Mahlangu Emerges Winner of 2014 Etisalat Literature Prize

South African writer, Songeziwe Mahlangu emerged winner of the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature at a grand event held in Lagos in recently.
This marks the 2nd year of Africa’s most prestigious literary prize. The 29-year-old, who was presented with a cash prize of £15,000, clinched the number one slot for his book Penumbra, ahead of his contemporaries, Nigerian Chinelo Okparanta, author of ‘Happiness, Like Water’ and South African, Nadia Davids, author of ‘An Imperfect Blessing’.
The winner will also embark on the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia under the mentorship of multiple- award winning author, Professor Giles Foden, which affords him the opportunity tenet work with other writers and publishers and provides him the time and resources to work on his next book.
In another development, Neema Komba of Tanzania was announced on the night as the winner in the Flash Fiction category of the Etisalat Prize. She won a cash prize of£1,000 for her entry ‘Setting Babu on Fire’. The runners up, ChinuaEzenwa- Ohaeto, writer of the short story I saved my marriage and Irabor Justin Ikhide, writer of the short story ‘These words I do not speak’, were presented with cash prizes of £500 each.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher, said that Etisalat is committed to helping Africans tell their stories and is doing so through the Etisalat Prize for Literature, an initiative designed to recognise and reward debut writers of fiction with African citizenship.