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Curator, publisher and writer, Zukiswa Wanner, is among three recipients of the 2020 Goethe Medal.

Other recipients of the award are Bolivian artist and museum director Elvira Espejo Ayca and Booker Prize-winner British writer Ian McEwan.

The Goethe Medal is Germany’s official honour conferred by the Goethe-Institute every year on individuals considered to have made an “outstanding contribution to international cultural exchange”.

The prize will be awarded by the president of the Goethe-Institute, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, in Weimar, Germany, on August 28 — the birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The Goethe Medal traditionally accompanies events held in collaboration with the Kunstfest festival.

The theme of this year’s awards is “Accepting Contradiction — the fruits of contradiction.”

Put into perspective, the Goethe Medal is the equivalent of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

An OBE is given for an “outstanding achievement or service to the community”.

In general, the person nominated for an OBE will have had a significant role locally or regionally, or they will be known nationally for their work, expertise and achievements.

This year’s theme for the Goethe Medal, “Accepting Contradiction – the fruits of contradiction”, is a plea for engagement with ambivalence, even in difficult circumstances.

The jury of the Goethe Medal says that it is precisely out of contradiction that productive vitality grows — vitality that promotes diversity and provokes reflection and new insights.

“Faced with the populist movements that are gaining in strength throughout the world, functioning democracy must assert critical discourse.

“The recipients of the 2020 Goethe Medal are outstanding examples of the power of critical, reflective art and open, international, cultural exchange that does not shun contradiction but rather recognises it as an opportunity,” explains the jury.

“Her (Wanner) conception of herself as an African writer leads her to range far beyond national frontiers in her writing, while at the same time bringing the diversity of African culture into her artistic work.

“Her detailed knowledge of South African literature and her nuanced understanding of regional discourses and female identity in Africa mean her expertise is internationally sought after; she is also a role model for an entire generation of African writers.”

The Goethe Medal was established by the Executive Committee of the Goethe-Institute in 1954 and recognised as an official honour by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1975. Since the medal was introduced in 1955, it has been awarded to a total of 354 individuals from 67 countries.

Wanner was born in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1976 to a Zimbabwean mother and a South African father.

After attending school in Zimbabwe, she went to Honolulu to pursue her journalism studies at the Hawaii Pacific University.

Since 2006 she has been an author and promoter of African Literature. In addition to fiction for children and adults, her work has been published widely in internationally.

Wanner’s reaction to the award is: “Naturally pleasantly surprised to be recognised for doing the work I love and that too often others may perceive as probably frivolous because I have a lot of fun doing it.”

Cognisant of the adage that a prophet is without honour in her/his country, Wanner notes that the recognition is coming from a European country “for my writing, editing, publishing and arts curating that centres Africa”.

What’s the significance of the award for her?

“I am not sure yet,” she responds. “Hopefully, it means I have more access to arts’ funds continentally to do some of the more exciting projects I would like to undertake with other African artists.”

One prominent Zimbabwean writer in considering how best to describe Wanner suggested: “Kenyan, South African, Zambian and Zimbabwean.”

On her part, she offered the following: “I am not the one who determines who claims me. I think of my identity as primarily African. That is how I have often engaged with whatever work I do as either artist or arts curator or editor.

“If my mother’s people choose to see me as Zimbabwean, I can’t object to that because I breastfed on a Zimbabwean bosom.

“If my father’s country chooses to claim me, I make no objections either because I emerged from South African loins and as the only country I vote in, they have certainly been at the receiving end of most of my ire, so why not be at the celebratory beginning of my achievements too?

“If Zambia, it’s the country that gave me life and allowed me to thrive when children are at that most vulnerable age of birth to five years, so why not?

“If Kenya, because I stay there and my arts curation career began and was nurtured there, again I don’t object. Nor do I object to Botswana, D R Congo, eSwatini, Ghana, Nigeria, Somaliland or Tanzania because they have always made me feel at home and have welcomed me like one of their own.”