Rotimi Babatunde has been awarded the £10 000
prize for his short story Bombay's Republic published in the MirabiliaReview. This makes Rotimi the winner of the thirteenth Caine Prize for
African writing.
Bernardine Evaristo announced
Babatunde as the winner of the £10 000 prize at the awards dinner which held
on Monday, 2 July 2012, at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
According to Chair of the judging panel, Bernadine Evaristo, "Bombay's
Republic vividly describes the story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in the
Burma campaign of World War Two. It is ambitious, darkly humorous and in soaring,
scorching prose exposes the exploitative nature of the colonial project and the
psychology of independence."
Babatunde's fiction and poems have been published in Africa, Europe and America
in journals which include Die Aussenseite des Elementes and Fiction on
the Web and in anthologies. He is a winner of the Meridian Tragic Love Story
Competition organised by the BBC World Service and his plays have been staged
and presented by institutions which include the Halcyon Theatre, Chicago and
the Institute for Contemporary Arts. He is currently taking part in a
collaboratively produced piece at the Royal Court and the Young Vic as part of
World Stages for a World City. Rotimi lives in Ibadan, Nigeria.
The shortlist included:
- Billy Kahora from Kenya for Urban Zoning
- Stanley Kenani from Malawi for Love on Trial
- Melissa Tandiwe Myambo from Zimbabwe for La Salle de
Départ
- Constance Myburgh from South Africa for Hunter
Emmanuel
Alongside Evaristo on the panel of judges this year included cultural
journalist, Maya Jaggi; Zimbabwean poet, songwriter and writer Chirikure
Chirikure; associate professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC,
Samantha Pinto; and the Sudanese CNN television correspondent, Nima Elbagir.
As the winner, Babatunde will be given the opportunity of taking up a month's
residence at Georgetown University, as a writer-in-residence at the Lannan
Center for Poetics and Social Practice. The award covers all travel and living
expenses. He will be invited to take part in the Open Book Festival in Cape
Town in September 2012. Invitations will be given him for events hosted by the
Museum of African Art in New York in November 2012.Labels: 13th winner of Caine prize, 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing, Caine Prize for African writing, Rotimi Babatunde
