Uganda’s Monica Arac de Nyeko won the 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing, for Jambula Tree from ‘African Love Stories’, Ayebia Clarke Publishing 2006. The Chair of Judges, Jamal Mahjoub from Sudan, announced Monica as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held on Monday, 9 July 2007 in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Jamal Mahjoub described her story as “a witty and touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a love which blossoms between two adolescents”.

Monica Arac de Nyeko was born in Uganda . She studied at Makerere and Groningen universities for a degree in Education and an MA in Humanitarian Assistance. She is a member of the Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE), was a literature and English language teacher at St Mary College, Kisubi, an Early Warning Consultant in Rome and later a Reports Officer in Khartoum. She has been a Fellow on the British Council’s Crossing Borders programme and was also shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2004 for Strange Fruit. Her short stories Jazz, Miracles and Dreams and City Link are soon to be published.

Also on the shortlist were:

Kenyan Billy Kahora’s ‘Treadmill Love’ from ‘The Obituary Tango’ Jacana/New Internationalist 2006, came in as highly commended by this year’s judges.

Caine Prize 2006

Mary Watson from South Africa won the seventh Caine Prize for African Writing, Africa’s leading literary prize, for Jungfrau, from Moss, Kwela Books, 2004. 

Caine Prize 2005

Brian Chikwava, from Zimbabwe, won the fifth Caine Prize for African Writing for ‘Seventh Street Alchemy’ from Writing Still, Weaver Press, Harare 2003.  Brian is the first winner of the Prize from Zimbabwe.

Brian has recently relocated to London and is working on his first projects outside Zimbabwe – Bubble Wrapping Artificial Shit, a novella that he has just started writing, and Jacaranda Skits, a music album of his unique and ‘whole-wheat’ sound that blends his writing abilities with southern African township jazz, ska and blues.

Caine Prize 2003

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor was awarded the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing, for her short story "Weight of Whispers", published in Kwani? in 2003 (www.kwani.org)

Caine Prize 2002 

The Caine Prize 2002 was won by Binyavanga Wainaina, from Kenya, for his story "Discovering Home", published on the internet by G21Net in 2001. 

Binyavanga has gone on to found the highly successful internet magazine "Kwani?" which was established to support the work of young Kenyan writers, and has produced some of the subsequent entries for the Caine Prize, including Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, winner of the 2003 prize.

Caine Prize 2001

The winner of the 2001 Caine Prize for African Writing was the young Nigerian writer, Helon Habila, for his story "Love Poems" (taken from "Prison Stories", Epik Books, Lagos, 2000). Helon read literature at the University of Jos, and then lectured in English and Literature at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, from 1997 to 1999.  He wrote for Hints Magazine, in Lagos, and his first book was a biography, Mai Kaltungo (1997). His poem, Another Age, came first in the MUSON Festival Poetry Competition 2000.  Love Poems appears in Prison Stories (Epik Books, Lagos, 2000) an anthology of his short stories. He is now Arts Editor of Vanguard Newspaper, Lagos.

Caine Prize 2000