In a couple days or so, the Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced (probably on Thursday, 6 October or the next). We know for sure that all information concerning the nomination and selection of the Nobel laureates is kept a secret for 50 years. The betting odds seem to favor the 81 years old Syrian poet Ali Ahmed Said Asbar who writes under the pen name Adonis. The best chances for Africa are the 3 following (in any particular order) forerunners: Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah (Crossbones, his eleventh novel just out last month), Kenyan novelist, essayist and activist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, and Algerian novelist and filmmaker Assia Djebar. From now on, I will cross my fingers for my three inspiring and admirable friends.

Africa’s previous winners of the Literature Nobel are: Naguib Mahfouz, Nadime Gordimer, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee.