The Caine Prize for African Writing is named after Sir Michael Caine, who chaired the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years. Nicknamed the African Booker, the Caine Prize is awarded every year for the best short story by an African author, published in English. The Prize seeks to connect budding African authors with publishers in England and America. Each year the shortlist is published in an anthology along with the stories written at the Caine Prize Workshops. This particular anthology contains the first ten prize winners from 2000-2009, as well as short stories by Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer, and Booker Prize winner, Ben Okri.

The fourteen stories cover a wide variety of perspectives and styles, but the authors were all from one of six countries. I was a bit surprised that there hadn't been winners from a broader selection of countries, but this collection only represents a single decade, so perhaps there has been a wider range since then. Themes of dislocation, the effects of colonization, and war were omnipresent.

"The Ultimate Safari" by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) is told from the perspective of a child who is escaping with his grandmother and siblings through a game preserve to a refugee camp in a neighboring country. This story was, predictably, very good.

"Nietverloren" by J.M. Coetzee (South Africa) is about a man reflecting on his grandparents farm, once a source of employment and food, which devolved into a tourist attraction for foreigners.

"Incidents at the Shrine" by Ben Okri (Nigeria) is about a salaryman who is laid off and returns to his village where strange and otherworldly things are happening at the local shrine.

"The Museum" by Leila Aboulela (Sudan) was one of my favorite stories. It's about a young woman who is studying statistics in Edinburgh and trying to navigate between her old world and her new.

"Love Poems" by Helon Habila (Nigeria) is written from the perspective of a journalist and poet, imprisoned for reporting on a demonstration. His warder forces him to write poetry to the woman he wishes to seduce. Also very good.

"Discovering Home" by Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya) is about a young man returning to his village in Kenya and then going to a family reunion in Uganda after having lived in Cape Town for a year.

"Weight of Whispers" by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya) was difficult to read. It's about a princeling who flees his country, which has descending into chaos and genocide after the plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi is shot down and both men killed. The prince goes from being a diplomat more at home in Europe than Africa, to being a refugee haunted by the role he may have unwittingly(?) played in inciting the violence. His mother, sister, and fiancée pay a terrible price for their life of privilege.

"Seventh Street Alchemy" by Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe) is about several people whose lives intersect in various ways over the course of a few days.

"Monday Morning" by Segun Afolabi (Nigeria) is about a refuge family in London trying to adapt to their new life.

"Jungfrau" by Mary Watson (South Africa) is told from the perspective of a young girl whose mother teaches children in the townships. She is both jealous of her mother's attentions and happy to be left in the company of her father and glamourous aunt.

"Jambula Tree" by Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda) is a stream of consciousness narrative of a girl waiting for her childhood girlfriend and nascent lover to return from abroad.

"Poison" by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa) reads like a dystopian story about a young woman fleeing Cape Town after an explosion at a chemical plant.

"Waiting" by EC Osondu (Nigeria) is about a boy waiting in a refugee camp, hoping to be adopted by a family abroad.

"An Emissary" by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) is a short social and ecological commentary framed around a young couple on their way to a rave.