Ten 19th Century Writers from Nigeria you Should Know

10) Chukwuemeka Ike Vincent

       Born: April 28, 1931 (age 84)

                            

Native Land - Ndike Kingdom Anambra State, Nigeria.

Chukwuemeka Ike is one writer that has thrilled millions of Africans with his unique writing style which encompasses dialogue, wit, and satire, and employed to castigate corruption and the quest for inordinate powers by African leaders. Among

many youths, he is popular as the author of Expo '77, a critical look at academic examination abuses in West Africa.

As an educator, Ike has contributed to the intellectual and cultural development of Africa in important administrative positions at Nigerian universities and at UNESCO and as professor at the University of Jos. In 2008 he was awarded the Fonlon-Nichols Award at the African Literature Association meeting in Illinois.

Now at the ripe age of 82, the sun is still shining brightly on this doyen of African writing. 

His works include:

Toads for Supper (1965), The Naked Gods (1970), The Potter's Wheel (1973), Sunset at Dawn (1976), Expo '77 (1980), The Chicken Chasers (1980), The Bottled Leopard (1985)

9) Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi

     (September 26, 1921- November 4, 2007)

Native Land- Minna, Northern Nigeria.

Cyprian Ekwensi's first novel, People of the City, published in 1954, appearing four years before Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, was the first Nigerian work to gain international acclaim and the first Nigerian novel to be published in Britain. Between stints as a teacher, forester, pharmacist, broadcaster and film-maker, the west African novelist Cyprian Ekwensi, who died aged 86, published more than 40 books as well as radio and television scripts. His most successful Jagua Nana (1961) won Ekwensi the 1968 Dag Hammarskjöld prize in literature. Jagua Nana (1961), about a Pidgin-speaking Nigerian woman who leaves her husband to work as a prostitute in a city and falls in love with a teacher. He also wrote a sequel to this, Jagua Nana's Daughter. 

8) Emmanuel Gladstone Olawale Rotimi (a.k.a Ola Rotimi)

(April 13, 1938 - August 18, 2000)

Native Land - Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria.

The dramatic works of Ola Rotimi are known throughout Africa and have made him one of the most significant playwrights in this continent. He was a playwright, theatre director and teacher. His dramatic works have been performed in Europe and Africa and are the focus of study in Europe and in American universities with African studies programs.  An accomplished play director, Rotimi has taken many works directly to the people with the University of Ife Theatre, a repertory company that performs works in the Yoruba language, Nigerian pidgin, and English.

The first major play Rotimi created in Ife was The Gods Are Not to Blame (1968), a reworking of Oedipus Rex. "Nigeria was in the throes of a civil war flared by ethnic distrust, the bane of all Africa," Rotimi recalled. "A shattering tragedy like Oedipus's calamity should bring out the warning against this cancerous foible, I thought."

His Selected works include;

The Gods Are Not to Blame, (1971),Ovoranwen Nogbaisi: An Historical Tragedy, (1974).Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, (1977), If…, (1983), Everyone His/Her Own Problems, 1986, Hopes of the Living Dead, 1988,Kurunmi, 1989. (From Encyclopedia)

7) Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta

(July 21, 1944 - till present)

Many say that Buchi Emecheta is to date the most important female African writer.  She is certainly Nigeria’s best known woman writer, and is respected for her imaginative and documentary writing about African women’s experiences in Africa and in Great Britain. Her best-known novels, including Second-Class Citizen(1974), The Bride Price (1976), and The Joys of Motherhood (1979), expose the injustice of traditional, male-oriented African social customs that relegate women to a life of child-bearing, servitude, and victimization. Often regarded as a feminist writer, Emecheta illustrates the value of education and self-determination for aspiring young women who struggle against sexual discrimination, racism, and unhappy marital arrangements to achieve individuality and independence.

“The joy of being a mother was the joy of giving all to your children”. In The Joys of Motherhood, 

6) Ben Okri

(Born in 1959 - till present)

Native Land - Minna, Northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father.

In his book A Time for New Dreams (2011), Ben Okri describes poetry as ‘the great river of soul-murmurings that runs within humanity’, and true literature as ‘the encounter of possibilities’ that ‘tears up the script of what we think humanity to be’.

