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

DILLIBE ONYEAMA

The writing career of Dillibe Onyeama, a Nigerian, has straddled five decades - though he was only born in 1951. Author of the famous book, Nigger at Eton, Onyeama was reputed to be the first Black African to study at that institution (Eton College). He went on to publish over twenty books and has contributed prodigiously to African publishing after returning back to Nigeria.

His other published books, over the decades, include John Bull’s Nigger (1974), African Legend, The Return, Juju (novel) Secret Society, Boomerang (short stories), Notes of a so-called Afro-Saxon, Godfathers of Voodoo, Female Target, The Night Demon, The New Man, Revenge of the Medicine Man, Book of Black Man’s Humour; and God, Sex and the English man (2012). Readers of Onyeama’s books insist that in works like Juju, he matches the best of Eurocentric mystery/thriller fiction.

Studies:

Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria by Wendy Grisworld

MAZISI KUNENE

Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene (1930 – 2006) was an exceedingly distinguished
South African poet best known for his astonishing epic poem (book)
Emperor Shaka the Great. Before his death he was acknowledged as
African, and South African poet laureate.

From a very early age, Kunene began writing poetry and short stories
in Zulu, and later on his output became out of  this world. He studied
at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London and was closely
affiliated with the African National Congress, acknowledged as their
main representative in Europe and the United States in 1962. His works
were written originally in Zulu and then translated into English.
UNESCO made him Africa's poet laureate in 1993, and in 2005 he became
the poet laureate of South Africa.

His published works include:

Zulu Poems (1970) Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic (1979) Anthem
of the Decades: A Zulu Epic Dedicated to the Women of Africa (1981)
The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain: Poems (1982), Isibusiso
Sikamhawu, Indida Yamancasakazi, Amalokotho Kanomkhubulwane, Umzwilili
wama-Afrika, Kagiso, Igudu lika Somcabeko.

Studies:

Myth, history and politics in Mazisi Kunene's epic poetry by Ernest
Mathabela 

Orality versus literacy in Mazisi Kunene's Emperor Shaka the Great by
Wole Ogundele )

Literary portraits of Chaka : Thomas Mofolo and Mazisi Kunene by
Charles Bodunde 

FRANCIS SELORMEY

Francis Selormey (1927 - 1983) will probably always be remembered for his excellent novel, The Narrow Path. Selormey, a Ghanaian, was a novelist, teacher, scriptwriter and sports administrator. He attended a Catholic primary school, and then St. Augustine's College, Cape Coast. He went on to study further at the University of Ghana and in Germany before becoming a teacher. He was an excellent Sports administrator. The Narrow Path: An African Childhood, was hailed by pundits as rather semi-autobiographical; a Bildungsroman of a Ghanaian school boy who is "caught between his love for an overly strict father who insists on Christian, Western ways and his own appreciation for other, traditional influences."

Studies:

European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa (Volume 2) by Albert S. Gerard

CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO

     

       

Christopher Okigbo (1930–1967) was an early Nigerian poet, now widely acknowledged as the outstanding post-colonial English-language African poet; and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth

century. He died prematurely during the Nigerian Civil war. As a youth Okigbo felt a special affinity to his maternal grandfather, a priest of Idoto, an Igbo deity personified in the river of the same name that flowed through his village. Later in life, Okigbo came to believe that his grandfather's soul was reincarnated in him, and the "water goddess" figures prominently in his fecund poetry . Okigbo studied at the famous University College in Ibadan, graduating ultimately in Classics. He later helped to found the African Authors Association. He was also West African Representative of Cambridge University Press at Ibadan. . His published books (some posthumously) are  Heavensgate (1962)  Limits (1964) Labyrinths (1971), 

Collected poems (1986), and Crossroads (2008).

