The winner is A mouth full of salt by Reem Gaafar from Sudan.
A small village in the North of Sudan wakes up one morning in the late 70s to the news of a drowned boy. While searching for him a strange woman appears, and with her appearance a series of strange and tragic events occur: animals die of a mysterious illness, the date tree fields catch fire and burn to the ground, and a young girl decides she is leaving the village to go to medical school in the capital Khartoum – something unheard of in that area and that time. While these events all have perfectly logical explanations, the villagers believe they are a work of evil and their thoughts and anger turn to this woman who they believe is a witch.
The three women in this story are trapped in a social system with a very well-defined gender and racial hierarchy, but which is facing disruption by changing times. In their obstinate belief in their societal norms, the villagers blame this change on an obscure evil that can only be produced by an outsider, rather than confront their own bigotry.
The judges of the The Island Prize say:
A mouth full of salt is stylistically simple, insightful, and elegant; sharing truths like all best fiction, it is compelling, has a profound sense of place, and shows brilliance in the ways the destinies weave together.
Here are the runners-up:
Braids and migraines by Andile Mashandu Cele (South Africa)
A story about injustice and education; a kind of fable about the reality of being a young black person in post-apartheid South Africa.
Bobo Hamham by Jesudubami Jemima Aganaba (Nigeria)
A story told by three children. The witness to domestic violence, rural life, poverty and religious fanatism; the rich, urban, classy kid in the cold, lifeless family; lastly, the indoctrinated, bipolar child-terrorist in some forest.