The Obituary Tango : A Selection of Writing fromThe Caine Prize for African Writing 2006

The Caine Prize for African Writing #2006

by The Caine Prize for African Writing, Doreen Baingana, Jamal Mahjoub

The African equivalent of the Booker Prize, the Caine prize is Africa's leading literary award. The prize goes to the best story story by an African writer, and the winning story.

Genres: Africa

204 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2006

Reviews

[Mutsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Obituary Tango is an anthology comprised of short stories for consideration of the 2006 Caine Prize for African Writing. It featured 17 stories from 14 authors from 8 different African countries.

Here is a speed run of my favourite short stories and why I liked them:

Treadmill Love by Billy Kahora, which follows the story of Maxwell, who wakes up one day and decides to abandon his family. Through this, he ends up bettering himself, and the story ends off on such a happy note.

Tindi in the Land of the Dead by Ike Okonta. This one is about a journalist who is desperately trying to get help for a village being ravaged by a Yellow Fever epidemic, but all his efforts are in vain as government officials refuse to take this seriously and end up taking drastic measures to "get rid" of the problem

The Absence is a very complex story despite only taking up 5 pages.

Green Apples by Pravasan Pillay because i love love love South African colloquial language.

Dancing with life by Christopher Mlalazi talks about Zimbabwe's economic collapse and its effects on society. I might be a bit biased here because the author is Zimbabwean.

Overall, it is an amazing selection of short stories.

[David Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss but worth the read. If you live in Joburg, the Nairobi stories will make you realise we are not alone.