A harrowing story about a child waiting to be rescued from a refugee camp has
captured the 10th annual Caine Prize for African short story writing. The author is
Epaphras C. (EC) Osondu G'07, a former advertising copywriter from Nigeria who
earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University's
College of Arts and
Sciences. Osondu was recently feted at Oxford University, where he was awarded a
$16,000 check and a month-long residency at Georgetown University. The Caine Prize,
named in memory of British businessman Michael Harris Caine, is Africa's top short-
story award.
Osondu's winning story, "Waiting," was published in October 2008 in
Guernicamag.com. The piece, which details the harsh realities of refugee camp living,
is told from the perspective of a boy named Orlando Zaki. "Orlando is taken from
Orlando, Fla., which is what is written on the T-shirt given to me by the Red Cross. Zaki
is the name of the town where I was found and from which I was brought to this
refugee camp," writes Osondu in "Waiting." "Here in the camp, we wait and wait and
then wait some more. It is the only thing we do." Osondu goes on to describe how Zaki
and other refugees anticipate the arrival of food trucks. A fight invariably breaks out
over food, for which people "struggle and bite and kick and curse and tear and grab
and run."
Osondu said the idea for "Waiting" came to him when he volunteered for an SU
program that helped children from war-torn Sudan and Somalia resettle in Central New
York. "I was teaching them creative writing, and, naturally, we all began to exchange
stories," he explains. "They told me about their lives in the refugee camp prior to
moving to America. ['Waiting'] drew its inspiration from some of the things I learned
that summer." Nana Yaa Mensah, a Caine judge who writes for the British magazine
New Statesman, calls "Waiting" a "tour de force." "It is powerfully written with not an
ounce of fat on it," she says, adding that it vividly describes the "dislocating experience
of being a displaced person."
This year is not the first time that Osondu caught the attention of Caine judges. He was
one of three Nigerians shortlisted in 2007 for his story "Jimmy Carter's Eyes," later
anthologized in the Caine Prize collection "Jambula Tree and Other Stories" (New
Internationalist, 2008). "I find myself twisting other people's stories, giving them my
own endings and wondering what I would do with the same material," he told the BBC
two years ago. In the same interview, Osondu lamented the fact that Africa has yet to
produce a master of short-form fiction: "I am glad to be counted among the elected, so
to speak."
Osondu just completed his first year as assistant professor of English at Providence
College in Rhode Island. Before that, he served on the faculties of the University of
Maryland and Onondaga Community College, and briefly worked in advertising in
Nigeria. Osondu has published several other award-winning stories, including "A
Letter From Home," which was recognized as one of the best Internet short-stories of
2006. He is currently working on a novel about genocide.
The M.F.A in creative writing, housed in SU's English department, is one of the oldest,
most distinguished programs of its kind in the country. Small and intimate, the
program encompasses 36 students in fiction and poetry who are taught by eight full-
time faculty members. Recent graduates, in addition to Osondu, include M.T.
Anderson G'98, Rebecca Curtis G'01 and Phil LaMarche G'03. More information is
available at http://English.syr.edu/CreativeWriting.htm.
