In only three days from today, we’ll be announcing the winner of the inaugural Afritondo Short Story Prize.

The Prize was announced in October 2019 and attracted 421 entries from across 19 countries. Today, we are left with only five entries from five countries and the judges have the difficult task of choosing one winner. On Friday, 27th March, the one lucky and deserving winner will find out that their story has won the Prize.

The Judges

One of the first steps in launching the Prize was to set up a diverse team of qualified judges. And we managed to do just that. The three-member panel consists of:

Megan Ross (South Africa) — Chair. Author of Milk Fever. Winner of the 2017 Brittle Paper Award for Fiction

Kelechi Njoku (Nigeria) —- Senior Editor at Kachifo. Winner of the 2014 Writivism Short Story Prize

Gloria Mwaniga (Kenya) —- Editor and teacher. Winner of the £18,000 2019 Miles Morland Scholarship.

The shortlist

“At this point, any story could quite easily win”

— Munachim Amah, Prize Administrator

Earlier in March, the judges, Megan Ross, Gloria Mwaniga, and Kelechi Njoku, decided on a shortlist of five stories. The stories are:

Good help is hard to find by Jarred Thompson (South Africa)

Slick dog diary of a ninja by Philani Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

Touch me not by Davina Kawuma (Uganda)

Unknown and wife by Kojo Obeng-Andoh (Ghana)

Yellow means stay by Hannah Onoguwe (Nigeria)

The chair of the panel, Megan Ross, described the process of generating a shortlist as “an exceedingly difficult task” as most of the entries on the longlist were of an “incredibly high standard.”

Chair of the judges panel, Megan Ross, talks about the shortlisting process

Before the announcement of the shortlist, we got in touch with the writers and asked them a few questions about their stories. This is what they had to say.

Philani Nyoni

AUTHOR OF SLICK DOG DIARY OF A NINJA

Zimbabwean writer and author of the shortlisted story, Slick Dog Diary of a Ninja, talks about westernisation and love.

Hannah Onoguwe

AUTHOR OF YELLOW MEANS STAY

Nigerian writer and author of the shortlisted story, Yellow Means Stay, talks about love in the afterlife and balancing writing and family.

Jarred Thompson

AUTHOR OF GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND

South African writer and author of the shortlisted story, Good Help is Hard to Find, Jarred Thompson talks about love and sexuality

Kojo Obeng-Andoh

AUTHOR OF UNKNOWN AND WIFE

Ghanaian writer and author of the shortlisted story, [Unknown] and Wife, Kojo Obeng-Andoh talks about his writing goals and how he hopes to connect with read...

Davina Kawuma

AUTHOR OF TOUCH ME NOT

Uganda writer and author of the shortlisted story, Touch me not, Davina Kawuma, talks about her story and its conception of love

What comes next?

The winner will be announced on Friday at 5pm (GMT). After the announcement, we’ll get in touch to ask a few questions and also facilitate the transfer of the $1000 award. We had plans to set up a physical meeting with the eventual winner. However, given the current global situation, we’ll have to settle for other virtual alternatives. We will explore these options with the winner.

Soon after the announcement, we will contact all the longlisted writers with a view to initiating the process of publishing the anthology.

A big thank you to all the participants and best of luck to the finalists!

Afritondo Short Story Prize Countdown – Who carries the Day?