This archive report was first published on 10 July 2019.
July 10, 2019
Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing with her story 'Skinned', a unique retake of women's struggle for inclusion.
The prize, which comes with a $12,500 award, was announced at a ceremony in London on Monday evening.
Lesley Arimah's story follows the fortunes of Ejem, a young woman from a culture where girls must remove their clothing at a certain age and go naked until they are claimed by a husband.
According to Arimah, she was inspired by a conversation with a friend about how marriage in Nigeria 'gives unconventional women cover to be themselves'.
'She is quite strange and her strangeness was something her parents had warned her that she should get rid of in order to get married,' Arimah said of her friend.
Lesley Arimah, who was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria, has previously won several awards for her writing, including the 2017 Kirkus Prize and the 2017 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award.
The Caine Prize was launched in 2000 and is awarded annually to an African writer of a short story published in English.
