The Canex Prize for Publishing was given to Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Female Fear Factory, one of the books published by Cassava Republic Press.
By Hope Ibiale
One of Nigeria’s topmost publishing houses, Cassava Republic Press, has been announced as the winner of the inaugural Canex Prize for Publishing. The award was given to Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Female Fear Factory, one of the books published by Cassava Republic Press. She will receive $20,000 while the remaining four finalists will each receive a $2,000 cash prize.
In a press release, Gqola stated, “This recognition of my book Feminist Female Factory and its publisher, Cassava Republic Press, by the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa is truly wonderful. I am delighted by the jury’s rewarding of a work of African feminist intervention and, indeed, the existence of this award category”.
“This recognition speaks not only to the intellectual clarity and bravery of Pumla Dineo Gqloa’s writing but to the strength and tenacity of African publishers”, said Layla Mohamed, Editor at Cassava Republic Press. “The CANEX Prize underscores the need for a strong and supported African publishing ecosystem who are building the infrastructures for the production of African stories and challenging long-standing power dynamics in the global publishing world.”
The jury, chaired by Dr. Wale Okediran, praised Professor Gqola’s Female Fear Factory for its bold editorial risk, urgency, and timely message. Dr Okediran judged the publishing prize alongside Ivorian writer and essayist, Edwige-Renée Dro, and Egyptian poet, novelist, and journalist, Ashraf Aboul-Yazid.

Female Fear Factory: Unveiling Patriarchy’s Culture of Violence, explores how women are forced to live under the daily spectre of violence and fear, providing a powerful, unflinching account of the mechanism of patriarchal control, while offering feminist strategies to dismantle it.
The CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa is a part of the CANEX Book Factory. The CANEX Book Factory is an annual programme of events of the Creative Africa Nexus initiative of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). It is designed to spotlight and elevate the African book value chain through the prize, a Pan-African writing workshop, and an e-newsletter highlighting African literature.