The winners of the first ever Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards have been announced.

The awards recognise Namibian writers, poets and visual artists, published in Doek! Literary Magazine, who produce ‘resonant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art’.

The prize states:

‘These literary artists add their unique voices to the country’s emerging literary community. The Awards, sponsored by Bank Windhoek, seek to recognise their literary talent and amplify their works to new audiences at home and abroad.’

2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards winners

• Fiction: Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo for ‘Silhouette’, published in Doek!, Issue 5: March, 2021

‘This year’s shortlist bristled with stories with Namibian flavours—writing which cleverly incorporated the country’s indigenous languages, its landscapes, and its familiar social settings. One short story explored sibling closeness in the face of secret loss, another traced parental absence through the eye of a child who writes letters to a mother who never responds, and the last one takes place in a setting that is quite familiar to Namibians, Africans, and readers around the world—the global pandemic and its devastating effects. With shifting perspectives “Silhouette” showcases Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo’s confidence and compelling voice; the twist in this wonderful short story is a bonus that exhibits his writing acumen and willingness to push beyond the boundaries of the ordinary and it is our selection for 2021.’—2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards Judges

• Nonfiction: Natasha Uys for ‘Ouma Sofie’s Gold’, published in Doek! Issue 6: July, 2021

‘An auralgraph curating the sounds and memories of Windhoek city life, a narration of heritage and departure involving a postdoctoral degree, and a memoir of secret family histories, motherhood, and mental health and illness—the nonfiction shortlisted presented us with writing dealing with complex themes of identity and memory. Our discussions were fierce and our deliberations were long. Natasha Uys’s “Ouma Sophie’s Gold”—a poignant and exemplary piece of nonfiction writing was our selection. Uys’s writing was so heartbreaking we wished the painful truths shared in her work was fictitious—but they are not, they are painfully real and dare us not to look away. Thanks to Uys’s considerable skill at writing, we could not.’—2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards Judges

• Poetry: Pauline Buhle Ndhlovu for ‘Green And Greening’, published in Doek! Issue 4: November, 2020

‘The poetry section was difficult to judge because individual interpretations of the shortlisted works led each judge to a separate conclusions about potential winners. However, we decided that the pandemic—its disruptive effects on all our lives—found resonant poetic articulation in Pauline Buhle Ndhlovu’s “Green And Greening”. She made us relive the confinement and desperation of that first lockdown in Namibia—a period which did not seem to have an end. Now, with the country and the world opening up and trying to find a new sense of movement and freedom, her words remind us that we, too, are living things.’—2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards Judges

• Visual Art: Namafu Amutse for ‘Chrysalis’, published in Doek! Issue 4: November, 2020

‘Doek! Literary Magazine has had a splendid track record of publishing transportive visual arts in the field of illustration and photography. The shortlisted visual artists presented us with visions of homecoming and finding one’s feet, reaching for the short and long space between, and fragments of change and becoming. Each entry showed a high level of skill and we look forward to the future works these talented artistic visionaries will produce. For 2021, Namafu Amutse’s “Chrysalis” was a captivating exploration of emergence. Hinting at the possibilities that change presents, her work was both sweeping and metamorphic—a vision of things, people, time, places, and worlds beyond this one.’—2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards Judges