Chief Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi (26 September 1921 – 4 November 2007) was a Nigerian author of novels, short stories, and children's books.

Biography

Early life, education and family

Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi, an Igbo, was born in Minna, the capital city of Niger State, north-central Nigeria. He was a native of Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi local government area, Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria. His father was David Anadumaka, a storyteller and elephant hunter.

Ekwensi attended Government College in Umuahia, Abia State in southeast Nigeria, Achimota College in Ghana, and the School of Forestry, Ibadan, after which he worked for two years as a forestry officer. he eventually became Director of the latter. prior to its reabsorption by Nigeria.

Literary career

Ekwensi wrote hundreds of short stories (his story "Law of the Grazing Field" was included in An African Treasury, a 1960 anthology edited by Langston Hughes), radio and television scripts, and several dozen novels, including children's books. Ekwensi's most successful novel was 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. Ekwensi also wrote a sequel to this, Jagua Nana's Daughter.

In 1968, he received the Dag Hammarskjöld International Prize in Literature. In 2001, he was appointed an MFR and in 2006, he became a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.

Selected works

  • When Love Whispers (1948)
  • An African Night's Entertainment (1948)
  • The Boa Suitor (1949)
  • The Leopard's Claw (1950)
  • People of the City (London: Andrew Dakers, 1954)
  • The Drummer Boy (1960)
  • The Passport of Mallam Ilia (written 1948, published 1960)
  • Jagua Nana (1961)
  • Burning Grass (1961)
  • An African Night's Entertainment (1962)
  • Beautiful Feathers (novel; London: Hutchinson, 1963)
  • Rainmaker (short stories; 1965)
  • Iska (London: Hutchinson, 1966)
  • Lokotown and Other Stories (Heinemann, 1966)
  • Restless City and Christmas Gold (1975)
  • Divided We Stand: a Novel of the Nigerian Civil War (1980)
  • Motherless Baby (Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishing Company, 1980)
  • For a Roll of Parchment (1986)
  • Jagua Nana's Daughter (1987)
  • Behind the Convent Wall (1987)
  • The Great Elephant Bird (Evans Brothers, 1990)
  • Gone to Mecca (Heinemann Educational Books, 1991)
  • Jagua Nana's Daughter (1993)
  • Masquerade Time (children's book; London: Chelsea House Publishing; Jaws Maui, 1994)
  • Cash on Delivery (2007, collection of short stories)

References

Further reading

  • Shola Adenekan, Cyprian Ekwensi obituary, The Guardian, 24 January 2008
  • Sonnie Ekwowusi, "Ode to a Literary Colossus", This Day, 13 November 2007 (column by former student)
  • List of books, Literary map of Africa: West Africa – Nigeria.