The Nigeria Prize for Literature and Current Nigerian Writing: Politics, Process, and Price of Literary Legitimation

Abstract

Established in 2004 by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), the Nigeria Prize for Literature is in its sixteenth year of administration. Currently valued at $100,000, its material reward is phenomenal in the Nigerian economy, with the exchange rate outrageously in favor of the dollar. Even more crucially, the prize has risen in its symbolic value from its initial focus on revamping the quality of publishing in the country to become arguably the most powerful cultural institution for validating a Nigerian/African view on artistic excellence. Examining primarily archival documents relating to the prize from its inauguration, I appraise the processes of its articulation and substantiation of its vision of "excellence and craftsmanship" in Nigerian literature as well as its procedures of acquiring, accumulating, and bestowing prestige and remark on public reception of these as well as its relative international anonymity; I finally underscore its distinctive vision of Nigerian literature by locating it in the circuit of comparable prizes, especially the Caine Prize.