³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has chosen Will Smith Look-Alike, written by Deborah Asiimwe of Uganda as the winning play of the annual ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service African Performance playwriting competition.

The winning entries will be broadcast online and on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service for Africa from 5 August 2010.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service first began airing African radio drama 50 years ago in 1960.

In 1971, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service for Africa launched a playwriting competition - now known as African Performance - and invited its listeners to compose a 30-minute English-language play containing no more than six characters.

That first competition in 1971 was judged by the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka and by way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ African Performance season, he returned to judge this year's competition and also talks about the judging process.

The winner - Will Smith Look-Alike by Deborah Asiimwe

click Will Smith Look-Alike tells the story of 17-year-old Tereka as he travels to New York with his school music group after they won a national competition.

Once in New York, Tereka believes that his resemblance to the American actor Will Smith will help him to pursue a better life in the US.

The other winning entries selected by Professor Soyinka are;

Joint second place - The Coffin Factory by Julia Childs and Kitu Kidogo by Atwine Bashir Kenneth

click Kitu Kidogo is the tale of two corrupt policemen who are struggling to make ends meet. They unknowingly prey on the Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the story takes an unexpected twist.

click The Coffin Factory by last year's winner Julia Childs - this is a light-hearted play which deals with the stigma of HIV.

Third place - The Cow Needs A Wife by Angella Emurwon

click The Cow Needs A Wife is a slapstick comedy about a young man whose girlfriend discovers she is pregnant. He needs to find a cow to give as a dowry to her grandmother and enlists the help of his rich uncle as his opportunistic sidekick.

Special mention - Mandida's Shoes by Mike Mware

click Mandida's Shoes earned a special mention from our judge and will be produced as part of our drama season.

The author is a Zimbabwean studying in South Africa. Mandida is a young schoolgirl chosen to recite a poem in front of the prime minister at her school's Jubilee celebrations. As events unfold she has other plans.

Professor Soyinka unknowingly chose three plays from Uganda as prize winners and the final shortlist of 10 also featured plays from Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia.

Other shortlisted plays

• Ghosts From Time by Peter Chiminza of Zambia
• The Dance of the Golden Cranes by Edouard Mutabazi who is a Rwandan based in the US
• The Alien by Mark Mutahi of Kenya
• A Peasant's Stream of Consciousness by Harton Mwanza of Zambia
• The Strong Room by Josephine Claire Kiko Niala of Kenya