A British-born Nigerian writer, Lesley Nneka Arimah, has won the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing courtesy of her satirical short story Skinned.
Skinned focuses on the challenges that women face in many African societies that are still dominated by traditional rituals.
The short story keenly follows the fortunes of Ejem, a girl who is from a culture in which girls go uncovered at a certain age and go without dress or naked up to a point where they are claimed by a husband.
The 36-years-old Lesley Nneka Arimah said the idea of the short story came following a conversation on the differences between single and married women in Nigeria.
“A newly wed friend marvelled at how her family –usually difficult – became easy going after her wedding. Marriage gave unconventional women cover to be themselves, we observed,” Lesley Nneka Arimah said.
While speaking to BBC, Lesley Nneka Arimah said her story is set in what she terms as “an alternate Nigeria….a parallel universe to ours”.
She employs the setting to “touch on this aspect of Nigerian culture that privileges marriage and a woman being married (being) essentially her duty”.
In a statement, the Caine Prize said: “With a wit, prescience, and a wicked imagination, Skinned is a bold and unsettling tale of bodily autonomy and womanhood, and the fault lines along which solidarities are formed and broken.”
Dr. Peter Kimani, the chairperson of the judging panel, described Nneka’s story “a unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals”.
Nneka won the prize out of a list of five nominees that was announced earlier.
In 2017, Nneka was shortlisted for the Caine award.
The $12,000 worth Caine Prize is usually awarded for African short stories published in English. According to the Caine Prize website, “the prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally. The focus on the short story reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition”.