His accomplishments include;

(2001) OBE

(2000) Premio Palmi (Italy), Dangerous Love1995Crystal Award (World Economic Forum)

(1994) Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), The Famished Road

(1993) Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize, The Famished Road

(1991) Booker Prize for Fiction, The Famished Road1988Guardian Fiction Prize, Stars of the New Curfew, shortlist

(1987) Paris Review/Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, Incidents at the Shrine

His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).

Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.

5) Amos Tutola

 (June 20, 1920 - June 8, 1997).

Amos was a Nigerian writer famous for his books based in part on Yoruba folk-tales. When Amos Tutuola's first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, appeared in 1952, it aroused exceptional worldwide interest. Drawing on the West African (Nigeria) Yoruba oral folktale tradition, Tutuola described the odyssey of a devotedine drinker through a nightmare of fantastic adventure. Tutuola became also one of the founders of Mbari Club, the writers' and publishers' organization. In 1979, he held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and in 1983 he was an associate of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In retirement he divided his time between residences at Ibadan and Ago-Odo. Tutuola died at age 77 on June 8, 1997 from hypertension and diabetes. Tutuola’s first novel is essentially the grand global debut of what we now call “the African novel.”

4) Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa. (a.k.a Flora Nwapa)

Born: January 13, 1931, Oguta

Died: October 16, 1993, Enugu

Nwapa, born in Oguta, was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers. While never considering herself a feminist, she is best known for recreating life and traditions from a woman's viewpoint. In 1966 her book Efuru became Africa's first internationally published female novel in the English language (Heinemann Educational Books). She has been called the mother of modern African literature. Later she went on to become the first African woman publisher of novels when she founded Tata Press.

She also is known for her governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War.
In 1985, she received the Merit Award for Authorship and Publishing at the Ife Book Fair of the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University. She also received a Certificate of Participation, Iowa University School of Letters International Writing Programme in 1984. - 

At her funeral, the late environmentalist, writer and activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa, said of her, “Flora is gone and we all have to say adieu. But she left behind an indelible mark. No one will ever write about Nigerian literature in English without mentioning her. She will always be the departure point for female writing in Africa. And African publishing will forever owe her a debt. But above all, her contribution to the development of women in Nigeria, nay in Africa, and throughout the world is what she will be best remembered for.” 

3) J.P Clark

Born: April 6, 1935 (age 80)

Native Land - Kiagbodo, Nigeria.

John Pepper Clark Bekederemo is one of Nigeria's foremost anglophone dramatists and poets. Born in Kiagbodo, Nigeria, to Ijaw parents is along with Wole Soyinka one of the most articulate, and proficient literary artists to have come from Africa.

Clark is most noted for his poetry, including:

Poems Mbari (1961), A Reed in the Tide (Longmans, 1965), Casualties: Poems 1966-68 Decade of Tongue(1981), a collection of seventy-four poems, all of which apart from “Epilogue to Casualties” (dedicated to Michael Echeruo) were previously published in earlier volumes.

A widely travelled man, Clark has, since his retirement, continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role for which he is increasingly gaining international recognition receiving in 1991 the Nigerian National Merit Award for literary excellence and the publication, by Howard University of his two definitive volumes, The Ozidi Saga and Collected Plays and Poems,1958-1988.

 2) Akonwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka 

(13 July 1934 - till present) 

Native Land - Abeokuta, near Ibadan in Western Nigeria Soyinka has produced a large body of work which includes plays, poetry, novels, autobiographies, literary criticism, and social criticism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first black African to be given the honor. Soyinka’s writing often focuses on oppression and exploitation of the weak by the strong; none are spared in his critique, neither the white speculator nor the black exploiter. Wole Soyinka has also played an important role in Nigerian politics, which has at times exposed him to great personal risk. The government of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), for instance, pronounced a death sentence on him ‘in absentia’. He wrote his first plays during his time in London,The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trials of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), Among Soyinka's serious philosophic plays are (apart from "The Swamp Dwellers") The Strong Breed(performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King's Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975).  -

1) Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

    (November 16,1930-March 21, 2013)

Native Land - Ogidi, Nigeria.

