A Nigerian speller has distinguished himself as the best speller in Africa after emerging the Champion in the African Spelling Bee competition 2017.
Sheriff Muhammad of Kings College, Lagos who was part of the team of spellers representing Nigeria at the African Spelling Bee 2017 held in South Africa spelt his way through to the 7th Round of the contest.
He was followed by another Nigerian, Benebo Nchege of Deeper Life High School Port-Harcourt in a Joint 2nd place with Zameer Dada of South Africa.
Both Sheriff and Benebo competed in the Nigeria Spelling Bee and excelled in their respective states and regional competition and went on to be National Finalists. Benebo clinched the title of National Champion in the National Finals held at Nile University, Abuja on the 1st of July.
As part of prizes won in the competition is a Full Scholarship to Monash South Africa worth $20,000. Monash South Africa is ranked among the Best 100 Universities in the world. Other prizes include promotional items sponsored by MTN, Makro and Planet Fitness.
The African Spelling Bee championship tested the spellers on indigenous languages spoken in Africa as the Round 1 (non-elimination). After which, other rounds followed such as the words from the pre-scribed reading materials. These included “I am an African” by Thabo Mbeki, “Kingdom of Mapungubwe” and the “Constitutive Act of the African Union”
Round 3 was made up of words taken from the spellers’ visits to Maropeng and Sterkfontien Caves heritage sites. These words were “fossil fuelled”.
Other rounds included the English words from African Origin, Names of African Cities, Loan words and names of Cities around the world.
Meanwhile, Registration is ongoing for the 2017/2018 Season of Nigeria Spelling Bee. CLICK www.nigeriaspellingbee.com/register to register spellers for your State Qualifier. Winners of this edition will win up to N1,000,000 and represent Nigeria at 2018 African Spelling Bee in Kenya
