FESTUS IYAYI

Festus Iyayi (1947 - 2013) was an award-winning Nigerian writer who
published at least four impressive novels. He utilised a realistic
style of writing, powerfully depicting the social, political and moral
milieu in which both the rich and poor live and work in. Iyayi studied
in the former USSR, and garnered his Ph.D from the University of
Bradford, England. Later he would churn out world class works. In 1988
he won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his novel Heroes. .

His published works include: Violence (1979), The Contract (1982),
Heroes (1986), and Awaiting Court Martial (1996). Academic Niyi Osundare wrote thus, inter alia, in the wake of Iyayi's death: "For many of his
readers, Violence remains his all-time classic. In this unforgettable
novel, Iyayi invites us to a Fanonian aetiology of violence, its
actuation, and awful ramifications. In this heart-rendering story, we
meet a millionaire who never labours for his money but uses it to take
advantage of the moneyless; we meet young people so desperate, so
poor – no, impoverished –  that they are forced to sell their very
blood for money for the very basic essentials of life. We encounter
the uncommon courage and stoicism of the poor and lowly and the
callous bestiality of the rich and powerful. In the annals of African
fiction, only Ousmane Sembene’s God’s Bit of Wood and Ngugi wa
Thiongo’s Petals of Blood have dissected Africa’s social reality in
such gripping detail and with such committed panache. I love all
Iyayi’s works with a passion, but for me, Violence remains for him
what Things Fall Apart is for Chinua Achebe: a magnificent story
ennobled by unforced lyricism and spontaneous narrativity. Violence
marked a new accent in Nigerian fiction when it appeared in the late
1970’s. In many ways, it is the harbinger for the likes of E.E.Sule’s
Sterile Sky published about three decades later..."

 

Studies

Festus Iyayi's Heroes : two novels in one by Fírinne Ní
Chréacháin ( Book )
 

Ideology and the dialectics of action : Achebe and Iyayi by
Onyemaechi Udumukwu ( Book )

ALIFA RIFAAT

Fatimah Abdullah Rifaat (1930-1996), better known by her pen name Alifa Rifaat, was an Egyptian author. Her fiction touched on the dynamics of female sexuality, relationships, and loss in rural Egyptian culture. She wrote in Arabic, and her work has been translated into many international languages. Pundits insist that her stories did not attempt to undermine the patriarchal system; rather they were used to depict the problems and hypocrisies entrenched in a patriarchal society.

Fatimah was raised in provincial Egypt and spent most of her life there. Subsequently rural Egypt became the setting for most of her stories. Fatimah who began to write at a very early age was educated at The Cultural Center for Women and the British Institute in Cairo from 1946 to 1949 where she studied English. As a married woman, despite frustrations over the years she wrote and published her work. She was a member of the Federation of Egyptian Writers, the Short-Story Club, and the Dar al-Udaba (Egypt). In 1984 Fatimah Rifaat received the Excellency Award from the Modern Literature Assembly. She died in 1996.

Her works include: "Eve Returns to Adam" (1975) , "Who Can Man Be?" (1981), The prayer of Love" (1983), Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories (1983), "On a Long Winter’s Night" (1980) , The Pharaoh’s Jewel (1991), and the unfinished House in the Land of the Dead.

Studies:

Feminist issues and concerns in the fictions of two Egyptian women
writers : Alifa Rifaat and Nawal El-Saadawi by Shafiqa Anwar Fakir

Islamic culture and the question of women's human rights in North
Africa : a study of short stories by Assia Djebar and Alifa Rifaat by
Naomi Epongse Nkealah

Patriarchal and Alternative Worlds in Alifa Rifaat's "My World of the
Unknown", Ismat Chughtai's "the Guilt" and Khalida Hussain's
"messenger"

DOMINIC MULAISHO

Dominic Mulaisho (1933 – 2013) was an early Zambian writer whose works were read and appreciated by an international audience. He was initially a teacher, then an intellectual, and politician of sorts; rising to the position of Governor of Bank of Zambia.

Mulaisho in his full-length novels combines glimpses of the African traditional past, with striking modernity. For example a character in his novel, The Tongue of the Dumb, asks: “What is pagan about African medicine?” Apart from The Tongue of the Dumb (1971), he also published The Smoke that Thunders (1979). He died, and was buried with fulsome dignity in 2013.

