Literature
The interpreters By Wole Soyinka
The interpreters, written by Wole Soyinka in 1965, divided into two parts, is a social realism which major theme centres on the post-independence moral decadence that plagues the Nigerian society, up-till date, attempted to be solved by the Nigerians who had just returned from studies abroad. Each of the main characters is engaged in the enterprise of interpreting himself in relation to the society in which he lives, in an attempt to discover the right way to live. The narrative is, as a result, multi-stranded and employs a shifting, subjective time-scale, and in some aspects, the narrative situation used is figural, sometimes resulting in flashbacks; rendered with an intense use of language somewhat complex and metaphorical. The novel has its settings in Lagos and University of Ibadan. There is a range of character types in The Interpreters in that each of the main personae has an individual way of interpreting the world, though of course, due to their association with each other, there is a degree of commonality in some respects, both in the sense of shared experience and of quality of experience as intellectuals, though with some exceptions. However, their interpretations tilted towards the same thought stemming from shared experiences as intellectuals, except Kola. They bear the burden of the author’s worries and emphasis on indecision. They collectively and helplessly search for self-identity as a way out of the identity crisis and lack of moral stance.
The Adventures of Souza By Kola Onadipe
The Adventures of Souza: A rascally village boy goes hunting, enrolls in a secret cult, meets a magician and engages in other adventures. What were his experiences?
The Late Kola Onadipehad a career both in education and business.
The Late Kola Onadipehad a career both in education and business.
Sugar Girl By Kola Onadipe
Ralia is missing from home under mysterious and unfortunate circumstances. Therefore, sh goes through ordeals, one after the other: First in the hands of a wicked witch and then a hunter.
Will she survive these ordeals and return home...... and under what circumstances?
Will she survive these ordeals and return home...... and under what circumstances?
The Boy Slave By Kola Onadipe
The Boy Slave. Shettima was born near the edge of the Sahara in 1865. He was captured by slavers and sold into a strange new life.
Koku Baboni By Kola Onadipe
Koku. one of a set of twins is customarily abandoned and left to perish. Is it right to do that? What about our "Human Rights" to live?
Did he survive the ordeal, ........ and what was the result of his experience?
Did he survive the ordeal, ........ and what was the result of his experience?
The Return of The Boy Slave By Kola Onadipe
The Return of the Boy Slave: In Kola Onadipe's book, The Boy Slave, Shettima grows up in slavery. This is the story of how, having won his freedom, he uses it to fight against the slave traders.
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works By William Shakespeare
Hailed by The Washington Post as "a definitive synthesis of the best editions" and by The Times of London as "a monument to Shakespearean scholarship," The Oxford Shakespeare is the ultimate anthology of the Bard's work: the most authoritative edition of the plays and poems ever published.
Now, almost two decades after the original volume, Oxford is proud to announce a thoroughly updated second edition, including for the first time the texts of The Reign of Edward III and Sir Thomas More, recognizing these two plays officially as authentic works by Shakespeare. This beautiful collection is the product of years of full-time research by a team of British and American scholars and represents the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the nature and authority of Shakespeare's work. The editors reconsidered every detail of the text in the light of modern scholarship and they thoroughly re-examined the earliest printed versions of the plays, firmly establishing the canon and chronological order of composition. All stage directions have been reconsidered in light of original staging, and many new directions for essential action have been added. This superb volume also features a brief introduction to each work as well as an illuminating General Introduction. Finally, the editors have added a wealth of secondary material, including an essay on language, a list of contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, an index of Shakespearean characters, a glossary, a consolidated bibliography, and an index of first lines of the Sonnets.
Compiled by the world's leading authorities, packed with information, and attractively designed, The Oxford Shakespeare is the gold standard of Shakespearean anthologies.
Now, almost two decades after the original volume, Oxford is proud to announce a thoroughly updated second edition, including for the first time the texts of The Reign of Edward III and Sir Thomas More, recognizing these two plays officially as authentic works by Shakespeare. This beautiful collection is the product of years of full-time research by a team of British and American scholars and represents the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the nature and authority of Shakespeare's work. The editors reconsidered every detail of the text in the light of modern scholarship and they thoroughly re-examined the earliest printed versions of the plays, firmly establishing the canon and chronological order of composition. All stage directions have been reconsidered in light of original staging, and many new directions for essential action have been added. This superb volume also features a brief introduction to each work as well as an illuminating General Introduction. Finally, the editors have added a wealth of secondary material, including an essay on language, a list of contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, an index of Shakespearean characters, a glossary, a consolidated bibliography, and an index of first lines of the Sonnets.
