Weight of Whispers”
2002 Binyavanga Wainaina – “Discovering Home”
2001 Helon Habila – “Love Poems”
2000 Leila Aboulela – “The Museum”
All of the winning short stories will be collected:
2019 Lesley Nneka Arimah - “Skinned”
2018 Makena Onjerika - “Fanta Blackcurrant”
2017 Bushra al-Fadil – “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away”
2016 Lidudumalingani – “Memories We Lost”
2015 Namwali Serpell – “The Sack”
2014 Okwiri Oduor – “My Father's Head”
2013 Tope Folarin – “Miracle”
2012 Rotimi Babatunde – “Bombay's Republic”
2011 No Violet Bulawayo – “Hitting Budapest”
2010 Olufemi Terry – “Stickfighting Days”
2009 E C Osundu – “Waiting”
2008 Henrietta Rose-Innes – “Poison”
2007 Monica Arac de Nyeko – “Jambula Tree”
2006 Mary Watson – “Jungfrau”
2005 Segun Afolabi – “Monday Morning”
2004 Brian Chikwava – “Seventh Street Alchemy”
2003 Yvonne Owuor – “Weight of Whispers”
2002 Binyavanga Wainaina – “Discovering Home”
2001 Helon Habila – “Love Poems”
2000 Leila Aboulela – “The Museum”
352 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2019
5 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Leila Aboulela
37 books928 followersLeila Aboulela grew up in Khartoum, Sudan where she attended the Khartoum American School and Sister School. She graduated from Khartoum University in 1985 with a degree in Economics and was awarded her Masters degree in statistics from the London School of Economics. She lived for many years in Aberdeen where she wrote most of her works while looking after her family; she currently lives and lectures in Abu Dhabi.
She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story The Museum and her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize in 2002, and was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 2006.
She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story The Museum and her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize in 2002, and was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 18, 2020
Despite the fact that there were a lot of stories in this collection that I didn’t enjoy, I don’t regret having read it. There were equally as many stories and authors that I discovered and read from the first time, and whose other works I cannot wait to check out now. This anthology is a great start if you have absolutely no idea how many different African writers are out there and what they are all up to!
'The Museum' - Leila Aboulela (2000, Sudan) – 4 stars
This story illuminates the subtleties of Muslim immigrant experience in Britain: comic culture clash and deep spiritual struggle. This story really took me by surprise: on the one hand, due to its fresh language and lively outlook on life. I don’t know why but I had a different concept of Aboulela as a writer in my brain, which was luckily proven wrong… and on the other hand, by its mix of progressive and conservative ideas. Despite my enjoyment of the story, I don’t necessarily agree with its final message, because it seems like Aboulela expects of her female protagonist to explain everything about her cultural heritage to the people around her in Britain, before she can expect understanding and sympathy. That’s bullshit, imo. Integration is not a one-way-street. Both parties have to work for it. But nonetheless, I appreciated the confidence of our heroine and the funny, life-like moments that Aboulela managed to interweave into her story. I’m considering checking out another short story collection of hers!
'Love Poems' - Helon Habila (2001, Nigeria) – 2 stars
The story is told by a journalist who is arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned in Nigeria under the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha. In the cell he writes poems which the chief warden initially confiscates but later passes off as his own in order to court his lover. Mehh. Despite a few banger quotes (eg. “Prison chains not so much your hands and feet as it does your voice.”), this story didn’t do much for me. The dynamic between the prisoner and the warden was interesting enough but their characters and the overall concept of the story weren’t developed well enough to keep me engaged throughout.
'Discovering Home' - Binyavanga Wainaina (2002, Kenya) – 1 star
Binyavanga’s winning piece moves from South Africa though Kenya to Uganda, addressing identity and the politics of multiple heritage through the motif of a journey of self-discovery. Hands down my least favourite story of the bunch. It was super messy, a complete drag, and (luckily?) completely forgettable.
'Weight of Whispers' - Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (2003, Kenya) – 2.5 stars
This story is a first-person narrative chronicling the life of Boniface Kuseremane and his family after genocide breaks out in Rwanda. Kuseremane – Bon-Bon as his sister Chi-Chi calls him – his fiancée Lune, and mother Agnethe-mama are accustomed to the finer things in life. They are Rwandan royalty who are well-travelled, and are clearly unprepared for the impact that the genocide has on their lavish lifestyle. They flee to Kenya, believing the move to be only temporary but as they wait for relatives and friends abroad to assist them in their journey and settlement to Europe, it becomes apparent that they are on their own.
I admire Owuor for trying to write a multi-layered short story. She really managed to pack a lot of different themes (class, sexual exploitation of women, flight, oppression, family dynamics) into 40 pages, however, she didn’t quite succeed at writing a cohesive story. I got somewhat lost in the middle and couldn’t shake the boredom that overtook me whilst reading it.
'Seventh Street Alchemy' - Brian Chikwava (2004, Zimbabwe) – 4.5 stars
A very strong narrative in which Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe claims the English language as his own, an English with African characteristics. I don’t know if Chikwava is a comedian but he sure could be successful as one. “Defining one’s relationship with the world demands daily renegotiating one’s existence.” This storytells of a prostitute who has slipped through the cracks of bureaucracy and now needs to get a birth certificate so her daughter can get a passport. But she can only do this if she can provide her parents’ birth certificates. She has an opportunity to break out of this Catch 22, but only when she breaks the law and they realise they can’t charge her because she doesn’t officially exist.
'Monday Morning' - Segun Afolabi (2005, Nigeria) – 1 star
A young girl travels with her father and a group of sick children to Lagos to pray to one of Nigeria’s infamous celebrity pastors for healing. Mehh again. I barely remember the story. It was too short for my taste and I absolutely hated the sterile writing style.
'Jungfrau' - Mary Watson (2006, South Africa) – 3 stars
A child’s infatuation with her mother’s adopted sister is at the centre of Mary Watson’s short story ‘Jungfrau’, set in South Africa. A modern tale of love, jealousy and adultery. Convincingly written in the voice of a girl whose father is conducting an affair with her aunt, the story concerns itself with the child’s emotional tensions and dilemmas. This is a powerfully written narrative that works skilfully through a child’s imagination to suggest a world of insights about familial and social relationships in the new South Africa.