A poet, novelist, professor and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He was also considered by many to be one of the most original literary artists writing in English during his lifetime. Things Fall Apart (1958) has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Other novels include: No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966).

Though he has often been called ‘The Father of Nigerian Literature’, he twice refused the Nigerian government’s attempt to name him Commander of the Federal Republic – first in 2004, then again in 2011 – in protest against the political regime of the country. He served as the professor of David and Mariana Fisher University as well as the professor of African Studies at the Brown University in the Providence Rhode Island. He died early 2013 at the age of 82 years old, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Filed Under: Infos, Lists, News on Friday, 4 September 2015

Top 10 Greatest Epic Poems

Ancient poetry has in no doubt been the foundation of the both oral and written poetry. These poets all made a mark in literature and still outplay the modern poetry which at times seems to leave out the basics of writing poems. This list is a selection of the most prestigious and eminent epic poems from before the 20th century.  In other words I have left 20th century poetry for another list.

10. Aeneid     
       Virgil

“The Aeneid” (Lat: “Aeneis”) is an epic poem by Vergil (Virgil), the pre-eminent poet of the Roman Empire.  It is written in dactylic hexameter (considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry). The first six of the poem’s twelve books tell the story of Aeneas’ wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem’s second half treats the Trojans’ ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.Virgil was still working on revising the Aeneid when he died in 19 BC. The poem contains a few lines which are only half as long as they should be, which confirms thdwee traditional belief that the work is unfinished. The poem is not, however, incomplete; it was meant to end where it ends. The tradition also says that Virgil was so dissatisfied with the Aeneid that on his death bed he gave orders for the manuscript to be burned, but the executors of his estate did not comply.

It was basic to the education of generations of Romans, and has stirred the imaginations of such writers and artists as St. Augustine, Dante, Milton, and countless others. 

9. Don Juan
     Lord Byron

Byron's satirical masterpiece Don Juan is written in groups of eight lines of iambic pentameter that follow an ABABABCC rhyme scheme, which is known as ottava rima. The dedication, sixteen cantos, and fragmentary seventeenth canto make up the poem, which Byron insisted was unfinished. Unfortunately, Byron died shortly after the publication of the last cantos and was therefore unable to complete the entire mock epic. Byron claims that he had no ideas in his mind as to what would happen in subsequent cantos as he wrote his work. Byron’s Don Juan, the name comically anglicized to rhyme with “new one” and “true one,” is a passive character, in many ways a victim of predatory women, and more of a picaresque hero in his unwitting roguishness. When the first two cantos were published anonymously in 1819, the poem was criticised for its “immoral content,” though it was also immensely popular.

8. Paradise Lost
    John Milton

Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) is an epic poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton. The poem concerns the Christian story of the fall of Satan and his brethren and the rise of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Paradise Lost is the first epic of English literature written in the classical style. John Milton saw himself as the intellectual heir of Homer, Virgil, and Dante. This is an epic poem in blank verse. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books; a second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil’s Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification.  The poem grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination and the Trinity.

7.  The Divine Comedy     
      Dante Alighieri 

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is the beginning of Italian literature and the single most significant work of the Middle Ages because its allegory emphasizes the importance of salvation and divine love in a work that is inclusive and tightly structured. 

The Divina Commedia (Italian for "divine comedy") is Dante’s masterpiece and is the best literal expression of medieval culture. The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting during the Easter Triduum in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Dante’s main purpose in writing the Commedia was to preach the necessity of a moral and religious renew for everybody, in order to get ready for the after-life and to ascend to Heaven, eternally saved. Dante acts as a prophet who speak in behalf of God to the whole mankind. In this sense, he’s strongly medieval and his poem is the higher expression of this culture.

6. Mahabharata    
     Vyasa

Mahabharata is an ancient historical work written in sanskrit by Krishna-Dvaipayana ( aka veda vyasa). The Mahabharata is not a mere epic; it is a romance, telling the tale of heroic men and women, and of some who were divine; it is a whole literature in itself, containing a code of life, a philosophy of social and ethical relations, and speculative thought on human problems that is hard to rival. It contains more than 74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1.8 million words in total. The book's popularity is such that it has run into forty two reprints.

