LABAF opens competition for Saro-Wiwa book review

The organisers of the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) call for entries on reviews of any one of five works of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s fiction and drama. The best review of either ‘Sozaboy’, ‘A Forest of Flowers’, ‘Adaku and Other Stories’, ‘Prisoners of Jebs’, or a joint review of ‘Basi and Company’ will receive a […]

The organisers of the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) call for entries on reviews of any one of five works of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s fiction and drama.
The best review of either ‘Sozaboy’, ‘A Forest of Flowers’, ‘Adaku and Other Stories’, ‘Prisoners of Jebs’, or a joint review of ‘Basi and Company’ will receive a N100, 000 cash prize at the opening day of the festival, at Freedom Park, on November 13.
Jahman Anikulapo, programme chairman of the Committee For Relevant Art (CORA), organizers of LABAF said the competition serves to improve on the human infrastructure of reading and “also helps to memorialise Mr. Saro Wiwa, to whom the theme of this year’s edition of the festival is dedicated,” adding that it is the foundation of CORA/LABAF Annual Literature Review contest.
The competition is open to Nigerians aged between 18 and 41, those who were either not born, or were just teenagers or at most aged 21, at the time of the death of Saro Wiwa.
 The typewritten entries are to be submitted to Toni Kan, chairman of the panel of judges, and author of Nights of The Creaking bed on or before 5pm on November 6.
Saro-wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people in Nigeria who died in 1995. He was a writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.