For years, as a news media and an African fashion company, A New Touch Of Africa (ANTOA) has been on the journey of creating awareness about modern innovations in Africa while amplifying African voices and shining lights on truths that are rarely reported by mainstream media.
Having seen the condition of the people in Makoko, Lagos, Nigeria; the founders: Mrs. Adamu and Dr. Hephzibah Adamu in collaboration with Hammed Kayode Alabi, MS Africa and International Development & Mastercard Foundation Scholar in the UK, and Charis Black Projects, one of leading online schools providing educational programs on digital skills to equip African youths in today’s tech-driven economy, are organizing the second edition of Antoa Writing Contest (AWC): Rebuilding Makoko Essay Contest, as a means of inspiring creativity in African youths and to touch lives positively.
Every child carries in himself or herself a generation. It’s therefore the “soul aim” of this year’s collaborators to support a child in achieving his or her dreams as they grow passing through economic challenges and environmental issues.
Makoko is one community out of many going through a similar situation in Africa. It serves as a pointer and a face of all other communities that we have in mind. We can only start with one. Hence, our campaign: One Child At A Time.
Beyond that, we’re calling out African governments to critically look into sustainable infrastructural developments to meet the basic needs of citizens. It cannot be overemphasized that an enabling environment plays a big role in boosting the African ecosystem in general.
Last year’s edition focused on amplifying the voice of African writers through fiction and poetry; we received over 100 entries from across the world awarding 6 winners from Nigeria (2), Ghana (2), Zambia (1) and Algeria (1) respectively, with cash prizes and publication opportunities.
AWC2022: Rebuilding Makoko Essay Contest
This year’s edition, Rebuilding Makoko Essay Contest, is open to the Makoko community and beyond under the campaign: One Child At A Time. Anyone can enter the essay contest–not necessarily a “child”–provided you’re an African with a brilliant idea that may bring about a sustainable development in the community whether or not you reside in Makoko.
The contest will be officially opened on 1st July 2022 and to close on 30th September 2022. Shortlisted entrants would be published on 30th November, and 3 winners would be officially announced by 20th December 2022 and awarded with prizes respectively.
The best ideas are our top priority looking at the entrant’s creativity in channelling his or her ideas through writing. This activity alone helps an individual in developing broad and critical thinking ability in proffering potential solutions to the problems that are often times thought unsolvable.
Upon the conclusion of the contest, we intend to work hand-in-hand with existing foundations in Makoko and to ensure proposals containing the winning entries are written to the required State Ministeries of Lagos State to hopefully adapt the contributions into their existing or new projects in improving livelihoods and in skyrocketing the States’ economy.
Prizes
This year, each winner will be awarded a laptop and he or she would be given an opportunity to take a free digital skill acquisition program of his or her choice with Charis Black Projects.
Submission Guidelines
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- Follow A New Touch Of Africa on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (to stay updated)
- Entrant must be African
- The essay contest is open to entrants at the age of 16 and above
- The essay is equally open to interested youths outside Makoko (or Nigeria)
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- Essay should carry a cover page containing Entrant’s Name, Contact, Email, Country and Address
- Essay word count should not exceed 450 words with any font of your choice in size 11 or 12 to be submitted in Word Document format not PDF
- Essay title must be “Rebuilding Makoko by (Entrant Name)”
- Essay should contain at least 2 or 3 ways you believe the government can best meet the needs of the community innovatively and sustainably
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- Essay structure should be: Introduction, Body (your ideas) and Conclusion
- Save document with your Name only
- Only one submission per entrant is allowed
- Essay must be unpublished before and after entry in any form
- The essay must be the entrant’s authentic work. If found plagiarized before or after winners are announced, the entry would be disqualified
- Essay should be in English. Essay in French is acceptable
- Submit to antoacontest@gmail.com
- Email subject: AWC2022 (Entrant Name)
- Repost the contest on social media with the hash tags #AWC2022 #RebuildingMakokoEssayContest #ANTOA #OneChildAtATime
We advise you carry out more research before submission to build up your essay constructively from introduction to conclusion.
We’re very excited to receiving your works 🙂
Good luck 👍🏾
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