Fiction

Stop Press: Kwani? 06

Kwani? goes Continental, goes young

Kwani? 06 will be the first edition in the journal’s eight-year life devoted exclusively to African writers under the age of 30. A call out made in late 2009 yielded hundred of short stories from around the continent. The stories bring to their readers a mix of talents, insights and concerns that makes it hard to draw any broad thematic conclusions. What is clear in all the stories selected for publication is the clarity with which the young writers perceive he world around them; an apocalyptic vision on a Nairobi highway wrapped in precise prose, a prodigal son in Lagos unwanted at an uncle’s funeral, a ménage a trois that tells us in unforgiving narrative about migration into South Africa. If the vividness and surfeit of imagination is an indication of where things are going, there is a big future for this continent's literature. The selectors and judges of the short stories all had the same verdict – there is immense talent out there on the continent. Hence, Kwani? 06 breaks rank with the first five anthologies, and is published specifically to search for and encourage young writers.

Here are excerpts from some of the winning short stories that will appear in Kwani? 06 in December 2010...

1^st Prize : Farah Aideed goes to Gulf War
By Mehul Gohil
Mehul's story of an impossible relationship between a young Asian man and an African girl is told with authority, a dystopian image of where failure to reach across race and community might lead the world. A first time writer, his mastery of prose and originality of insight, detail and sumptuous complexity drove his story to the top of the short story writing competition pile.

2^nd Prize : All in the Family
By Brenda Mukami Kunga
Brenda Mukami, whom friends describe as a gentle medical student, surprised all who knew her by evoking a realistic story about the grinding life of a girl who statistics of affluence and poverty says should have the best of life but does not. Her story, which came second in the Kwani? short story competition, is the work of a major writer in the making. 

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