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FANTA BLACKCURRANT! Kenya’s Makena Onjerika wins 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing

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Kenyan writer Makena Onjerika has won the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “Fanta Blackcurrant”, beating four other finalists.

The prize comes with a £10,000 award.

The story was published in Wasafiri in 2017.

Makena was announced the winner at an award dinner on Monday 2 July by Dinaw Mengestu, the chairman of the judges.

Makena is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing programme at New York University and has been published in Urban Confusions and Wasafiri. She lives in Nairobi and is currently working on a fantasy novel.

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“I am super excited, also still surprised. I didn’t expect it. I had my person who I was betting for among the shortlisted writers, then I heard my name and I was like; Are you sure!?”Makena revealed in an interview with BBC Africa.

Her story focuses on a character, Meri, who lives in a slum. Meri is a young girl whose life in the streets of Nairobi is depicted in the story that has won Makena the prestigious award.

“Part of the reason for me writing the story is that I realised that at some point, I never recognised these street urchins as children. They were ‘other’ and I wanted to examine that,” states Makena.

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Onjerika’s story, Fanta Blackcurrant, is about a girl called Meri, one of a group of street children who live in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

Meri has an obsession with the soft drink flavour, it’s all she wants.

Onjerika said the story was a reflection of her life experiences especially during her time in boarding school.

The shortlist was announced in May and included four other finalists: Nonyelum Ekwempu (Nigeria), Stacy Hardy (South Africa), Olufunke Ogundimu (Nigeria) and Wole Talabi (Nigeria).

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Sudanese writer and poet Bushra al-Fadil won the 2017 award for his short story titled “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away”.

Other winners in the past seven competitions are: South Africa’s Lidudumalingani (2016), Zambia’s Namwali Serpell (2015), Kenya’s Okwiri Oduor (2014), Nigeria’s Tope Folarin (2013), Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo (2011) and Sierra Leone’s Olufemi Terry (2010).

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