We are excited that this year’s Gerlad Kraak Prize has gone to OluTimehin Adegbeye, for her nonfiction piece Mothers and Men. The announcement was made on Thursday at the Gerald Kraak Prize ceremony in Johannesburg, and the judges describe’s Adegbeye’s winning piece as “a sensitive memoir casting new light on questions of rape, secondary victimisation and motherhood.
Founded in 2016 by Jacana Literary Foundation and The Other Foundation, in honour of the late activist Gerald Kraak, the R25 000 Gerald Kraak Prize aims to honour writing and photography by Africans which “provoke thought on the topics of gender, social justice and sexuality.” The inaugural prize in 2017 went to Ugandan-born Kenyan photographer Sarah Waiswa and Kenyan writer Farah Ahamed, while the twelve shortlisted pieces appeared in the inaugural anthology, Pride and Prejudice: African Perspectives on Gender, Social Justice and Sexuality.
The second prize in 2018 went to the Nigerian Pwaangulongii Dauod, with the 22 shortlisted works appearing in the prize anthology As You Like It. Like the two anthologies before it, The Heart of the Matter is published by Jacana Media.
OluTimehin Adegbeye is a writer, speaker, and activist whose work focuses on gender, women’s rights, sex, sexuality and sexual violence, urban poverty, and sustainable development. Her TED Talk, “Who Belongs in a City?,” was chosen by TED Lead Curator Chris Anderson as one of the ten most notable talks of 2017
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