Sarah Waiswa at the Gerald Kraak Award ceremony last night. She is a co-winner for her photography collection “Stranger in Familiar Land.”

The Ugandan-born Kenya-based photographer Sarah Waiswa and the Kenyan writer Farah Ahamed have been named co-winners of the inaugural Gerald Kraak Award. The announcement came at the award ceremony in Johannesburg last night.

Sarah was chosen for her photography collection titled “Stranger in a Familiar Land” and Farah for her fiction, “Poached Eggs.” They will be sharing the R25,000 prize money.

The award, a collaboration between The Jacana Literary Foundation and The Other Foundation, is named in honor of the late South African activist Gerald Kraak, who devoted his life to fighting for LGBTI issues, gender and social justice issues.

After four months of reviewing 400 submissions, the panel of judges—Eusebius McKaiser, Sylvia Tamale, and the chair Sisonke Msimang—had earlier decided on a 14-name shortlist which “represent a new wave of fresh storytelling” in fiction, photography, poetry and academic writing.

The shortlisted works appear in an anthology titled Pride and Prejudice, which saw its launch at the ceremony.

The organisers’ logo.

Sarah Waiswa is a Ugandan-born Kenya-based documentary and portrait photographer with an interest in exploring identity on the African continent, particularly the New African Identity. She has degrees in sociology and psychology. “Stranger in a Familiar Land” won her the Recontres d’Arles 2016 Discovery Award. Here is what the judges said about it at the shortlist announcement:

This collection of photos showcases the best of African story-telling. The images take risks, and speak to danger and subversion. At the same time they are deeply rooted in places that are familiar to urban Africans. The woman in this collection is a stand-in for all of us.

Farah Ahamed is a co-winner for her story “Poached Eggs.”

Farah Ahamed‘s stories have been published in The Massachusetts Review, Thresholds, Kwani?, The Missing Slate and Out of Print. She has shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize, DNA/Out of Print Award, Sunderland Waterstones Award, Asian Writer Award. Her winning story, “Poached Eggs,” was highly commended by the 2016 London Short Story Prize. Here is what the Gerald Kraak judges said about it:

A subtle, slow and careful rendering of the everyday rhythms of domestic terror that pays homage to the long history of women’s resistance; yet with wit and humour and grit, the story also sings of freedom, of resistance and the desire to be unbound.

Congratulations to Sarah Waiswa and Farah Ahamed! Brittle Paper wishes them the best.