5. Beowulf     
    Anonymous

Beowulf probably was composed in England sometime in the eighth century ad and written down circa 1000 ad by a literate scop (bard) or perhaps a Christian scribe who was possibly educated in a monastery. The poem was created in the oral-formulaic tradition (or oral poetic method), probably developing over a period of time with roots in folk tales and traditional stories until a single, very talented poet put it in something very near its current form.

Beowulf is written in Anglo-Saxon, the language spoken in Britain before the Norman Conquest in 1066—that is, before the extensive influence of French on the language we speak today. Still, Beowulf has come to be recognized as the foundational epic of English and British culture, in much the same way that the Iliad and the Odyssey are the foundational epics for ancient Greece.

4.Metamorphoses   
   Ovid

Metamorophoses” (“Transformations”) is a narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid, completed in 8 CE. It is an epic (or “mock-epic”) poem describing the creation and history of the world, incorporating many of the best known and loved stories from Greek mythology, although centring more on mortal characters than on heroes or the gods. It is a classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval and Renaissance poetry.

3. The Odyssey     
     Homer

This is one of the greatest work of literature to be written and attributed to the blind poet Homer. It is written predominantly in Dactyllic Hexameter: each line consists of six metrical feet, each of which consists of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. By no means are dactyls used exclusively. Odyssey is anbepic mythological journey of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman).  It is based on his departure to the Trojan war and the events that followed on his return. Homer’s style is famous for its flow and pacing.

2. Epic of Gilgamesh
     Anonymous

The Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cunieform script. It follows the story of Gilgamesh, the mythological hero-king of Uruk,(somewhere between 2750 and 2500 BCE) and his half-wild friend, Enkidu, as they undertake a series of dangerous quests and adventures, and then Gilgamesh’s search for the secret of immortality after the death of his friend. It also includes the story of a great flood very similar to the story of Noah in "The Bible" and elsewhere.
Research also indicates that Gilgamesh was a real-life king of Uruk, a city-state in Mesopotamia, in about 2700 BC. After his death, unidentified authors and storytellers presented accounts of his life that grew into legends that greatly exaggerated his powers—so much so that he was described as two-thirds divine and one-third human. 
Between 1400 and 1200 BC, an author of the priestly caste read the tablets about Gilgamesh and compiled the stories about him, taken mostly from the Akkadian accounts, into a single work. His name was Sin-leqi-unninni. Although he retained much of the wording on the clay tablets, he made some revisions and introduced original wording of his own.

1. The Iliad
     Homer

Written in the mid-8th Century BCE, “The Iliad” (Gr: “Iliás”) is usually considered to be the earliest work in the whole Western literary tradition, and one of the best known and loved stories of all time. Through its portayal of the epic subject matter of the Trojan War, the stirring scenes of bloody battle, the wrath of Achilles and the constant interventions of the gods, it explores themes of glory, wrath, homecoming and fate, and has provided subjects and stories for many other later Greek, Roman and Renaissance writings. The meter (rhythmic pattern of syllables) of Homer’s epic poems is dactylic hexameter.
The Iliad was a truly remarkable accomplishment. Even though its author had no similar literary model on which to base his work, he wrote a masterpiece that ranks with the greatest works of all time. No student of literature can ignore Homer. No writer's education is complete unless he has read Homer.

Filed Under: Infos, Lists, Poems on Friday, 31 July 2015

Top 10 Prolific African Authors

1) Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

(November 16,1930-March 21, 2013)
          

Native Land - Ogidi, Nigeria.
A poet, novelist, professor and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He was also considered by many to be one of the most original literary artists writing in English during his lifetime. Things Fall Apart (1958) has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Other novels include: No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966).

Though he has often been called ‘The Father of Nigerian Literature’, he twice refused the Nigerian government’s attempt to name him Commander of the Federal Republic – first in 2004, then again in 2011 – in protest against the political regime of the country. He served as the professor of David and Mariana Fisher University as well as the professor of African Studies at the Brown University in the Providence Rhode Island. He died early 2013 at the age of 82 years old, in Boston, Massachusetts.

