By Àkànní Oluwasegun Michael
Atelewo Group, an initiative dedicated to uplifting Yoruba culture, hosted a press conference on Saturday, July 20, to announce the 2024 Yoruba Literature Prizes special edition.
The event, held at the Leaders Hub in Adeyi Avenue, was led by the organization’s co-founders, Rasak Malik Gbolahun and Ibrahim Oredola.
The competition, which began in 2020, is now in its fifth year and will feature a special edition to commemorate this milestone. Unlike previous years, where multiple winners were chosen across various categories, this year’s edition will select a single grand winner, who will receive a cash prize of one million Naira.
Contrary to the previous four editions, where there is usually a grand winner and three other category winners who share the cash prize, this edition is special. Only one winner will be selected to receive One Million Naira, the winner can be from any of the four established categories.
The competition also seeks to honor authors writing in Yoruba literature, with categories including Ewi (Poetry), Ere Onise (Drama), and Ayan Ogbifon (Translation).
According to the organizers, submissions must be unpublished in any form, either physically or virtually. Previous winners from the past four editions are also not eligible to contest. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2024, and the award ceremony is June 2025.
In an interview, Ibrahim Oredola, shed light on the challenges facing Yoruba literature. “The winning presence of quality Yoruba literature materials, if we look at the market, solid books in the market are published ten years ago. We can’t see quality recently published Yoruba books in the market because publishers don’t see it as being profitable. So they do not want to put their money into it, or because people don’t read. Those are the challenges, and we are now having new voices and authors venturing into Yoruba literature,” Oredola explained.
He emphasized the need to inspire young writers: “Some of these classical books are written when the authors are actually young.youth don’t see it as an opportunity, so that’s why we launched this, to serve as inspiration for young people to pick up their pens and write. So now we are not asking youths to pick up their pens only, we’re asking youths to pick up their pens and win a prize.”
Oredola concluded by highlighting the broader mission of the initiative. “We see this as a means to promote the Yoruba language.”
For more information on the competition and submission guidelines, interested applicants are encouraged to visit the Atelewo Group’s official website at www.atelowoprize.com
