OFFICIAL WINNER

🏆 OFFICIAL WINNER – 10TH EDITION OF THE SANKOFA BOOK AWARDS KENYA 2025

It is with great honor that the Sankofa Book Awards – Kenya announces the winner of its 10th edition, 2025, one of the most prestigious literary prizes dedicated to recognizing and amplifying African voices that are transforming the world through writing.

📘 Winning Title

The Inmate: The Beginning and the End of an Injustice

✍🏽 Author

Nituecheni Africano 🇦🇴 – Angola

📚 Genre

Novel

✨ About the Winning Work

The Inmate: The Beginning and the End of an Injustice is a literary work of rare courage and profound social relevance. Through a deeply engaging and technically refined narrative, the author unveils the systemic failures in access to justice, revealing how lives are shattered by arbitrary imprisonment, judicial delays, and institutional silence.

The novel goes beyond fiction: it sheds light on realities still experienced in many African countries, where abuse of power, impunity, and human rights violations remain structural challenges. Nituecheni Africano transforms the pain of the wrongfully accused into literature of great political and moral value—without losing the lyricism and symbolic strength that characterize the finest African works.

By placing injustice at the heart of the narrative, the book not only denounces it but also invites the reader to empathize, reflect, and recognize the urgency for reform. Its literary contribution is inseparable from its civic one: The Inmate is a literary outcry for a more just, transparent, and humane continent.

💬 Words from the Jury President

“Choosing this year’s winner was extremely challenging. We received outstanding books with extraordinary literary and emotional impact. Nituecheni Africano stood out for presenting a narrative that merges social denunciation and aesthetic refinement with great maturity. The Inmate is undoubtedly a novel that will remain a reference in contemporary African literature.”
— Dr. Kwabena Mensah, President of the Sankofa 2025 Jury

👩🏾‍⚖️ 2025 Jury Panel

The jury for this edition was composed of five highly respected figures from the African and international literary scene:

• Dr. Amina Okello 🇰🇪 – Professor of African Literature at the University of Nairobi and researcher on Bantu oral traditions
• Prof. Sihle Dlamini 🇿🇦 – Writer, literary critic, and coordinator of the Johannesburg African Literature Symposium
• Nadia Sow 🇸🇳 – Literary translator and editor at Maison des Écrivains Noirs, Paris
• Chikondi Mphande 🇲🇼 – Writer and curator of the Lake of Stars Book Festival, promoter of women's literature in Southern Africa
• Dr. Kwabena Mensah 🇬🇭 – President of the 2025 Jury; Director of the Center for African Literary Studies, University of Ghana, Accra

🥇 Award Package

The winning author will receive:

• 💵 USD 5,000 cash prize
• 🏆 Exclusive Sankofa trophy
• 🎟️ Confirmed attendance at the Awards Gala – September 26, 2025, in Nairobi, Kenya, with international coverage and distinguished literary guests
• 📖 Re-publication of the winning title, with a special new edition
• 🌍 Official translations of the work into English, French, German, and one national language of Kenya (Swahili, Kikuyu, or Luo, depending on the author’s preference), to maximize its impact locally and internationally

🌍 Honoring the Power of African Storytelling

The Sankofa Book Awards reaffirms its commitment to uplifting African literature and writers who champion justice, memory, identity, and humanity. Nituecheni Africano now joins the hall of authors who use literature as a powerful tool for transformation and legacy.

📢 Press & International Contact

For interviews, features, collaborations, or gala coverage:

📧 [email protected]
📞 +254 712 345 657
🌐 www.sankofabookawardskenya.com