Finally, Voice of America is out and Farafina will be giving out five free copies of the book to five budding writers who best step to E.C. Osondu! All you have to do is read a short excerpt of your choice from Voice of America below, continue the story in your own words and email it to voa@kachifo.com on or before May 31st 2011. The lucky winners will be announced two weeks later. Entry is free.

Excited right? Well, before you start, here are the rules.

 Voice of America Flash Fiction Rules

•   Entry is free and open to everyone except Farafina authors and Kachifo staff.
•  Entries must be 300 words or less, and should be pasted in the body of an email to voa@kachifo.com on or before May 31st 2011.
• Only one entry per person is allowed.
• You can use a pen name but please make sure your real name is included in the email.
• The three winners will be announced on our blog, facebook page and via email, and will need to arrange to collect their prizes from our office in Yaba, Lagos.

Excerpts (please choose one)

Voice of America

We were sitting in front of Ambo’s provision store, drinking the local gin, ogogoro, mixed with Coke and listening to a program called Music Time in Africa on the Voice of America. We were mostly young men who were spending our long summer holidays in the village.

The presenter announced that there was a special request for an African song from an American girl whose name was Laura Williams, and that she was also interested in pen pals from every part of Africa, especially Nigeria. Onwordi, who had been pensive all this while, rushed to Ambo the shopkeeper, collected a pen, and began to take down her address. This immediately led to a scramble among the rest of us to get the address too. We all took it down, folded the pieces of paper, put them in our pockets, and promised we were going to write as soon as we got home that night.

We were sitting in Ambo’s shop one evening when Onwordi swaggered in holding a white envelope with a small American stamp. There was a bald eagle on the stamp. He waved it in our faces, smiling. He called for drinks, and we all rushed to him, trying to snatch the envelope from his hands.

“She has replied,” he said, looking very proud, like a man who had unexpectedly caught a big fish with a hook in the small village river…  

The men they married

Ego married a certified nursing assistant who claimed to be a medical doctor. He sent her glossy, smiling pictures of himself in a lab coat. When he came to pay her bride price that December in Lagos, she was the envy of friends and neighbors. Everyone referred to him respectfully as “Doctor.” Her parents were very proud of her achievement. 

She joined him a few months later in America and discovered that he had not been anywhere near a medical school. He worked at Duyn Home, a retirement home for the elderly. He came back home every day smelling of the aged, and complained about the ninety-eight-year-old Rose Kelly, who grabbed him by his shirt each time he tidied her and whispered into his ears, “Tell me about lions, did you ride a cub like Tarzan back in Africa?”

Miracle baby                                                                          

Every summer Ijeoma’s mother-in-law asked her to come to Nigeria to seek a solution to her childlessness. The previous year she had sent Ijeoma a video recording of Nigeria’s latest miracle pastor.

The weekend after Ijeoma arrived, her mother-in-law chartered a taxi to take them to a church in Badagry, on the outskirts of Lagos, where the prophet’s church was located. The prophet …. took Ijeoma by the hand and led her to a pond behind the church…. Pointing at the fish in the pond, the prophet spoke to Ijeoma.

“These are all children; these are all babies waiting to be born. Look closely, and tell me the one that you like.” … Shortly after Ijeoma got back to the United States, she discovered she was pregnant. At first she didn’t believe it, but after two further tests, the result was the same. She was indeed pregnant.