Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah has emerged winner of the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing for her story, ‘Skinned’. Her compatriot Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor, Cameroonian Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti, Ethiopian Meron Hadero and Kenyan Cherrie Kandie were two months ago shortlisted for the prize.
Peter Kimani, the chairperson of the judging panel, who made the announcement Monday, described the story as a “unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals”.
Born in the UK, Arimah grew up in Nigeria and around the world wherever work took her father. She has won a National Magazine Award, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize and an O. Henry Award, and has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, GRANTA and has received support from The Elizabeth George Foundation and MacDowell.
The Caine Prize, which is worth $12,500 (£10,000) is awarded for a short story published in English. It was established in 2000 with the aim of bringing African writing to a wider international audience.
The story follows Ejem, who comes from a culture where girls are uncovered at a certain age and go naked until they are claimed by a husband.
Arimah was shortlisted for the award in 2017 and her debut collection What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky was published to critical acclaim the same year.
Other members of the 2019 judging panel are Sefi Atta, Nigerian author and playwright shortlisted for the 2006 Caine Prize; Margie Orford, acclaimed author hailed as the “queen of South African crime-thriller writers”; Scott Taylor, professor and director of the African Studies Program at Georgetown University; and Olufemi Terry, Sierra Leone-born author and winner of the 2010 Caine Prize.