Compiled by the world's leading authorities, packed with information, and attractively designed, The Oxford Shakespeare is the gold standard of Shakespearean anthologies.
Understanding Power and Accomplishing Purpose By Deborah Belema Peterside
Life becomes tough when you are faced with difficult circumstances, societal hindrances and the drive to fulfill your purpose on earth. Then it becomes difficult to understand the reason for your pain when placed on a scale with God’s word and the intent for your life. The question is, what do you do in those times?
So, are you torn between the height you have attained and the dark secrets that keep threatening your light? Are you caught in a web of confusion with no idea why you are created? Are you struggling with the pain you feel as you strive to actualise your purpose in life? Have you tried everything possible to ensure you step out of the dark and let the world see your light? In Understanding Power and Accomplishing Purpose, Debby critically highlights those ups and downs using scriptural teachings with poetry pari pasu life experiences of individuals shared in the book to explain how difficult - but easy – it is, actualising God’s purpose on earth.
Understanding Power & Accomplishing Purpose is an eye opener to purpose in pain. Everyone seeking an explanation to their pain and suffering should get a copy of this book.
So, are you torn between the height you have attained and the dark secrets that keep threatening your light? Are you caught in a web of confusion with no idea why you are created? Are you struggling with the pain you feel as you strive to actualise your purpose in life? Have you tried everything possible to ensure you step out of the dark and let the world see your light? In Understanding Power and Accomplishing Purpose, Debby critically highlights those ups and downs using scriptural teachings with poetry pari pasu life experiences of individuals shared in the book to explain how difficult - but easy – it is, actualising God’s purpose on earth.
Understanding Power & Accomplishing Purpose is an eye opener to purpose in pain. Everyone seeking an explanation to their pain and suffering should get a copy of this book.
Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
From the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes a powerful new statement about feminism today–written as a letter to a friend.
A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response.
Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can “allow” women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.
A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response.
Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can “allow” women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.
The Illustrated Things Fall Apart
This special, large-format, lavishly-illustrated edition of Things Fall Apart, 'Africa's best loved novel', is a timely tribute to 'the father of modern African Literature'. It is published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a book now considered a classic of African and World Literature. This edition uniquely blends the enduring simplicity of Achebe's tale with the creative visual talents of some of Nigeria's best and bright contemporary artists. The result is a book that will appeal to lovers of African Literature and Art the world over. A treasured testament to the art of story-tellling, Things Fall Apart Illustrated is bound to become a collector's item.
Thelma’s Stories: The Life Experiences of an Overcomer By Thelma Coleman Alex (HardCover)
Thelma's Stories: The Life Experiences of an Overcomer recounts the many experiences that Mrs. Thelma Coleman Alex faced as she grew up a child of America's Great Depression. They revisit the pain of being shuffled from house to house at the time, especially as her parents left home to find work to earn a living. As a young girl, she faced challenges of living in grinding poverty as well as experiencing humor, love and compassion even in the midst of frequent troubles. Collectively, the stories invariably give voice to experiences and thoughts of many from a time that is often not remembered by many in American history. Above all, these carefully woven and presented stories reflect God's provision and protection, which shaped young Thelma Coleman's life into a resilient, compassionate and educated woman, who loved the Lord with all her heart. As an octogenarian, Mrs. Thelma Coleman Alex, affectionately called Grandma Felma by her grandchildren, sees her three grandchildren - Kwadwo, Livingston and Livia - as the joys of her life, hence she happily dedicated the publication to the three of them
Treasury of Childhood Memories By Akinwumi Isola
"Childhood is the lost Eden that all adults recall with nostalgia, and in this collection of 13 scintillating stories, one of the finest living writers in the Yoruba language, Akinwumi Isola, plunges back into the archives of memory, and recreates for us some of the delightful episodes of that nirvana of his youth." "Told with his customary poetic skill and wit, his unmatched gift of the gab, his command of the opulent rhetorical resources of the Yorùbá language, the episodes sparkle like precious stones, telling of a time of innocence and of a world that, sadly, can no longer be retrieved." "Here therefore is a narration that is more than a fitting paean to friends that are no more, to a cohesive rural community that time has swallowed, to an ethos of communal living and sharing that modernity has erased. As we follow the adventures of these rumbustious young boys, relishing their triumphs and failures, sharing their pains and laughter, we come to recognize ourselves as we too once were, and we come to a better understanding now of the weaknesses and the strengths of our societies. So compelling indeed is Isola's evocative skill that these youthful escapades turn on to a mirror of the dreams and the longings that have brought us to where we are today, the flaws that undid us, and the virtues that strengthened us and might still redeem us." "We cannot thank Pamela Olúbùnmi Smith enough for her wonderful courage and her brilliant work of translation, in bringing these stories to readers in the English-speaking world."