'Jambula Tree' - Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007, Uganda) – 2.5 stars
This is a touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a relationship that blossoms between young girls in a country where homosexuality is illegal. It tells the story of two adolescent girls, Anyango and Sangu, who, for a time at least, ‘prefer’ one another. When their love is discovered, Anyango is sent abroad to a boarding school, Sangu stays behind and becomes a nurse who leads a solitary life. The story is a letter written, perhaps delivered, perhaps never sent, by Sangu to Anyango on her return. I found it fascinating that this was the only story in this collection in which queer characters were the focus. I also found it notable that the story had already been published in 2007. I would have expected this theme to come up in later years but alas!
'Poison' - Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008, South Africa) – 3 stars
In starkly understated prose, ‘Poison’ zooms in on a motley crowd of Cape Towners marooned out of petrol at a middle-of-nowhere service station as people flee a chemical explosion in the city. Central character Lynn looks on numbly while her fellow refugees cut deals and improvise team efforts - across Cape Town's established social divides - to get away from the toxic smuts spreading across the veld. Something of a blank human space, Lynn baffles even herself by failing to take any of the possible escape routes. A compellingly enigmatic story, and also a nice change from all the other literary fiction stories in this collection. I personally would’ve preferred if a wider range of genres would have been reflected in the winning stories, but ‘Poison’ was sadly one of the few exceptions.
'Waiting' - EC Osundu (2009, Nigeria) – 4.5 stars
The story centers around some children in an African refugee camp who spend their days waiting for one thing or the other, and keep waiting, waiting, then waiting for one thing or another. They wait for trucks to bring food, wait to join lines, wait to scatter, then wait to fight for the food. After this, there is a watch and wait for water trucks – which do not always come. In fact, on the day of narration – for the tale is a narrative of a day in the camp with flashbacks, thoughts and the like – the children are waiting for a photographer to come and take their pictures so that same can be transported abroad by the Red Cross who are the hosts of the camp. And they just keep waiting… Of course, this story evokes the image of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and albeit it isn’t nearly as clever or funny, I couldn’t help myself but enjoy that literary nod and exploration from a completely different perspective.
'Stickfighting Days' - Olufemi Terry (2010, Sierra Leone) – 4.5 stars
The story follows a group of glue-sniffing boys in a dump who fight with sticks. Terry said the story originally came into his head as "the idea of street boys in Nairobi, in rags, sniffing glue", adding: "The stickfighting element just popped into my head—there wasn't any obvious connection between the two strands, but somehow I found myself working with these two elements and the story just poured out of me”. I really enjoyed the story for its thrill and violence. It was one of the few stories that kept me engaged throughout; couldn’t help but be reminded of Lord of the Flies, the end was similarly vicious.
'Hitting Budapest' - Noviolet Bulawayo (2011, Zimbabwe) – 3.5 stars
The story opens with the Zimbabwean children on their way to Budapest to steal guavas. The children are not supposed to go there, but they are hungry, so they sneak out of their rundown village and break into a run, yelling and singing, as soon as they get to the bush. At the climax of the story, the children gather to find a woman hanging from a tree. Her eyes and mouth are open wide and she wears a yellow dress and red shoes. After a few moments of intense silence and contemplation, the children decide to take the woman’s shoes and sell them for bread. The ending of the story is so eery (reminded me a bit of Jackson’s The Lottery) and will leave any reader with a heavy heart. The story is a great exploration of how poverty can make animals of people.
'Bombay's Republic' - Rotimi Babatunde (2012, Nigeria) – 2 stars
This story starts off about an African soldier’s experience fighting in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War and after he returns. Bombay, the soldier, encounters numerous realizations that confound and expand his understanding of what is feasible. But Bombay’s perceptions reach beyond reality, and he follows a different path than you might expect. Instead of joining activists after the war, he eventually calls the old jailhouse home and unilaterally declares his home a sovereign nation. The adults in the community mock him and ostracize him as he crafts busts of idols for his new country. He spends the rest of his years considering himself as the head of state of one of the first independent African nations, winning dozens of elections. This story kind of flew over my head. I like the idea of it (and I feel like it could’ve been a very comedic yet hard-hitting tale) but somehow it just left me completely cold.
'Miracle' - Tope Folarin (2013, Nigeria) – 4.5 stars
‘Miracle’ is a story set in Texas in an evangelical Nigerian church where the congregation has gathered to witness the healing powers of a blind pastor-prophet. Religion and the gullibility of those caught in the deceit that sometimes comes with faith rise to the surface as a young boy volunteers to be healed. This story was incredibly well written and above all charming. I really liked the spin at the end (with the protagonist realising that a community needs “miracles” to survive, so he goes along with the bullshit; and his father giving him his glasses back the next morning, fully knowing that he was never healed of his poor sight), because it showed that everyone in the community was aware of it as well.
This story also featured my favorite quote from this entire collection: “We need jobs. We need good grades. We need green cards. We need American passports. We need our parents to understand that we are Americans. We need our children to understand they are Nigerians.” - I feel like this is the perfect summary for second generation of immigrant families, the first ones natively born in the US.
'My Father's Head' - Okwiri Oduor (2014, Kenya) – 1 star
'My Father's Head' explores the narrator's difficulty in dealing with the loss of her father and looks at the themes of memory, loss and loneliness. The narrator works in an old people's home and comes into contact with a priest, giving her the courage to recall her buried memories of her father. Not gonna lie, I don’t recall this story at all. Totally unmemorable.
'The Sack' - Namwali Serpell (2015, Zambia) – 1 star
This story explores a world where dreams and reality are both claustrophobic and dark. The relationship between two men and an absent woman are explored though troubled interactions and power relationships which jar with the views held by the characters. Yet again, bored me to death and I barely remember a thing.
