August 29, (THEWILL) – A line from William Wordsworth’s poem The Passing of King Arthur, The Old Order Changeth, Yielding Place To the New, best describes the recent announcement by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited of the three shortlisted poets for the Nigeria Prize for Literature this year. They are Su’eddie Vershima Agema with his entry Memory and the Call of Waters, Romeo Oriogun with Nomad and Saddiq Dzukoji with Your Crib, My Qibla. Three of relatively unknown poets are now in line for the $100,000 prize money for the most prestigious literature award in Africa.
After the announcement last Friday, the literary community in Nigeria wondered whatever happened to the established bards. Four years ago, four of the poets who made the list this time were also shortlisted. There was Ogaga Ifowodo, Obari Gomba, Chidi Amu-Nnadi and Iquo Diana-Abasi. They all made the long list of 11 entries for the prize this year, along with James Eze for his award-winning collection titled, Dispossessed.
Now it is up to Agema, Oriogun and Dzukoji to battle it out. One of them will emerge winner of the literature prize by October 14, 2022.
According to the Advisory Board of NLNG, Memory and the Call of Water is a poetry collection that consistently uses memory to reflect on life and destiny through the metaphor of water. Nomad has a fresh language and a nostalgic engagement with the themes of exile and displacement, while Your Crib, My Qibla translates tragedy into lyrical poetry with pathos and effortless imagery.
Prof Susan Nalugwa Kiguli is the International Consultant for this year’s prize. She is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar. She is an associate professor of literature at Makerere University. Prof Kiguli has served as a judge for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (African Region, 1999) and an advisory board member for the African Writers Trust. As a poet, her 1998 collection The African Saga won the National Book Trust of Uganda Poetry Award (1999) and made literary history in the country by selling out in less than a year. Her poetry has featured in many journals and anthologies both nationally and internationally.
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