‘If you don't like someone's story, write your own.

While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.

Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah

2) Akonwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka 

(13 July 1934 - till present) 

                  

Native Land - Abeokuta, near Ibadan in Western Nigeria
Soyinka has produced a large body of work which includes plays, poetry, novels, autobiographies, literary criticism, and social criticism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first black African to be given the honor. Soyinka’s writing often focuses on oppression and exploitation of the weak by the strong; none are spared in his critique, neither the white speculator nor the black exploiter. Wole Soyinka has also played an important role in Nigerian politics, which has at times exposed him to great personal risk. The government of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), for instance, pronounced a death sentence on him ‘in absentia’. He wrote his first plays during his time in London,The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trials of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), Among Soyinka's serious philosophic plays are (apart from "The Swamp Dwellers") The Strong Breed(performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King's Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). 

There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man: there is only one world to the spirit of our race. If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter?

Wole Soyinka

3) Amos Tutola

 (June 20, 1920 - June 8, 1997).
 

Native Land - Abeokuta, Nigeria

Amos was a Nigerian writer famous for his books based in part on Yoruba folk-tales. When Amos Tutuola's first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, appeared in 1952, it aroused exceptional worldwide interest. Drawing on the West African (Nigeria) Yoruba oral folktale tradition, Tutuola described the odyssey of a devotedine drinker through a nightmare of fantastic adventure. Tutuola became also one of the founders of Mbari Club, the writers' and publishers' organization. In 1979, he held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and in 1983 he was an associate of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In retirement he divided his time between residences at Ibadan and Ago-Odo. Tutuola died at age 77 on June 8, 1997 from hypertension and diabetes.

Death was not at home by that time, he was in his yam garden.

Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

4) Camera Laye

( January 1,1928- February 4, 1980) 

         

Native Land - Guinea.
"Passionately concerned with preserving a record of traditional homeland" (Adele King in The Writings of Camara Laye). He let his narrative and his gently observed characters speak of the warmth, wholeness, and deep piety of pre-colonial African culture and of the growing sadness of his people as their culture changed under both the curse and the stimulus of French rule and influence. Published in 1954 as L’Enfant Noir and appearing in English the following year, The African child is a great read. It is considered one of the best novels to come out French-speaking Africa. 

Satan is not going to leave. The only way to get him out is to invite God in, and God is not welcome in my mother's house.

Delores Phillips, The Darkest Child

5) Dinaw Mengestu

(June 30, 1978 - till present)

          

Native Land - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dinaw Mengestu is the award-winning author of two previous novels, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007) and How to Read the Air (2010). 

Dinaw Mengestu is a young writer whose novels and nonfiction pieces open a window into the little-explored world of the African diaspora in America. His journalism and fiction have appeared in such publications as Harper’s Magazine, Granta, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a recipient of a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant and has a whole host of other accolades.

We persist and linger longer than we think, leaving traces of ourselves wherever we go. If you take that away, then we all simply vanish.

Dinaw Mengestu, How to Read the Air

6) Mariama Bâ

(April 17, 1929–August 17, 1981) 

Native Land - Senegal.
Ba is considered as one of the Africa`s best feminist writers. She achieved an instant international fame when her novel "une si longue lettre" (So Long A Letter) published in 1981 won the prestigious Noma Prize and gained wide acclaim. The widely studied novel une si longue lettre (So Long A Letter) was and is still considered the classical feminist statement by a sub-Saharan African woman.

Her frustration with the fate of African women—as well as her ultimate acceptance of it—is expressed in her work.

Bâ died a year later after a protracted illness, before her second novel, Scarlet Song, which describes the hardships a woman faces when her husband abandons her for a younger woman he knew at youth, was published.

Each life has its share of heroism, an obscure heroism, born of abdication, of renunciation and acceptance under the merciless whip of fate.

