Oyin Olugbile Declares, ‘Our Stories Are Not Footnotes, They Are The Main Text’

When Oyin Olugbile’s debut novel, Sanya, won the 2025 Nigeria Prize for Literature—Africa’s most prestigious literary award—she captured the moment with understated power: “This prize declares that our stories are not footnotes; they are the main text.”

Her £100,000 victory was both unexpected and historic. Sanya had entered the short list as the least known contender. The debut novel, priced at ₦10,000, was considerably more affordable than Chigozie Obioma’s The Road to the Country (₦15,000) and Nikki May’s This Motherless Land (₦17,000). The other two finalists were already acclaimed writers with established international profiles and prize-winning track records.

Yet, on Friday, October 10, 2025, the judging panel, with the approval of the Advisory Board, crowned Oyin Olugbile Nigeria’s outstanding writer of the year, praising her meticulous research, bold reimagining of gendered history, and imaginative world-building.

The Advisory Board for the Prize, chaired by Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, cited Sanya for its exceptional literary quality and emotional resonance.

Key strengths of the winning novel:

• Masterful Craftsmanship: The board praised Sanya’s elegant plotting, nuanced characterization, and command of language that “transports readers into imagined worlds.”
• Emotional and Societal Depth: The novel was described as “compelling in its beauty, stirring in its emotional resonance, and unflinching in its engagement with familiar yet urgent societal issues.”
• Skillful Conflict Resolution: Judges commended the writer’s deft handling of conflict and resolution as evidence of mature literary artistry.

Oyin Olugbile becomes the sixth woman to win the Nigeria Prize for Literature, joining Kaine Agary (Yellow Yellow, 2004), Mabel Segun (Reader’s Theatre, 2007), Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (My Cousin Sammy, 2007), Chika Unigwe (On Black Sisters’ Street, 2012), and Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia (Son of the House, 2021).

The 2025 edition of the prize was notably dominated by women: seven of the eleven longlisted writers were female, and two of the three shortlisted authors were women—a milestone moment for gender representation in African literature.

Rooted in Nigerian cultural heritage, Sanya is a sweeping fantasy set in a mythical empire that even the Òrìsà—deities in Yoruba mythology—find enchanting.

Sanya, the titular character, grows up feeling different, marked by mystery and prophecy. After tragedy forces her to flee home, she discovers her extraordinary powers. She must confront a dark destiny that could make her either “the saviour of her people or the destroyer of their world.”

The novel explores love, loss, rediscovery, destiny, and identity—weaving together personal struggle and collective mythology in a story that bridges the ancient and the modern.

Oyindamola Olugbile is a Nigerian author, storyteller, and social impact consultant. She earned a degree in Creative Arts from the University of Lagos and an MSc from King’s College London, as well as postgraduate certificates from Lagos Business School, Harvard Business School Online, and the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG).

Beyond writing, she is the Chief Curator of The Experience Factory, an education and youth development initiative.

Her literary roots run deep. She is married into a family of writers: her father-in-law, Dr. Femi Olugbile, a renowned psychiatrist and columnist, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction in 1986 for Lonely Men—the same year Nigeria celebrated Wole Soyinka’s Nobel Prize in Literature.

At the award gala at Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos, Oyin Olugbile arrived with her husband and daughter, gracefully dressed in compliance with NLNG’s “classic white” dress code. A tender highlight of the evening was her embrace with fellow finalist Nikki May.

In her acceptance speech, Olugbile spoke with poetic conviction and emotional depth:

“This story is not just mine; it belongs to every African who has had to piece themselves together across borders, across generations, across silences. It belongs to the daughter who holds her mother’s sadness in her bones, and to the son who can say ‘I love you’ in his father’s language.

To those of us who live between the ancient and the modern, writing is not an escape; it is a return. It is not entertainment; it is reclamation. It is not merely a craft, but a calling.

This prize declares that our stories are not footnotes; they are the main text. It affirms that we are no longer waiting to be discovered; we have arrived.”

She expressed gratitude to her husband—”my mirror, my courage, my calm”—and to her late father, Tunji Adesina, “who handed down these stories like seeds.”

Olugbile also thanked her publisher, Masobe Books, and co-finalists Chigozie Obioma and Nikki May, adding: “To the NLNG, thank you for recognizing that African literature is not charity; it is legacy.”

She dedicated the award to “the African child who is still trying to find herself on the page. She is not lost; she is simply waiting. And may this be her sign to begin.”

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, established in 2004 by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), rotates annually among four genres—fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature—and remains the continent’s most prestigious literary award.

The 2025 edition focused on fiction, and Olugbile’s triumph over globally celebrated writers marks a significant moment for debut authors in African literature.

In line with its promise, NLNG brought all shortlisted writers to Lagos, an initiative that generated significant excitement and renewed focus on the importance of Nigerian writing.