Addis Ababa, 17 August 2021 – Ghanaian writer Ekow Manuar is the winner of the inaugural SDGs Short Story Prize, awarded by the Economic Commission for Africa for his compelling story, ‘Beans Without Korkor?. The story will be published in a forthcoming Anthology of Short Stories, which aims to demonstrate the interlinkages between development, people and sustainability across a variety of genres, including sci-fi and Afrofutirism.
In his review of the short-listed stories, leading African writer and novelist Peter Kimani said: “Manuar is a writer of great promise. Out of this house of hunger, he delivers plentiful of mirth and food for thought about the continent’s inability to feed her people, and gestures towards a recalibration that could secure a lasting solution.”
“Using wry humour and subtle observations, Manuar assembles an interesting cast of Accra dwellers as they jostle for the last offering of “red-red,” a well-loved and famed traditional dish made of plantain and bean sauce. The confluence of plantain exportation by middlemen for profit, a drought precipitated by climate change and resistance to other locally available food varieties, nearly trigger a food riot in the eatery. It takes the deft hand of the protagonist, Mercy, to negotiate and bring everyone to the table, as she has done since inheriting the business from her mother, adding yet another layer of understanding about women entrepreneurship,” he added.
ECA’s Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Director Jean-Paul Adam, whose division anchors this initiative, congratulated Manuar and all the other contributing writers, the majority of whom are being published for the first time.
“The shortlisted stories in the forthcoming Anthology are a reminder of both the hope that mobilizes Africa around the SDGs, but also the frustrations that go with realizing them in the context of the immense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the immediacy of the impact of the climate crisis,” he said.
“The SDGs storytelling initiative gives agency to individuals, no matter who they may be and whatever their age may be. It draws on the power of words and the power of imagination and links them with the SDGs in unusual but important ways,” he added.
The short story initiative kicked off with a creative writing webinar during the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development hosted in Brazzaville in February 2021. Through mining the issues in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the writers have interrogated day to day challenges, such as food security, climate change, health, poverty and existential issues across a variety of genres, including Science Fiction.
Published by the ECA, the Anthology will feature 40 stories selected from over 200 submissions from around Africa.
Five authors were selected for special mention as listed below (in alphabetical order):
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Edeyan Omoweh (Nigeria) focuses on gender-based violence in her moving story, A Thousand Deaths.
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Foly Najoli (Kenya) explores in her story, Faceless Battles, traumatic events, including suicide, HIV and a new virus – COVID-19 through an exchange between two siblings, looking back on their lives.
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Outhmane Lamoumni (Morocco): The story, A New World is about a philosophy teacher, who has lost passion and purpose and is struggling to do his job. It explores his journey of trying to regain that passion while tackling the spread of COVID-19 conspiracies.
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S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema (Nigeria) writes a moving metaphor for single parenting, courage and resilience among urban female poor in his compelling story, A Pot Of Beans.
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Thakhani Rayofafrica (South Africa). The Shebeen Of Khayelitsha is an Afrofuturist exploration on land, sea and air, while travelling back in time and into the future. The main protagonist flies on water using a bionic flying fish, combing the oceans for microplastics and harvesting seaweed that has been used to feed the minions in the famished lands of the Kalahari. It touches on the restoration of indigenous foods to the continent’s main menu to prop up Africa’s food security.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org