Jambula Tree
The best in new African writing

The Caine Prize for African Writing is Africa’s leading literary prize, and is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. Each year the winning story and shortlisted entries are collected and published in one volume.

The 8th winner is Monica Arac de Nyeko from Uganda for Jambula Tree. Chair of Judges, Jamal Mahjoub from Sudan, described her story as 'a witty and touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a love which blossoms between two adolescents'.

This love affair is an ‘earthquake which shakes the moral foundations’, as described by Boyd Tonkin of the Independent, ‘because the shocking couple are two girls, who love without shame. I hardly need explain that this theme means that Arac de Nyeko has herself crossed a line that, these days, runs deeper in Kampala than in Kensington.’

The shortlisted stories are complemented with 12 stories written at the Caine Prize writers’ workshop in South Africa in April 2008

147 x 209 mm, 284 pages, paperback