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BUDDING Nigerian author, Rotimi Babatunde, has won the 13th Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story “Bombay’s Republic”.
He was awarded 10,000 pounds at the award dinner on Monday night at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Bombay’s Republic is a tale of a Nigerian soldier fighting the Bombay campaign during World War II.
It exposes the exploitative nature of colonialism and the psychology behind the fight for independence.
Chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo, described Bombay’s Republic as an “ambitious, darkly humorous” book which “in soaring, scorching prose exposes the exploitative nature of the colonial project and the psychology of Independence.”
Also on the judging panel were the cultural journalist Maya Jaggi; Zimbabwean poet, songwriter and writer Chirikure Chirikure; associate professor at Georgetown University Samantha Pinto, and the Sudanese CNN television correspondent Nima Elbagir.
The Caine Prize, now in it’s 13th yearly edition, is arguably the most prestigious awards for literary excellence in Africa.
Among other rewards, the winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing also has the opportunity to take up a month’s residence at Georgetown University, and will be invited to take part in the Open Book Festival in Cape Town in September as well as events hosted by the Museum of African Art, New York in November.
Babatunde said he was moved to write his story because “that context of World War Two in African history, and the story of the Nigerians who went to the Burmese front, has not been properly explored.” He also wanted to “commemorate the sacrifice” of the soldiers who died there
And added: “To understand the present we need to explore the past… In African literature, so many stories have been lost, and I think we need to establish the stories of the past. Have them explored properly to understand the present.”
With this feat Rotimi Babatunde joins the league of young Nigerian writers that have won the coveted prize in recent years. They include, Helon Habila, who won the prize in 2001, S.A. Afolabi in 2005 and E.C. Osondu in 2009.
Before the Caine Prize, Babatunde had won the Meridian Tragic Love Story Competition organised by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service and was awarded the Cyprian Ekwensi Prize for Short Stories by the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF).
-Courtesy Nigerian Compass