'Memories We Lost' - Lidudumalingani (2016, South Africa) – 3.5 stars
‘Memories We Lost’ tells the emotionally charged story of a girl who acts as protector of her sister, whose serious mental-health problems cause consternation in a South African village. Her situation deteriorates as her care is entrusted to Nkunzi, a local man who employs traditional techniques to rid people of their demons. I liked the dynamic between the two sisters and that this was one of the few stories dealing with mental health, a topic I simply read way too little about.
'The Story of the Girl' - Bushra al-Fadil (2017, Sudan) – 2 stars
“The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away” vividly describes life in a bustling market through the eyes of the narrator, who becomes entranced by a beautiful woman he sees there one day. After a series of brief encounters, tragedy unexpectedly befalls the woman and her young female companion. This story tried to tie elements of magical realism with an overly lyrical language … and both didn’t quite work for me.
'Fanta Blackcurrant' - Makena Onjerika (2018, Kenya) – 4 stars
Meri, who is different from her friends, has only one wish for God - she wants to quench her thirst every day with a big Fanta Blackcurrant, and may it never end. A life between poverty and hope, drugs and love, crime and an uncertain outcome. This story had many comedic moments whilst still being very hard-hitting. Really reminded me of Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly:
'Skinned' - Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019, Nigeria) – 5 stars
‘Skinned’ envisions a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed. It tells the story of Ejem, a young woman uncovered at the age of 15 yet ‘unclaimed’ in adulthood, and her attempts to negotiate a rigidly stratified society following the breakdown of a protective friendship with the married Chidinma. With a wit, prescience, and a wicked imagination, ‘Skinned’ is a bold and unsettling tale of bodily autonomy and womanhood, and the fault lines along which solidarities are formed and broken.This was one of the most ambitious yet concise and complete stories in here – definitely one of my favourites and I need to read more of Arimah's.
'The Museum' - Leila Aboulela (2000, Sudan) – 4 stars
This story illuminates the subtleties of Muslim immigrant experience in Britain: comic culture clash and deep spiritual struggle. This story really took me by surprise: on the one hand, due to its fresh language and lively outlook on life. I don’t know why but I had a different concept of Aboulela as a writer in my brain, which was luckily proven wrong… and on the other hand, by its mix of progressive and conservative ideas. Despite my enjoyment of the story, I don’t necessarily agree with its final message, because it seems like Aboulela expects of her female protagonist to explain everything about her cultural heritage to the people around her in Britain, before she can expect understanding and sympathy. That’s bullshit, imo. Integration is not a one-way-street. Both parties have to work for it. But nonetheless, I appreciated the confidence of our heroine and the funny, life-like moments that Aboulela managed to interweave into her story. I’m considering checking out another short story collection of hers!
'Love Poems' - Helon Habila (2001, Nigeria) – 2 stars
The story is told by a journalist who is arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned in Nigeria under the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha. In the cell he writes poems which the chief warden initially confiscates but later passes off as his own in order to court his lover. Mehh. Despite a few banger quotes (eg. “Prison chains not so much your hands and feet as it does your voice.”), this story didn’t do much for me. The dynamic between the prisoner and the warden was interesting enough but their characters and the overall concept of the story weren’t developed well enough to keep me engaged throughout.
'Discovering Home' - Binyavanga Wainaina (2002, Kenya) – 1 star
Binyavanga’s winning piece moves from South Africa though Kenya to Uganda, addressing identity and the politics of multiple heritage through the motif of a journey of self-discovery. Hands down my least favourite story of the bunch. It was super messy, a complete drag, and (luckily?) completely forgettable.
'Weight of Whispers' - Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (2003, Kenya) – 2.5 stars
This story is a first-person narrative chronicling the life of Boniface Kuseremane and his family after genocide breaks out in Rwanda. Kuseremane – Bon-Bon as his sister Chi-Chi calls him – his fiancée Lune, and mother Agnethe-mama are accustomed to the finer things in life. They are Rwandan royalty who are well-travelled, and are clearly unprepared for the impact that the genocide has on their lavish lifestyle. They flee to Kenya, believing the move to be only temporary but as they wait for relatives and friends abroad to assist them in their journey and settlement to Europe, it becomes apparent that they are on their own.
I admire Owuor for trying to write a multi-layered short story. She really managed to pack a lot of different themes (class, sexual exploitation of women, flight, oppression, family dynamics) into 40 pages, however, she didn’t quite succeed at writing a cohesive story. I got somewhat lost in the middle and couldn’t shake the boredom that overtook me whilst reading it.
'Seventh Street Alchemy' - Brian Chikwava (2004, Zimbabwe) – 4.5 stars
A very strong narrative in which Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe claims the English language as his own, an English with African characteristics. I don’t know if Chikwava is a comedian but he sure could be successful as one. “Defining one’s relationship with the world demands daily renegotiating one’s existence.” This storytells of a prostitute who has slipped through the cracks of bureaucracy and now needs to get a birth certificate so her daughter can get a passport. But she can only do this if she can provide her parents’ birth certificates. She has an opportunity to break out of this Catch 22, but only when she breaks the law and they realise they can’t charge her because she doesn’t officially exist.
'Monday Morning' - Segun Afolabi (2005, Nigeria) – 1 star
A young girl travels with her father and a group of sick children to Lagos to pray to one of Nigeria’s infamous celebrity pastors for healing. Mehh again. I barely remember the story. It was too short for my taste and I absolutely hated the sterile writing style.
'Jungfrau' - Mary Watson (2006, South Africa) – 3 stars
A child’s infatuation with her mother’s adopted sister is at the centre of Mary Watson’s short story ‘Jungfrau’, set in South Africa. A modern tale of love, jealousy and adultery. Convincingly written in the voice of a girl whose father is conducting an affair with her aunt, the story concerns itself with the child’s emotional tensions and dilemmas. This is a powerfully written narrative that works skilfully through a child’s imagination to suggest a world of insights about familial and social relationships in the new South Africa.
