Southern African Development Community (SADC)
LITERARY PRIZE
CALL FOR ENTRIES
No fee to submit work!
Submissions close May 25, 2024
May 25 is Africa Day, celebrated around the world to honor the African
continent's rich history, diverse cultures, and transformative
progress. This day commemorates the 1963 founding of the
Organization of African Unity, now called the African Union.
Submissions will be drawn from Zimbabwe, Kenya,
South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Tanzania and Uganda.
Please submit all work to Mbizo Chirasha, Director, IHRAM African Secretariat, Zimbabwe office, mbizotheblackpoet@gmail.com with SADC LITERARY PRIZE in the subject line
Southern Africa is mired in the harshest of trailblazing election seasons. Political contestations and propaganda rallies are at high pitch as they are associated with widespread violence, massive vote-buying, ballot theft chicanery, and the gagging of artistic media, creative and literary voices.
Violence, suppression of free- expression and thwarting of free-speech accompany Africa election season. Nigeria had its own share in May and June of the year 2023. South African elections are on the way while in Zimbabwe, the daily talk /mantra in the August elections, the month of August has since become an election ritual.
The IHRAM SADC Literary Prize Initiative speaks out against the brutal tendencies of suppressing free- expression, thwarting of free-speech and widespread violence that causes fear, stigma, death, hopelessness and despondency among the innocent voters and the general populace living in the peripheral margins of their countries dogged by abject poverty, social injustice and economic inequality. The Literary Prize is an initiative of Mbizo Chirasha, Director of the IHRAM African Secretariat in Zimbabwe, coordinated with IHRAM Global Office in NYC, USA.
The Call:
Entry genres include Poetry, Essays/Narratives and Short Stories. Submissions Guidelines will be provided in detail on the websites that will be managing the digital details of the Literary.
All entries shall be submitted in English.
Judges will be drawn from a pool of African Academics, Accomplished Poets, Editors, and Free- Expression Experts.
The judging process will take place in June and July
Winners will be announced in August 2024.
The prizing criteria will include the first prize in poetry, short story and essays. So the Literary will have 3 winners in each category that sums up to three winners of the overall literary prize.
Cash prizes will be $100/$75/$50 in each category, plus three honorable mentions.
Judge: William Khalipwina Mpina is a poet, fiction writer, economist, and data analyst for the Malawi Revenue Authority. He has published his works in a large number of international journals and literary magazines including Southern Humanities Review which is the literary quarterly published by the Department of English at Auburn University as well as in over ten local anthologies, including Malawi: A Place Apart (2017) by former Norwegian ambassador to Malawi AsbjØrn Eidhammer and Beneath Humanity: Contemporary Short Stories from Malawi (2023) edited by Award-winning poet, Temwani Mgunda and Alfred Msadala.
