“Fanta Blackcurrant” written by Kenyan writer Makena Onjerika has won the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing.
Ms. Makena trumped other four finalists in a tightly contested award which comes with a cash prize of USD 10,000 which is equal to Ksh.1.3 million.
The short story was published on the 2017 Spring edition of Wasafiri, which is a UK literary magazine. Besides it has also been seen on Urban Confusions.
The award winning story follows a street girl, Meri, who always wanted to take the soda popularly known as Fanta Blackcurrant.
The story also follows behind other street girls who were in company of the main character.
The graduate of the MFA Creative Writing programme at New York University, is currently working on another fantasy novel.
The shortlist of finalists which came out in May 2018 had featured four other contesting writers who included Nonyelum Ekwempu (Nigeria), Stacy Hardy (South Africa), Olufunke Ogundimu (Nigeria) and Wole Talabi (Nigeria).
Sudanese writer and poet Bushra al-Fadil with his short story “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away” had won the 2017 award under the same category.
Below is the list of all winners in the last 9 years
- Kenya’s Makena Onjerika (2018)
- Sudan’s Bushra al-Fadil (2017)
- South Africa’s Lidudumalingani (2016),
- Zambia’s Namwali Serpell (2015),
- Kenya’s Okwiri Oduor (2014),
- Nigeria’s Tope Folarin (2013),
- Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde (2012),
- Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo (2011)
- Sierra Leone’s Olufemi Terry (2010).
