The 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize nominees have just been announced. Prizes are awarded by regions–Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia; and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Each region gets two categories: Best Book (prize: £10 000) and Best New Book (£5 000).
Surprise, surprise, the African categories are dominated by South Africans: All five nominees for Best Book are South Africa (including one of my favorite writers, Zoe Wicomb for The One that Got Away). As for Best New Book, only one non-South African nominee, Uwem Akpan for his collection of short stories, Say You’re One of Them (Abacus), made the shortlist.
What’s the South African dominance about?
Nigerian writer Helon Habila–in an op-ed published in the Nigerian news portal, NEXT–thinks he has a clue why Nigerians and other continental writers did not make it:
“… Are South African writers better than other African writers? Not necessarily so. Is their publishing industry better? Yes.”