Studies:

The trial of Christopher Okigbo by Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui 

Christopher Okigbo: creative rhetoric by Sunday Ogbonna Anozie 

Critical perspectives on Christopher Okigbo 

Critical essays on Christopher Okigbo 

Christopher Okigbo, 1930-67 : thirsting for sunlight by Obi Nwakanma 

Kamau Brathwaite and Christopher Okigbo : art, politics, and the music of ritual by Curwen Best 

Hybridity and Christopher Okigbo's poetry by Christopher W. N Kirunda 

Nationalism in Okigbo's poetry by Dubem Okafor 

Two African Prodigals : Senghor and Okigbo by Jonathan Ngate 

Folk tradition in Okigbo's poetry by Emma Ngumoha 

FRANCIS BEBEY

How many great African musicians were also great writers? Francis Bebey (1929 - 2001) of Cameroon certainly bestrode both genres. He attended the Sorbonne (France), and was further educated in the United States. His most popular novel was Agatha Moudio's Son (Translated from the French)

His published books include: Le fils d'Agatha Moudio (1967) -  La poupée Ashanti (1973) ie The Ashanti doll; Musique de l'Afrique (1969), Embarras & cie,  Le ministre et le griot,  Le roi Albert d'Effidi, and Nouvelle saison des fruits (1980)

Studies:

Francis Bebey by David Ndachi Tagne

Francis Bebey : l'homme-orchestre : un dossier 

Africa at the crossroads : the fiction of Francis Bebey by Wilbert
Curtis Schade

Francis Bebey : écrivain camerounais [1929-2001) by Romuald-Blaise
Fonkoua 

YAMBO OUOLOGUEM

Yambo Ouologuem (born 1940) is a renowned Malian writer. His first novel, Le Devoir de Violence (English: Bound to Violence, 1968), won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre (1969), and Les mille et une bibles du sexe (1969) under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph. Despite raucous accusations of “plagiarism” Ouologuem’s writing is still highly respected. As a young man he learned several African languages and gained fluency in French, English, and Spanish. He studied sociology, philosophy and English at Lycée Henry IV in France.

After the plagiarism controversy over Le Devoir de violence, Ouloguem returned to Mali in the late seventies. His major work, Le Devoir de violence initially met with wide critical acclaim. He has also published striking poetry and essays. 

Studies:

 In search of Yambo Ouologuem by Christopher Wise 

Breaking the silence : the narratives of Sahelian politics in the literature of Yambo Ouologuem and Norbert Zongo by Jamie Ann Tyo 

Yambo Ouologuem, ou le silence des canons by Claude Bouygues 

...intertextuality in Yambo Ouloguem's Le Devoir de violence by Jonathan

MBELLA SONNE DIPOKO

Mbella Sonne Dipoko (1936 – 2009) was a Cameroonian novelist, poet and painter. He is widely considered to be one of the foremost writers of Anglophone Cameroonian literature. To many readers and critics he will be mainly remembered for the erotic content of his most famous works.

His major works are A Few Nights and Days, Because of Women, and Black and White in Love.

Studies:

Themes of authenticity in the poetry of Mbella Sonne Dipoko by Jerry
Glenn Holt

AHMADOU KOUROUMA

Ahmadou Kourouma (1927 – 2003) was a remarkable, award-winning Ivorian novelist. As a young man when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France for further studies. He was to spend several years in exile, living in a number of countries. His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains an imaginative, yet critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa.

Later on he published works like Le diseur de vérité (drama) Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), Allah n'est pas oblige (translated as Allah is Not Obliged). Prizes he has won include the Prix Renaudot (2000) and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. 


Studies:

La langue d'Ahmadou Kourouma, ou, Le français sous le soleil d'Afrique
by Makhily Gassama

Ahmadou Kourouma : le "guerrier" griot by Madeleine Borgomano

Ahmadou Kourouma by Jean-Michel Djian

L'imaginaire d'Ahmadou Kourouma : contours et enjeux d'une esthétique

La créativité langagière dans la prose romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Gérard Marie Noumssi

Le politicien, le marabout-féticheur et le griot dans les romans
d'Ahmadou Kourouma by Joseph Ndinda

Histoire et fiction dans la production romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Bi Kacou Parfait Diandué

Un donsomana pour Kourouma

Le réel et sa représentation dans l'oeuvre romanesque d'Ahmadou
Kourouma by Mesmin Nicaise Yaussah

SHIMMER CHINODYA

Shimmer Chinodya is an award winning Zimbabwean writer, essentially recognized as a powerful novelist.  He studied English and education at the University of Zimbabwe, and from the University of Iowa, with an MA in Creative Writing. He garnered acclaim whilst winning the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Africa region.  His first novel, Dew in the Morning was published in 1982. His work, Strife landed him the 2008 Noma award for literature.

