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Efuru then tries to look for him, but after failing, she leaves his house and
goes back to the house of her father who receives her happily as she can
care for him better than others. Efuru then meets Gilbert, an educated
man in her age group. He asks to marry her and follows traditions by
visiting her father, and she accepts. The first year of their marriage is a
happy one. However, Efuru is not able to conceive any children, so this
begins to cause trouble. She is later chosen by the goddess of the lake,
Uhamiri, to be one of her worshipers, Uhamiri being known to offer her
worshipers wealth and beauty but few children. Efurus second marriage
eventually also fails as her husband mistreats her in favor of his second
.and third wives
Characters in Efuru
Ogonim - Efurus firstborn daughter. A healthy baby girl until the age
of two when she becomes ill and dies.
Dr Uzaru - Efuru lived with Dr. Uzaru and his mother until the age of
fifteen. He treats Nwosu and Nnona under Efurus request.
Nwosus wife is shown to be wise when she advises her husband to use
their earnings to pay off some of their debt, which he disregards by buying
a title and later regrets doing so.
very common and even necessary if the other wife (or wives) cannot bear
children or if she is difficult to handle as Nkoyeni turns out to be. We also
learn about the usual occupations of the people such as commerce and
fishing, not to mention ceremonies that are considered very important,
especially taking ones bath which is a euphemism for female
circumcision considered important before pregnancy in order to make a
safe birth more likely, and burial, which is shown after the death of
Ogonim.
such as bringing wine to her father before she marries, and even leave her
husbands when they mistreat her, but she is also represented as an
industrious and productive woman who becomes a pillar in society
through her good deeds. Efuru does not break with tradition but refuses
for it to be used as a method of subordinating women.
Important Quotes
Two men do not live together: Adizuas family members use this
as an argument when they try to convince him to take a second wife. They
are saying that Efuru cannot be considered a woman since she has been
unable to give him children.
[7]
agree that the dialogic style established in Efuru is even more central to
the novels thematic concerns Through the dialogue that Nwapa uses,
she is able to paint an accurate picture of what life for Igbo women is like.
Critics such as Christine Loflin point out that the use of dialogue in Efuru
allows a sense of African feminism to emerge, free of Western imposed
values.[10] Other critics however, reprimand the excessive use of dialogue,
considering the novel too gossipy.[11]
References
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9.
10.
Efuru
Efuru, the title character in Flora Nwapa's 1966 novel, is a beautiful
young woman who unfortunately, always seems to have bad luck with
men. Efuru is a strong and successful woman in her West African village.
The whole village knows Efuru, "she was a remarkable woman. It was not
only that she came from a distinguished family. She was distinguished
herself" (Nwapa 1). When Efuru elopes with the unknown Adizua, her
family and friends are upset, but Efuru manages to keep the bond she has
with her father as well as create a special relationship with her inlaws.
After a few years, Efuru has a child, but at about the same time, her
husband begins disappearing for days at a time. When the child takes ill
and dies, Adizua cannot be found [to attend] the funeral and is said to
have married another woman. Efuru, rather than face what she sees as
shame, leaves Adizua's home and returns to her father.
Not long after she has returned to her father, a suitor, Eneberi,
appears. They marry and have a blissful marriage, until he disappears in
the same upsetting way and does not attend the funeral of Efuru's father.
Efuru is left alone, childless, husbandless, and without family. She
puts faith into the goddess of the lake, Utuoso, who she feels she was
chosen to worship. Yet, she questions this worship when she remembers
that Utuoso had no children, and cannot return the people she has lost in
her life.
About the Author
Flora Nwapa was born in 1931, and raised in Eastern Nigeria. She
attended school at Ibadan and Edinburgh, later to return and teach in
Nigeria.
Dialogues
Marriage in Efuru's Village
Efuru's village is a polygamous village. However, Efuru, as a woman,
has more rights than that of other women in such novels as Xala, by
Ousmane Sembne, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. When
Efuru's husbands are unfaithful to her, she also, unlike in other
polygamous villages, is able to leave her husbands. Efuru is independent
and thinks of herself as well as her husbands.
Importance of Children
Like in novels such as Agatha Moudio's Son, Joys of Motherhood,
and Things Fall Apart, children are central to the lives of villagers. When
Efuru is unable to bear children, she is devastated. However, she shows
that unlike many woman in her community, she can survive without
children and still find strength in her businees and her religious faith.
Efuru's Ablities in Business
Efuru, like Nnu Ego in Buuchi Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood, is a
business woman. She is able to bring in the highest prices, and pay the
lowest. At the same time she remains a respectable woman in her
village's society. She aids the sick and poor. Although she is successful,
she still gives back to those who give her so much. She is unlike El Hadji,
in Sembene's Xala, who lives by the hands of those he swindles.
Efuru and Her Husbands
Though she loves both men she marries, Efuru does not forget about
her own rights. Efuru thinks of her husbands and although she is not able
to bear more than one child, she is willing to bring a second wife into her
home in order to give her husbands more children, much like Fanny
in Agatha Moudio's Son. However, she keeps her dignity and leaves her
husbands when they abandon her illustrating her strength to care for
herself.
Notes
Efuru, not able to depend on her husbands, turns her faithfulness to
the goddess of the lake, Uhamiri. Efuru begins by dreaming about this
"elegant woman, very beautiful, combing her long black hair with a golden
comb" (Nwapa 183). This dream signifies the beginning of her worship of
Uhamiri. Efuru is chosen to be one of Uhamiri's worshipers, and the
goddess "assumes the role in Efuru's life that is equivalent of the Igbo chi"
(Phillips 91) as described in Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Sadly, the lake goddess in unable to grant Efuru her one desire,
children, causing her to wonder, "why then did women worship her"
(Nwapa 281)? Rather than give women children, Uhamiri instead grants
what she has: "Her beauty, her long hair and her riches she was happy,
she was wealthy. She was beautiful. She gave women beauty and wealth
but she had no child" (Nwapa 281). Uhamiri is rather, "a symbol of hope
for all women so that her devotees such as Efuru can taste of her kind of
freedom and happiness with or without children. Efuru has the ability to be
happy without a child because she is so similar to Uhamiri. Her
independence becomes desirable and blessed.
Efuru sets not only a feminist example through her independence,
but she is also a symbol of survival and independence from a Colonial
empire. Efuru is successful, happy, and free from her oppressive and
abusive first husband, Adizua, and from her equally disappointing second
husband Gilbert. Both men symbolize Colonial power, Adizua by his abuse
after having profited by marrying Efuru without having paid a dowry, and
Gilbert, by his Christian name and ideals after having attended a Colonial
school.
In addition to Efuru's independence, she clearly accepts her
culture's "traditional practices such as circumcision and polygamy,
traditional beliefs and traditional attitudes towards wifehood and
infertility" (Nnaemeka 141). Within this culture she finds strength in her
kitchen, and the "symbols of empowerment" and "weapon in the truest
sense of the word" (Nnaemeka 142) harbored there.
Links
** Kabalarian Philosophy
This site offers a description of the name Efuru and its meaning.
**Flora Nwapa
This site provides biographical information on Flora Nwapa as well
as a number of links to other pages. It is available in both French and
English.
*** Flora Flora Nwapa
This site is part of a larger site concerning Postcolonial Studies. It is
published by Emory University and contains biographical information on
Flora Nwapa as well as notes on Nwapa, and a list of major publications.
Teaching
Citations
Nnaemeka, Obioma. "From Orality to Writing: African Women Writers
and the (Re)Inscription of Womanhood." Research in African Literatures 25
(Winter 1994): 137-157.
Nwapa, Flora. Efuru. London: Cox & Wyman Ltd., 1966
Philips, Maggi. "Engaging Dreams: Alternative Perspectives on Flora
Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aidoo, Bessie Head and Tsitsi
Dangarebga's Writing." Research in African Literatures 25 (Winter 1994):
89-103
Colonial & Postcolonial Literary Dialogues
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Literary
A Book Review of Flora Nwapa's Efuru
Sunday, 17 April 2011 05:50 Africa
By Ahmad Ghashmari
Flora Nwapa is the first Nigerian female novelist to be published. Her
first novel, Efuru, was published by Heinemann in London in 1966.
Although [Efuru] came out to be a well written book with a profound
message, the novel did not receive the attention it deserves; unlike novels
written at that time by African male writers like Chinua Achebe and Ngugi
wa Thiong'o, who both were also published by Heinemann. Efuru is a
portrayal of life in the Igbo culture, especially women's life. Set in the
village of Oguta, where Nwapa herself lived, the novel tells the story of an
independent-minded woman named Efuru. She is a woman who becomes
a role model and a catalyst for change in her own society. Despite her
success, brightness and wealth, she is unable to have a lasting marriage
or give birth to children like other women in her village. She marries twice,
but both marriages failed. She gives birth to one daughter who died. Yet,
despite all this, Efuru remains firm and strong, maintaining very successful
and prosperous business and standing as a perfect example of generosity,
.intelligence, and care among her peers
will not be complete until he pays the dowry and fulfills her people's
marriage customs; only then that Efuru and Adizua "felt really married."
