Phase Two
Phase Two of the 2025 Sabi Prize has kicked off. 67 contestants from 31 schools in 11 states will be competing in Phase Two.
Statistics on entrants
- Number of qualified students: 67
- Number who submitted Phase 2 essays: 54
For Phase Two, we asked candidates to read Chapter 4 of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and write an analytical essay responding to selected prompts.
See below for the full text of the Phase 2 task.
In Phase 2, candidates will be asked to read Chapter 4 of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. The chapter is titled “First Shocks of Motherhood.”
We ask that all candidates read this chapter thoughtfully, critically, and carefully. After reading, please write an analytical essay that is connected to or builds on any two of the following guiding lenses:
- How do the geographic and economic structures of Lagos intersect to shape Nnu-Ego’s experiences in this chapter?
- “They stopped being men long ago. Now they are machines.” Discuss.
- Analyze the conflict between indigenous practices and colonial religious practices as displayed the selected chapter.
- In this chapter, there is a sense of limited leisure or personal time enforced by social and economic pressures. Analyze.
Word range: 900 to 1200 words.
Phase One: Qualification Round
The qualification round is open to all students who meet the eligibility criteria.
Prompt
“What is an issue facing your community? If you were in a position of leadership, what would you do about it?”
Write an essay of 250 to 350 words on the prompt above.
Guidelines for Phase One
The goal of the qualification round is to get contestants started with thinking carefully about the environment, data, and information they consume everyday. To facilitate this thought process, we have prepared the following guidelines.
- Your community could be your immediate neighbourhood or your state of residence. It should not be your family (too small) or the entire country (too big). Instead, think about your neighbourhood, your local government area, your city, or your state.
- No issue is too small to tackle or too unwieldy to address. We’re looking for evidence that you have thought carefully about the problem. In many cases, specificity may be helpful.
- Your essay should not only describe the problem but should also cover what you’d do about it. You will necessarily need to briefly discuss what position of leadership you’d be occupying and what tools you’d have at your disposal.
Contestants will be informed on the outcomes of their submissions to Phase One. We will update this page with the details of Phase Two after Phase One results are communicated to contestants.
Please email us at [email protected] with any questions.