A Nigerian writer, Lesley Arimah, has won the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing.
Arimah clinched the prize with her short story titled “Skinned”.
She defeated authors from Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
Her short story envisions a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed.
Arimah was announced winner of the £10,000 prize at an award dinner on Monday.
Chair of judges, Peter Kimani, said: “The winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing is a unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals. Lesley Nneka Arimah’s ‘Skinned’ defamiliarises the familiar to topple social hierarchies, challenge traditions and envision new possibilities for women of the world.
“Using a sprightly diction, she invents a dystopian universe inhabited by unforgettable characters where friendship is tested, innocence is lost, and readers gain a new understanding of life.”
Arimah lives in Las Vegas, United States.