(24) She also never resists going through the painful circumcision, and
she acknowledges man's right to polygamy, saying, "Only a bad woman
.would like to be married alone by her husband" (57)
When reading Efuru as a feminist text, one important thing we must
bear in mind is the sense of location and cultural centrality. We need to
consider the culture difference and the importance of traditions in shaping
the identity of the individual, and we need to admit that what applies to
the women of Paris and Boston does not necessarily apply to the women
of Oguta. The cultural context is crucial to understanding the message of
the novel. Nwapa does not consider herself a feminist because she felt
that the feminist movement at her time is by and for white women only
and it does not include the black, the Caribbean, the Arab, or the Indian
women. The problem is that texts written by women from these regions
(The Third World) are usually misread, rejected, or neglected (In rare
cases, they might be canopied with white "imperialist" feminism). As
Barbara Smith points out in her 1977 essay "Toward a Black Feminist
Criticism": "The mishandling of Black women writers by Whites is
paralleled more often by not being handled at all, particularly by feminist
criticism." (2305)
In her quest for success and change, Efuru believes in the idea of
compromise and negotiation as a way of getting ahead in life in her
culture. She believes in freedom but she also believes that freedom has
limits, and that every culture is different and to be able to live you need to
adapt. What helps women succeed in the Igbo culture is the elasticity of
the rules. You do not have to break the rules to be a reformer, all you have
to do is to bend, expand, or reshape them. One critic of Nwapa, Obioma
Nnaemeka, argues that Efuru is an example of what she calls
"negofeminism" or the feminism of negotiation which is that the African
woman can adapt herself by means of negotiation and compromise
between tradition and modernity. If we return to the example of Efuru's
first nuptials in the novel, Efuru knows the traditions of her culture and
she never trespasses against them but in the meantime she marries the
man she wants even without her father's consent. So Efuru is a feminist
manifestation as it talks about the ability of a woman to be a leader and a
reformist in her community. Efuru appears superior even to men,
especially her two husbands Adizua and Eneberi, with respect to her
intelligence, success in business, social life. Her failure in her first
marriage does not shatter her as in the case of her mother-in-law Ossai
who lives in endless pain and loneliness since being abandoned by
Adizua's father ( Nwapa uses Ossai's story as a contrastive case to
Efuru's). On the contrary, Efuru was able to pull through and resume her
life and success. Ossai does not admit her weakness first and she tells
Efuru, "I can only solicit patienceI am proud that I was and still am true
to the only man I loved," (61) but she later faces reality and admits that
"Efuru's patience couldn't be triedLife for her meant living it fully. She
did not want merely to exist. She wanted to live and use the world to her
advantage." (78) This shows how different Efuru is from other women in
her society. Whereas Adizua who runs away with another woman and
never comes back to Efuru is fickle and weak and after being deserted by
the woman he elopes with he exiles himself and his life seems shattered.
Eneberi is also not that different from Adizua and has even wronged Efuru
.in a way that she could not forgive him when he accuses her of adultery
Efuru's insisting to "Live life fully" resonates with Nwapa's goal of
"Projecting positive image of women." Efuru does not live for herself only;
she commits herself to the mission of helping others live right. This is the
real meaning of sisterhood and woman empowerment which Western
scholars fail to see in the Third World womanhood. She excels in saving
other people's lives and having an influence on their personalities. She
changes Ogea from a useless girl into a good useful and obedient woman.
She keeps helping and lending money to Ogea's parents, Nwosu and
Nwabata, despite their repeated misfortunes and inability to pay back.
Through her connections with doctor Uzaru, she arranges to help sick
people who cannot otherwise afford being treated like Nnona, the old
. woman who has a bad leg and Nwosu
The character of Efuru is very familiar in the Igbo culture which
worships Mammy Water deities. Efuru appropriates the myth of the
water goddesses and the strong rootedness of this tradition in the Igbo
culture. Efuru's personal traits resemble the goddess of the lake, Uhamiri.
Uhamiri chooses her followers (the majority are female followers) and
favors them with success in trade, bestow on them wealth and prosperity
and shower them with her blessings. But Uhamiri denies her followers one
thing; children. The myth, and the novel itself, say that Uhamiri "had
never experienced the joys of motherhood." (221) Efuru starts to have
dreams about the woman of the lake right after she loses her first and
only child as if the death of her child was an early sign that she is chosen
to be a disciple by Uhamiri. When she narrates her dream to her father, he
assures her that she "has been chosen to be one of [Uhamiri's]
worshippers." (147) It seems that the dream is kind of a religious calling.
But there is a sign in the story that one becomes a follower only if s/he
responds to the call because Efuru's father, Nwashike Ogene, also says
that Efuru's mother had similar dreams, but obviously she was not a
follower since she had a daughter. The idea of Uhamiri is very crucial to
the concept of the feminism of negotiation and compromise . Nwapa
leaves the novel open-ended and concludes it with a question: since
Uhamiri had never experienced the joys of motherhood "Why then did the
women worship her?" (221) [A]t least part of the answer lies in the
policy of give-and-take that the women in Igbo culture live by. It says that
to be successful you must compromise and sacrifice something, and this
is true if we apply it to any other culture, not only the Igbo culture. Being a
follower of Uhamiri is not obligatory as it appears through the example of
Efuru's mother, so if a woman chooses, she can still experience the joys of
motherhood and live her life like any other ordinary woman and not follow
the call of the woman of the lake. And that does not mean that if she is
not a follower she also cannot be successful and wealthy. If we look at the
example of Aajanupu, Efuru's aunt-in-law, we will find that she was
successful, fairly wealthy, has a strong leading personality and has a lot of
.children
:Works Cited
Nnaemeka, Obioma. Feminism, Rebellious Women, and Cultural
Boundaries: Rereading Flora Nwapa and Her Compatriots. From Research
in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 2. (summer, 1995), pp. 80- 113. Indiana
University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820273. Accessed:
25/10/2009 15:56
Nwapa, Flora. Efuru. London: Heinemann, 1966
Smith, Barbara. Towards a Black Feminist Criticism. From The Norton
.Anthology of Theory and Criticism
Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2001.
Pp. 2299-2315
Umeh, Marie and Flora Nwapa. The Poetics of Economic
Independence for Female Empowerment: An Interview with Flora Nwapa.
Research in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 2, Flora Nwapa (Summer,
1995), pp. 22-29. Indiana University Press. URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820268 Accessed: 01/12/2009 18:46
Ahmad Ghashmari is a Jordanian human rights activist, leading an
initiative for women's rights and against honor killings in the Middle East.
In 2007, he started a campaign called LAHA to mobilize grassroots action
Synopsis
Efuru explores Nigerian village life and values, a world where spirits
are a part of everyday life - as accepted, respected, and feared as one's
own relatives. Efuru, a highly respected woman of her village, carries on
the family tradition of treating others well and is successful as a trader. Yet
her personal life is mired with tragedy: she has two unsuccessful
marriages and her only child dies. In her village, a single, childless woman
is a cause for fear, and the villagers begin to gossip, a favorite and
powerful pastime. They question her good deeds and wonder what she
has done to upset the spirits, whose influence and power are at the center
of their lives. In her struggle to understand all that has happened to her
Efuru seeks the advice of the dibias, village doctors, and finds her spiritual
guide and the path she must follow.
Source: https://books.google.com.eg/books/about/Efuru.html?
id=_X5Y90o8b7QC&redir_esc=y
Comments on GoodRead
Published in 1966, this apparently was the first book written by a
Nigerian woman to be published (this is from Wiki so take with a pinch of
salt). It is set in the same area and tradition as Things Fall Apart by Chinua
;Achebe. The blurb with the book sums it up
Efuru, beautiful and respected, is loved and deserted by two ordinary
.undistinguished husbands
The setting is rural and Efuru is a woman who is independent and
competent and trades for herself. The writing style is very similar to
Things Fall Apart and if you enjoyed that you would certainly enjoy this.
Like Achebe, Nwapa commentates rather than judges, but the messages
are clear and this book is about the society of women in the same way
Things Fall Apart is about the society of men. In my judgement this novel
is every bit as good as Things Fall Apart and yet it is hardly known. Just
look at the difference in ratings; Things Fall Apart has 141 386 ratings and
5993 reviews and Efuru has 193 ratings and 17 reviews. This is not
because of a difference in quality; they are both great books and in my
opinion Efuru is marginally better. Perhaps because it is written by a
?woman? Surely not
The story opens a window onto customs and traditions going back
centuries which are beginning to die out with younger generations and the
encroachment of white culture and medicine. There is a not too graphic
but very powerful description of genital mutilation. Efuru is a wonderfully
strong and vibrant character; apart from her father the men in her life are
pretty useless and she concludes she is better off without them. She
appears to be unable to [have] children and this is a source of sadness
for her but she finds a role model in the form of the goddess of the lake
.who is beautiful, powerful, and independent and without children
This beautiful novel describes the youth, marriage, motherhood and
eventual personal ephiphany of a young woman of contemporary Nigeria.
Efuru's eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children
successfully. (Efurus' only daughter dies while she is still a small child, and
a son never arrives). The book also describes quite matter-of-factly the
horrific ritual of female circumcision--a painful clitorectomy--that all young
women in this society are expected to undergo before marriage. Efuru
calls it her "bath," and willingly submits to the cutting and agony.
(Although feminist groups are exposing this awful practice more and more
to the world at large and trying to get it outlawed in Africa, the Middle
East and other areas of the world where it is routinely practiced, the ritual
still goes on today). Finally, Efuru realizes that she surely must have a
higher calling, and perceives that a goddess of her tribe, "the lady of the
lake" has chosen her for another role. Efusu muses at the story's end that
the lady of the lake has never married nor had children, but still, the
women of the community worship her.
I'm currently reading Efuru - it's the first work of Flora Nwapa's that I
am reading and I found the first line of the book riveting; although she has
been a hovering presence in my literary awareness for a long-time I've
never till now actually engaged with her work. That said, I'm aware as a
pioneer, and she's one of the writers that Chimamanda Adichie
namechecks often, and mentioned at our literature festival last year.
