#BookChaser: Nigeria Prize for Literature’s ‘crush’ on debut novels

It appears that the judges have a crush on debut novels, as three novelists have so far clinched the prize – also known as the NLNG Prize for Literature – in 2021, 2016, and as far back as 2008.

By Nathaniel Bivan

It’s 2019 and I notice a new book on my colleague’s desk. Yes, you read me right: a new book. It was my job – and my darn business – to know what’s new and trending in the world of writing back then. It still is, in a way, especially now that this, my brand new column exclusively for GeekAfrique, has debuted. You see, I ran the literary sections of a major Nigerian newspaper, eventually becoming the Arts Editor.  

But let’s get back to talking about the now new-ish book, titled ‘The Son of the House’, written by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, a law professor, academic and advocate on issues of health and gender-based violence. In its pages, I met the two women – one elderly, the other still young – who share stories in their abductors’ den that put me at the edge of my seat.

Done, I could bet my few strands of grey hair ‘The Son of the House’ was going to hit the jackpot. I was proven right this year, 2021, when Onyemelukwkwe-Onuobia’s book beat the mass of novels that fought tooth and nail (paper and ink, if you like) to win the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature. That’s not all. Long before 2021, it had won the Best International Fiction Book Award at the 2019 Sharjah International Book Fair, as well as the 2020 SprinNG Women Authors Prize.

The fact that it’s a debut novel popped in my head. I realized that a handful of first-time novelists have actually won the prize. In 2016, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim grabbed the coveted prize for his first novel, the brilliant ‘Season of Crimson Blossoms’, which explored Nigeria’s political landscape amidst a sizzling affair between the fifty-something Hajiya Binta and spiky-haired local thug Reza.

Unlike Onyemelukwkwe-Onuobia, however, Ibrahim was already known in Nigeria, Africa, and even beyond the continent’s literary circles for his short story collection, ‘The Whispering Trees’, and after making the 2013 shortlist of The Caine Prize for African Writing for the titular story. 

Like Ibrahim, Kaine Agary also stole the spotlight way back in 2008 for her debut novel, ‘Yellow-Yellow’, a coming-of-age story about Zilayefa, a girl of Greek and Nigerian parentage. Hmm, I thought some more. Maybe the judges of the Nigeria Prize for Literature do have a thing for debut novels, and maybe some of them aren’t even aware of that fact at the time.

This apparent ‘crush’ just shows just how much work authors tend to put into their first full-length works, creating veritable masterpieces in the process. Call it luck if you like, call it fate if it suits you, but it sure must feel awesome to win one of the biggest prizes in the world, plus international fame, all for your first novel.  Even if you say three debut novels getting awarded hardly signals a ‘crush’, you would have to admit it does, and in the coolest way. Now, it would take another three years for the NLNG Nigeria Prize’s return to prose fiction after giving the floor to children’s literature, poetry and drama. Will we see another debut novelist take the trophy home then? Going by precedence, it seems quite likely.

Editor-in-Chief’s note: The #BookChaser column will be published every Friday