Karavan Press wins 2025 CANEX Book Factory Prize for Publishing in Africa
Karavan Press, an independent publisher based in Cape Town, was named the winner of the 2025 CANEX Book Factory Prize for Publishing in Africa for In Silence My Heart Speaks by Thobeka Yose. The prize — which awards $20,000 to the top publisher and $2,000 to each finalist — was presented by Algeria’s Minister of Culture and Arts, Azzedine Mihoubi, during the Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 (IATF2025) in Algiers.
Cape Town press takes top prize at IATF2025
The CANEX Book Factory Prize is a joint initiative of the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX), an Afreximbank intervention, in partnership with Narrative Landscape Press Limited. Now in its second year, the award drew more than 80 submissions from across the continent, with entries spanning fiction, non-fiction and poetry published for general audiences and widely available through libraries and bookstores. Submissions accepted works in AU official languages and indigenous African languages, and entries were judged on writing, editing and production quality.
Temwa Gondwe, Afreximbank’s director for Intra African Trade and Export Development (Creatives and Diaspora), said the prize helps strengthen Africa’s creative economy by elevating publishers and amplifying African narratives. The CANEX Book Factory programme also runs Pan-African writing workshops and publishes an e-newsletter to promote the African book value chain.
CANEX spotlights the continent’s publishing ecosystem
A three-member jury — Dr. Boukenna Abdelaziz (Algiers University), Lavaille Lavette (JVL Media) and Prof. Egara Kabaji (Masinde Muliro University) — praised the high standards of the shortlisted works. Last year’s inaugural winner was Nigeria’s Cassava Republic Press for Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Female Fear Factory: Unveiling Patriarchy’s Culture of Violence.
The prize was announced as part of CANEX at IATF2025, billed as the continent’s largest creative industries gathering. Co-convened by Afreximbank, the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA Secretariat, IATF2025 gathers creatives and buyers across film, music, fashion, culinary arts, sports and visual arts to showcase goods, explore investment opportunities and advance intra-African trade.