African women writer's have definitely been under-rated and under
celebrated, and that's one of the great things about the emergence of
writers like Adichie, Chibundo Onuzo and Chika Unigwe - all great igbo
writers for whom Flora Nwapa is definitely a forerunner.
Efuru is a well respected woman in the community who marries an
undistinguished man that no one knows. Even though no one understands
her choice they still hold her in high esteem. Efuru's life isn't as society
expects, but through her challenges she carries herself superbly. The last
paragraph of the book, her musing on the worship of the Lady of the Lake,
rounded off the story perfectly. "And yet we worship her." This last line
[seems to] allude to change in the society, is the only purpose of
womanhood to be a wife and have children?
was emulating the storytelling nature of her people and the way people
talk.
Flora Nwapa's text is a pioneering example of female African
literature. Not only does Efuru capture female life so vividly, it also
contrasts with the male dominated African literature of the period in which
Nwapa writes. The reader is taken through the everyday life experiences
of women in an African setting. Pregnancy, marriage and female
circumcision are all discussed, alongside subtle nods to the presence of
colonialism. The narrative is written in a style which is almost cinema-like,
as it is able to capture and display circumstances the way film does.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Written by: Harold Scheub
Introduction
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written
literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works
written by Africans in European languages. Traditional written literature,
which is limited to a smaller geographic area than is oral literature, is
most characteristic of those sub-Saharan cultures that have participated
in the cultures of the Mediterranean. In particular, there are written
literatures in both Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars of what is
now northern Nigeria, and the Somali people have produced a traditional
written literature. There are also works written in Geez (Ethiopic) and
Amharic, two of the languages of Ethiopia, which is the one part of Africa
where Christianity has been practiced long enough to be considered
traditional. Works written in European languages date primarily from the
20th century onward. The literature of South Africa in English and
Afrikaans is also covered in a separate article, South African
.literature. See also African theatre
The relationship between oral and written traditions and in
particular between oral and modern written literatures is one of great
complexity and not a matter of simple evolution. Modern African
literatures were born in the educational systems imposed by colonialism,
with models drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But
.the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these literatures
Oral traditions
The nature of storytelling
The storyteller speaks, time collapses, and the members of the
audience are in the presence of history. It is a time of masks. Reality, the
present, is here, but with explosive emotional images giving it a context.
This is the storytellers art: to mask the past, making it mysterious,
seemingly inaccessible. But it is inaccessible only to ones present
intellect; it is always available to ones heart and soul, ones emotions.
The storyteller combines the audiences present waking state and its past
condition of semiconsciousness, and so the audience walks again in
history, joining its forebears. And history, always more than an academic
subject, becomes for the audience a collapsing of time. History becomes
the audiences memory and a means of reliving of an indeterminate and
.deeply obscure past
Storytelling is a sensory union of image and idea, a process of recreating the past in terms of the present; the storyteller uses realistic
images to describe the present and fantasy images to evoke and embody
the substance of a cultures experience of the past. These ancient fantasy
images are the cultures heritage and the storytellers bounty: they
contain the emotional history of the culture, its most deeply felt yearnings
and fears, and they therefore have the capacity to elicit strong emotional
responses from members of audiences. During a performance, these
envelop contemporary imagesthe most unstable parts of the oral
it is in the riddle and the lyric. The proverb establishes ties with its
metaphorical equivalent in the real life of the members of the audience or
with the wisdom of the past. The words of the proverb are a riddle waiting
to happen. And when it happens, the African proverb ceases to be a
.grouping of tired words
The tale
The riddle, lyric, and proverb are the materials that are at the
dynamic centre of the tale. The riddle contains within it the possibilities of
metaphor; and the proverb elaborates the metaphorical possibilities when
the images of the tale are made lyricalthat is, when they are
rhythmically organized. Such images are drawn chiefly from two
repertories: from the contemporary world (these are the realistic images)
and from the ancient tradition (these are the fantasy images). These
diverse images are brought together during a storytelling performance by
their rhythmic organization. Because the fantasy images have the
capacity to elicit strong emotional reactions from members of the
audience, these emotions are the raw material that is woven into the
image organization by the patterning. The audience thereby becomes an
integral part of the story by becoming a part of the metaphorical process
that moves to meaning. And meaning, therefore, is much more complex
than an obvious homily that may be readily available on the surface of the
.tale
The epic
In the epic can be found the merging of various frequently unrelated
tales, the metaphorical apparatus, the controlling mechanism found in the
riddle and lyric, the proverb, and heroic poetry to form a larger narrative.
All of this centres on the character of the hero and a gradual revelation of
his frailty, uncertainties, and torments; he often dies, or is deeply
troubled, in the process of bringing the culture into a new dispensation
often prefigured in his resurrection or his coming into knowledge. The
mythical transformation caused by the creator gods and culture heroes is
reproduced precisely in the acts and the cyclical, tortured movements of
.the hero
An epic may be built around a genealogical system, with parts of it
developed and embellished into a story. The epic, like the heroic poem,
contains historical references such as place-names and events; in the
heroic poem these are not greatly developed. When they are developed in
an epic, they are built not around history but around a fictional tale. The
fictional tale ties the historical episode, person, or place-name to the
cultural history of the people. In an oral society, oral genres include
history (the heroic poem) and imaginative story (the tale). The epic
combines the two, link[s] [a] historical episode to [an] imaginative tale.
Sometimes, myth is also a part of epic, with emphasis on origins. The tale,
the heroic poem, history, and myth are combined in the epic. In an echo of
the talewhere the emphasis is commonly on a central but always
nonhistorical charactera single historical or nonhistorical character is
the centre of the epic. And at the core of the epic is that same engine
.composed of the riddle, the lyric, and the proverb
Much is frequently made of the psychology of this central character
when he appears in the epic. He is given greater detail [and] deeper
dimension. The epic [tells of] the great events and turning points of
cultural history. These events change the culture. In the epic these
elements are tied to the ancient images of the culture (in the form of tale
and myth), an act that thereby gives these events cultural sanction. The
tale and myth lend to the epic (and, by inference, to history) a magical,
supernatural atmosphere: all of nature is touched in the Malagasy
epic Ibonia; in the West African epic Sunjata, magic keeps Sumanguru in
charge and enables Sunjata to take over. It is a time of momentous
change in the society. In Ibonia there are major alterations in the
relationship between men and women; in Sunjata and in the
epic Mwindo of the Nyanga people of Congo there are major political
.changes
But, in Mwindo, why was Mwindo such a trickster? He was, after all,
a great hero. And why must he be taught by the gods after he has
established his heroic credentials? Central to this question is the notion of
the transitional phaseof the betwixt and between, of the someone or
something that crosses yet exists between boundaries. There is a paradox
in Mwindos vulnerabilityhow, after all, can a herobe vulnerable?but
more important is his nonmoral energy during a period of change. Mwindo
is a liminal hero-trickster: he is liminal while he seeks his father, and then
he becomes liminal again at the hands of the gods. Out there is where
the learning, the transformation, occurs. The trickster energy befits and
mirrors this in-between period, as no laws are in existence. There is
change and transformation, but it is guided by a vision: in the myths, it is
gods vision for the cosmos; in the tales, it is the societys vision for
completeness; in the epics, it is the heros vision for a new social
.dispensation
The heroic epic is a grand blending of tale and myth, heroic poetry
and history. These separate genres are combined in the epic, and separate
epics contain a greater or lesser degree of eachhistory (and, to a lesser
extent, poetry) is dominant in Sunjata, heroic poetry and tale in Ibonia,
and tale and myth (and, to a lesser extent, poetry) in Mwindo. Oral
societies have these separate categories: history, the imaginative tale,
heroic poetry, myth, and epic. Epic, therefore, is not simply history. History
exists as a separate genre. The essential characteristic of epic is not that
it is history but that it combines history and tale, fact and fancy, and
worlds of reality and fantasy. The epic becomes the grand summation of
the culture because it takes major turning points in history (always with
towering historical or nonhistorical figures who symbolize these turning
points) and links them to tradition, giving the changes their sanction. The
epic hero may be revolutionary, but he does not signal a total break with
the past. Continuity is stressed in epicin fact, it is as if the shift in the
direction of the society is a return to the paradigm envisioned by ancient
cultural wisdom. The effect of the epic is to mythologize history, to bring
history to the essence of the culture, to give history the resonance of the
ancient roots of the culture as these are expressed in myth, imaginative
tale (and motif), and metaphor. In heroic poetry, history is fragmented,
made discontinuous. In epic these discontinuous images are given a new
form, that of the imaginative tale. And the etiological aspects of history
(that is, the historical alteration of the society) are tied to the etiology of
mythologyin other words, the acts of the mortal hero are tied to the acts
.of the immortals
History is not the significant genre involved in the epic. It is instead
tale and myth that organize the images of history and give those images
their meaning. History by itself has no significance: it achieves
significance when it is juxtaposed to the images of a tradition grounded in
tales and myths. This suggests the great value that oral societies place on
the imaginative traditions: they are entertaining, certainly, but they are
also major organizing devices. As the tales take routine, everyday
experiences of reality andby placing them in the fanciful context of
conflict and resolution with the emotion-evoking motifs of the pastgive
them a meaning and a completeness that they do not actually have, so in
epic is history given a form and a meaning that it does not possess. This
imaginative environment revises history, takes historical experiences and
places them into the context of the culture giv[ing] them cultural
meaning. The epic is a blending, then, of the ancient culture as it is
represented through imaginative tradition with historical events and
personages. The divine trickster links heaven and earth, god and human;
the epic hero does the same but also links fancy and reality, myth and
.history, and cultural continuity and historical disjunction
What is graphically clear in the epics Ibonia and Sunjata is that
heroic poetry, in the form of the praise name, provides a context for the
evolution of a heroic story. In both of those epics, the panegyric forms a
pattern, the effect of which is to tie the epic hero decisively and at the
same time to history and to the gods. Those epics, as well as Mwindo,
dramatize the rite of passage of a society or a culture: the heros
movement through the familiar stages of the ritual becomes a poetic
metaphor for a like movement of the society itself. The tale at the centre
of the epic may be as straightforward as any tale in the oral tradition. But
that tale is linked to a complex of other tales, the whole given an illusion
of poetic unity by the heroic poetry, which in turn provides a lyrical
.rhythm
Storytelling is the mythos of a society: at the same time that it is
conservative, at the heart of nationalism, it is the propelling mechanism
for change. The struggle between the individual and the group, between
the traditions that support and defend the rights of the group and the
sense of freedom that argues for undefined horizons of the individualthis
is the contest that characterizes the heros dilemma, and the hero in turn
is the personification of the quandary of the society itself and of its
.individual members
transformation, and so moving into the myth, the essence, of his history.