'Jambula Tree' - Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007, Uganda) – 2.5 stars
This is a touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a relationship that blossoms between young girls in a country where homosexuality is illegal. It tells the story of two adolescent girls, Anyango and Sangu, who, for a time at least, ‘prefer’ one another. When their love is discovered, Anyango is sent abroad to a boarding school, Sangu stays behind and becomes a nurse who leads a solitary life. The story is a letter written, perhaps delivered, perhaps never sent, by Sangu to Anyango on her return. I found it fascinating that this was the only story in this collection in which queer characters were the focus. I also found it notable that the story had already been published in 2007. I would have expected this theme to come up in later years but alas!
'Poison' - Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008, South Africa) – 3 stars
In starkly understated prose, ‘Poison’ zooms in on a motley crowd of Cape Towners marooned out of petrol at a middle-of-nowhere service station as people flee a chemical explosion in the city. Central character Lynn looks on numbly while her fellow refugees cut deals and improvise team efforts - across Cape Town's established social divides - to get away from the toxic smuts spreading across the veld. Something of a blank human space, Lynn baffles even herself by failing to take any of the possible escape routes. A compellingly enigmatic story, and also a nice change from all the other literary fiction stories in this collection. I personally would’ve preferred if a wider range of genres would have been reflected in the winning stories, but ‘Poison’ was sadly one of the few exceptions.
'Waiting' - EC Osundu (2009, Nigeria) – 4.5 stars
The story centers around some children in an African refugee camp who spend their days waiting for one thing or the other, and keep waiting, waiting, then waiting for one thing or another. They wait for trucks to bring food, wait to join lines, wait to scatter, then wait to fight for the food. After this, there is a watch and wait for water trucks – which do not always come. In fact, on the day of narration – for the tale is a narrative of a day in the camp with flashbacks, thoughts and the like – the children are waiting for a photographer to come and take their pictures so that same can be transported abroad by the Red Cross who are the hosts of the camp. And they just keep waiting… Of course, this story evokes the image of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and albeit it isn’t nearly as clever or funny, I couldn’t help myself but enjoy that literary nod and exploration from a completely different perspective.
'Stickfighting Days' - Olufemi Terry (2010, Sierra Leone) – 4.5 stars
The story follows a group of glue-sniffing boys in a dump who fight with sticks. Terry said the story originally came into his head as "the idea of street boys in Nairobi, in rags, sniffing glue", adding: "The stickfighting element just popped into my head—there wasn't any obvious connection between the two strands, but somehow I found myself working with these two elements and the story just poured out of me”. I really enjoyed the story for its thrill and violence. It was one of the few stories that kept me engaged throughout; couldn’t help but be reminded of Lord of the Flies, the end was similarly vicious.
'Hitting Budapest' - Noviolet Bulawayo (2011, Zimbabwe) – 3.5 stars
The story opens with the Zimbabwean children on their way to Budapest to steal guavas. The children are not supposed to go there, but they are hungry, so they sneak out of their rundown village and break into a run, yelling and singing, as soon as they get to the bush. At the climax of the story, the children gather to find a woman hanging from a tree. Her eyes and mouth are open wide and she wears a yellow dress and red shoes. After a few moments of intense silence and contemplation, the children decide to take the woman’s shoes and sell them for bread. The ending of the story is so eery (reminded me a bit of Jackson’s The Lottery) and will leave any reader with a heavy heart. The story is a great exploration of how poverty can make animals of people.
'Bombay's Republic' - Rotimi Babatunde (2012, Nigeria) – 2 stars
This story starts off about an African soldier’s experience fighting in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War and after he returns. Bombay, the soldier, encounters numerous realizations that confound and expand his understanding of what is feasible. But Bombay’s perceptions reach beyond reality, and he follows a different path than you might expect. Instead of joining activists after the war, he eventually calls the old jailhouse home and unilaterally declares his home a sovereign nation. The adults in the community mock him and ostracize him as he crafts busts of idols for his new country. He spends the rest of his years considering himself as the head of state of one of the first independent African nations, winning dozens of elections. This story kind of flew over my head. I like the idea of it (and I feel like it could’ve been a very comedic yet hard-hitting tale) but somehow it just left me completely cold.
'Miracle' - Tope Folarin (2013, Nigeria) – 4.5 stars
‘Miracle’ is a story set in Texas in an evangelical Nigerian church where the congregation has gathered to witness the healing powers of a blind pastor-prophet. Religion and the gullibility of those caught in the deceit that sometimes comes with faith rise to the surface as a young boy volunteers to be healed. This story was incredibly well written and above all charming. I really liked the spin at the end (with the protagonist realising that a community needs “miracles” to survive, so he goes along with the bullshit; and his father giving him his glasses back the next morning, fully knowing that he was never healed of his poor sight), because it showed that everyone in the community was aware of it as well.
This story also featured my favorite quote from this entire collection: “We need jobs. We need good grades. We need green cards. We need American passports. We need our parents to understand that we are Americans. We need our children to understand they are Nigerians.” - I feel like this is the perfect summary for second generation of immigrant families, the first ones natively born in the US.
'My Father's Head' - Okwiri Oduor (2014, Kenya) – 1 star
'My Father's Head' explores the narrator's difficulty in dealing with the loss of her father and looks at the themes of memory, loss and loneliness. The narrator works in an old people's home and comes into contact with a priest, giving her the courage to recall her buried memories of her father. Not gonna lie, I don’t recall this story at all. Totally unmemorable.
'The Sack' - Namwali Serpell (2015, Zambia) – 1 star
This story explores a world where dreams and reality are both claustrophobic and dark. The relationship between two men and an absent woman are explored though troubled interactions and power relationships which jar with the views held by the characters. Yet again, bored me to death and I barely remember a thing.
'Memories We Lost' - Lidudumalingani (2016, South Africa) – 3.5 stars
‘Memories We Lost’ tells the emotionally charged story of a girl who acts as protector of her sister, whose serious mental-health problems cause consternation in a South African village. Her situation deteriorates as her care is entrusted to Nkunzi, a local man who employs traditional techniques to rid people of their demons. I liked the dynamic between the two sisters and that this was one of the few stories dealing with mental health, a topic I simply read way too little about.
