\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When\u00a0Tope Folarin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was announced as the latest winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, it made him the fifth Nigerian writer in 14 years to win what is arguably the most high-profile literary award for the African short story. There are 55 countries in Africa, and even before the win, some commentators had dubbed the Caine Prize\u00a0\u201ca Nigerian affair\u201d<\/span><\/a>. Is there any truth in this? And if there is, how do we account for Nigeria\u2019s dominance of the prize?<\/span><\/p>\n Tope\u2019s story,\u00a0Miracle<\/em><\/span><\/a>, about a boy who receives healing from a blind Nigerian prophet ministering at a predominantly Nigerian U.S.\u2013based evangelical church, beat out Chinelo Okparanta\u2019sAmerica<\/em><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0The Whispering Trees<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Elnathan John\u2019s\u00a0Bayan Layi<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Foreign Aid<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Pede Hollist. All the shortlisted authors, excluding Hollist, are of Nigerian descent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tope Folarin, the 2013 Caine Prize winner<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n The arts and culture reporter for a leading Nigerian news outlet examined the dominance of Nigerians in the literary award. Quoting Aj Dagga Tolar, a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), the reporter writes\u00a0\u201c\u2026it shows the outside world how much our [Nigerian] literature is valued.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Is that the reason, or are Nigerian writers simply an especially determined bunch? As\u00a0Rastafarian poet and reggae musician<\/span><\/a>Tolar says,\u00a0\u201cIt is really impossible to silence or disrupt the resilient spirit of an average Nigerian who is determined to prove himself.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Since the first award in 2000, 16 shortlisted writers and 5 winners have been Nigerian. We\u2019re talking about a cross-section of Nigeria\u2019s acclaimed storytellers:\u00a0Uwem Akpan<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Chimamanda Adichie<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Sefi Atta<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0E.C. Osondu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Helon Habila<\/span><\/a>. If these names are unfamiliar, you might nonetheless have heard the buzz around their works. Akpan\u2019s\u00a0Say You\u2019re One of Them<\/em><\/span><\/a>, a passionate collection of humanizing portrayals of childhood in modern-day Africa made it to the New York Times list of bestsellers after an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey. Chimamanda Adichie\u2019s critically acclaimed novels,\u00a0Half of a Yellow Sun<\/em><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Purple Hibiscus<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Americanah<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0have placed her on an international platform as the face of contemporary African literature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Could it merely be a question of numbers? Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world. No one is sure of the exact figure, but estimates put it somewhere between 166 and 170 million. Thus one in six Africans is Nigerian. With that kind of ratio, the country is surely at an advantage, and it would explain why African music awards are also almost always dominated by Nigerians. If sheer numbers explains the dominance, then what is the problem, one might ask? Well, it\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0be a problem if the prize demands a particular kind of story, the kind Nigerian writers might be good at supplying. As previous Caine winner Helon Habila\u00a0writes in\u00a0The Guardian<\/em><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0\u201cWriting is an incestuous business: style feeds on style, especially if that particular style has proven itself capable of winning prizes and book deals and celebrity.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just one prize whose winners are chosen by judges with a specific taste,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0says\u00a0Nnedi Okorafor<\/span><\/a>. The Nigerian-American Okorafor, an award-winning novelist and Chicago State University creative writing professor, said this year\u2019s shortlist of four out of the five Nigerians made her smile, but revealed that she has not paid much attention to The Caine Prize.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take the pulse of Nigerian culture. It\u2019s too small a sampling,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0she remarked.<\/span><\/p>\n Her perspective is in line with the widely held notion that the prize does not reflect the diversity of African literature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If The Caine Prize stands by its aim to focus on \u201cthe contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition,\u201d then we should be seeing more than the same handful of themes that Nigerians seems to be good at exploring.<\/span><\/p>\n One of this year\u2019s judges, 2000 Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela,\u00a0commented<\/span><\/a>\u00a0after reading the submitted stories,\u201cNearly every submitted story reflected the economic, political and social difficulties of life in Africa.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Religion, transnational identity or cultural assimilation in Western societies reoccur thematically as conceptual frameworks in the stories that make it to the shortlist of the prize’s yearly editions, especially from a youthful, unassuming point-of-view.\u00a0 This year was no exception.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Caine](\"http:\/\/www.thisisafrica.me\/data\/thumb\/abc_media_image\/7000\/7236\/w430.68de7.jpg\")
<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Tope](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tope-folarin.jpg\")
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