Across several novels, marriage is not presented as one uniform experience. It is shaped by family, religion, economics, culture and individual choices. Their protagonists do not all arrive at the same conclusions, but their stories reveal the many negotiations involved in being a wife.

In death, Raila was accorded a state funeral, and the country watched as a man who had spent decades seeking the presidency received the ceremonial honours of a former national leader. The symbolism was striking. He never became president, yet his death occasioned the rituals, public mourning and national attention usually reserved for figures who had occupied the highest office.

The question of how stories move beyond their place of origin was also central to Grivel’s contribution to the exhibition programme.“Be self-confident about your culture and where you come from if you want to see your stories travel.” His advice is to begin with what they know rather than attempting to make their work conform to an imagined international audience.Manga offers one example of how stories rooted in a particular cultural context can find readers around the world. Their international reach demonstrates that cultural specificity need not be a barrier to wider appeal. For Grivel, the connection lies in emotion. A story may emerge from a particular place, culture or experience, but the feelings it explores can resonate with readers elsewhere.

Many people I know have been cremated. Prof Wangari Maathai. Charles Mugane Njonjo. Jeremiah Kiereini. Allan Thigo. Tough people. Important people. Revered celebrities and public figures. The news no longer rattles me. I am old enough to know the dead give no damn. 

“The Blue Fighter” follows Tinashe, a young boy whose family is plunged into financial difficulty after his father leaves his profession to pursue his passion for building fish tanks. As the family’s financial situation deteriorates, Tinashe’s mother is forced to confront a difficult choice between supporting her husband’s ambitions and ensuring the family’s survival.

The longlist, announced on 6 October, brings together fiction, memoir, poetry, history, children’s literature and non-fiction from publishers across Africa and the Caribbean. The prize's emphasis on publishing is significant at a time when conversations about African literature increasingly extend beyond writing itself to questions of rights, ownership, distribution, translation and access to global markets.