Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall; Africa

             

                               

The only five African novels so far that have won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall and Best First Book Overall.

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall 

• Heroes by Festus Iyayi Nigeria 1988
• Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee South Africa 2000
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna Sierra Leone 2011

I have only read two of these three novels. Surely, I can tell what they have in common apart from the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. Firstly, they are eruditely written work of fiction and secondly, they deal with war in the African continent. Heroes expounds on the Nigerian civil war, while The Memory of Love, on the Sierra Leonean civil war. I am yet to read Disgrace, I believe the setting was in post-apartheid South Africa.
Hopefully,  we would not have to wait for eleven or twelve whole years before another African novel wins the Best Book Overall.

Have you read any of these three novels? What do you think about the African Winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall?

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book Overall

• Ama by Manu Herbstein Ghana / South Africa 2002
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Aichie Nigeria 2005

Since 1989 that the winners for Best First Book has been announced, only these two African novels have won the Prize for Best First Book Overall. I am yet to read Ama, I guess it does not have any thing in common with Purple Hibiscus besides the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Finally, Nigeria is the only African country whose writers have won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall and Best First Book Overall  with Festus Iyayi and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

For the 2013 Commonwealth Writers' Prize; good luck to our African writers shorlisted. Sarah House by Ifeanyi Ajaegbo (Nigeria), The Spider King’s Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo (Nigeria), The Great Agony & Pure Laughter of the Gods by Jamala Safari (South Africa) and Sterile Sky by E.E. Sule (Nigeria).

What are your thoughts?

PS. I realised that the 2013 Commonwealth Writer's Prize Australian shortlisted Beneath the Darkening Sky

by Majok Tulba gave an Igbo name "Obinna" to the main character in his novel. I know writers are free to give whatever name they wish to the characters in their novel. Still, I find it odd he gave an Igbo name to the main character in his novel set in Sudan. I just think a Sudanese name would have fitted, since it is a story of what might have happened to him in his country of origin. What is more, he (Tulba) does not look like any "Obinna" I know or could think of. Moreover, I find it difficult to picture two brothers with the name Obinna and Akot living in a village in Sudan.
Anyway, it would be no deterrent to read his novel. I have already added it to my TBR. Actually, he is the only Australian Commonwealth shortlisted I am rooting for. So said, good luck to him too.