He thereby becomes a part of it, representative of it, embodying the
culture. The hero is everyman with myth inside him. He has been
mythicized; story does that. Metaphor is the transformational process, the
movement from the real to the mythic and back again to the real
changed forever, because one has become mythicized, because one has
.moved into history and returned with the elixir
In serious literary works, the mythic fantasy characters are often
derived from the oral tradition; such characters include the Fool in Sheikh
Hamidou Kanes Ambiguous Adventure (1961), Kihika (and the mythicized
Mugo) in Ngugi wa Thiongos A Grain of Wheat (1967), Michael K in J.M.
Coetzees Life and Times of Michael K (1983), Dan and Sello in Bessie
Heads A Question of Power (1973), Mustapha in al-ayyib lis Season
of Migration to the North (1966), and Nedjma in Kateb
Yacines Nedjma (1956). These are the ambiguous, charismatic shapers,
those with connections to the essence of history. In each case, a real-life
character moves into a relationship with a mythic character, and that
movement is the movement of the heros becoming a part of history, of
culture. The real-life character is the hero who is in the process of being
created: Samba Diallo, Mugo, the doctor, Elizabeth, the narrator, or the
four pilgrims. Myth is the stuff of which the hero is being created. History
is the real, the past, the world against which this transformation is
occurring and within which the hero will move. The real contemporary
world is the place from which the hero comes and to which the hero will
.return. Metaphor is the heros transformation
The image of Africa, then, is that rich combination of myth and
history, with the hero embodying the essence of the history, or battling it,
or somehow having a relationship with it by means of the fantasy mythic
character. It is in this relationship between reality and fantasy, the shaped
and the shaper, that the story has its power: Samba Diallo with the Fool,
Mugo with Kihika (and the mythicized Mugo), the doctor with Michael K,
Elizabeth with Dan and Sello, the narrator with Mustapha, the four pilgrims
with Nedjma. This relationship, which is a harbinger of change, occurs
against a historical backdrop of some kind, but that backdrop is not the
image of Africa: that image is the relationship between the mythical
.character and African/European history
The fantasy character provides access to history, to the essence of
history. It is the explanation of the historical background of the novels. The
hero is the person who is being brought into a new relationship with that
history, be it the history of a certain areaKenya or South Africa
or Algeria, for exampleor of a wider areaof Africa generally or, in the
case of A Question of Power, the history of the world. These are the keys,
then: the hero who is being shaped, the fantasy character who is the
ideological and spiritual material being shaped and who is also the artist
or shaper, and the larger issues, the historical panorama. The fantasy
character is crucial: he is the artists palette, the mythic element of the
story. This character is the heart and the spiritual essence of history. This
is the Fool, Kihika, Michael K, Dan and Sello, Mustapha, Nedjma. Here is
where reality and fantasy, history and fiction blend, the confluence that is
at the heart of story. The real-life character, the hero, comes into a
relationship with that mythic figure, and so the transformation begins, as
the hero moves through an intermediary period into history. It is the heros
identification with history that makes it possible for us to speak of the
hero as a hero. This movement of a realistic character into myth is
metaphor, the blending of two seemingly unlike images. It is the power of
the story, the centre of the story, as Samba Diallo moves into the Fool, as
Mugo moves into Kihika, as the doctor moves into Michael K, as Elizabeth
moves into Dan and Sello, as the narrator moves into Mustapha, as the
four pilgrims move into Nedjma. In this movement the oral tradition is
revealed as alive and well in literary works. The kinds of imagery used by
literary storytellers and the patterned way those reality and fantasy
images are organized in their written works are not new. The materials of
storytelling, whether in the oral or written tradition, are essentially the
.same
The influence of oral traditions on modern writers
Themes in the literary traditions of contemporary Africa are worked
out frequently within the strictures laid down by the imported religions
Christianity and Islam and within the struggle between traditional and
modern, between rural and newly urban, between genders, and between
generations. The oral tradition is clearly evident in the popular literature
of the marketplace and the major urban centres, created by literary
novels, and A.C. Jordan (in Xhosa), O.K. Matsepe (in Sotho), and R.R.R.
Dhlomo (in Zulu) built on that kind of writing, establishing new
relationships not only between oral and written materials but between the
written and the writtenthat is, between the writers of popular fiction and
those writers who wished to create a more serious form of literature. The
threads that connect these three categories of artistic activity are many,
they are reciprocal, and they are essentially African, though there is no
doubt that there was also interaction with European traditions. Writers in
Africa today owe much to African oral tradition and to those authors who
have occupied the space between the two traditions, in an area of
.creative interaction
Literatures in African languages
Ethiopian
Ethiopian literatures are composed in several languages: Geez,
Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigr, Oromo, and Harari. Most of the literature in
Ethiopia has been in Geez andAmharic. The classical language is Geez,
but over time Geez literature became the domain of a small portion of the
population. The more common spoken language, Amharic, became
widespread when it was used for political and religious purposes to reach
.a larger part of the population
Geez was the literary language in Ethiopia from a very early period,
most importantly from the 13th century. The Kebra nagast (Glory of
Kings), written from 1314 to 1322, relates the birth of Menelikthe son of
extol Christianity and Western technology. But he was also critical of the
Christian church and proposed in one of his novels its reform. In his
second novel, Haddis alem(1924; The New World), he wrote of a youth
who is educated in Europe and who, when he returns to Ethiopia,
experiences clashes between his European education and the traditions of
his past. Drama was also developed at this time. Playwrights included
Tekle Hawaryat Tekle Maryam, who wrote a comedy in 1911, Yoftahe
Niguse, and Menghistu Lemma, who wrote plays that satirized the conflict
between tradition and the West. Poetry included works in praise of the
Ethiopian emperor. Gabra Egziabeher frequently took an acerbic view of
.traditional life and attitudes in his poetry
After World War II, important writers continued to compose works in
Amharic. Mekonnin Indalkachew wrote Silsawi Dawit (194950; David
III), Ye-dem zemen(19541955; Era of Blood), and Taytu Bitul (1957
58), all historical novels. Girmachew Tekle Hawaryat wrote the
novel Araya (194849), about the journeying of the peasant Araya to
Europe to be educated and his struggle to decide whether to remain there
or return to Africa. One of Ethiopias most popular novels, it explores
generational conflict as well as the conflict between tradition and
modernism. Kabbada Mikael became a significant playwright, biographer,
and historian. Other writers also dealt with the conflict between the old
and the new, with issues of social justice, and with political problems.
Central themes in post-World War II Amharic literature are the relationship
between humans and God, the difficulties of life, and the importance of
Garba Affa, Saadu Zungur, Mudi Sipikin, Naibi Sulaimanu Wali, and Aliyu
Na Mangi, a blind poet from Zaria. Salihu Kontagora and Garba Gwandu
emphasized the need for an accumulation of knowledge in the
contemporary world. Muazu Hadeja wrote didactic poetry. Religious and
.didactic poetry continue to be written among the Hausa
The novel Shaihu Umar, by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a prime
minister of the Federation of Nigeria, is set in a Hausa village
and Egypt. Jiki magayi (1955; You Will Pay for the Injustice You Caused),
also a Translation Bureau prizewinner, was written by Rupert East and J.
