The Baobab Prize
Written by Kwani · August 21, 2008
The Baobab Prize is an annual award designed to encourage the writing of African literature for young readers. It has been birthed from a recognition of the dearth of fictional African literature that focuses on the youth and encourages them to explore and develop an interest and pride in the African continent. This is a great opportunity for any writer targeting children aged between 8 and 15 years.Prizes start from $800.
The closing date for this year’s entries is: Midnight GMT, Friday October 31, 2008. For more information on how to enter and the judging, please visit the Baobab Prize website.
I was thrilled to find your website as I was browsing on line. I am an American teacher, but spent 10 years in Mtwara, Tanzania, and raised our kids there. We have an adopted son from Tanzania, and now sponsor new families from Kenya in the US in our apartment here. You can see I am homesick for Africa!
My job is to teach gifted middle school children, but one passion is writing. I have written a children’s picture book about a Tanzanian family that struggles with malaria, to educate kids here about that disease. Publishers here think I am crazy, a picture book about a parasite! But it is also about the strong family structure and fun times that children have in Tanzania, (unlike so many kids here in the US). Do you have any suggestions for my search to find a publisher? Would this kind of book be of use in Africa in Kiswahili?
Thanks for answering my questions!
Kristen Swanson
1200
In my country,1200 died for what,
For pieces of paper, the ballot they will never vote,
for lands,that none will ever till with their cold hands,
for peace,that they were given through the peace of death,
In my region,1200 died for what,
For posts,that none shall ever have the tenure for,
For leaders,that they will never greet nor hear,
for religions,that they will never be preached nor prayed for,
In my age,1200 died for what,
For youths,who burnt,raped and destroyed,
for generations,who will be sired with hatred,
for genders,that were crushed never to rise,
In my place,1200 died for what,
For me, whom i shall never have the pleasure to know them,
For mother tongues,which my fathers didn’t care to know,
For what,for what they and will never eternally know.
In my country,1200 Kenyans never needed to die.
The Baobab Prize is a brilliant idea to unearth writing talents and i doff my cap to the originator of the idea, whereas Fiction writing and other forms of writing are thought in curricula in the Western world unfortunately in the African experinece Writers are mainly self-thought or as Wordswoth said undergo that ” spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings ” which gives birth to literature. It is then more innate than latent and unearthed.
The prize money is miniscule BUT it is a start and Sponsorship can be sourced to make the prizes more attractive.Also promotion of the Concept must be done and maybe winners puyblished in an Anthology, what say you?
Debbie, nice one!and God bless you for your initiative.