The Caine Prize is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, but published in the English language.

The five-writer shortlist for the 20th edition of the Caine Prize featured stories that "speak eloquently to the human condition" through a diverse array of themes and genres.

The shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology, and also through co-publishers in 16 African countries who receive a print-ready PDF free of charge.

'Robust literature'

Meanwhile, the chair of the judging panel, Kenneth Tharp, said the shortlisted stories signal a robust African literature "that speaks to human conditions as a homogeneous whole".

"Each of these shortlisted stories speak eloquently to the human condition, and to what it is to be an African, or person of African descent, at the start of the second decade of the 21st century," he said in a statement posted on the prize's website.