Tafida Wusasa. It is a novel of love, and it moves from realism to
fantasy. Idon matambayi (The Eye of the Inquirer), by Muhammadu
Gwarzo, and Ruwan bagaja (1957; The Water of Cure), by Alhaji Abubakar
Imam, mingle African and Western oral tradition with realism. Nagari na
kowa (1959; Good to Everyone), by Jabiru Abdullahi, is the story of
Salihi, who comes to represent traditional Islamic virtues in a world in
which such virtues are endangered. Nuhu Bamalis Bala da Babiya (1954;
Bala and Babiya) deals with conflicts in an urban dwelling. Ahmadu
Ingawas Iliya dam Maikarf (1959; The Story of Iliya Dam Maikarf) has to
do with Iliya, a sickly boy who is cured by angels and then embarks on a
crusade of peace. Saidu Ahmed Dauras Tauraruwar hamada (1959; Star
of the Desert) centres on Zulkaratu, who is kidnapped and taken to a
ruler; it is a story with folkloric elements. Dau fataken dare (Dau, the
Nocturnal Merchants), by Tanko Zango, deals with robbers who live in a
forest; the story is told with much fantasy imagery. In Umaru
Somali
Hikmad Soomaali (Somali Wisdom), a collection of traditional
stories in the Somali language recorded by Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal,
was published in 1956. Shire Jaamac Axmed published materials from the
Somali oral tradition as Gabayo, maahmaah, iyo sheekooyin yaryar (1965;
Poems, Proverbs, and Short Stories). He also edited a literary
journal, Iftiinka aqoonta (Light of Education), and published two short
novels in 1973: Halgankiii nolosha (Life Struggle), dealing with the
traditional past in negative terms, and Rooxaan (The Spirits). Further
stories from the oral tradition were written down and published in
Cabdulqaadir F. BootaansMurti iyo sheekooyin (1973; Traditional Wisdom
and Stories) and Muuse Cumar Islaams Sheekooyin Soomaaliyeed (1973;
.Somali Stories)
Poetry is a major form of expression in the Somali oral tradition. Its
different types include the gabay, usually chanted, the jiifto, also chanted
and usually moody, thegeeraar, short and dealing with war,
the buraambur, composed by women, theheello, or balwo, made up of
short love poems and popular on the radio, and thehees, popular
poetry. Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan) created
poetry as a weapon, mainly in the oral tradition. Farah Nuur, Qamaan
Bulhan, and Salaan Arrabey were also well-known poets. Abdillahi Muuse
created didactic poems; Ismaaiil Mire and Sheikh Aqib Abdullah Jama
.composed religious poetry. Ilmi Bowndheri wrote love poetry
tradition into the novel, its characters speaking in poetic language. The
novel launches an assault on ignorance, as the title suggests, born of,
among other things, illiteracy. And it takes a positive view of Somali
women. Customs having to do with marriage play an important role in the
novel, especially the subverting of such customs for ones own ends.
Cawrala and Calimaax meet onboard a ship that has sailed from Aden,
and they fall in love. But Cawrala has been promised by her father to
another man. Because of a rough sea, the ship founders, and Calimaax
rescues Cawrala from the water. Cawralas love for Calimaax intensifies,
and her relations with her father are therefore strained. She sends a letter
to Calimaax, who, because he cannot read, has Sugulle, his new father-inlaw, read it to him, and this leads to difficulties with his wifes family.
When Cawrala learns of this, she is distressed. Then she learns that
Calimaax died while at war. When Cawrala laments his death, her mother
forces her to leave home. Then, at night, a voice comes to Cawrala, telling
her that a hero does not die. And in fact, Calimaax did not die; he was
wounded, but he survived. Alone and wounded, he must fight a leopard,
and the words of Cawralas letter sustain him. In the meantime, Cawrala is
miserable, and she debates with her parents and members of her
community whether she should marry the man her father has selected for
her. She is forced to marry the man, Geelbadane. But she becomes so ill
that he sends her back to her family. Calimaax, learning of this, sends a
message to her family, asking that she be allowed to marry him. Her
family agrees, but she dies before the marriage can take place. Two years
after that, still suffering from his wounds and his love for Cawrala,
mrima, 1307 A.H. (1955; The German Conquest of the Swahili Coast, 1897
A.D.), by Hemedi bin Abdallah bin Said Masudi al-Buhriy, and Utenzi wa
vita vya Maji Maji (1933; The Epic of the Maji Maji Rebellion), by Abdul
Karim bin Jamaliddini. A novel, Habari za Wakilindi (The Story of the
Wakilindi Lineage; Eng. trans. The Kilindi), published in three volumes
between 1895 and 1907 by Abdallah bin Hemedi bin Ali Ajjemy, deals with
.the Kilindi, the rulers of the state of Usambara
It was Shaaban Robert who had the most dynamic and long-lasting
effect on contemporary Swahili literature. He wrote poetry, prose, and
proverbs. Almasi za Afrika (1960; African Diamonds) is one of his famous
books of poetry. Of his prose, his utopian novel trilogy is among his bestknown works: Kusadikika, nchi iliyo angani (1951; Kusadikika, a Country in
the Sky), Adili na nduguze (1952; Adili and His Brothers),
and Kufkirika (written in 1946, published posthumously in 1967). Adili and
His Brothers is told largely by means of flashbacks. In Kusadikika a fantasy
land is created. This largely didactic novel is heavy with morals, as
suggested by the allegorical names given to the characters. (In the
succeeding works of his trilogy, Robert moves away from the homiletic
somewhat.) By means of flashbacks and images of the
future, Kusadikika tells the story of Karama, which occurs mainly in a
courtroom. Like many other African authors of his time, he juxtaposes the
oral and the written in this novel; it is his experimentation with narrative
time that is unique. Robert also wrote essays and Utenzi wa vita vya
uhuru, 1939 hata 1945 (1967; The Epic of the Freedom War, 1939 to
.1945)
Significant poetry collections include Amri Abedis Sheria za kutunga
mashairi na diwani ya Amri (1954; The Principles of Poetics Together with
a Collection of Poems by Amri). Ahmad Nassir and Abdilatif Abdalla also
wrote poetry. AbdallasSauti ya dhiki (1973; The Voice of Agony)
contains poems composed between 1969 and 1972, when he was a
political prisoner. Euphrase Kezilahabi wrote poetry (as in Karibu
ndani [1988; Come In]) that led the way to the establishment of
freeverse in Swahili. Other experimenters with poetry included Mugyabuso
M. Mulokozi and Kulikoyela K. Kahigi, who together published Malenga wa
bara (1976). Ebrahim N. Hussein and Penina Muhando produced
innovative dramatic forms through a synthesis of Western drama and
traditional storytelling and verse. A play by Hussein, Kinjeketile (1969;
Eng. trans. Kinjeketile), deals with the Maji Maji uprising, and Muhando
wrote such plays as Hatia (1972; Guilt), Tambueni haki zetu (1973;
Reveal Our Rights), Heshima yangu (1974; My Honour),
and Pambo (1975; Decoration). The Paukwa Theatre Association of
Tanzania produced Ayubu, published in 1984. Henry Kuria experimented
with drama with such plays asNakupenda, lakini (1957; I Love You,
.But)
Muhammad Saleh Abdulla Farsy wrote the novel Kurwa and Doto:
maelezo ya makazi katika kijiji cha Unguja yaani Zanzibar (1960; Kurwa
and Doto: A Novel Depicting Community Life in a Zanzibari Village).
Tengo Jabavu and William Gqoba were its editors. It ceased publication
with Gqobas death in 1888. Imvo Zabantsundu (Opinions of the
Africans) was a newspaper edited by Jabavu, who was assisted by John
Knox Bokwe. Izwi Labantu (The Voice of the People) began publication in
1897 with Nathaniel Cyril Mhala as its editor; it was financially assisted
by Cecil Rhodes, who had resigned as prime minister of Cape Colony in
.1896. Much early Xhosa prose and poetry appeared in these periodicals
African protest, which was not allowed in works published by the
mission presses, was heard in the journals. In fact, Imvo Zabantsundu was
suppressed by military authorities during the South African War. Gqoba
and William Wawuchope Citashe published politically potent poetry in the
newspapers. Jonas Ntsiko (pseudonym uHadi Waseluhlangeni [Harp of the
Nation]) in 1877 urged Isigidimi samaXhosa to speak out on political
issues. Poets such as Henry Masila Ndawo and S.E.K. Mqhayiassailed white
South Africans for creating an increasingly repressive atmosphere for
blacks. James J.R. Jolobe attempted in his poetry to blend nostalgia for the
Xhosa past with an acceptance of the Christian present. (Indeed, many
early writers of prose and verse had Christian backgrounds that were the
result of their having attended missionary schools, and so shared Jolobes
thematic concerns.) Mqhayiwas called "the father of Xhosa poetry" by the
Zulu poet and novelist Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, but Jolobe was the
.innovator who experimented aggressively with form
Some of the first prose writers, such as Gqoba and W.B. Rubusana,
were concerned with putting into print materials from the Xhosa oral
traditions. Tiyo Soga and his son, John Henderson Soga, translated
Bunyans Pilgrims Progress into Xhosa asuHambo lomhambi (1866 and
1926). Henry Masila Ndawos first novel, uHambo lukaGqoboka (1909;
The Journey of a Convert), was heavily influenced by the first half of that
translation. The Xhosa oral tradition also had an effect on Ndawos work,
including the novel uNolishwa (1931), about a woman whose name means
"Misfortune." Brought up in an urban environment, she is the cause of
difficulties among her people and between the races.
