/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-AFRICA: Awards for the Best Writers of the 20th Century

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Hilary K. Siyachitema

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Apr 16 2002 (IPS) - Zimbabwean writer, Yvonne Vera has been chosen the winner of the first Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa.

To her delight, a 16-member jury also selected one of her books, ‘Butterflies’ as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th century.

“The award will encourage the writing of international literature and translation of books into various languages for schools and other institutions,” says Vera.

Kenyan author, Ali Mazrui initiated the idea of Africa’s 100 Best Books at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) in 1998. His vision was to find a way to direct the spotlight of the world on the achievements of African writers whose works were published in the 20th century.

ZIBF’s Moses Samkange has described the awards, which will be presented in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 27, as “a public relations exercise for Africa’s book industry”.

The awards aim to “stimulate the future writing, reading and publishing of African literature”, according to a statement by the ZIBF.

This year’s Zimbabwe International Book Fair will be held, under the theme “The impact of African writing on world literature”, in Harare on July 27-Aug 3.

The winning books in Cape Town will be put together to make up a mobile exhibition. They will be taken across the world to market African works, according to the ZIBF.

Commending the list, a Harare Librarian says “such great works as Yvonne Vera’s literature should be used for academic study”.

The jury, chaired by Zimbabwean Njabulo Ndebele, has further short-listed 12 of the 100 best African books. These include works by Chinua Achebe, Mariama Ba, Wole Soyinka and Tsitsi Dangarembga.

The books were drawn from three categories: children’s writing, non-fiction and creative writing. They were selected from various languages such as Afrikaans, Arabic, English, French, Kikuyu, Portuguese, Shona, Sotho, Xhosa, Yoruba and Zulu.

The 100 awards will be sponsored by Kingdom Financial Holdings, a Zimbabwean company.

“Our policy is to be involved in education, health, the community and arts. We already have an existing relationship with ZIBF. This combines arts and that is why we as a bank became interested in sponsoring the awards,” says Farai Mpofu of Kingdom Financial Holdings.

Of the writers selected, 81 are male and 19 female. The highest number come from Nigeria, which has 11 writers, followed by Senegal with 10 writers.

The Macmillan award-winning book by Vera, ‘Stone Virgins’ will be launched in Harare on May 16 and in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, on May 23.

Macmillan Publishers, based in Britain, say the prizes will be awarded for previously unpublished works of fiction.

“The aim is to encourage and promote the very best African writing and to celebrate the talent and inspiration of the many new and well established authors from all over the continent,” says Macmillan Publishers.

The Macmillan prize — awarded every two years — is sponsored jointly by Macmillan Education and Piccador, both based in Britain.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will broadcast a selection of the winning entries in the first half of the year.

The 38-year old writer was born in Zimbabwe and completed her secondary schooling in the southern African country. Vera is a holder of a doctorate degree in English.

She has written, among other books, ‘Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals’, ‘Nehanda’, ‘Without a Name’ and the award winning ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Stone Virgins’. She also has received the Commonwealth Award for her work ‘Under the Tongue’ in 1997.

Vera, who is employed by the National Art Gallery in Bulawayo, says she feels “exhilarated and yet humbled to have been chosen among Africa’s best authors”.