Five writers — Adedayo Agarau, Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu, Troy Onyango (Kenya), Chioma Rosemary, and Chukwuebuka Ibeh have been named finalists for the 2025 Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature.
Founded in 2006, the Future Awards Africa honors Africans between the ages of 18 and 35 for excellence across arts, culture, enterprise, and public service.
The announcement of the 2025 finalists was made this week as part of the nineteenth edition of the awards, themed “Threads of Legacy.” The theme centers on individuals whose work reflects continuity and impact within their fields, and in the literature category, the finalists features writers whose publications and editorial efforts have drawn international attention.
About The Writers
Adedayo Agarau
Adedayo Agarau is Nigerian poet, essayist and art administrator. Agarau is a member of the UnSerious Collective. He is the editor-in-chief of Agbowo, an African literary magazine. He was a founding editor at IceFloe Press, Canada as the New International Voices editor and African Chapbook Acquisition manager. Agarau curated and edited Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry.
Adedayo is a Cave Canem Fellow and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University ’25.
Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu
Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu is a journalist from Nigeria with by-lines in several international publications. She is currently Managing Editor at HumAngle Media. She is a 2018 writer-in-residence at Ebedi Writers Residency and a 2022 Storify Africa Fellow. Her work examines the human cost of terrorism and insurgencies, as they relate to transitional justice issues, migration, and displacement.
Troy Onyango
Troy Onyango is a writer and editor from Kisumu based in the UK. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Doek!, Wasafiri, Isele Magazine, Johannesburg Review of Books, AFREADA, Nairobi Noir, Dgëku Magazine, and Transition among others.
The winner of the inaugural Nyanza Literary Festival Prize and first runner-up in the Black Letter Media Competition, he has also been shortlisted for the Caine Prize, the Short Story Day Africa Prize, the Brittle PaperAwards, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His debut collection of short stories FOR WHAT ARE BUTTERFLIES WITHOUT THEIR WINGS was published in 2022.
An alumnus of the Caine Prize Workshop, Miles Morland Workshop, Jalada Workshop, Goethe Workshop and the Kwani?-SLS Workshop, he has also been a writer-in-residence at the Ebedi Writers Residency in Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Laws degree, has an MA in Creative Writing with distinction from the University of East Anglia, where he was a recipient of the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship, and attended SOAS University of London for the MA in African Studies.
He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Lolwe.
Chioma Rosemary Onyekaba
Chioma Rosemary Onyekaba is a Nigerian writer, entrepreneur, and creative professional with over 17 years of experience across publishing, design, and business. Born in Jos and originally from Abia State, she holds degrees in English Language and Literature from Abia State University and Parliamentary Administration from the University of Benin. She is the Managing Director of Beauty & Brains Foundation Printing Press and leads several ventures spanning fashion, real estate, and media.
Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, The New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at BrittlePaper. He was the Runner-up for the 2021 J.F Powers Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and Morland Foundation Scholarship, and has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw.
Congratulations, Adedayo Agarau, Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu, Troy Onyango (Kenya), Chioma Rosemary, and Chukwuebuka Ibeh!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