'The Story of the Girl' - Bushra al-Fadil (2017, Sudan) – 2 stars
“The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away” vividly describes life in a bustling market through the eyes of the narrator, who becomes entranced by a beautiful woman he sees there one day. After a series of brief encounters, tragedy unexpectedly befalls the woman and her young female companion. This story tried to tie elements of magical realism with an overly lyrical language … and both didn’t quite work for me.
'Fanta Blackcurrant' - Makena Onjerika (2018, Kenya) – 4 stars
Meri, who is different from her friends, has only one wish for God - she wants to quench her thirst every day with a big Fanta Blackcurrant, and may it never end. A life between poverty and hope, drugs and love, crime and an uncertain outcome. This story had many comedic moments whilst still being very hard-hitting. Really reminded me of Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly:
'Skinned' - Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019, Nigeria) – 5 stars
‘Skinned’ envisions a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed. It tells the story of Ejem, a young woman uncovered at the age of 15 yet ‘unclaimed’ in adulthood, and her attempts to negotiate a rigidly stratified society following the breakdown of a protective friendship with the married Chidinma. With a wit, prescience, and a wicked imagination, ‘Skinned’ is a bold and unsettling tale of bodily autonomy and womanhood, and the fault lines along which solidarities are formed and broken.This was one of the most ambitious yet concise and complete stories in here – definitely one of my favourites and I need to read more of Arimah's.
January 20, 2023
Now y’all know how much I love short story collections 🥺
As I’ve said 500 hundred times, my love for African literature came about a bit “late” in my life. I mostly bought this collection because I was quite curious about how Africanstory telling has transformed through time 🥹. From stories rooted firmly in the idea of home, belonging, a sense of identity to stories that lean to the more speculative side.
Some stories reminded of why I loved a certain book or author, an example being “The Museum” by Leila Aboulela, “Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo, and “The Sack” by Namwali Serpell. Other stories made me curious about some of the authors, after reading “Jungfrau” by Mary Watson, I was really excited about reading Blood to Poison, and I LOVED IT.
Anyway, if it wasn’t clear - I really enjoyed this one 💙 if you’re trying to find new authors to read, collections like these are the ✨perfect✨ place to start.
As I’ve said 500 hundred times, my love for African literature came about a bit “late” in my life. I mostly bought this collection because I was quite curious about how Africanstory telling has transformed through time 🥹. From stories rooted firmly in the idea of home, belonging, a sense of identity to stories that lean to the more speculative side.
Some stories reminded of why I loved a certain book or author, an example being “The Museum” by Leila Aboulela, “Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo, and “The Sack” by Namwali Serpell. Other stories made me curious about some of the authors, after reading “Jungfrau” by Mary Watson, I was really excited about reading Blood to Poison, and I LOVED IT.
Anyway, if it wasn’t clear - I really enjoyed this one 💙 if you’re trying to find new authors to read, collections like these are the ✨perfect✨ place to start.
July 3, 2024
2.5 stars
Prior to this year I’d never liked multi-author anthologies, but this year I’ve suddenly become interested—specifically in prize anthologies, which in theory provide a higher level of quality. A limitation, however, is just how many of these are American-only, so I was excited to find this anthology. It includes the first 20 years of winners of the Caine Prize, a prestigious short-story prize founded in 2000 for English-language stories by authors from (or with a parent from) any African country.
Unfortunately, the stories themselves were a bit of a letdown: there’s a handful I liked, but they are overall less polished than I expected from prizewinning stories. Maybe in part this is because I’d just come from reading 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, each of which is selected from thousands of stories published annually. By contrast, the Caine Prize was new, as are many of the literary journals it pulls from: from news articles, there were only 110 entries in its 7th year and just under 300 by 2023. Kenya, the country with the second-most winners, apparently didn’t have any literary journals until the third winner used his winnings to found one.
Maybe in part the Caine Prize judges have different criteria than I do: in particular, I’d call 2/3 of these “issue” stories, with the most frequent issues being poverty, refugees and street kids. The prize has in fact been criticized for encouraging writers to present stereotypical depictions of Africa, and perhaps the judges prioritized gravity of subject matter over writing quality at times. Or maybe it’s that the judges prioritize recognizing new writers: of the 20 included here, only 4 had published a novel or collection before their win, only one or two of which got much notice, though several have had breakout successes since.
A few other notes on the stories and authors:
- Amusingly, the stories start out on the longer end, culminating with the fourth, which is nearly 40 pages long. After that the judges apparently drew a line, because the remaining 16 stories are almost all in the 10-13 page range.
- Countries represented: Nigeria (6 times), Kenya (4), South Africa (3), Zimbabwe (2), Sudan (2), and Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zambia once each. However, from what I can find 12 of these writers are immigrants or expats, mostly based in the U.S. and U.K.
- There’s a 50/50 split between men and women. Nineteen stories were originally published in English, and one in Arabic.
- For those looking for more reviews of the stories, many have their own pages, but the prize foundation also publishes an anthology each year of all five shortlisted stories, plus 12 stories written in a writers’ workshop sponsored by the prize. Sadly Goodreads does not collect all those anthologies in one place, but those reviews are a great place to get a fuller picture. I was surprised to see how many of the same people keep getting nominated, although there’s never been a repeat winner.
- I have to mention how much gross imagery is in these stories, of excrement particularly.
Anyway, on to the story reviews!
“The Museum” by Leila Aboulela: Focuses on the tentative relationship between a young Sudanese graduate student in Scotland and a local classmate. Probably one of the better stories, though especially as it’s the first, it struck me as a little rough around the edges for a prizewinner. Its themes—the way cultural imperialism complicates personal relationships, and the way Europe views Africa—have been much-explored in literature and popular culture since, but I do think this is a good example, bringing some complexity and stereotype-busting elements to the portrayal of both the Sudanese girl and the Scottish boy.
“Love Poems” by Helon Habila: Follows a journalist turned political prisoner as the prison warden asks him to ghostwrite love poems for his girlfriend. This story is structurally ambitious, alternating between the prisoner’s diary entries and the voice of an unknown person who appears to be researching him, but it didn’t quite work for me: the diary entries are written exactly like fiction, and it’s very much an issue story that introduces no complexity to the protagonist outside his victimhood.
