Ntsika Kota is first Eswatini winner of Commonwealth Short Story prize

Twenty-nine-year-old Ntsika Kota has been announced as the overall winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

The prize is the world’s most global literature prize and saw a first-time winner beat off competition from a record 6, 729 entries to take home the over N2, 546, 801 (£5,000) prize.  

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The Commonwealth Foundation announced Kota’s win in an online ceremony, in which he and the four regional winners read extracts from their stories.

Kota is the first writer from Eswatini to win the prize. He is also the first writer from that country to be shortlisted.

Kota’s story ‘and the earth drank deep’ depicts a group of hunter-gatherers encountering threats from wild animals, disease and unexpected death.

The judge representing the African region, Rwandan publisher Louise Umutoni-Bower, praised it as a story that ‘uses African folktale in a way that remains true to form but is also accessible. It is a reminder of a time when storytelling had a prized place in social gatherings.’  She comments, ‘I was personally transported back to the floor by my mother’s feet where I quietly listened to tales of Rwandan folk heroes and villains.’

Chair of the Judges, Guyanese writer Fred D’Aguiar, says, ‘This year’s winner is an instant classic: a linear narrative in the tradition of the realist short story. The events unfold around a central ethical conceit with tension that accumulates, and a surprise ending leaves the reader with many questions and in a state of provocation. The deceitfully simple and straightforward style rubs against an artful orchestration of tension. The writer controls elements of character and plot to captivate the most sceptical of readers. The reader inherits a host of hot topics for discussion at the end of the story all of which shine back at the reader’s world. Like the best parables, the result is an interplay between story and reality, invention and the quotidian, the writer’s imagination and the world of the reader.’

Ntsika Kota says, “There are not many literature prizes more global in scale or inclusive in scope than the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. I submitted my story more out of pride than expectation.” 

Born in Mbabane, Eswatini, Ntsika Kota is a chemist by training. A self-taught writer, he was originally inspired by a high school writing assignment. Ntsika’s work is a reflection of his thoughts and feelings, and he enjoys creating that reflection.