Our Correspondent
Kohima | December 1
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio handed over award and citation prize to the recipients of Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature during the celebration of 57th statehood day at the Kohima Local Ground on December 1.
The recipients includes; Dr Neikehienuo Mepfhu-o in the Fiction category for her book “My Mother’s Daughter” and Dr Abraham Lotha in the Non-Fiction category for his book, “The Hornbill Spirit: Nagas Living Their Nationalism”
The Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature was launched in 2018 to promote good writing, to raise the profile of Naga writers and to encourage reading and writing in Naga community. It is aimed at recognising and rewarding the knowledge-keepers and idea-givers of Naga society.
Gordon Graham was a veteran of the Battle of Kohima having fought here as a young captain in 1944.
He could never forget the help and assistance the British soldiers received from their Naga allies. He felt the veterans of the Battle of Kohima owed a debt of honour to the Naga people.
In 2004, while helping to organize the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Kohima in Britain, he shared his thought with his comrades about launching a charitable trust to assist with the education of Naga children.
They accepted his idea and the Kohima Educational Trust (KET) was born in the UK. Subsequently, the Kohima Educational Society (KES) was set up in Nagaland to liaise and coordinate the efforts of the Trust.
In keeping with the original thought a scholarship programme for Naga school children was launched in 2017 and became the flagship programme of the Trust.
So far about 800 Naga children from across the entire State have been beneficiaries of the KET scholarship.
Gordon was always thinking of and for Naga people, wanting the best for them.
He was concerned that the Naga tribes were diverse and had no common Naga language through which to communicate.
A Glossary of the different Naga languages, with the help of a well-known lexicographer and Naga experts, became one of the early projects of the KET/KES so that Nagas could learn and speak the most common words and phrases in each other’s languages to one another. But Gordon was also concerned about Naga literature and the thinking level of the Naga people. Discussion to start a project to promote Naga literature was started around 2014 and the main ideas concretised before he passed away in 2015.
In gratitude, the Kohima Educational Society decided to name the award after Gordon Graham posthumously.
The first edition of the Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature was launched in 2018. The prizes, one for Fiction and one for Non Fiction, of Rs 1 Lakh each, were given away in April 2019, by the Chief Minister of Nagaland, during the 75th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Kohima.
The second edition of the Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature, for 2019, is being presented to the winners today, coinciding with Nagaland statehood Day and the launch of the annual Hornbill Festival.
