Two Cape Writers Make Shortlist for the 2025 UJ Debut Prize for Afrikaans Literature
The UJ Debut Prize celebrates outstanding first-time Afrikaans authors and their creative writing.
Charmaine Africa and Gaireyah Fredericks have each earned a place on the shortlist for the 2025 UJ Debut Prize for Afrikaans Literature. Their debut works, Amma and Een Voet Innie Kabr, join a growing list of titles acknowledged by the University of Johannesburg for original Afrikaans writing.
First launched in 2001 through the Cordis Trust and Fanie Marais, the awards were initially known as the RAU Mardene Marais Prize. Since 2005 they have formed part of the University of Johannesburg’s annual literary recognition for Afrikaans books published the previous year.
Amma is Africa’s memoir that captures a personal story rooted in Bishop Lavis. She reflects on her experiences growing up in a household shaped by labour, hardship, and persistence. Her mother, Amma, works to keep the home steady, while her father battles alcoholism. The memoir follows the siblings’ lives as they move through personal struggles within their own marriages and families. Her brothers face difficulties with alcohol. The book documents her journey from childhood to womanhood, framed by the realities of poverty and the effort to move beyond it.
Een Voet Innie Kabr contains a series of stories told in Kaaps and the Cape Muslim vernacular. Her characters are drawn from lived experience, speaking and thinking in the language of the communities they come from. The tailor-doctor walks through the stories with a bag of tools and a pen. One woman buries her twin babies. Marielda maintains a careful image as a wife performing what is expected. Ghoemeira stands between two ways of being, caught in the pressure of old customs and current realities. The book creates space for these voices in their own style and form.
Fredericks began sharing her writing through self-published poetry in 2015. In 2020, she received a Neville Alexander prestige award for her contribution to Afrikaans. She recently completed her Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.
The UJ-Debut Prize recognises books by new authors, while a separate shortlist exists for already-published writers. That list includes Kinderlê by Lynthia Julius, Ek en jy bestaan nie by Danie Marais, and Onrus op Steynshoop by Ingrid Winterbach.
All the novels up for the UJ prize are published by NB Publishers and are available at leading bookstores.
Winners of both categories will be announced soon.
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