In uNomathamsanqa noSigebenga(1937; Nomathamsanqa and
Sigebenga)the name Nomathamsanqa meaning "Good Fortune" and
the name Sigebenga meaning "Criminal" or "Ogre"the son of a
traditional chief provides sustenance for his people. Enoch S. Guma, in his
noveluNomalizo; okanye, izinto zalomhlaba
ngamajingiqiwu (1918; Nomalizo; or, The Things of This Life Are Sheer
Vanity), wrote a somewhat allegorical study of two boys, borrowing the
.structure of the story from the Xhosa oral tradition
Guybon Sinxos novels describe city life in a way similar to those
of Alex La Guma, a South African writer, and those of the Nigerian
author Cyprian Ekwensi. In Sinxos uNomsa (1922), the main character,
Nomsa, becomes aware of the dangers of urban living, learning "that the
very people who most pride themselves on their civilization" act against
those ideals. In the end, Nomsa marries the village drunk and reforms
him; she then returns with him to the country, where she creates a loving
home, albeit a Christian one. In Sinxos second novel, Umfundisi
Yoruba
In a story from the Yoruba oral tradition, a boy moves farther and
farther away from home. With the assistance of a fantasy character, a fox,
the boy is able to meet the challenges set by ominous oba (kings) in three
kingdoms, each a greater distance from the boys home. The fox becomes
the storytellers means of revealing the developing wisdom of the boy,
who steadily loses his innocence and moves to manhood. This oral tale is
the framework for the best-known work in Yoruba and the most significant
contribution of the Yoruba language to fiction: D.O. Fagunwas Ogboju ode
ninu igbo irunmale (1938; The Forest of a Thousand Daemons), which
contains fantasy and realistic images along with religious didacticism and
Bunyanesque allegory, all placed within a frame story that echoes that
of The Thousand and One Nights. The novel very effectively combines the
literary and oral forces at work among Yoruba artists of the time. Its
central character is Akara-ogun. He moves into a forest three times, each
time confronting fantasy characters and each time involved in a difficult
task. In the end, he and his followers go to a wise man who reveals to
them the accumulated wisdom of their adventures. The work was
successful and was followed by others, all written in a similar way: Igbo
olodumare (1949; The Jungle of the Almighty), Ireke-Onibudo (1949),
and Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje (1954; Irinkerindo the Hunter in the
Town of Igbo Elegbeje; Eng. trans. Expedition to the Mount of Thought),
all rich combinations of Yoruba and Western images and influences.
Fagunwas final novel, Adiitu olodumare (1961; Gods Mystery-Knot),
Zulu tradition. Cyril Lincoln Sibusiso Nyembezi and Otty Ezrom Howard
Mandlakayise Nxumalo compiled Zulu customs, as did Leonhard L.J.
Mncwango, Moses John Ngcobo, and M.A. Xaba. Violet Dubes Woza
nazo (1935; Come with Stories), Alan Hamilton S. Mbata and Garland
Clement S. Mdhladhlas uChakijana bogcololo umphephethi wezinduku
zabafo (1927; Chakijana the Clever One, the Medicator of the Mens
Fighting Sticks), and F.L.A. Ntulis Izinganekwane nezindaba
ezindala (1939; Oral Narratives and Ancient Traditions) are compilations
of oral stories. Nyembezi gathered and annotated Zulu and Swati heroic
poems in Izibongo zamakhosi (1958; Heroic Poems of the Chiefs), and
E.I.S. Mdhladhlas uMgcogcoma (1947; Here and There) contains Zulu
.narratives
These early Zulu writers were amassing the raw materials with
which the modern Zulu novel would be built. Christian influence from
abroad would combine with the techniques of traditional Zulu oral
traditions to create this new form. There would also be one additional
ingredient: the events that constituted Zulu history. Two outstanding early
writers dealt with historical figures and events. One, John Langalibalele
Dube, became the first Zulu to write a novel in his native language
with Insila kaShaka (1933; Shakas Servant; Eng. trans. Jeqe, the
Bodyservant of King Shaka). The second, R.R.R. Dhlomo, published a
popular series of five novels on Zulu
kings: uDingane (1936), uShaka (1937), uMpande (1938), uCetshwayo (19
52), and uDinuzulu (1968). Other historical novels include Lamulas uZulu
contemporary world are constructed over the old oral stories; the space of
the eternal, an aspect of the ancient tradition, gives way to the space of
the immediate, and the values expressed in the oral stories continue to
.influence the written ones
In a number of novels, Zulu writers contend with the conflict
between tradition and Christianity. In James N. Gumbis Baba
ngixolele (1966; Father, Forgive Me), a girl, Fikile, struggles with what
she perceives as a gap between those two worlds. S.V.H. Mdluli explores
the same theme in uBhekizwe namadodana akhe (1966; Bhekizwe and
His Young Sons): a good son retains his ties with his parents (i.e.,
tradition) and becomes a successful teacher. A bad son goes wrong and is
on the edge of destruction until he recovers his roots. J.M. Zamas
novel Nigabe ngani? (1948; On What Do You Pride Yourself?) is similarly
constructed around positive and negative characters. A stepmother,
Mamathunjwa, spoils her own children, Simangaliso and Nomacala, but
despises her two stepchildren, Msweli and Hluphekile. Christianity is not
the villain; instead it is the relaxation of Zulu values that is the problem.
Msweli and Hluphekile succeed, while the pampered children die in
shame. This insistence on retaining a connection with the African past
produced a literature interwoven with Negritude, or black consciousness, a
theme that would become a dominant one in South African politics in the
.1960s and 70s
Dhlomos novel Indlela yababi (1946; The Bad Path) investigates
the polarity between urbanized life and traditional practices and
19th-century writing had been heavily didactic; by the 1920s this had
.begun to change
Poets became the most potent harbingers of the new language as
the Second Afrikaans Language Movement began; they included Leipoldt,
Marais, Celliers,Jakob Daniel du Toit (Totius), Daniel Franois Malherbe, and
Toon van den Heever.Leipoldt, who would one day be condemned as a
traitor to Afrikaners, was probably one of the greatest and most original
poets of the early 20th century, while Marais in his poetry linked European
tradition to the realities of life in South Africa. Prose also appeared during
this period, moving away from such melodramatic works asJohannes van
Wyk (1906), a novel by J.H.H. de Waal, to more rigorously realistic
historical works, such as those by Gustav Preller. Realism began to
dominate Afrikaans prose, especially in the work of Jochem van Bruggen,
who wrote a trilogy, the first part of which was Ampie, die
natuurkind (1931; Ampie, the Child of Nature), a study of a poor white in
South Africa. A.A. Pienaar (pseudonym Sangiro) wrote popular books about
animals. Drama also began to flourish through the writings of Leipoldt,
Langenhoven, and H.A. Fagan. Langenhoven was also a popular poet, as
.was A.G. Visser
Dramatic events in the 1930sincluding a drought that caused
many farmers to move to the cities, significant political changes, a
sharpening of racial conflict, and the deepening of the Afrikaans-English
conflictisolated Afrikaners more dramatically in South Africa, and fiercely
partisan organizations such as theAfrikaner-Broederbond and Federasie
the mythic and historical past, manipulating time so that in the end the
very structure of the story is a comment on the lives of the several
protagonists. Soyinka was a contributor to and coeditor of the influential
journal Black Orpheus, founded in 1957 and containing the early works of
poets such as Christopher Okigbo of Nigeria, Dennis Brutus and Alex La
Guma of South Africa, and Tchicaya U Tamsi of Congo (Brazzaville).
Another literary journal, The Horn, launched in 1958 by John Pepper Clark,
provided additional opportunities for writers to have their works
published.Transition, a literary journal begun in Uganda in 1960 by Rajat
.Neogi, was also a valuable outlet for many African writers
Achebes Things Fall Apart (1958) is perhaps the best-known African
novel of the 20th century. Its main character is Okonkwo, whose tragic
and fatal flaw, his overweening ambition, wounds him. His frenzied desire
to be anything but what his father was causes him to develop a warped
view of his society, so that in the end that view becomes (thanks to seven
humiliating years in exile) reality to him. When he returns, he cannot
accept seeing his people in the throes of adapting to the intruding whites,
and things fall apart for him: it is not the society he envisioned, and he
takes his life. Things Fall Apart is a precolonial novel that ends with the
coming of colonialism, which triggers Okonkwos demise. Okonkwo is in
any case doomed because of his skewed vision. Flora Nwapa wrote the
novel Efuru (1966), the story of a talented, brilliant, and beautiful woman
who, living in a small community, is confined by tradition. A womans
fundamental role, childbearing, is prescribed for her, and if she does not
fulfill that role she suffers the negative criticism of members of her
society. Borrowing a technique from the oral tradition, Nwapa injects the
dimension of fantasy through the character of the goddess Uhamiri, who is
a mythic counterpart to the real-life Efuru. In The Slave Girl (1977) the
novelist Buchi Emecheta tells the story of Ojebeta, who, as she journeys
from childhood to adulthood, moves not to freedom and independence but
from one form of slavery to another. Okri blends fantasy and reality in his
novel The Famished Road (1991; part of a trilogy that also includes Songs
of Enchantment [1993] and Infnite Riches[1998]). In the novel, which
addresses the reality of postcolonial Nigeria, Okri uses myth, the
Yoruba abiku (spirit child), and other fantasy images to shift between
preindependence and postindependence settings. The spiritual and real
worlds are linked in the novel, the one a dimension of the other, in a
.narrative mode that African storytellers have been using for centuries
In other parts of western Africa, Lenrie Peters of The Gambia and Syl
Cheyney-Coker of Sierra Leone were among the most important 20thcentury writers. The novelist Ebou Dibba and the poet Tijan M. Sallah were
also from The Gambia. Cameroonian authors writing in English during the
second half of the 20th century include Babila Mutia, John S. Dinga, and
Jedida Asheri. Writers in Ghana during the same period include Amma
Darko, B. Kojo Laing, Kofi Awoonor, and Ayi Kwei Armah.
InFragments (1970) Armah tells of a youth, Baako, who returns from the
United States to his Ghanaian family and is torn between the new
demands of his home and the consequent subversion of a traditional past
their interactions with July and his family and friends, that they cannot
move past their former relationship with their servant and cannot see him
from any perspective but that of liberal, self-confident white overlords.
