Nigerian author Innocent Chizaram Ilo, 23, won the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Africa), the Commonwealth Foundation announced on June 1.

Mr Ilo won the coveted regional prize with his short story When a Woman Renounces Motherhood, that revolves around a woman and her mother bond in the face of a sexist tradition.

Then it comes suddenly and the only thing you can do is call your mother and cry over the phone about how proud your father would have been if he was alive," Mr Ilo, said on receiving the news of winning.

That connection is never the same for any two people or for any two moments and that is why I love judging competitions for I get to talk about stories since the outcome is so unpredictable."

The five regional winners' stories will be published online by Granta, the literary magazine of new writing, in the run-up to the announcement of the overall winner on June 30.