Afritondo Short Story Prize 2020

Announcement

March 27

South African writer, Jarred Thompson, has been named winner of the 2020 Afritondo Short Story Prize for his story Good Help is Hard to Find. Click here for details.

March 6, 2020

We are happy to announce the shortlist for the inaugural Afritondo Short Story Prize. The five stories have been selected from a longlist of 21 stories by Megan Ross, Kelechi Njoku and Gloria Mwaniga.

The Chair of the judges, Megan Ross, had this to say about the shortlist and the selection process:

“It was such a privilege to read the longlist. So, thank you to those writers for entering their stories. Every story was competing against incredibly high standards. Every story was a pleasure to read, and getting to the shortlist was a very difficult job.

“We were constantly impressed by the talent and the voices and the energy that was coming through the stories. It’s going to be an even more difficult task trying to find a winner now.”

The shortlisted stories for the 2020 Afritondo Short Story Prize are:

1. Good Help is Hard to Find by Jarred Thompson (South Africa)

Good Help is Hard to Find is about Pamela—a domestic worker who works in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa. The story describes the everyday pressures of Pamela’s working-class life, while exploring her fluctuating relationship with Mrs. Carien Devilliers—her employer. Through Pamela’s point of view, the story details the contrasting lifestyles of both employer and domestic worker, as Pamela witnesses Mrs. Devilliers’ mental state slowly deteriorate as a result of a secret she is keeping from her husband. 

Jarred Thompson is a queer, coloured writer, researcher and academic. He has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction in multiple publications, including the forthcoming in Living While Feminist Anthology, to be published in 2020 by Kwela Books and compiled by Jennifer Thorpe.

2. Slick Dog: Diary of a Ninja by Philani A Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

The art of being Slick Dog is simple: dealing and smoking 'colitas', managing a budding drug-empire, and of course dealing and smoking colitas. After an evening of debauchery our friend wakes up next to a girl he strongly suspects to be underage but somehow begins the process of falling in love with her.

Philani A Nyoni was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe sometime in the last century. He has authored five books of poetry: "Once A Lover Always A Fool" (2012), "Hewn From Rock" (2014) with John Eppel, "Mars His Sword" (2016), 'Philtrum' (2017) and “Ett Kräs bön” (2019) a Swedish translation.

3. Touch Me Not by Davina Philomena Kawuma (Uganda)

“She” is suicidal, but the society in which She lives doesn’t permit She to have as much control over She’s body as to kill it. “He” is a soldier with whom She has what She assumes to be “an emotional connection.” (They met online, and have been in touch for three years but have never met). Because he is trained in, and owns, the means of violence, he is permitted to kill. So She asks him to kill her. And he says, no problem, of course he will (because giving someone what they want is one way of showing that you love them, not so?).

Davina has received advanced training in both the arts and sciences and therefore considers herself a “scieartist” (“a committed lover of both the sciences and the arts”).  She has a Bachelor of Science degree (Botany and Zoology) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (Biological Sciences). She has received training in fiction writing from workshops and mentorships run by the African Writers Trust, the British Council, the Caine Prize, Storymoja, the Uganda Women Writers Association, and the Dutch, Swedish, and American embassies in Uganda. Her articles, children’s and adult fiction, and poetry are all born out of daily observations of life and have appeared in anthologies published by the African Woman Magazine, African Writers Trust, Ake Review, Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, Brittle Paper, Lawino Magazine, New Internationalist, and Uganda Women Writers Association. Her short story, “Of Birds and Bees” was short-listed for the 2018 Short Story Day Africa Prize.

4. [Unknown] and Wife by Kojo Obeng-Adoh (Ghana)

[Unknown] and Wife is a story about love’s tragic yet amusing futility, its (weak) grip on the lives of the people who find themselves prey to it, and what it means to be with another person.

Kojo Obeng-Andoh is in Accra, which is in Ghana. He is a queer (artist). He is (making, or thinking about making) art. You can follow him on Instagram @kojoobengandoh.

5. Yellow Means Stay by Hannah Onoguwe (Nigeria)

Ebi Inuma isn’t the most the religious of men, but he’s done pretty well, considering. So when he finds himself in the afterlife with apparently no real destination, someone had better provide answers! Enter Jibike. Meeting her in all her witty, curvy glory almost makes him forget he has questions. She informs him that he is in a state of transition, a “golden opportunity not many are given.” Ebi soon discovers that his first son isn’t really his, and in his anger can’t wait to go back to Yenagoa and confront his wife, Tamarapere, with her twenty-eight-year-old lie. And maybe put his hands around her throat right after. On the other hand is Jibike, with her softness and smarts and what she does to his insides. Ebi finds that his burning desire for revenge wars with his burning need to build a forever with Jibike. Nothing is guaranteed: not in life, not in love. He has to decide if vengeance is more important than the possibility of never seeing Jibike again.

Hannah Onoguwe’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Adanna, BLACKBERRY: a magazine, Imagine Africa 500 and online in Litro, The Missing Slate, African Writer, The Kalahari Review, Lawino, AFREADA, The Stockholm Review, Brittle Paper, Persistent Visions, The Drum Lit Mag, Eleven Eleven, Omenana and Timeworn Lit Mag. Her collection of short romantic stories, Wine and Water, is published by Bahati Books and available on Amazon and the Okadabooks app. Also on Okadabooks is Sister Dear and Adesuwa’s Dilemma. She lives in Yenagoa with family. There she reads, writes, is eternally distracted by the Internet and often—miraculously!— finds time to bake. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @HannahOnoguwe.

