CODE Announces winners of first African literary prize

CANADIANS ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF FIRST AFRICAN LITERARY PRIZE – CODE gives $21,000 CAD to three writers of new books for youth.

08/10/09 Ottawa - Canadian organization CODE awarded the first recipients of the inaugural Burt Award for African Literature today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:

1st place - $12,000 CAD to Mkama Mwijarubi for Treeland: the Land of Laughter
2nd place - $6,000 CAD to Asungushe B. Kayombo for The Best is Yet to Come
3rd place - $3,000 CAD to Ambani A. Guyi for A Hero’s Magic. 

The Burt Award is a new literary prize sponsored by CODE with support from Canadian Bill Burt, who was inspired after seeing CODE’s work in East Africa first hand. The Burt Award will help create books for African children as they transition between mother-tongue and English instruction in school. The award will spread across Africa on a country by country basis, but was open only to Tanzanian writers in its first year.

“We hope that through this award young people become excited about learning, expand their literacy skills, improve their chance at making it at school, and ultimately lead more productive lives as a result,” says CODE’s Executive Director Scott Walter.

Through this award Canadians are helping to create literature in places where writers don't often have a chance to write, publishers rarely publish award-winners, and young readers don't usually have access to books that engage them in learning.  All three winners received a publishing contract and guaranteed distribution of their books to schools and libraries through CODE.

Contact Jana McDade, Communications Manager, 800 661 2633 ext 252, jmcdade@codecan.org.

 Learn more about the Burt Award for African Literature

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If you can read and write, you can learn to do, and be, anything. That’s the idea behind CODE. CODE’s programs support libraries and teacher training as well as national and local book publishing in about 20 languages in Africa and the Caribbean.