Fate of Our Mothers: The Collected Memories of an African Village Boy By Michael Oladejo Afoláyan
Fate of Our Mothers is the first in the series of the author's narrative of the assorted experiences that exemplify the first twenty years of his life. From rustic village life as a five year old boy, to the young adult person slated for the job of an untrained teacher in the city, the eclectic events in the author's life bring to life the untold stories of rural living, featuring the cultural conflicts endemic in a patriarchal system where while men may rule, the women are the active prime movers in the order of things. The story or compendium of stories take the reader through a life that epitomizes the paradoxical interface among joy, peace, as well as tragedies and pains; successes and gains, as well as failures and losses; protection and comfort, as well as dangerous exposure and vulnerability. The story does not follow the orthodoxy of systematic chronicling that often characterizes traditional memoirs. Rather, the author verbally addresses his own four children, who were born and raised in America, a sporadic reflection of his childhood upbringing in a far away village of Oke-Awo, Aba Iresi in southwestern Nigeria. He describes the rustic simplicity of Yoruba village life, the beauty of living under the roof and compound of a caring father, two relentlessly hardworking mothers, ten siblings, many relatives, and a countless number of extended family members and non-relatives. In all, Fate of Our Mothers whispers into our collective conscience that the survival of the Yoruba universe is anchored in the fate of its women.
MOONGLOW and Other Poems By Christopher Okigbo
“…He was not only the finest poet of his generation but I believe that as his work becomes better and more widely known in the world he will also be recognised as one of the most remarkable anywhere in our time…”
- Chinua Achebe
"I am an Okigbo evangelist... Christopher Okigbo is a great poet whose lines everybody should know by heart. They are tremendously beautiful."
Celebrated writer and winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction.- Ben Okri
"Steeped alike in Western Modernist aestheticsandmyth-makingtraditions of his Igbo background, he fused worlds with an assurance that married lyric and epic, audacity and grace. This collection… will remind existing readers of Okigbo's prowess and dazzle new ones."
Literary editor of The Independent and former judge of the Booker Prize, and Commonwealth Prize.-Boyd Tonkin
- Chinua Achebe
"I am an Okigbo evangelist... Christopher Okigbo is a great poet whose lines everybody should know by heart. They are tremendously beautiful."
Celebrated writer and winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction.- Ben Okri
"Steeped alike in Western Modernist aestheticsandmyth-makingtraditions of his Igbo background, he fused worlds with an assurance that married lyric and epic, audacity and grace. This collection… will remind existing readers of Okigbo's prowess and dazzle new ones."
Literary editor of The Independent and former judge of the Booker Prize, and Commonwealth Prize.-Boyd Tonkin
A State Of Our Own By Eghosa Osaghae
This engaging, thought-provoking lecture triggers crucial questions: Why is the 'state' in Africa often a colossal 'millstone' rather than a 'cornerstone' of development? Why have African states, post-independence, retained inherited colonial structures? Why are people in many parts of Africa poorer today than at independence, and standards of living and security have depreciated? The author posits that the African continent needs a 'second independence' in which the primary aim would be to reclaim the state for citizens; not by bypassing the state but by making the state a genuine partner for development.
Year of Publication: 2015
103 pages
Year of Publication: 2015
103 pages
Nollywood:The Creation of Nigerian Film Genres By Jonathan Haynes
Nigeria's Nollywood has rapidly grown into one of the world's largest film industries, radically altering media environments across Africa and in the diaspora. It has also become one of African culture's most consequential expressions, powerfully shaping how Africans see themselves and are seen by others. With this book, Jonathan Haynes provides an accessible and authoritative introduction to this vast industry and its film culture. Haynes describes the major Nigerian film genres and how they relate to Nigerian society—its values, desires, anxieties, and social tensions. He interprets these generic stories and the cast of mythic figures within them: the long-suffering wives, the business tricksters, the Bible-wielding pastors, the kings in their traditional regalia, the glamorous young professionals, the emigrants stranded in New York or London, and all the rest. Based on more than twenty years of research and with vivid descriptions of Nollywood's landmark films and leading directors, this is a book of unprecedented scope on a major branch of world cinema.
