BY JAPHET ALAKAM

he winning books, The Memory of Love, and Happiness is a Four-letter Word

At last, the Commonwealth Foundation, organisers of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the internationally recognised platform for promoting ground-breaking works of literature from across the globe, last week announced the regional prize winners from the four regions of the Commonwealth with works by Nigerian writers conspicuously missing from the list.

The Africa region Best Book category has The Memory of Love, a heartbreaking story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances by acclaimed writer Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone while the Best First Book category has Cynthia Jele from South Africa with her book Happiness is a Four-letter Word.

When the shortlists for Africa were earlier announced, South Africa and Nigeria dominated the lists, with South Africa producing 7 writers, while Nigeria produced 4 writers. But out of the four Nigerian writers shortlisted none of them made it for the prize winners slated for May in Sydney. The four shortlisted Nigerian writers were Bridget Pitt-The Unseen Leopard for the best book category and Chioma Okereke – Bitter Leaf ,Uzoma Uponi- Colour Blind, , E.C. Osundu -Voice of America for the best first book in Africa.

Rise of female writers

Also, as earlier observed that female writers dominated the pack of the list with 12 writers for the 2011 best book and best first book from Africa, two of them actually made it as the regional winners for the prize, an indication that women writers are coming into their own in African contemporary literature.

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize offers awards for Best Book and Best First Book for four regions: Africa, Caribbean , Canada, South Asia, Europe, South East Asia and Pacific. These African winners (Aminatta Forna and Cynthia Jele) will then travel to Australia to join other winners from the other regions for the Sydney Writers’ Festival in May. A programme of talks and public activities are planned in Sydney to coincide with the announcement of the two overall winners. The overall best book winner will receive £10,000 while the winner of the best first book prize will receive £5,000. The overall winners will be announced on Saturday 21st May.