“Discovering Home” by Binyavanga Wainaina: I agree with the other reviewer that this is the worst in the collection. It’s a sort of fictional travelogue through three countries with a jerky pace, seemingly random scenes, no character development, clunky repetitions, and a weird compulsion to constantly address the reader in an attempt to skewer stereotypes (why is the narrator so preoccupied with how outsiders would view his country?). Well, someone out there apparently liked it.
“Weight of Whispers” by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor: A far more complex and difficult story, as well as the longest. It follows a prince and his family who leave their homeland after the fall of the genocidal regimes in Rwanda and Burundi, and become refugees in Kenya. It does not make concessions to the uninformed reader, so I found this article helpful in parsing it. I appreciated it though: it’s compelling, and it leaves the reader with a lot to think about. Personally I think that It’s an interesting literary use of the refugee story: on the one hand the author using refugees from elsewhere to critique her own country; on the other, presenting a range of levels of sympathy and probable complicity from each of the family members. I felt for the space cadet sister.
“Seventh Street Alchemy” by Brian Chikwava: This doesn’t really want to be a written story, I think; it wants to be set to music, and from the auther’s bio it turns out he’s done just that with other writings! The events are banal and the language overwrought and the whole time I was reading it, I envisioned it being read aloud at an open mic night somewhere. It’s probably much better that way.
“Monday Morning” by Segun Afolabi: This one I liked better: a snapshot of a refugee family temporarily lodged at a hotel in an unspecified European country. It’s emotionally effective, showing the individuality of each relative, sensitively indicating their trauma by showing how it affects them now, and suggesting hope and resilience without being trite.
“Jungfrau” by Mary Watson: A literary story I’m not sure I quite got (sadly there doesn’t seem to be lit crit online for this one). On the surface, it’s about the conflict between a girl’s instinctive admiration for her glamorous, hypocritical aunt and her dutiful love for her civic-minded mother. But by the end there’s the clear implication that and I’m not sure how to fit that into the rest of the story. I wasn’t sure how to parse the whale watching either.
“Jambula Tree” by Monica Arac de Nyeko: This is discussed as a story of romance between two girls in a homophobic society, but there’s no real substance to either of the girls or their relationship; the strongest element is the depiction of the slum where they live. Framing it as one girl’s monologue addressed to the other raises questions about why so much of it is spent explaining stuff the other girl already knows.
“Poison” by Henrietta Rose-Innes: One of my favorites: it reads like an apocalyptic story, though the disaster is local rather than global (which I appreciated). It follows a woman who is trying to get out of Cape Town… or maybe not trying that hard after all. Felt vivid and real and has a great atmosphere, though I would’ve liked to know more about the protagonist, which is a common theme with these stories.
“Waiting” by EC Osundu
“Stickfighting Days” by Olufemi Terry
“Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo
I’ll discuss these three together because they all use the same technique, which I hate: where an author writing for adults adopts the first-person, present-tense point-of-view of a child in some extreme circumstances to increase pathos (while also making the voice totally matter-of-fact because the mere fact of their age is supposed to melt you). In “Waiting” the children are in a refugee camp, and it struck me as pandering and gross: why would these kids lack identities of their own and instead assume the names on their donated T-shirts? why do they fight over food like animals when there’s enough to go around? why does the story romanticize international adoption? In “Stickfighting Days” they’re boys living in a dump, who apparently have all the free time in the world to play fight with each other because their food is coming from, uh, somewhere? Less pandering but didn’t feel any more authentic. “Hitting Budapest” is the best of the three, this time about slum-dwelling children. It was expanded to become Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, which I decided against when it was big because I don’t like the technique. Well, I didn’t like this story either.
“Bombay’s Republic” by Rotimi Babatunde: Thank God, an adult protagonist. This one is interesting and surprisingly funny, though a bit obvious at times, about a man who grew up under colonialism but gets a larger view of the world fighting in WWII. Then he gets home and becomes a sovereign citizen, declaring an abandoned municipal building to be his republic (population: one). In a nice counterpoint to most stories of this type . Leaves the reader with questions about his answer to colonialism—is Bombay an empowered figure or an irrelevant one? What does it mean that his power depends on his irrelevance?
“Miracle” by Tope Folarin: One of the most fun stories to read, this one is about a Nigerian-American boy selected for a faith healing at a revival. As with the last story, this one’s strong enough to have more than one reading: The shift from first-person plural to singular is interesting, though I’m left thinking this boy couldn’t possibly have understood the other congregants quite that well.
“My Father’s Head” by Okwiri Oduor: I liked this more than I didn’t, mostly for its vivid imagery. A nursing home worker tries to conjure her dead father, and succeeds: now what? Someone familiar with Kenyan culture would probably get more out of it than I did.
“The Sack” by Namwali Serpell: This one I liked less. It’s deliberately written to be as confusing as possible, featuring Jacob and Joseph from The Old Drift (though this story came out before the novel) many years after the end of that book, but referred to individually as “J.” and “the man” making unclear which is which, and I wasn’t even sure . I also didn’t much care.
“Memories We Lost” by Lidudumalingani: This feels like a stereotypically fearmongering story about a girl identified as having schizophrenia, though given how young she is and the fact that her primary symptom is sudden bouts of violence, her kid sister’s diagnosis seems suspect. The story is told from the perspective of said sister, and gives the ill girl little voice or agency, as instead the sister makes decisions for her. The community’s response to this girl and local treatments offered are lousy, but contrary to the assumptions of some reviewers, on average people with schizophrenia actually do better in less developed countries.
“The Story of the Girls Whose Birds Flew Away” by Bushra al-Fadil: A weird story that even admirers describe as a fever dream. This is the one translated story, and I’m impressed by how much rhyme and rhythm the translator managed to get into the language. The story doesn’t make a lot of sense though, and I’m over Sudanese men writing about violence against women in the creepiest ways possible.
“Fanta Blackcurrent” by Makena Onjerika: Another street children story for old times’ sake, but I liked this one better than the others: it’s told in the first-person plural with strong, distinctive language, and the girls grow up to be young women fast. A sad tale of how their lives turn out.