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers.

The winner will be announced on Friday, March 27, 2020.

February 28, 2020

We are pleased to announce that the shortlist for the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2020 has now been finalised by the judges. The shortlist will be announced on Friday, March 6, 2020.

Longlist

Afritondo is pleased to announce the longlist for the 2020 Afritondo Short Story Prize. We received 421 entries from 19 countries, from which we have selected 21 outstanding entries with the help of a team of readers.

The 2020 longlist is as follows:

1.       Lemon Drops – Marline Oluchi (Nigeria)

2.       Perhaps they were never human – Jennifer Yvette Terrell (USA)

3.       Like Pearls in an Ocean – Edoziem Miracle (Nigeria)

4.       For Love Is A Broken-winged Bird That Cannot Fly – Kayode Ani (Nigeria)

5.       Only Stars Know The Meaning of Space – Remy Ngamije (Namibia)

6.       Of Dead Things That Come Alive – Joshua Chizoma (Nigeria)

7.       Remember Your Father – Ifeoma Nwosu (Nigeria)

8.       Shiva Eyes – Cynthia Kistasamy (South Africa)

9.       Stimulus – Deborah Vuha (Ghana)

10.   The Beast and The Boy Who Lives Close To My House – Phillip Leteka (Lesotho)

11.   The Thing Not Said – Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (South Africa)

12.   Thursday Before Last – Noel Cheruto (Kenya)

13.   Yellow Means Stay – Hannah Onoguwe (Nigeria)

14.   Touch Me Not – Davina Philomena Kawuma (Uganda)

15.   This One is Mine – Mazpa Ejikem (Nigeria)

16.   The Weird and the Wired – Obioma Obinna Kelechi (Nigeria)

17.   The Mask and the Woman – Nnamdi Anyadu (Nigeria)

18.   Slick Dog Diary of a Ninja – Philani A. Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

19.   Good Help is Hard to Find – Jarred Thompson (South Africa)

20.   The Seeds of Pomegranates – Abimbola Alaba (United Kingdom)

21.   [Unknown] and wife – Kojo Obeng-Andoh (Ghana)

Congratulations to the writers!

The judges, Megan Ross, Gloria Mwaniga, and Kelechi Njoku, will meet over the course of the month to decide on a shortlist which will be announced early next month.

If you have any enquiries about the prize, please contact Munachim Amah on admin@afritondo.com

February 4, 2020

In a few hours from now—at about 12pm GMT—we will be announcing the longlist for the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2020. We want to use this opportunity to thank the entrants and to provide some information on the selection process.

We received 421 entries from 19 countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

We were happy with the spread even though the entries were by no means evenly distributed as there were more submissions from some countries and fewer from others. We will work on expanding our reach to ensure a better spread in the next edition of the Prize.

We set up a team of eight readers with the task of drawing up a longlist. The first stage of this process produced 40 entries. However, due to our goal of publishing an anthology, we could only accept about 20 stories. The harder task was whittling the list from 40 down to 20. In order to do this, we had to apply stricter standards including appraising the quality of writing and assessing each entry’s reflection of the theme. It was a tough process and it was hard to see some good entries go. We will be emailing the writers to let them know that our readers enjoyed reading their stories.

Ultimately, we settled on a longlist of 21 stories—less than 5% of the total submissions.

We are sorry if your entry was not longlisted but it is by no means the end of the road. We thank you for entering the Prize and for giving us the opportunity to read your story. We also strongly encourage you to submit an entry for the next edition of the Prize. Should you be interested in publishing and sharing your story on our online magazine, then please do send us an email on editor@afritondo.com and we will be sure to get back to you.

Congratulations on making the longlist! Your story has now been sent to our judges. They will decide on the shortlist and choose the winner.  The shortlist will be announced later this month or in early March. We will post announcements on this page and on our social media accounts.

We will commence the process of publishing your story in our anthology in the coming months. Our editors will be in touch to help you fully achieve your vision for your story before publication.

January 31, 2020

We are pleased to announce that the longlist for the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2020 has now been finalised after a thorough and exhaustive process. The list will be announced on Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

DECEMBER 24, 2019

A very big thank you to everyone that submitted an entry for our inaugural Afritondo Short Story Prize 2020. We received well over 400 entries from 19 countries.

We aim to send acknowledgement emails to all the entrants. If you submitted before the deadline day then you should already have received an email. If you submitted on the last day, please allow a couple more days for the acknowledgement email.

You have certainly put in a lot of work into writing and polishing your stories and can now pass us the baton. Over the next few weeks, your stories will be read by a team of dedicated readers who will be responsible for drawing up the longlist. It is this longlist that will be sent to our three judges who will decide on a shortlist and, eventually, the winner of the Prize.

We aim to announce the longlist by or around the end of January. This could be in the last week of January or the first week of February. We’ll confirm a date closer to the time.

We invite you to follow our new Twitter handle (@afritondo) for announcements. We will also post updates on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Please remember to turn on notifications for our page to ensure you receive our posts and updates.

You may also subscribe to our mailing list to have announcements and other content sent to your inbox.

Warmest greetings from us at Afritondo. We hope you enjoy the holidays and wish you the best of luck.