It was a weekend for breaking records by Ugandan women. Harriet Anena, scooped the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature 2018, becoming the first Ugandan to land the award. On the other hand, Uganda’s beauty Queen and truly Gorgeous Quinn Abenakyo, was also declared the 2nd runner up of the Miss World Beauty Pageant. She is also the first Ugandan ever to reach this far in the competition. In addition, both of them are young people who used their brains to bring home cash and bundles of joy in an uneventful week clouded by grief.
On Sunday, 9 December, 2018, Harriet Anena, a former editor with Daily Monitor, now working with the African Centre for Media Excellence, was announced a joint winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature 2018. It is one of the most prestigious awards for writers on the continent.
Anena won the award for her social conscience poetry collection, A Nation in Labour. In joint first-place was Nigerian poet and writer Tanure Ojaide for his 2015 poetry collection, Songs of Myself: Quartet. The winners were announced at ceremony held in Lagos, Nigeria. They each win a cash prize of $10,000 (£7,870)
She tweeted that she was “super happy” to have won the award for her book of poetry.
Her publisher, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform describes Anena’s book as “a collection of social conscience poetry” taking in “the giant politician, the restless citizen, the clueless youth, those struggling to heal from life’s scratches and the ones hunting for words to describe fiery flames of affection”.
The other piece of news that had been eagerly anticipated by Ugandans, came from our very own Quiin Abenakyo, the girl from Mayuge.
Quinn Abenakyo’s was crowned Miss Africa 2018, at a gala event that was held in in Sanya, China on 8 December 2018. Vanessa Ponce of Mexico was crowned Miss World beating all 117 contestants.
Organisers of Miss World never reveal the prize money for winners but reports indicate she will be part of the Miss World 2019 Tour. Her victory is also likely to open her doors for a number of opportunities including signing sponsorship deals for beauty products as well as doing philanthropic and other promotional work.
