Entries are officially open for the Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC), hosted by the African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC). The theme of this year’s contest is “My Africa, My Future”.
“The contest, open to high school-going children in Africa, is purposely crafted to allow young Africans to express themselves freely on various themes related to the continent’s future,” said ECOSOCC secretariat William Carew.
According to Carew, the competition aims to encourage the youth to reflect on the role they play in society by providing them with a space to freely express themselves.
The contest is open to all registered high school pupils from AU member states and entries can be done in any of the official AU languages, namely Swahili, English, French, Arabic, Spanish or Portuguese.
Pupils must submit a short essay under the topic of “My Africa, My Future”, although how they choose to interpret the theme is entirely up to them.
Submissions will be assessed on the following criteria:
- Originality
- Relevance in terms of the continent’s development
- Structure
- Overall impression
The essays must be typed in Microsoft Word (Word 2003 or higher) and submitted as an A4 pdf. Pupils must use a 12-point font size (preferably Times New Roman or Arial) and all pages should be sequentially numbered.
Essays cannot exceed 1,000 words. While there is no minimum word count, organisers encourage pupils to write at least 500 words.
Entries must include a cover page containing the pupil’s full name, resident country, name of their education institution and their grade.
A basic template is available for download on the competition website.
