Nigerian wins inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu has won the inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature.

He will receive over N568, 000 (£1000).

Ani’s ‘And Then He Sang A Lullaby’ which won the prize, was described by the Chair of the Jury, Sarah Inyal Lawal, as breath-taking in a virtual event while announcing the winner.

The James Currey Prize for African Literature was established in 2020 by Nigerian writer and publisher of Hattus Books, Onyeka Nwelue, as an annual award for the best-unpublished work of fiction written in English by any writer, set in Africa or on Africans in Africa or in Diaspora.

Jury members include Canada-based Nigerian publisher Bibi Ukonu; Dr. Pinkie Megkwe (Botswana), Barbara Adair (South Africa), Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph (Nigeria), Arun Jay (India), and Miko Yamanouchi (Japan).

The longlist for the award was announced on June 16 before the shortlist was revealed on July 1.

Onyeka Nwelue, who is currently an Academic Visitor at African Studies Centre, the University of Oxford in his opening speech said all five shortlisted authors deserved every success to follow.

Nwelue said, “the pivot for the James Currey Prize for African Literature, that we instituted in 2020, for the first unpublished full-length work of fiction intends to perpetuate the value of the African Writers Series and other such initiatives in contemporary African literature exposure, and distribution.”