Clearly, you don’t have to leave Kenya to succeed as a writer

Okwiri Oduor has won the Caine Prize for 2014. There are several supremely wonderful things about this feat.

A Kenyan has won, that is always wonderful. It is a positive nod that the Kenyan literary scene is not as dead or as cliquish as some seem to think, and of course, that Okwiri is actually a good writer, more relatable than many.

I will focus on two main things that strike me about her win.

The first is that Okwiri is a young author. She is 26 years old, and at 26, has accomplished much (and sacrificed much) for her craft.

She has garnered critical acclaim. Her novella The Dream Chasers was highly commended in the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize.

GIVING BACK

According to her bio from the Caine Prize, her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The New Inquiry, Kwani?,Saraba, FEMRITE and African Writing Online. She recently directed the inaugural Writivism Festival in Kampala, Uganda, and she teaches creative writing to young girls at her alma mater.

It is beautiful that she is young, and it is beautiful that she is sharing that learning with girls at her alma mater. One of the most important things about the elevation of status that comes with receiving international recognition is the essential responsibility to pass on one’s wisdom so that others may follow in your footsteps.

Bringing up others to your level so that everyone benefits from your win is something distinctively African to do; it becomes a communal win. And note that she was teaching before she won.

Number two is something that was pointed out to me by another prolific writer: "No one from Kenya who has ever won the Caine Prize didn’t go to school abroad."

RESONATING MESSAGE

By this she meant the other two Kenyan recipients of the prize, Binyavanga Wainaina, who won in 2002, and Yvonne Owuor, who won in 2003 and whose novel Dust came out this year.

Though this is something that many people will gloss over, it is important to point out the truth of it. It’s another reason why Okwiri’s win is an illumination of the Kenyan literary scene, as well as a chance for elevation.

If people thought they had to go abroad to be considered good writers, now they don’t have a case.

We have good writers right here — writers who fight for their words and who simply do what needs to be done to get to where they want to be — and in Okwiri’s case, 10,000 sterling pounds richer, perhaps?

It is a message that resonates. You can be young, you can be passionate, and you can be the cream of the crop. And, you can stay right here to do it.

Congratulations, Okwiri Oduor, for bringing more hope and direction to lovers of words.

Twitter: @AbigailArunga