A Nigerian writer, Innocent Ilo, has been named the regional winner for Africa of the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his story, “When a Woman Renounces Motherhood.”

Founded in 2012, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction. It is open to Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and older in five regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and the Pacific.

The prize is awarded to the five regional winners with each receiving £2,500 (approximately N1.2 million) and a publication with Granta, The global winner gets an additional £5,000 (approximately N2.4 million).

23-year-old Mr Ilo is the youngest writer to be awarded the Africa region prize since its establishment in 2012.

He joins an illustrious line of Nigerian literary figures like Jekwu Anyaegbun who won with the entry, ‘Morrison Okoli’ in 2012; Lesley Armah who won with ‘Light’ in 2016; Akwaeke Emezi who won with ‘Who is like God’ in 2017 and Efua Traoré, with ‘True Happiness’ in 2018.

Mr Ilo’s award-winning story is about the bond between a woman and her mother in the face of a sexist tradition.

The chair of the judging panel, Ghanaian writer Nii Parkes, praised the story for its “particularly striking confidence switching between languages and Mr Ilo’s unapologetic use of interspersed, un-italicized Igbo and pidgin.”

The regional prize judge, Mohale Mashigo, said “When a Woman Renounces Motherhood’ is one of those stories that tell you something shocking and yet leave you with empathy for the characters in a story. The writing is so specific and intimate which makes you want to go back and read it again… and again.”

The five judges representing the regions of the Commonwealth are Mohale Mashigo for Africa, William Phuan for Asia, Heather O’Neill for Canada and Europe, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw for Caribbean and Nic Low for Pacific.


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