Kenyan Idza Luhumyo wins Caine Prize for African writing

This year’s AKO Caine prize for African writing has gone to Kenyan writer Idza Luhumyo for her short story Five Years Next Sunday, which was described as “incandescent” by the judges. 

Okey Ndibe, the chair of the 2022 AKO Caine prize judging panel, announced Ms Luhumyo as the winner at an award ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, United Kingdom.

Five Years Next Sunday, first published in the prize anthology Disruption by Catalyst Press last year, depicts the story of “a young woman with the unique ability to call the rain in her hair. Feared by her family and community, a chance encounter with a foreigner changes her fortunes, but there are duplicitous designs upon her most prized and vulnerable possession.”

Ndibe commended Luhumyo’s piece, saying it used “exquisite language” to tell the story of the main character. 

“What we liked about the story was the mystical office of the protagonist, who is both ostracised and yet holds the fate of her community in her hair. She is stripped of agency by her immediate family, as well as the Europeans who give the impression of placing her on a pedestal, yet within that seeming absence of agency, and oppressive world, is her stubborn reclamation of herself. The dramatic tension in the story is so powerful and palpable that it’s like something you could cut with a knife,” said Ndibe.

Alongside Ndibe, other judges on the panel included Kenyan co-founder of the Book Bunk Angela Wachuka, South African literary curator Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane, French-Guinean author and academic Elisa Diallo, and UK-based Nigerian visual artist Ade ‘Àsìkò’ Okelarin. 

The prize, which had 267 entries this year, is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer published in English. 

Luhumyo beat four other contenders, including, Joshua Chizoma (Nigeria) with Collector of Memories, Nana-Ama Danquah (Ghana) for When a Man Loves a Woman, Hannah Giorgis (Ethiopia) for A Double-Edged Inheritance, and Billie McTernan (Ghana) for The Labadi Sunshine Bar.

Luhumyo will take home £10,000 (Sh1.4 million), while the other finalists receive £500 (Sh71,000). However, all five stories will appear in the 2022 AKO Caine Prize anthology published by Cassava Republic Press later this year.

Luhumyo’s win makes her the fifth Kenyan writer to win the award, after Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Yvonne Owuor (2003), Okwiri Oduor (2014) and Makena Onjerika (2018).

Speaking to BBC, Luhumyo described Kenyans as being good at storytelling, adding that the country has expressive cultures, which she suggested to have attributed to her win. 

Asked about her next move, Luhumyo said she plans to write a novel, but she’s currently enjoying her victory. 

“Hopefully you’ll be hearing from me in a couple of years. But for now I’m just enjoying the moment,” she said.

Luhumyo’s prolific works have appeared in numerous journals, including, The Writivism Anthology, Jalada Africa, Popula, Baphash Literary & Arts Quarterly, and MaThoko’s Books, Short Story Day Africa, the New Internationalist, and African Arguments.

Her work has also been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship, Short Story Day Africa Prize, and the Gerald Kraak Award.

Luhumyo is also the inaugural winner of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award (2020) and the winner of the Short Story Day Africa Prize (2021).