That hopelessly compromised position is the impasse that Gordimer
investigates in this novel. D.M. Zwelonke is the pseudonymous author
of Robben Island (1973), a novel dealing with the political prison
maintained by the South African government off the shores of Cape Town
from the mid-1960s. It is the story of Bekimpi, an African political leader
jailed at Robben Island, and it relates his dreams and fantasies, his
.despair and anger, and his torture and death
J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003,
wrote Life and Times of Michael K (1983), a story with a blurred hero and
an indistinct historical and geographical background. It describes a war
that could be any war, a country that could be any country, a bureaucracy
that could be any bureaucracy. Through it all, Michael Ka frail,
nondescript, mute man of 30, born with a cleft lipsurvives, not betraying
his past, for he has no past, tied as he is to the unbroken continuity of
history. So does Coetzee link apartheid to the ages. The novel becomes, in
the end, an affirmation of humanity; the Earth is destroyed, a man is
incarcerated, but he will return, crawling out of the dust of ruin, re.creating the Earth, making it grow and fructify
Maru (1971), a novel by Bessie Head, tells a story about the
liberation of the San people from ethnic and racial oppression and about
the liberation of the Tswana people of Dilepe from their prejudices and
and between traditional religious practices and Islam. The novel Forcebont (1926; Much Good Will), by Bakary Diallo of Senegal, deals with a
youth caught in a conflict between his Muslim background and Western
values and culture. The Beninese writer Paul Hazoum
wrote Doguicimi (1938; Eng. trans. Doguicimi), a historical novel depicting
the time of the reign of the king Gezo in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey.
Some writers focused solely on African tradition, with its positive and
negative qualities; these writers include Flix Couchoro, whose
novelLEsclave (1929; The Slave) examines slavery in traditional
Dahomey. The Senegalese writer Ousmane Soc wrote Karim (1935), a
novel that depicts a young Wolof caught between traditional and Western
values. He leaves the countryside for the Senegalese cities of Saint-Louis
and Dakar but loses everything when he falls prey to the cities wiles; he
returns, in the end, to traditional ways of living. The novel depicts the new
society that was being born in early 20th-century Africa. Mirages de
Paris (1937; Mirages of Paris) has to do with a Senegalese student in
Paris who falls in love with a Frenchwoman. Abdoulaye Sadji of Senegal
wrote Mamouna(1958; Eng. trans. Mamouna), about an African girl who
leaves home and goes to Dakar, where she is seduced. She returns to her
home and bears a child who dies; she becomes ill but then recovers her
.traditional roots
Womens place in Cameroonian society is the subject of Joseph
Owonos Tante Bella (1959; Aunt Bella), the first novel to be published in
Cameroon. Paul Lomami-Tshibamba of Congo (Brazzaville) wrote Ngando
After World War I, many of the Africans who had served in the French
army remained in France, bringing pressure on the country to end
colonialism and political assimilation. They met with blacks from the
United States, and the result was a new concern with and pride in African
cultural identity. This acknowledgement of blacknessof black roots, black
history, and black civilizationsbecame part of the struggle against
colonialism and evolved, under the tutelage of Lopold Senghor of
Senegal, Aim Csaire of Martinique, and Lon-Gontran Damas of French
Guiana, into the movement that became known asNegritude.
Csaires Cahier dun retour au pays natal (1939; Notebook of a Return to
the Native Land, or Return to My Native Land) and Senghors Anthologie
de la nouvelle posie ngre et malgache de langue franaise (1948;
Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry of the French
Language) are among the important works of this movement, as is
Senghors own poetry, including Chants dombre(1945; Songs of the
Shade) and thiopiques (1956). The struggle had earlier been waged in
such short-lived journals as Lgitime dfense (1932; Legitimate
Defense) and Ltudiant noir (1935; The Black Student). In 1947 the
journal Prsence africaine (African Presence) was inaugurated; it would
play a significant role in the encouragement and development of
.Francophone writing
Birago Diop of Senegal wrote poetry (e.g., Leurres et lueurs [1960;
Lures and Gleams]), some of which emphasizes its connections with the
ancestral African past. In Madagascar Jacques Rabemananjara wrote
Fa Keta retains his nobility in the face of torture, Penda in the face of
ostracism, and Ramatoulaye in the face of enormous want and
deprivation. Through it all stands Bakayoko, who single-mindedly pursues
change, although he understands that change cannot be abrupt; it must
be anchored in the past. Hence his concern for tradition, of which the
novels women are symbols. Seydou Badian Kouyat of Mali wrote a play
about the Zulu leader Shaka: La Mort de Chaka (1962; The Death of
Shaka). Ak Loba of Cte dIvoire wrote Kocoumbo, ltudiant noir (1960;
Kocoumbo, the Black Student), which treats the negative efforts of
France on traditional African values. His Les Fils de Kouretcha (1970; The
Sons of Kouretcha) is a study of the effects of industrialization on
traditional societies. Olympe Bhly-Qunum of Benin wrote the novel Un
Pige sans fn (1960; Snares Without End), which focuses on the African
traditional past. The Senegalese writer Sheikh Hamidou
Kane wrote LAventure ambigu (1961; Ambiguous Adventure), a novel
that considers the African and Muslim identity of its main character,
Samba, within the context of Western philosophical thought. In his
novel Le Soleil noir point (1962; The Sun a Black Dot), Charles Nokan of
.Cte dIvoire deals with efforts to bring a nation to freedom
In Africas postindependence period, similar themes persisted but
were readjusted to conform to worlds in which new societies were being
forged. Many French-language novels of the last decades of the 20th
century deal with familial struggles within a traditional society that can
never again be the same. Maimouna Abdoulaye of Senegal wrote Un Cri
du coeur (1986; A Cry from the Heart), a novel dealing with women
living in an indifferent male society. Josette Abondio of Cte dIvoire is the
author of Kouassi Kokoma mre (1993; Kouassi KokoMy Mother), a
novel about a woman whose existence narrows with the death of her male
partner. Marie Thrse Assiga-Ahanda of Cameroon wrote the
novel Socits africaines et High Society (1978; African Societies and
High Society), a story about two people returning to their country after
colonialism, only to find a new kind of colonialisman internal kind. MarieGisle Aka of Cte dIvoire wrote Les Haillons de lamour(1994; The
Remnants of Love), a novel having to do with a girls difficulties with her
father. A novel written in 1990 by Philomne Bassek of Cameroon deals
with the plight of a mother of 11 children who has a harsh husband.
Poverty and the upper classes preoccupy Aminata Sow Fall of Senegal
in Le Jujubier du patriarche (1993; The Patriarchs Jujube). The Gabonese
writer Justine Mintsa writes of tragic life in a contemporary African village
.in a novel published in 2000
The relationship between Africa and Europe remained a theme
through the end of the 20th century. Assatou Cissokho, a Senegalese
writer, in Dakar, la touriste autochtone (1986; Dakar, the Native Tourist),
depicts a character returning from Europe and finding things much the
same in Dakar. In a 1999 novel, the Cameroonian novelist Nathalie Etok
tells the story of an African who is an illegal immigrant in Paris. A young
African woman in Paris is the focus of Gisle Hountondji in Une Citronnelle
dans la neige (1986; Lemongrass in the Snow). Henri Lopes is a
and Europe; Jorge Barbosa, who was among the founders of Claridade,
was one of them. His first collection of poetry, published in 1935, was
.nostalgic and romantic and placed its emphasis on the everyday person
Baltazar Lopes (pseudonym Oswaldo Alcntara) wrote of the
suffering of Cape Verdeans. His Chiquinho (1947) was a Portugueselanguage novel, and it fell into precisely the same pattern as works
composed elsewhere in Africa, such as Pita Nwanas Igbolanguage Omenuko (1935), Samuel Yosia Ntaras Nyanja
novelNthondo (1933), and Stephen Andrea Mpashis Bemba
story Cekesoni Aingila Ubusoja (1950); in typical heroic fashion, Chiquinho
leaves the home of his birth, journeys to the Brazilian city of So Vicente,
where he is educated, then returns to his home. While Lopes follows the
traditional movement of the oral tradition, he does so with grim realism.
When Chiquinho goes to So Vicente, his experience is anything but
glorious: he is out of work and alienated from his surroundings. And his
return home is not an improvement; there he finds poverty and suffering.
Lopes plays with the form of his story here. In the first part, Chiquinhos
home world is romanticized, which is a dynamic contrast with the second
part of the story: So Vicente and the experience of aloneness and
sadness. But, using irony as his device, Lopes brings those two worlds into
metaphorical union: the world of Chiquinhos past is actually revealed in
the world of So Vicente. In the third part of the novel, when he returns to
the world of his childhood, Chiquinho discovers that it is no different from
the alien world from which he has just departed. So it is that the child has
come of age and has moved through his puberty rite of passage: the
fantasy world of his childhood has been jarred into reality by his
experiences in So Vicente. Realism and fantasy thus come into union in
this story, the fantasy world of childhood juxtaposed with the real world of
adulthood, and the two are experienced now as the same. Materials from
the oral tradition are the stuff of Lopess literary storytelling: he makes
critical alterations as he moves from the romance of the tale to the
.realism of the novel
Another Claridade poet was Manuel Lopes, who was also among the
journals founders; he was a novelist and short-story writer as well. His
poetry is suffused with a personal lyricism and with social themes, which
reflect his concern with the problems and the cultural values of Cape
Verde. His novel Chuva braba (1956; Wild Rain) addresses some of the
same themes. Cape Verdean folklore is woven into his short stories,
including O galo que cantou na baa (1959; The Cock that Crowed in
.the Bay)
The literary magazine Presena (Presence), founded in 1927, was
a revolutionary Portuguese publication, urging a break with the
Portuguese past and encouraging ties to Cape Verde. Claridade led in
1944 to the founding of a new review, Certeza(Certainty), and with it
came a new generation of poets, including Antnio Aurlio Gonalves,
Aguinaldo Fonseca, Antnio Nunes, Srgio Frusoni, and Djunga, who
infused Cape Verdean literature with a new, youthful spirit that retained a
Turn), that depict the impact of colonialism on the Angolan people. Born
in Portugal, the poet Tomaz Vieira da Cruz both struggled with and
embraced a sense of exile during the decades he spent in Angola.