Studies

African Literature in the Twentieth Century. By O. R. Dathorne

Zambia shall be free (article) By James Currey

ONUORA NZEKWU

Onuora Nzekwu (born 1928) is a Nigerian professor, writer and editor who has been writing and publishing assorted books for decades. His corpus includes general novels, and children's literature (with Eze goes to school being particularly celebrated)

Nzekwu has been a teacher, writer, and editor. In his (mature) works he explores the internal conflicts inherent in the relationship of the educated Igbo to traditional Igbo culture. After obtaining a teacher’s higher education certificate in 1946, Nzekwu taught for years, subsequently becoming editorial assistant and then editor of Nigeria Magazine. He would later return to federal public service, becoming deputy director with the Federal Ministry of Information.

Nzekwu’s first novel, Wand of Noble Wood (1961), portrays "the futility of a Western pragmatic approach to the problems created by an African’s traditional religious beliefs. To the hero of Blade Among the Boys (1962), traditional practices and beliefs ultimately gain dominance over half-absorbed European and Christian values." His latest work, Troubled Dust (2012) is a hefty book – well over 400 pages in length.

General Works: Wand of Noble Wood (1961), Blade Among the Boys (1962),
Highlife for Lizards (1965), Troubled Dust (2012), Eze goes to school.

STUDIES

Highlife for lizards, by Onuora Nzekwu. (Audiotape) by F Euba

Three Nigerian novelists by Robin Horton

The Victory of Magic in Two Novels of Onuora Nzekwu by John
Povey (African Studies Association).

STANLAKE SAMKANGE

STANLAKE J. W. T SAMKANGE (died 1988) was a rather early Zimbabwean writer who churned out novels, essays, miscellaneous writings, and other illuminating if at times polemical work. Best known for his historical novel, On Trial for my Country, Samkange was an early pioneer and visionary who initially studied in his native Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), South Africa (Fort Hare University), and overseas (Indiana University, Bloomington). Samkange lectured in many American universities before pursuing a career in politics whilst back in Zimbabwe.

Apart from On Trial for my Country (1966), Samkange published many other works; including Origins of Rhodesia (1968), African Saga (1970), Hunhuism or Ubuntuism (1980), The Mourned One (1968), Year of the Uprising (1978), Among them Yanks (1985), and On Trial for that UDI (1986)

Studies

History and fiction: a study of the interface between historical record and imaginative reconstruction in the novels of Stanlake Samkange – by Neville James Smith

The Struggle to become Zimbabwe – by James Currey

FEMI OSOFISAN

Femi Osofisan is a formidable academic and fecund writer. One of Nigeria's many superb writers, for decades he has been a critic of pertinent societal problems. His use of "African traditional performances and surrealism in his works" has also been commended over the years. Many pundits assert that he is somewhat of a didactic writer whose works seek to correct a prurient, sick society. He did post-graduate studies at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) where he has held pivotal faculty positions for many years.

His published works include: Kolera Kolej, The Chattering and the Song, Morountodun and Other Plays, Minted Coins (poetry), Another Raft, Once upon Four Robbers, Twingle-Twangle A-Twynning Tayle, Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest: A Parable for Our Times, The Album of the Midnight Blackout, Tegonni: An African Antigone



Studies

Ancient songs set ablaze : the theatre of Femi Osofisan by Sandra L Richards 

Emerging perspectives on Femi Osofisan 

The drama of Femi Osofisan : a critical perspective by Muyiwa P Awodiya 

Théâtre et société Fémi Osofisan et S.A. Zinsou : étude comparée by Juliana Omoifo-Okoh 

Portraits for an eagle : essays in honour of Femi Osofisan 

Femi Osofisan : the form of uncommon sense by Tejumola Olaniyan 

Visions of myth in Nigerian drama : Femi Osofisan versus Wole Soyinka by Osonye Tess Onwueme 

ASARE KONADU

Asare Konadu (1932– 1994) the late Ghanaian writer is probably most famous for two of his works, Ordained by the Oracle, and A Woman in his prime. Yet this journalist, novelist and publisher churned out a great deal of books. Asare studied at Abuakwa State College prior to working at the Ghana Information Service. He went on to study in London and at Strasbourg University,

His published books include: Wizard of Asamang, The Lawyer Who Bungled His Life, Come Back Dora: a husband's confession and ritual, Shadow of Wealth, Accra, Don't Leave me MERCY, A Husband for Esi Ellua, A Woman in Her Prime, Night Watchers of Korlebu, Ordained by the Oracle, 1969. Devils in Making, and The Coup Makers.

Studies

Asare Konadu and his two levels of (popular) literature by Leif Lorentzon