South Africa’s Lidudumalingani wins 17th Caine Prize for African literature

The Caine Prize is a prestigious literary award for writers on the African continent. Given to the best English short story written by an African, it’s an honour that has been bestowed on authors since 2000.

Of the 16 previous awards, only two South African writers have won the Prize before 2015. We can now proudly add another to that list.

Myolisi “Lidudumalingani” Sikupela has won the 17th Caine Prize for his short story Memories We Lost. The story explores the stigma of mental heath in rural South Africa.

A choked up @Lidudumalingani accepts his Caine Prize for African Writing 2016! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/5YnK4hlxPa

— Caine Prize (@CainePrize) July 4, 2016

As the winner, Lidudumalingani will be given residence at Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University for a month, speak at the Library of Congress and travel to the likes of Abeokuta, Nigeria for one of the country’s biggest book festivals.

Oh, and if that name sounds familiar, it’s largely because Myolisi is our video producer and one of the dedicated staff writers here at Memeburn. Usually the genius behind Memeburn’s podcasts and video reviews, we’ll be sure to put him under the mike and in the spotlight when he returns to Cape Town later this month.

His short story can be found in the anthology Incredible Journey: Stories That Move You or read in this PDF. But if you want a sneak peak right now, listen to this rather touching reading of Memories We Lost below.

Congratulations Lidudumalingani!