Mariama Bâ, So Long a Letter

7) Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta

(July 21, 1944 - till present)

Native Land - Yaba near Lagos, Nigeria.
Many say that Buchi Emecheta is to date the most important female African writer.  She is certainly Nigeria’s best known woman writer, and is respected for her imaginative and documentary writing about African women’s experiences in Africa and in Great Britain. Her best-known novels, including Second-Class Citizen(1974), The Bride Price (1976), and The Joys of Motherhood (1979), expose the injustice of traditional, male-oriented African social customs that relegate women to a life of child-bearing, servitude, and victimization. Often regarded as a feminist writer, Emecheta illustrates the value of education and self-determination for aspiring young women who struggle against sexual discrimination, racism, and unhappy marital arrangements to achieve individuality and independence.

God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? she prayed desperately.’

— The Joys of Motherhood

8) Bessie Head

Born: July 6, 1937, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Died: April 17, 1986, Serowe, Botswana

Critically hailed as one of the brightest voices in African literature at the time of her death in 1986, Bessie Head and her oeuvre have remained the subject of ongoing scholarly discussion to this day. Head was not only a fine writer but she also came to literary prominence at a time and place of great significance in the history of Southern Africa. Head’s first novel, When Rain Clouds Gather, was written while the experiences of apartheid and exile were still foremost in her mind. A Question of Power appeared in October 1973 to immediate praise and acclaim.

Bessie Head died on 17 April 1986 in Serowe. She is buried in the old cemetery, on the hillside behind Botalaote ward, amidst trees and flowers. 

 Her last great piece of writing was a brief, personal article in March 1985, "Why Do I Write?" It ends with her most famous words:"I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me. That is why I write."

9) Ousmane Sembene

Born Jan. 1, 1923, Ziguinchor-Casamance, Seneg., French West Africa—died June 9/10, 2007, Dakar, Seneg.), 

To speak of African cinema is to speak the name of Ousmane Sembene. Known as "the father of African film, Senegal's Ousmane Sembene wrote and directed "Black Girl," the very first African film, in 1965. He employed a redemptive and galvanizing power of art and as a filmmaker he used the barrel of the camera to restore the African self-image.

Sembène taught himself to read and write in French and in 1956 published his first novel,Le Docker noir (Black Docker), based on his experiences in Marseille. After a spinal disorder forced him to give up physical labour, he made literature his livelihood. Among the works that followed were Ô pays, mon beau peuple! (1957; “O My Country, My Good People”), Les Bouts de bois de Dieu(1960; God’s Bits of Wood), a volume of short stories titled Voltaïque (1962; Tribal Scars and Other Stories), L’Harmattan (1964; “The Wind”), and Xala (1973), which also provided the subject of one of his best films (1974). In 1987 the novella collection Niiwam; suivi de Taaw (Niiwam; and Taaw) was published.

His other works include; Mandabi (“The Money Order”), a comedy of daily life and corruption in Dakar, his masterpiece, Ceddo (1977; “Outsiders”),  Camp de Thiaroye (1987; “The Camp at Thiaroye”) amongst others.

At the moment the eyes of the body closed, the eyes of the mind were opened.

Ousmane Sembène, God's Bits Of Wood

10) Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

(January 5, 1938 - till present)

Native Land- Limuru, Kenya.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a writer of Kenyan descent. One of the foremost living African novelists, he has also developed a reputation as a post-colonial theorist, and has taught at universities throughout the world. Ngugi burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962, as part of the celebration of Uganda’s Independence. 

Ngugi is best known for his novel Weep Not, Child, which he wrote while studying at Leeds. Some of his other well-known novels include Petals of Blood (1977), A Grain of Wheat (1967), and Wizard of the Crow (2006). In 2012, his memoir In the House of the Interpreter was published.

He has also continued to speak around the world at numerous universities and as a distinguished speaker.

Being is one thing; becoming aware of it is a point of arrival by an awakened consciousness and this involves a journey.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, In the Name of the Mother: Reflections on Writers and Empire

Filed Under: Infos, Lists on Wednesday, 17 June 2015

10 Most Sacred Influential Texts

When we use the terms “sacred writings” or “scripture,” this implies written texts, which are a part of a cumulative religious tradition, the “spirit” of religion. Most of these texts were written in  ancient times. It gives us an insight into how they lived, and what they believed in.  These axiologies has formed many of our today's religion and beliefs.

