The recipients for this year include Nigerian writer, Rafeeat Aliyu, Zambian storyteller, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Kenya writer, Kiprop Kimutai, and Zambian-Namibian writer, Remy Ngamije.
By Hope Ibiale
The Miles Morland Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2023 Morland African Writing Scholarship. The recipients for this year include Nigerian writer, Rafeeat Aliyu, Zambian storyteller, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Kenya writer, Kiprop Kimutai, and Zambian-Namibian writer, Remy Ngamije.
The judges for this year’s scholarship were Muthoni Garland, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, and Chuma Nwokolo. The winners will receive £18,000 for a duration of twelve to eighteen months to enable these writers to work on their manuscripts.
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Commenting on the winners’ manuscripts, the head judge, Garland said, “Rafeeat Aliyu explores the intricate complexities of female land inheritance and Yoruba traditional religion, in historical fiction that is both enlightening and emotionally resonant. Kiprop Kimutai’s story is about twins separated in the 1800s in the highlands of Kenya whose lives cross paths with a British explorer mapping out East Africa for colonialism. It is a thought-provoking exploration of the themes of identity and belonging at the dawn of colonialism. Mubanga Kalimamukwento uses humorous oral storytelling techniques to paint the intimate lives of characters facing unimaginable challenges during the AIDS epidemic in Zambia. Remy Ngamije’s darkly humorous novel is about the son of a dictator accused of raping and killing a famous American singer which results in wide-ranging political and economic ramifications. It is narrated by a salsa-obsessed assassin who works for the dictator.”
The Morland African Writing Scholarship is an award created by the Miles Morland Foundation in 2013. It is an annual scholarship awarded to four to six African writers. Since its inception, the scholarship scheme has given writers such as Akwaeze Emezi, Eloghosa Osunde, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Ahmed Khalifa, Fatin Abbas, Hawa Jande Golokai, and others the opportunity to produce the first draft of a completed book. This year, the judging panel received over 500 entries from writers across Africa.