# Kumukanda

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/kayo-chingonyi/kumukanda/9781784741396

![Kumukanda](https://quivercdn.com/covers/chatto-windus/kayo-chingonyi/kumukanda_978-17-8474-139-6-ae4730ae.webp?v=2026-09-26%2002%3A48%3A31)

- Book: [Kumukanda](https://www.bookquiver.com/kayo-chingonyi/kumukanda) ([Kumukanda.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/kayo-chingonyi/kumukanda.md))
- Authors: [Kayo Chingonyi](https://www.bookquiver.com/kayo-chingonyi)
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus
- ISBN: 978-17-8474-139-6
- Pages: 64
- Published: 2017-06-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

*Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2018* *Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award 2018* 'A brilliant debut - a tender, nostalgic and, at times, darkly hilarious exploration of black boyhood, masculinity and grief. A gorgeous and necessary collection from one of my favourite writers' Warsan Shire Translating as 'initiation', kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi's remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived. Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once. *Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Prize; Seamus Heaney Centre First Poetry Collection Prize; Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry; Roehampton Poetry Prize; Jhalak Prize 2018*