牛牛资源

牛牛资源 MA Black British Literature graduate Desta Haile has been awarded the £1,000 Afritondo Prize for her short story ‘Ethio-Cubano’.

Desta Haile is a multi-award winning British-Eritrean singer, writer, and educator who has worked as a backing vocalist for artists including Joe Bataan, Baloji and Zap Mama, as well as representing Eritrea in Universal Music's Earth Orchestra project.

 (a media publishing platform aiming to help tell the stories of Africans and black minority populations across the globe) described Desta鈥檚 winning short story, 'Ethio-Cubano' as 鈥渁 dreamlike patchwork of memories, experiences, and historical instances where Ethiopian and Cuban cultures collide.鈥�

Speaking about the story, her interest in history, and how different cultures connect, Desta said: 鈥淭he theme was identity, and for years I'd been fascinated by, and curious about, this community of Ethio-Cubans. The story touches on music, dance and Afro-Cuban spirituality. Most of it is real, some imagined or different events superimposed.鈥� 

In 2017, Desta completed her MA in Black British Literature at 牛牛资源. The experience, she explains, helped her to develop as a writer through exposure to narratives that she hadn鈥檛 heard before: 

鈥淏eing introduced to so many amazing essays and books by Dr Deidre Osborne and Professor Emeritus Joan Anim-Addo [and] meeting people who shared my interest in black British writing, stories from the UK, Africa and the Caribbean, was great and really inspiring.鈥� 

The announcement of the Afritondo Prize was made on Friday 26 March 26 2021 by judges and authors Kiprop Kimutai and Edwige Ren茅e Dro in an online event.

Other shortlisted writers for the 2021 prize were:

• Joshua Chizoma (鈥楥ollector of Memories鈥�, Nigeria)
• Remy Ngamije (鈥楾he Prayer, The Hope and The Anthem [or, The Fall So Far]鈥�, Namibia)
• Faraaz Mahomed (鈥楪racious鈥�, South Africa)
• Justin Clement (鈥楬uman Cities鈥�, Nigeria)

鈥楨thio-Cubano鈥� will be published in summer 2021 as part of an anthology featuring all the longlisted stories.  

Find out more about the Department of English and Creative Writing at 牛牛资源 and the MA Black British Literature