There is this thing that distance does where it subtracts warmth and context and history...” Those are the words of this year’s African region winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Lesley Nneka Arimah from Nigeria.
I was, and I know many of us were, rooting for the two talented Kenyans — award-winning Muthoni Gichuru and the freelance writer and filmmaker Alexander Ikawah — but the judges had a different view.