Keep in mind though, there is a world of difference between scripture and a common newspaper or a novel. Scripture is sacred. Newspapers and common novels are secular. It is therefore, the quality of “sacredness” that creates the difference between scripture and an ordinary piece of writing. These sacred writings have shaped the identities, mental worlds, and actions of large segments of humanity-texts that remain a formidable influence in today's world.

This list is not exhaustive, in that, some of the religions mentioned have more than one scripture. I have selected one major from each.

1) Bible

The Bible is the most exquisitely written book of all times. It is considered the most important book in the world. Simply because it is God's word. It consists of 66 books which are divided into two sections – the Old Testament consisting of 39 books and the New Testament which consists of 27 books(for the Protestant). The Catholic Bible contains a total of 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament (Protestant Bibles have 39) and 27 in the New Testament (the same as Protestant Bibles). The Bible contains many different styles of writing such as poetry, narration, fiction, history, law, and prophecy and must be interpreted in context of those styles.  It is the source of the Christian religion in that the Bible contains the words of God and how the Christian is to apply the words of God to his life.

2) Torah

The Torah is Judaism’s most important text. It is composed of the Five Books of Moses and also contains the 613 commandments(mitzvot) and the Ten Commandments.  The word “Torah” means “to teach.” The scroll upon which it is written and which is kept in the Holy Ark of the synagogue is called a Scroll of the Torah (Sefer Torah). In a sense, this is the constitution of the Jewish people. The writings of the Torah are also part of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), which contains not only the Five Books of Moses (Torah) but 39 other important Jewish texts. The word “Tanakh” is actually an acronym: “T” is for Torah, “N” is for Nevi’iim (Prophets) and “Kh” is for Ketuvim (Writings). The Torah, whether Written or Oral, is the teaching that directs man how to live.

3) Quran

Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the very word of God Almighty: a complete record of the exact words revealed by God through the Archangel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad. It consists of 114 surahs (chapters) as memorized by Prophet Muhammad and his followers, dictated to his companions, and written down by the scribes. The Qur'an is the principle source of every Muslim's faith and practice. At the same time, the Qur'an provides guidelines for a just society, proper human conduct and equitable economic principles in contrast to the perception of the book endearing violence.

4) Vedas

The expression "Vedic" is derived from the Sanskrit word veda, which means knowledge or revelation. The Vedas are the most sacred scriptures of Hinduism. It includes elements such as liturgical material as well as mythological accounts, poems, prayers, and formulas considered to be sacred by the Vedic religion written over a long period of time, starting about 1000 or 1500 B.C., after the hypothetical Aryan invasion into the Indian Subcontinent. Hidden within them are a number of secrets which are yet to be deciphered and understood. They are revelatory scriptures which exist eternally in the highest world of Brahman and are considered an aspect of Brahman only. It includes elements such as liturgical material as well as mythological accounts, poems, prayers, and formulas considered to be sacred by the Vedic religion written over a long period of time, starting about 1000 or 1500 B.C., after the hypothetical Aryan invasion into the Indian Subcontinent. Vedic literature is religious in nature and as such tends to reflect the worldview, spiritual preoccupations, and social attitudes of the Brahmans or priestly class of ancient India.

5) Egyptian Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is the name given by Egyptologists to a group of mortuary spells written on sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations called vignettes. These were placed with the dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the underworld and attain an afterlife of bliss in the Field of Reed. This work received its name from the fact that many of the earliest specimens to reach Renaissance Europe—centuries before Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs in 1824—had been found next to mummies in burials, a practice that also gave rise to the misconception that the Book of the Dead was an authoritative scripture equivalent to the Bible. The texts are divided into individual spells or chapters, containing 200 collections of magic spells and incantations in total, though no one papyrus contains them all.

6) Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching is a classic Chinese text that was according to tradition composed around the 6th century BC by the sage Laozi. The Tao Te Ching is a short text of 81 brief chapters or verses. There is some evidence that the chapter divisions were later additions and that the original text was more fluidly organised and read. The Tao Te Ching is ascribed to Laozi, whose historical existence has been a matter of scholastic debate. There are translated versions and commentaries that date back two millennia and ancient bamboos, silk, and paper manuscripts that archaeologists discovered in the last century. The content of the book is made of short essays approaching the features of Tao - the creator and sustainer of everything in the Universe - and the way of following the Tao which is the supreme goal of Taoist sages.

7) Upanishads

The Upanishads are the end part of the Vedas which briefly expound the philosophic principles of the Vedas and are considered the essence of the Vedas. The philosophy of the Upanishads is sublime, profound, lofty and soul-stirring. It is here that we find all the fundamental teachings that are central to Hinduism — the concepts of 'karma' (action), 'samsara' (reincarnation), 'moksha' (nirvana), the 'atman' (soul), and the'Brahman' (Absolute Almighty). They also set forth the prime Vedic doctrines of self-realization, yoga and meditation. The term 'Upanishad' literally means, "sitting down near" or "sitting close to", and implies listening closely to the mystic doctrines of a guru or a spiritual teacher, who has cognized the fundamental truths of the universe.

8) Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God") is the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads, a Sanskrit text from the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata epic. Due to differences in recensions they may be numbered in the full text of the Mahabharata as chapters 6.25 – 42 or as chapters 6.23-40 and written in the 5th to 2nd century BC. According to the Bhagavadgita a man should not renounce action or avoid doing his obligatory duty. It is a universal scripture applicable to people of all temperaments, for all times. The Bhagavad Gita has influenced many great thinkers over the years including Mohandas Gandhi. The great Indian leader called the Bhagavad Gita his “spiritual dictionary”.

9) Buddhist Sutras

The word sutra is a Sanskrit term that means “discourse” (in the Pali language: sutta). The Buddhist canon consists of the Sutras: the words and teachings of the Buddha. According to Buddhist tradition it was Ananda, the main disciple of the Buddha, who repeated the discourses of the Buddha during the First Buddhist Council. These teachings were memorized by 500 practitioners and during many generations they were passed on orally. They were written between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD. Today different sects of Buddhism follow canonical and noncanonical scriptures to varying degrees.

10) Ägams Jainism

In most of the religions, there is one main scripture book. Hinduism has Gita and 4 Vedas, Christians have the Bible, Muslims have Koran, Persians have Avesta, and Sikhs have Guru Granth Sahib, and Buddhists have 3 Pitikäs. Likewise, Jains also have their own scriptures called Ägams, also called the Jain Shrut. Jains are people of books, they do not have one main scripture book but they have many. The teachings of Tirthankar to his enlighten principal disciples, called Ganadhars was first composed in 14 Purvas and then in 12 Ang-Pravishtha-Ägams (an `Ang’ being a `limb’) by Ganadhars themselves. All Purvas are included in one part of the twelfth Ang, called Drastiväd. The Ägam Sutras teach the eternal truth about conduct, equanimity, universal affection and friendship, and the eternal truths on thinking, namely, the principle of relativity, principle of non-one-sided-ness and many spiritual things including great reverence for all forms of life, soul, karma, universe, strict codes of asceticism, rules for householders, compassion, nonviolence, non-possessiveness.

Jains believe that Ang-Pravishtha-Ägams were at all times in the past, are in the present, and will be at all times in the future. They are eternal, firm, permanent, non-destructive, non-decaying and everlasting.

(Editor’s note: Remember, this is a list based on personal opinion. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.)

Filed Under: Infos, Lists on Sunday, 14 June 2015

10 Notable Writers from Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek literature is referred to as the literature written in the Ancient Greek dialect from the anterior texts until within the ascent of the Byzantine Empire. The Greek Isles are referenced to as the origin of copious sciences and literary genres of the Western intellectual life. This list depicts 10 of the most influential ancient Greek writers. They emphasized on the axiological and aesthetic values of a person and education. I have placed this list in a chronological order of their impacts and connections of their works in time.

10) Homer
      ca. 8th Century BC

Filed Under: Letters, Lists on Tuesday, 28 April 2015