Female Fear Factory written by Pumla Dineo Gqola and published by Cassava Republic won the inaugural Canex Prize for Publishing in Africa in Algiers, Algeria on Friday, October 18, 2024.
The CANEX Weekend with the whole artistic compendium on the continent starring was hosted at the capital city of Algeria over the weekend. The writing and publishing industry was represented by the Canex Prize for Publishing in Africa which recognises the publisher of the best African fiction or non-fiction title. It is a project of the African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) CANEX Book Factory and Narrative Landscape Press.
The jury of Dr. Wale Okediran (chair), Edwige-Renée Dro, and Ashraf Aboul-Yazid made the longlist public on Thursday, August 15 before a shortlist was announced on Wednesday, September 25. On Saturday, the award was conferred on Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Female Fear Factory: Unravelling Patriarchy’s Cultures of Violence published by Cassava Republic Press.
Algerian Minister of Culture and Arts Soraya Mouloudji and Afreximbank Intra-African Trade Bank Executive Vice President Kanayo Awani presented the award to Cassava Republic’s Layla Mohamed with the trophy. The trophy is a bronze sculpture crafted by the famed bronze casters of Benin City and engraved with the Adinkra symbol nkyinkyim, symbolising resilience and adaptability.
The jury, chaired by Dr. Wale Okediran, praised Professor Gqola’s Female Fear Factory for its bold editorial risk, urgency, and timely message. As the CANEX Prize platform grows, it also signals that the infrastructures for African stories must expand, creating space for African writers and publishers to thrive on their own terms.
Author Pumla Dineo Gqola said,” This recognition of my book Feminist Female Factory and its publisher, Cassava Republic Press by the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa is truly wonderful. I am delighted by the jury’s rewarding of a work of African feminist intervention and, indeed, the existence of this award category”.
In her remarks, Mohamed expressed gratitude to the organisers and underscored the importance of African publishers continuing to champion diverse stories.
“This recognition speaks not only to the intellectual clarity and bravery of Pumla Dineo Gqloa’s writing but to the strength and tenacity of African publishers, said Layla Mohamed, Editor at Cassava Republic Press. “The CANEX Prize underscores the need for a strong and supported African publishing ecosystem who are building the infrastructures for the production of African stories and challenging long-standing power dynamics in the global publishing world.”
The award-winning nonfiction title which focuses on the patriarchy comes with the following blurb;
Patriarchy does not respect national boundaries. It is unabashedly promiscuous in its influences and tethers. Yet, it does use nationalism very productively.
An empty street at night. A crowded bus. A lecture hall. All sites of female fear, instilled in women and those who have been constructed female, from an early age.
Drawing on examples from around the world – from Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa to Saudi Arabia, the Americas and Europe, Gqola traces the construction and machinations of the female fear factory by exposing its lies, myths, and seductions. She shows how seemingly disparate effects, like driving bans, street harassment, and coercive professors, are the product of the ever-turning machinery of the female fear factory, and its use of fear as a tool of patriarchal subjugation and punishment.
Female Fear Factory: Unravelling Patriarchy’s Cultures of Violence is a sobering account of patriarchal violence in the world, and a hopeful vision for the work of unapologetic feminist imaginative strategies across the globe.
The winner gets the US$20,000 cash prize and the other four finalists win US$ 2,000.
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