It’s that time of the year again! This summer, the Royal African Society (RAS) will be back at the British Library to host the beloved literary festival, Africa Writes.

If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, this year they’ve announced that the acclaimed Francophone-Congolese writer, Alain Mabanckou, will be joining the stellar line-up and dropping some gems on Sunday, 2nd July.

In a bid to expand the scope of this headline event, we have joined forces with Africa Writes to run a global competition. We are inviting writers, anywhere and everywhere, to participate in a 500-word short story competition which is loosely based on Mabanckou’s amusing and heart-warming story, Tomorrow I’ll be Twenty.

Told from the perspective of 10-year-old Michel living in Pointe Noire, Congo, the story begins:

In this country, a boss should always be bald and have a big belly. My uncle isn’t bald, he…