The Movimento dos Jovens Intelectuais (Movement of Young Intellectuals)
in 1947 and 1948 emphasized Angolan traditions and folklore, influencing
such writers as Agostinho Neto, Mrio Pinto de Andrade, and Viriato da
.Cruz
Angolan poets often dealt with relations between blacks and whites,
as Ernesto Lara Filho did in his Picada de Marimbondo (1961; The Sting of
Marimbondo). The publisher Imbondeiro encouraged the publication of
works by Angolan authors, who continued to struggle with racial conflicts
and the plight of the assimilado (those assimilated to Portuguese culture
and Roman Catholicism). Mrio Antnio wrote of the loss of the African
past, and Luandino Vieira (pseudonym of Jos Vieira Mateus da Graa)
described life in the Angolan city of Luanda (Luuanda [1963]). In 1961 he
was arrested and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. From the middle
of the 20th century the writing of poetry was encouraged by the
.Sociedade Cultural de Angola (Angolan Cultural Society)
Pepetela (Artur Carlos Maurcio Pestana dos Santos) wrote novels,
such asMayombe (1980; Eng. trans. Mayombe), about the civil war that
followed Angolas independence in 1975. He also looked to the more
distant past: Yaka (1984; Eng. trans. Yaka) deals with 19th-century Angola,
and Lueji (1989) is a story of an African princess of the 17th century. His A
gerao da utopia (1992; A Generation of Utopia) takes the countrys
anticolonial struggle as its theme. In 1997 he won the Cames Prize, the
most important prize in Lusophone literature. Manuel Pedro Pacaviras
novel Nzinga Mbandi (1975) depicts an African queen, Nzinga, of the 16th
and 17th centuries and describes relations between Angolans and
Portuguese. History is also the context for Jos Eduardo Agualusas
novels A Conjura (1989), which focuses on the city of Luanda, with
fictional characters that espouse nationalistic views worked into a context
of historical figures, and Nao crioula(1997; Creole), a 19th-century
.adventure set in Angola, Brazil, and Portugal
In Mozambique, Joo Albasini was, in 1918, one of the founders of O
Brado Africano(The African Roar), a bilingual weekly in Portuguese and
Ronga in which many of Mozambiques writers had their work first
published. Albasinis collection of short stories O livro da dor (The Book of
Sorrow) was published in 1925. Rui de Noronhacomposed poetry,
collected in Sonetos (1943; Sonnets), addressed to his patria do
misterio (mysterious homeland). Caetano Campo, a Portuguese
journalist, wrote stories and poetry; one of his books of
poetry, Nyaka (1942), is a nostalgic view of Africa. Clima (1959; Climate)
is a collection of poetry by Orlando Mendes, a Portuguese born in
Mozambique. Joo Dias wrote Godido e outros contos (1952; Godido and
Other Stories); he was Mozambiques first African-born writer of modern
prose. The works of poet Augusto de Conrado include Fibras dum
corao(1931; Fibres of a Heart) and Divagaes (1938). In 1941 the
Lus Bernardo Honwana, a Frelimo militant who was jailed for several
years in the 1960s, wrote short stories collected in Ns matmos o CoTinhoso (1964; We Killed Mangy-Dog & Other Stories). Mia Couto
wrote Terra sonmbula (1992; Sleepwalking Land); its publication was a
major event in prose writing in Mozambique. Couto moves between reality
and fantasy in his writing. In A varanda de frangipani (1996;Under the
Frangipani), for instance, a man returns from the dead to become a spirit
that moves into the mind of a Mozambican police inspector. Couto blends
folklore and historical events, such as Mozambiques civil war, into this
tale. Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa wrote the novel Ualalapi (1987), which deals
with an African king who struggled against Portuguese colonialism. Paulina
Chiziane wrote Balada de amor ao vento (1990), a novel that looks more
realistically and less romantically at the African past and that blends the
fantasy of folklore with realism. Short-story writers of the late 20th
century include Macelo Panguana (As vozes que falam de
verdade[1987], A balada dos deuses [1991]) and Suleiman Cassamo. Llia
Mompl published the short-story collection Ningum mataou
Suhura (1988; Nobody Killed Suhura) and the novels Neighbours (1995;
Eng. trans. Neighbours: The Story of Murder) andOs olhos da cobra
.verde (1997; The Eyes of the Green Cobra)
:Citation
African literature". Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia "
.Britannica Online
Discover Nigeria
the land of the dead rather than live without him. The war novel Never
Again (1975), which was her third book, drew its material from the
.Nigerian Civil War
Over the course of twenty-seven years, Nwapa published six novels,
nine children's books, three plays, two collections of short stories, a book
of poems and innumerable essays. Some of these works include One is
Enough (1981), This is Lagos and Other Stories (1971), Cassava Song and
Rice Song (1986), Wives at War and Other Stories (1980), Driver's Guard
(1972), Mammywater (1979), Journey to Space (1980), The Adventures of
.Deke (1980), and Women Are Different (1986)
At the time of her death, Nwapa had completed The Lake Goddess,
her final novel, and had entrusted the manuscript to a friend. It was
.published posthumously in 1995
Apart from writing books, Nwapa, with the help of her husband,
established herself as a publisher by launching Tana Press in 1976 after
becoming dissatisfied with her publisher. The company, which published
adult fiction, was the first indigenous publishing house owned by a black
African woman in West Africa. Between 1979 and 1981 she had published
eight volumes of adult fiction. Nwapa set up also another publishing
company, Flora Nwapa and Co., which specialised in childrens fiction.
With these books, she combined elements of Nigerian culture with general
.moral and ethical teachings
Nwapa, Flora
Introduction
Flora Nwapa 1931-1993
Nigerian novelist, poet, short Full name Flora Nwapa-Nwakuche
.story writer, and children's author
The following entry presents an overview of Nwapa's career through
.1996
Flora Nwapa was the first Nigerian woman to publish a novel in
English, and hence gained international fame. Criticism of her work is
often influenced by feminist politics because of the woman-centered
nature of her fiction. Her work holds an important place in feminist
.discourse but has also garnered attention for its literary merits
Biographical Information
Nwapa was born in the East Central State of Nigeria in 1931. She
graduated from Ibadan University in Nigeria then Edinburgh University in
London. She taught English at the Queen's School in Enugu in the early
1960s, where she began writing her first novel Efuru 1966. She
returned to her home state during the Biafran War, which provided a
backdrop for her later fiction. After the war, Nwapa held ministerial posts
in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; the Ministry of Lands, Survey,
and Urban Development; and the Ministry of Establishment between 1970
and 1975. Nwapa also started her own publishing company, the Tana
distinguishes her writing from others in the Igbo school are the ways in
which she has used choric language to enable and to empower her
representation, creating the effect of a woman's verbal presence within
her text, while bringing home her subject matter by evoking the vocality
of women's everyday existence. Some critics complain about the lack of
traditional novelistic plot and structure in Nwapa's fiction, but other
reviewers enjoy the conversational narrative method. In her discussion of
Nwapa's Efuru,Naana Banyiwe-Horne claims, The constant banter of
women reveals character as much as it paints a comprehensive, credible,
social canvas against which Efuru's life can be assessed. Many reviewers
note the connection between Nwapa's narrative style and the Igbo oral
.tradition and praise Nwapa for her strong connection to her past
Principal Works
Efuru novel 1966
Idu novel 1970
This Is Lagos and Other Stories short stories 1971
Emeka: Driver's Guard [illustrated by Roslyn Isaacs] juvenilia
1972
Never Again novel 1975
Wives at War and Other Stories short stories 1975
My Animal Number Book juvenilia 1977
THE AFRICAN
Our Voices, Our Vision, Our Culture
WOMANISM THROUGH THE EYES OF FLORA NWAPA'S, EFURU
BY EBELE CHIZEA
Published on Wed, Jul 29 2009 by Ebele Chizea
Bronx, NY: I remember reading Flora Nwapa's novel, Efuru, at age 11
and being captivated by the beautiful, financially independent female
.protagonist who suffers many tragic events
Efuru is the story of a young woman in post colonial Eastern Nigeria
who wishes to be a wife, mother and a successful business woman. She is
able to become a successful trader, however, her personal life remains
bumpy. She loses two husbands and her only child. By the end of the
book, she visits the lake goddess Uhamiri after making some offerings. It
is then that she realizes that Uhamiri gives her followers wealth and
beauty but few children.
It wasn't so much the tragedy that seemed to surround her that
fascinated me, it was her strong spirit and her ability to take responsibility
for herself. She was the epitome of the modern woman. Efuru's cultural
background, the world surrounded by spirits and other mystical elements
including Never Again and Wives at War and Other Stories. She died on
October 16, 1993 in Enugu, Nigeria.
Source: http://www.africanmag.com/FORUM-1247-design004Womanism_Through_The_Eyes_of_Flora_Nwapa_s_Efuru_br_br_by_Ebele_C
hizea_african_magazine_culture_fashion
Date of Access: 8 April, 2016