“Skinned” by Lesley Nneka Arimah: This dystopian story is a strong end to the anthology: a world where women are required to go naked from adolescence until they marry, with a lot of commentary on expectations of women’s roles and the dynamics among members of an oppressed group with different levels of wealth and willingness to conform. The end didn’t entirely make sense to me—why does Ejem suddenly want to talk to the servants so much?—but overall I found it to be strong storytelling and a clever take. Arimah’s collection was already on my TBR, but this confirmed it.
Overall then, a mixed bag, as with any anthology. Because I only sort of liked about half of them and didn’t love any, it’s hard to recommend this one, but it may be worth a look if you want to see a range of African short stories.
Prior to this year I’d never liked multi-author anthologies, but this year I’ve suddenly become interested—specifically in prize anthologies, which in theory provide a higher level of quality. A limitation, however, is just how many of these are American-only, so I was excited to find this anthology. It includes the first 20 years of winners of the Caine Prize, a prestigious short-story prize founded in 2000 for English-language stories by authors from (or with a parent from) any African country.
Unfortunately, the stories themselves were a bit of a letdown: there’s a handful I liked, but they are overall less polished than I expected from prizewinning stories. Maybe in part this is because I’d just come from reading 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, each of which is selected from thousands of stories published annually. By contrast, the Caine Prize was new, as are many of the literary journals it pulls from: from news articles, there were only 110 entries in its 7th year and just under 300 by 2023. Kenya, the country with the second-most winners, apparently didn’t have any literary journals until the third winner used his winnings to found one.
Maybe in part the Caine Prize judges have different criteria than I do: in particular, I’d call 2/3 of these “issue” stories, with the most frequent issues being poverty, refugees and street kids. The prize has in fact been criticized for encouraging writers to present stereotypical depictions of Africa, and perhaps the judges prioritized gravity of subject matter over writing quality at times. Or maybe it’s that the judges prioritize recognizing new writers: of the 20 included here, only 4 had published a novel or collection before their win, only one or two of which got much notice, though several have had breakout successes since.
A few other notes on the stories and authors:
- Amusingly, the stories start out on the longer end, culminating with the fourth, which is nearly 40 pages long. After that the judges apparently drew a line, because the remaining 16 stories are almost all in the 10-13 page range.
- Countries represented: Nigeria (6 times), Kenya (4), South Africa (3), Zimbabwe (2), Sudan (2), and Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zambia once each. However, from what I can find 12 of these writers are immigrants or expats, mostly based in the U.S. and U.K.
- There’s a 50/50 split between men and women. Nineteen stories were originally published in English, and one in Arabic.
- For those looking for more reviews of the stories, many have their own pages, but the prize foundation also publishes an anthology each year of all five shortlisted stories, plus 12 stories written in a writers’ workshop sponsored by the prize. Sadly Goodreads does not collect all those anthologies in one place, but those reviews are a great place to get a fuller picture. I was surprised to see how many of the same people keep getting nominated, although there’s never been a repeat winner.
- I have to mention how much gross imagery is in these stories, of excrement particularly.
Anyway, on to the story reviews!
“The Museum” by Leila Aboulela: Focuses on the tentative relationship between a young Sudanese graduate student in Scotland and a local classmate. Probably one of the better stories, though especially as it’s the first, it struck me as a little rough around the edges for a prizewinner. Its themes—the way cultural imperialism complicates personal relationships, and the way Europe views Africa—have been much-explored in literature and popular culture since, but I do think this is a good example, bringing some complexity and stereotype-busting elements to the portrayal of both the Sudanese girl and the Scottish boy.
“Love Poems” by Helon Habila: Follows a journalist turned political prisoner as the prison warden asks him to ghostwrite love poems for his girlfriend. This story is structurally ambitious, alternating between the prisoner’s diary entries and the voice of an unknown person who appears to be researching him, but it didn’t quite work for me: the diary entries are written exactly like fiction, and it’s very much an issue story that introduces no complexity to the protagonist outside his victimhood.
“Discovering Home” by Binyavanga Wainaina: I agree with the other reviewer that this is the worst in the collection. It’s a sort of fictional travelogue through three countries with a jerky pace, seemingly random scenes, no character development, clunky repetitions, and a weird compulsion to constantly address the reader in an attempt to skewer stereotypes (why is the narrator so preoccupied with how outsiders would view his country?). Well, someone out there apparently liked it.
“Weight of Whispers” by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor: A far more complex and difficult story, as well as the longest. It follows a prince and his family who leave their homeland after the fall of the genocidal regimes in Rwanda and Burundi, and become refugees in Kenya. It does not make concessions to the uninformed reader, so I found this article helpful in parsing it. I appreciated it though: it’s compelling, and it leaves the reader with a lot to think about. Personally I think that It’s an interesting literary use of the refugee story: on the one hand the author using refugees from elsewhere to critique her own country; on the other, presenting a range of levels of sympathy and probable complicity from each of the family members. I felt for the space cadet sister.
“Seventh Street Alchemy” by Brian Chikwava: This doesn’t really want to be a written story, I think; it wants to be set to music, and from the auther’s bio it turns out he’s done just that with other writings! The events are banal and the language overwrought and the whole time I was reading it, I envisioned it being read aloud at an open mic night somewhere. It’s probably much better that way.
“Monday Morning” by Segun Afolabi: This one I liked better: a snapshot of a refugee family temporarily lodged at a hotel in an unspecified European country. It’s emotionally effective, showing the individuality of each relative, sensitively indicating their trauma by showing how it affects them now, and suggesting hope and resilience without being trite.
“Jungfrau” by Mary Watson: A literary story I’m not sure I quite got (sadly there doesn’t seem to be lit crit online for this one). On the surface, it’s about the conflict between a girl’s instinctive admiration for her glamorous, hypocritical aunt and her dutiful love for her civic-minded mother. But by the end there’s the clear implication that and I’m not sure how to fit that into the rest of the story. I wasn’t sure how to parse the whale watching either.
