Premios de Ensayo Casa África

For the fourth consecutive year Casa África is holding the Casa África Prizes for Essays on African Themes, with a view to recognising, promoting and publicising original and unpublished essays that enhance the knowledge that people have of the African continent.

Terms and Conditions of the Competition (Download)

One - Participants
1. Any person from any country in the EU and/or any country of Africa may take part in the competition. Under no circumstances may they have any kind of working and/or professional relations with Casa África, or with any of the institutions that form part of it (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Spanish International Development Co-operation Agency, Canary Island Government and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council).
2. Only one essay per author will be accepted.
3. A single essay may be signed by several authors, in which case, each of them must present the documentation requested in Condition Four.
4. The winners of previous editions may not take part in this edition.

Two - Theme
The theme chosen for this edition of the Casa África Essay Prizes is JOURNALISM, COMMUNICATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA. This heading includes all and any communications made about and from Africa: how information about the continent and its inhabitants is presented both in the Western and in the African media, Africa’s communication from Africa or how Africans use new technologies for development, connecting with the rest of the world, the dissemination of contents and social change.

Three – Conditions that essays must meet
1. Essays must be original, unpublished and they must not have won any prizes or be pending the final ruling in other events or competitions. Participants must guarantee that there are no third-party rights over the essays presented, and they shall be liable for all and any claims that may arise in this respect.
2. The essays may be presented in any of the following languages: Spanish, English, French or Portuguese.
3. The essay cannot be less than 15,000 or more than 20,000 words (excluding bibliography), and they must be written in Word Arial 12 Format and double spaced.
4. Essays must be presented unsigned and they will only be identified by the title of the work and whatever pseudonym each author may decide to use. Both the title of the essay and the pseudonym must appear on every page of the essay and pages must be numbered. Any signed essays will not be accepted for the competition.

Four - Documentation
1. It is essential to fill in completely the entry form. The same title and pseudonym/s that appear on the essay presented to the competition must also appear on the entry form, together with other information on the author or authors of the work: name and surnames, National Identity Card or Passport number, nationality, address, telephone number, e-mail and signature.
2. Authors taking part must enclose a photocopy of their National Identity Card or Passport.

Five – Submission of essays and documentation
1. The essay, in WORD format, the entry application and the photocopy of the National Identity Card or Passport must be sent by e-mail only to the following address: premio@casafrica.es 
2. The deadline for submitting essays and the required documentation is Friday 13th July 2012. Any essays that arrive after the deadline will not be accepted. Participants whose documentation is not received in full within the established deadline will also be excluded from the competition.
3. No changes in either the documentation or in the essays presented will be accepted once the deadline expires and Casa África is not under any obligation to reply to any correspondence or any other kind of communication that may be sent in this regard and any such communications should be taken as rejected.
4. Casa África shall not be liable for any problems arising from the malfunction of the electronic communication networks and any possible problem of this kind may not under any circumstances serve as justification for admitting essays and/or documentation after the deadline stipulated in section 2 of Condition Five.
5. All authors presenting essays within the established deadline undertake not to withdraw said work from the competition before Casa África publicly announces the decision of the jury.

Six – Composition of the Jury, operation and evaluation criteria
1. The Jury shall be comprised of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 members, all of whom shall be reputed African and/or Spanish experts, selected by the Casa África Consortium. This Jury shall give consideration to the quality and the timeliness of the works, as well the contribution they make to raising awareness about the subject. In any event, the Secretary General of the Casa África Consortium shall act as a member of the Jury.
2. The Jury is free to establish its own operating rules; but the final proposal they put to the Casa África Consortium Executive Committee must be adopted unanimously, or, if this is not possible, with an absolute majority of its members voting in favour of the proposal and this shall appear in the corresponding minutes. In any event, all and any decisions taken by the Jury by written vote without a meeting being in session shall be valid.

Seven – The Jury’s Ruling
1. Whatever final proposal the Jury makes shall be presented to the Casa África Executive Committee, which may only disagree with said ruling if they explain the grounds for such a decision.
2. The Jury shall submit its proposal to Casa África by the 1st of October 2012.
3. Casa África shall announce the ruling on the prizes by the 1st of November 2012.
4. The decision on the prize shall be final and Casa África reserves the right to declare the prize void.

Eight - Prize
1. A single prize of €4,000 shall be awarded. Payment of said prize shall be subject to the Spanish tax legislation in effect at the time that said payment is made, irrespective of the fiscal residence of the winning author or authors.
2. In the event that the winning essay is signed by more than one author, the prize shall be shared equally among them.
3. Authors authorise and cede all their rights to Casa África to edit a first edition of up to 1,000 copies of the prize-winning work and to allow free access to it through the Casa África web site. Prize winners shall not be due any additional financial remuneration, other than the sum of the prize itself, for this or any other reason.

Nine – Acceptance of the Terms and Conditions
1. The presentation of the entry form to the competition implies that the candidate accepts the Terms and Conditions of this competition and accepts Casa África’s decisions on the matter, which shall be final.
2. All and any entry applications that do not meet the conditions established herein for the competition shall be rejected outright.

Ten - Notifications
According to article 59.6.b) of Law 30/1992, notification of all decisions taken by Casa África within the framework of this competition, including the ruling on the prize winner, shall be made by announcing them on this web site and said publication shall be in lieu of notifying each interested party individually.