Chinodya has also written children’s books, educational texts, training manuals and radio and film scripts, including the script for the award-winning feature film, Everyone’s Child. His published works include: Dew in the Morning (1982), Farai’s Girls (1984), Child of War (1986), Harvest of Thorns (1989), Can we talk and other Stories (1998), Tale of Tamari (2004), Chairman of Fools (2005), Strife, and Tindo's Quest.

OUSMANE SEMBENE

 

Ousmane Sembène (1923 – 2007) from Senegal was one of the greatest authors in African history. His early novel was Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker, 1956. His second novel was  O Pays, mon beau peuple! (Oh country, my beautiful people!, 1957), Sembène's masterpiece is Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God’s bits of Wood) although the later Xala was also acclaimed. His last novel was Le Dernier de l’empire (The Last of the Empire, 1981) which depicted corruption and an eventual military coup in a newly independent African nation.

Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu in particular cemented Sembène as one of the most outstanding African writers. Sembene was to state that alas, he realized that his written works would only be read by a relatively small elite and he decided to become a film maker; which he did with extraordinary success.

Published works:

Le Docker noir (novel) translated as The Black Docker

O Pays, mon beau peuple! (novel) - 1957

Les bouts de bois de Dieu (novel) - 1960; translated as God's Bits of

Wood.

Voltaïque (short stories) translated as Tribal Scars 1975.

L’Harmattan (novel)

Le mandat, précédé de Vehi-Ciosane translated as The Money-Order with White Genesis

Xala

Le dernier de l'Empire- L'Harmattan, 1981; translated as The Last of the Empire

Niiwam translated as Niiwam and Taaw:

Studies:

Ousmane Sembène écrivain populaire by Hilaire Sikounmo 

Ousmane Sembène the making of a militant artist by Samba Gadjigo 

A new kind of man the representation and significance of women in the
works of Ousmane Sembene by Dwayne Marshall Baker 

KAMA SYWOR KAMANDA

Kama Sywor Kamanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (born 1952) published his first book at the tender age of 15! Over the years he was to publish numerous works like novels, short stories, poetry, essays etc. He has lived in many European countries. He revels in literary festivals, conferences, meets, including poetry readings. His multiple awards include the Paul Verlaine Prize from the Academie francaise, the Black Africa Grand Prize for Literature and Master Diploma for Specialty Honors in Writing, and World Academy of Letters, United States of America (2006)

His published works include: Lointaines sont les rives du destin, La Traversée des mirages, La Joueuse de Kora, Les Contes des veillées africaines, Les Contes du crépuscule, Contes (Les œuvres complètes) Contes africains (Grund),Chants de brumes, Éclipse d’étoiles, L’Exil des songes, L’Étreinte des mots, Le Sang des solitudes, Oeuvre poétique (édition intégrale), 2008, and Au-delà de Dieu, au-delà des chimères, (essay).


Studies:

Kama Kamanda, poète de l'exil by Pierrette Sartin 

Kama Kamanda au pays du conte by Marie-Claire de Coninck 

Kama Sywor Kamanda : regards critiques

Kama Sywor Kamanda : chantre de la mémoire égyptienne by Isabelle Cata

La traversée initiatique étude sémantico-structurale de La somme du néant de Kama Kamanda by Yanick Morin

 

HELON HABILA

Helon Habila is another highly respected Nigerian writer. Born in 1967, he was African Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia in England. In 2002 he published the first edition of his first novel, Waiting for an Angel. He has garnered many laurels including the Caine Prize in 2001. In 2005/2006 he became the Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College, NY. Measuring Time, his second novel came out in 2007. Oil on water is his third novel. He has also published an anthology titled The Granta Book of the African Short Story (2011)

His acclaimed works are: Waiting for an Angel: A Novel, (2004), New Writing 14, (2006), Measuring Time: A Novel, (2007), Oil on Water: A Novel (2010); The Granta Book of the African Short Story (2011)