“Jambula Tree” by Monica Arac de Nyeko: This is discussed as a story of romance between two girls in a homophobic society, but there’s no real substance to either of the girls or their relationship; the strongest element is the depiction of the slum where they live. Framing it as one girl’s monologue addressed to the other raises questions about why so much of it is spent explaining stuff the other girl already knows.
“Poison” by Henrietta Rose-Innes: One of my favorites: it reads like an apocalyptic story, though the disaster is local rather than global (which I appreciated). It follows a woman who is trying to get out of Cape Town… or maybe not trying that hard after all. Felt vivid and real and has a great atmosphere, though I would’ve liked to know more about the protagonist, which is a common theme with these stories.
“Waiting” by EC Osundu
“Stickfighting Days” by Olufemi Terry
“Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo
I’ll discuss these three together because they all use the same technique, which I hate: where an author writing for adults adopts the first-person, present-tense point-of-view of a child in some extreme circumstances to increase pathos (while also making the voice totally matter-of-fact because the mere fact of their age is supposed to melt you). In “Waiting” the children are in a refugee camp, and it struck me as pandering and gross: why would these kids lack identities of their own and instead assume the names on their donated T-shirts? why do they fight over food like animals when there’s enough to go around? why does the story romanticize international adoption? In “Stickfighting Days” they’re boys living in a dump, who apparently have all the free time in the world to play fight with each other because their food is coming from, uh, somewhere? Less pandering but didn’t feel any more authentic. “Hitting Budapest” is the best of the three, this time about slum-dwelling children. It was expanded to become Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, which I decided against when it was big because I don’t like the technique. Well, I didn’t like this story either.
“Bombay’s Republic” by Rotimi Babatunde: Thank God, an adult protagonist. This one is interesting and surprisingly funny, though a bit obvious at times, about a man who grew up under colonialism but gets a larger view of the world fighting in WWII. Then he gets home and becomes a sovereign citizen, declaring an abandoned municipal building to be his republic (population: one). In a nice counterpoint to most stories of this type . Leaves the reader with questions about his answer to colonialism—is Bombay an empowered figure or an irrelevant one? What does it mean that his power depends on his irrelevance?
“Miracle” by Tope Folarin: One of the most fun stories to read, this one is about a Nigerian-American boy selected for a faith healing at a revival. As with the last story, this one’s strong enough to have more than one reading: The shift from first-person plural to singular is interesting, though I’m left thinking this boy couldn’t possibly have understood the other congregants quite that well.
“My Father’s Head” by Okwiri Oduor: I liked this more than I didn’t, mostly for its vivid imagery. A nursing home worker tries to conjure her dead father, and succeeds: now what? Someone familiar with Kenyan culture would probably get more out of it than I did.
“The Sack” by Namwali Serpell: This one I liked less. It’s deliberately written to be as confusing as possible, featuring Jacob and Joseph from The Old Drift (though this story came out before the novel) many years after the end of that book, but referred to individually as “J.” and “the man” making unclear which is which, and I wasn’t even sure . I also didn’t much care.
“Memories We Lost” by Lidudumalingani: This feels like a stereotypically fearmongering story about a girl identified as having schizophrenia, though given how young she is and the fact that her primary symptom is sudden bouts of violence, her kid sister’s diagnosis seems suspect. The story is told from the perspective of said sister, and gives the ill girl little voice or agency, as instead the sister makes decisions for her. The community’s response to this girl and local treatments offered are lousy, but contrary to the assumptions of some reviewers, on average people with schizophrenia actually do better in less developed countries.
“The Story of the Girls Whose Birds Flew Away” by Bushra al-Fadil: A weird story that even admirers describe as a fever dream. This is the one translated story, and I’m impressed by how much rhyme and rhythm the translator managed to get into the language. The story doesn’t make a lot of sense though, and I’m over Sudanese men writing about violence against women in the creepiest ways possible.
“Fanta Blackcurrent” by Makena Onjerika: Another street children story for old times’ sake, but I liked this one better than the others: it’s told in the first-person plural with strong, distinctive language, and the girls grow up to be young women fast. A sad tale of how their lives turn out.
“Skinned” by Lesley Nneka Arimah: This dystopian story is a strong end to the anthology: a world where women are required to go naked from adolescence until they marry, with a lot of commentary on expectations of women’s roles and the dynamics among members of an oppressed group with different levels of wealth and willingness to conform. The end didn’t entirely make sense to me—why does Ejem suddenly want to talk to the servants so much?—but overall I found it to be strong storytelling and a clever take. Arimah’s collection was already on my TBR, but this confirmed it.
Overall then, a mixed bag, as with any anthology. Because I only sort of liked about half of them and didn’t love any, it’s hard to recommend this one, but it may be worth a look if you want to see a range of African short stories.
December 28, 2021
This was exactly as a short story collection should be- admittedly there were many stories that I didn't love but there were also some really impactful stories which led me to discover authors I might not have otherwise. Particularly, I found the stories by Leila Aboulela, Helon Habila, Segun Afolabi, Henrietta Rose-Innes, EC Osondu, NoViolet Bulawyo and Lesley Nneka Arimah especially powerful and look forward to following their work.
February 8, 2022
Review to come!
May 24, 2024
The collection of stories will transport you into the diaspora and gave a glimpse into the socio-economic challenges and everyday human challenges. It is difficult, at least for me, attempting the stories knowing they won an award. In a way, I felt I needed to love the stories, and if I did not connect with them immediately, felt like I am not focusing enough.
maybe-to-read
February 6, 2020WHO SUCKED ME IN
books by leynes on YouTube in their some african writers worth checking out | book review video published on 17 jan. 2020
books by leynes on YouTube in their some african writers worth checking out | book review video published on 17 jan. 2020
July 15, 2025
20 years of the Caine Prize spanning writers across the African continent. This anthology contains incredible story that shows the richness and power of narration in Africa. Would recommend it any day of the week.
February 4, 2020
Will happy stories ever win?!
May 26, 2019
Heard it on the podcast and am very interested in the upcoming book ‘A Certain Type of Black Man’; great for those who appreciate the community aspect of faith, while also having struggled with faith at any point in their lives.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews