MxA holds the third “Africa with an Ñ” for African women writing in Spanish
There are two first prizes of 2,500 euros in the categories of narrative and research work.
23rd April, 2018. Once again this year, the Women for Africa Foundation (MxA) is joining in the commemoration of Africa Day with its “Africa with an Ñ” literary contest, aimed at raising the visibility and recognition of African women who write in Spanish. This initiative is part of the foundation’s programme that aims to promote the use and teaching of Spanish in Africa.
The participants may submit their work as of today until 10th September. The contest awards €5,000 in prizes for the best works in two categories: narrative and research work about Spanish.
Contestants are free to choose the subject matter in the narrative section, whereas research work must refer to an aspect of Spanish language or culture in general and/or to the teaching of this language in Africa in particular.
The jury is made up of the writers Laura Freixas, Najat el Hachmi and Natalia Carrero for the narrative, and the Hispanists Carolyn Richmond, Ana Rodríguez Fischer and Emilia Velasco for the research work. The decision will be announced in October 2018 through our social networks and website, and the winners will be notified personally by email.
In the first two editions held in 2016 and 2017, authors from 12 different African countries took part (Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria and Senegal).
In addition to the literary contest, the “Africa with an Ñ” programme includes other activities such as promoting scholarships for African women who study Spanish, thanks to collaboration with various universities associated with CRUE, bringing them to Spain to study courses in the subject.
Furthermore, last 3rd April the director of the Cervantes Institute, Juan Manuel Bonet, signed an agreement with the president of MxA, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, to collaborate in fostering the teaching of Spanish and the spread of Spanish culture in Africa.
There are currently 500 million Spanish speakers and about 21 million people studying it in more than 100 countries, of whom over one and a half million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. This makes it the third region in the world in teaching this language, behind only America and Europe. According to recent reports, 5 of the 12 countries with most Spanish students in the world are African: Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon and Gabon.
Women for Africa also collaborates with the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library Foundation (Fundación Biblioteca Virtual Migeul de Cervantes), which publishes the winning works from the two categories in the “Africa with an Ñ” literary contest in its African Library (Biblioteca Africana) website.