Winners Revealed at Selibeng and The African Book Club 2018 Writing Challenge Awards

By Relebohile Sera

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Selibeng.com and The African Book Club would like to congratulate the winners of the 2018 Writing Challenge. The awards event was held on the 11th August 2018 at Kick4Life, Maseru. The competition started on the 7th June and the deadline for submissions was the 23rd July 2018.

The 2018 Writing Challenge bested more than 30 entries from around Lesotho. Following the deadline, the judge took two weeks to review and go through each submission of which 5 of the winners were chosen.

 

The Letter From our Judge – Rimme Mastebroek

Dear essayists,

First of all, thank you for participating! We dared you to write and you answered our call. Fantastic. Thanks, as well, for letting me judge your work. I love Lesotho, but as a Dutchman, I am, of course, not an expert when it comes to your country. Luckily my friend Nvulane Nhlapo is an expert and he helped me out greatly.

Rimme Mastebroek
Rimme Mastebroek

Your essays impressed me. The level of quality was high. Choosing between all of your essays was hard, but it had to be done.

This is what I looked for: To me, a well written essay is an art form. In my book, art has only one requirement: it must provoke emotion. It doesn’t matter whether the emotion is positive or negative. A well made documentary can make you angry. A painting can leave you in awe. A good book can make you smile and cry at the same time. I’ve read your
essays in the same way, looking for that emotion.

Of course, other, more practical, factors also played a role in the grading process: does the article ‘flow’, does it give me insight in the problems of Lesotho and are the offered solutions tangible? But in the end I was really looking for a piece of your soul, transformed into a written piece. I believe the prize winners did just that.

I wish you all the best in the future and I hope and pray for Khotso, Pula and Nala for all the Basotho.

Kind regards,

Rimme

 

The Winners of the 2018 Writing Challenge

  1. Lesotho’s Youth, The Bearers of Her Potential by Lintle Mothetho
  2. Generation X: A Dream Deferred by Leoma Monaheng
  3. The Lesotho of my dreams by Mantsebeng Maepe
  4. Defective Educational System: The Root Cause of Youth Unemployment by Pontsho Letlatsa
  5. The foundation of a better future lies within the youth, within the next generation by Nthabeleng Rampubane

 

Of the winners, the top three read their submissions at the venue and shared on their motives for writing their pieces. The event was open to the general public and we got a chance to have a chat with everyone. Every attendee was given a gift.

Competition submissions are published on Selibeng.com and are found on this tag – Writing Competition 2018.

Selibeng.com and The African Book Club would like to thank everyone who participated in the writing challenge and to those who attended the award giving ceremony.

 

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