Q&As: Kadija George Sesay – Judging the Caine Prize 2023

By Africa in Words on 1 November , 2023 • ( 0 )

AiW note: We’re into day 2 in our continuing Words on… Q&A series this week, publishing a range of interviews around the UK-based short story award, the Caine Prize for African Writing, 2023. A few firsts have re-shaped the Prize this year, not least the change of season (from a July to an October winner announcement) and so, in the lead up to the prize-giving on Monday 2nd October, and following on from our coverage last year – which aimed to open up some of the less visible avenues and labour involved in “prizing” writing – we spoke with writers on the shortlist, as well as the publishers of their stories, and some of the judges who determined that list. From these, we are publishing this series of Caine Prize shortlist Q&As, which are “twinned” to highlight interviewees’ involvement in the Prize this year.

In this Q&A, we hear from Kadija George Sesay, scholar and literary activist, and a member of the all-women Caine Prize judging panel. Our twinned Q&A in the series today is with Yejide Kilanko (Nigeria), discussing her short story, ‘This Tangible Thing’, published by HarperVia (2023).

Kadija George Sesay is a Sierra Leonean/British scholar and literary activist. She is the Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, where she commissions anthologies, such as Glimpse, a Black British speculative fiction anthology. She is the editor of several other anthologies and the founder/publisher of SABLE LitMag. She has published poetry, short stories and essays, the latest is in New Daughters of Africa. Her poetry collection is Irki; her forthcoming collection, The Modern Pan-Africanist’s Journey. She is co-founder of Mboka Festival of Arts Culture and Sport in The Gambia and founder of the ‘AfriPoeTree’ app. She is on the board of African Studies Association (UK) and chair of Yaram Arts. She has judged several writing competitions and is the resident judge for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. She has received awards and fellowships for her work in the creative arts including an honorary doctorate from Goldsmiths University.

AiW: Thank you, Kadija, for speaking with us about your work and judging the Caine Prize for African Writing this year.

Could we open, please, with a bit of a picture of your judging the Prize, perhaps something our readers might not yet know, or that they might need to, about judging a literary prize or being on a panel? What does it mean for you to be working with this Prize now, in this, our current moment?

Kadija George Sesay: For the first time it was an all women judging panel. That was a risk for the Caine Prize to take. For us, it was a joy. We had a great chair too, Prof. Fareda Banda. She is a good listener.

Judging a literary panel is tough. You have to read differently yet at the same time, you want to make sure you are doing justice to the writer by understanding their work properly. But there is never enough time. And you have to be fair by balancing the requirements for the prize with your personal interests but also being ready to argue strongly for what you believe in.

I enjoy judging literary prizes for new/emerging writers as it feels that you are making a real change for someone’s writing future. Hopefully, it’s the same for all the finalists as it is a massive achievement and sometimes the difference between the winner and the others is not very much. They all have something special and or memorable about them.

Could you tell us about your work more broadly – with African writing but also any overlaps with the (other) kinds of work you do, the roles you hold, or the more general and different sorts of professional hats you wear?

The in-depth interview that I did with AiW recently is a lovely informed and balanced account of who I am and what I do: ‘Q&A: Scholar-activist Kadija Sesay, on AfriPoeTree’ [in which we learn that, among other things, Kadija is an editor, curator, scholar, and activist, whose various professional hats have consistently been worn to provide an antidote to negative portrayals of Black art, culture, and history – Ed.].

What would you say is the best investment you’ve made in your professional self / selves, and/or the most valued advice you’ve received about navigating your industry (or industries)?

Doing a PhD. It gave me time to read a lot of books I otherwise would not have read and books I had wanted to read for many years and learning how to research properly.

Looking to you as a reader, what’s the strangest, most significant – outrageous, even – thing you yourself have done, or would do, because of, or for a book (text / story / poem/ piece of writing)? Perhaps there’s a serendipitous, interesting, or uncanny book / text related thing that’s happened to you, or a happy, weird accident that has occurred around books or writing that you can share with us?

I found a first edition of Things Fall Apart in a charity store in the US for $1.

What are the most ethical and/or heart-lifting changes in practice you’ve seen happening across your industry/industries recently and what would you like to see become more visible going forward (jobs, roles, avenues, practices)?

Black people are more emboldened to call out racist behaviour and to challenge organisations (and individuals) with regards to what decolonisation means and actions that need to be taken in order to decolonise. However, it is taking a long time to educate people about this, that it is a long, ongoing process.

And of course – more Black writers being published across genres. There is still work to do in both areas though. We mustn’t get complacent.

There are more Black people in mainstream publishing. This has increased significantly in the past 10 years

Finally, how can our blog, books, and online communities best offer support for your work with African writing?

Keep doing what you are doing and publicise the work you all support more widely.

As ever, we’d welcome your thoughts on the shortlist, or anything else 2023 Caine Prize related (or anything else, for that matter!) – comment on the post here, below, or contact us direct and let us know. This also year marks 10 years that AiW have covered the Caine Prize – you can deep dive into it all here – Q&As, reviews, and long-read thought pieces – at the AiW search link “Caine Prize” here. Thank you, too, for being here with us.

Today’s twinned AiW x Caine Prize Q&A is with Yejide Kilanko (Nigeria), one of the Caine Prize shortlisted story writers, for ‘This Tangible Thing’, published by HarperVia. Yesterday, we heard from writer Yvonne Kusiima and the publisher of her story, Ukamaka Olisakwe, in her role as editor-in-chief of Isele Magazine. You can get to these – and all previous Caine coverage – via the link above, or by searching for “Caine Prize”.

And… there will be more from the series to come, opening up some of the shifts and firsts happening around the Caine Prize this year, as well as connecting up some of the labour that happens behind the scenes, as we hear from more shortlisted story writers, their publishers, and another of the judges…

Caine Prize website, “The Caine Prize Announces, 2023 Shortlisted Writers and Judges”:

…This year’s submissions encompassed a diverse range of talent from 28 different countries, including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Fareda Banda, Chair of Judges, and a professor of Law at SOAS, University of London, expressed her thoughts on the shortlist: “Together we have read, discussed and wrestled an eligible submission list of 230 stories down to the final five. This has not been an easy task. The entries showed the depth and scope of writing on the continent and beyond.

“The stories spanned generations, genres and themes. They challenged, stimulated, shocked, surprised and delighted us in equal measure. The five shortlisted embrace speculative fiction and artivism (using art as a form of activism). Stories of gender-based violence and reproductive autonomy highlight the power of engaging and innovative/original writing. Love is embodied in stories of grandmothers passing on inter-generational wisdom. The sense of alienation engendered by teenage diasporic liminality sits alongside comedic outrage about the perceived status downgrade in moving from city to village. Each story will have its fans and advocates-we loved them all.”

Banda further noted the remarkable fact that four out of the six shortlisted finalists reside in Africa, with two from the diaspora. This year’s shortlist also boasts a joint submission and an all-women judging panel, marking significant milestones in the history of the Caine Prize.