The Writivism winners for 2023 have been named. The Writivism Literary Initiative held the ceremony naming the winners on Sunday, April 28.
The winners are Damildhla Omotoyinbo in the poetry section with The Evening News, Hussani Abdulrahim in the short story section with his piece Ahuoyyiza’s Monologue and Mlami Tyulu in the non-fiction section with The Covenant of Fate.
Each of the writers spoke movingly about the inspiration for the work and how grateful they were to be recognised by a native writing award.
Omotoyinbo described how writing her winning poem was an attempt to come to terms with refusing to reduce victims of Africa’s natural and man-made disasters to statistics in the course of her work as a former journalist.
Abdulrahim talked about how writing was the first safe space in a lonely life where he felt his views were not shouted down. He said writing Ahuoyyiza’s Monologue finally gave vent to trauma he had suppressed much of his childhood.
Tyulu gravitated to writing because in his native South Africa, this was the arena still open to meritocracy. A football fanatic, Tyulu started out writing as a hobby but recently and with The Covenant of Fate has come to see it as a way of claiming a place in the world.
Works by five writers had been shortlisted in each category, selected from a pool of over 500 entries. Readers whittled down the entries to under 50 in each category, which were sent to two judges each, namely Ber Anena and Yaa Asantewa (Poetry), Paula Akugizibwe and Tiffany Kagure Mugo (Nonfiction) as well as Rešoketšwe Manenzhe and Juliana Lamy (Fiction), who in turn deliberated on five entries in their respective category. Under the leadership of the panel chair, the writer Sumayya Lee.
Writivism founder Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire thanked the writers for submitting in such a big number after the three year hiatus the initiative took. He said Writivism was back and broadened because of requests for representation by writers beyond the African continent.
