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Tope Folarin

This year's winner of the Caine Prize for African writing wasn't born in Africa, and has never lived here (except for a short stint at the University of Cape Town). Is Tope Folarin African enough for the prestigious prize? And does it matter? By SIMON ALLISON

This week, Nigerian-American author Tope Folarin won the Caine Prize for African Writing with Miracle, a delicate, powerful short story about a less-than-miraculous healing performed by a travelling Nigerian holy man, in an evangelical church in Texas.

It is, according to Gus Casely-Hayford, chair of the prize committee, "a delightful and beautifully paced narrative that is exquisitely observed and utterly compelling". I've read it. It's lovely.

But is it really African? As the LA Times pointedly observed: "[Folarin's] is an impressive résumé. But it doesn't have a strong connection to Africa, the continent meant to be highlighted by the award."

The problem is that Folarin is not the most African author around, at least on the surface. His family joined hundreds of thousands of others in the great African diaspora, and he was born in America. He has never lived in Nigeria, and rarely visited. "I haven't been back to Nigeria since I was...