Year of Publication: 2017
377 pages
Year of Publication: 2017
377 pages
Niyi Osundare: A Literary Biography By Sule E. Egya
In this literary biography, Sule E. Egya, one of Nigeria’s most promising scholar-critics, brings the skills of the storyteller and the scholar to bear on his recreation of the Osundare story. The result is a readable coming-of-age story that traces the writer’s development from his rural and agrarian roots in Nigeria, through his education in Africa, Europe and North America, to his rise to prominence as one of the most versatile poets writing in English today.
There can be no better platform to register the debt that Osundare owes his parentage, the rigorous discipline of his mentors and the diverse environments in which his outlook on the world has been shaped than this carefully crafted biography. Egya highlights Osundare’s prodigious talent, his unwavering ethical compass, his infectious humanism, his enduring faith in the capacity of literature to reshape the world, and the harmony between his creative imagination and polemical writing. Readers and critics will find the biography an indispensable companion to reading Osundare not just because of the illuminating personal and cultural information that it offers, but also because it equally periodizes Osundare’s work in a way no other book has done.
Prof. Oyeniyi Okunoye, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
In Niyi Osundare: A Literary Biography, Sule E. Egya takes us on a journey of the life experiences of the artist-scholar Niyi Osundare. Indeed, there are some books a reader just can’t put down. This is one of them. It takes you to the other worlds beyond the popular world of artistry and scholarship of one of Africa’s most accomplished men of letters.
Dr. Ogaga Okuyade, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sule E. Egya is professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. He was formerly Head of the Department of English and Dean of Faculty of Languages and Communication Studies. Widely published and travelled, his interests include literature and politics, literature and the environment, literary theory, and creative writing. He is also an award-winning writer, having authored works of poetry and fiction under the style name E. E. Sule. Among his works are Sterile Sky, winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Prize Africa Region, and the AHP-sponsored Nation, Power and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry in English.
There can be no better platform to register the debt that Osundare owes his parentage, the rigorous discipline of his mentors and the diverse environments in which his outlook on the world has been shaped than this carefully crafted biography. Egya highlights Osundare’s prodigious talent, his unwavering ethical compass, his infectious humanism, his enduring faith in the capacity of literature to reshape the world, and the harmony between his creative imagination and polemical writing. Readers and critics will find the biography an indispensable companion to reading Osundare not just because of the illuminating personal and cultural information that it offers, but also because it equally periodizes Osundare’s work in a way no other book has done.
Prof. Oyeniyi Okunoye, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
In Niyi Osundare: A Literary Biography, Sule E. Egya takes us on a journey of the life experiences of the artist-scholar Niyi Osundare. Indeed, there are some books a reader just can’t put down. This is one of them. It takes you to the other worlds beyond the popular world of artistry and scholarship of one of Africa’s most accomplished men of letters.
Dr. Ogaga Okuyade, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sule E. Egya is professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. He was formerly Head of the Department of English and Dean of Faculty of Languages and Communication Studies. Widely published and travelled, his interests include literature and politics, literature and the environment, literary theory, and creative writing. He is also an award-winning writer, having authored works of poetry and fiction under the style name E. E. Sule. Among his works are Sterile Sky, winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Prize Africa Region, and the AHP-sponsored Nation, Power and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry in English.
Salutation to the Gut By Wole Soyinka
Previously unpublished, Salutation to the Gut is an essay Soyinka wrote more than forty years ago. The essay is a celebration of Yoruba culture, in particular Yoruba food and gastronomic culture. Its witty and whimsical style foreshadows the kind of writing that would become Soyinka's hallmark, and for which he would subsequently win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Dialogue with my Country By Niyi Osundare
Niyi Osundare's poetry, as exemplified in this volume, portrays the realism of a keen and critical intelligence.
Dialogue With My Country, Niyi Osundare’s latest book, which is a compilation of articles written under his 24-year-old column in Newswatch, makes a debut
Niyi Osundare, poet, writer and professor of English, is an angry man. Last week, many who gathered at the presentation of his book titled: Dialogue With My Country, caught a glimpse of his feeling of anger which emitted from the pages of the compilation of his column in Newswatch magazine. For 24 years through the magazine, Osundare had used the pen as a dagger to disembowel the high and the mighty in the society.
Keith Richards, managing director of Promasidor, who reviewed the book, aptly captured Osundare’s anger in his review. “While this is a collection that contains both wit and wisdom, it is fundamentally an angry book. The quiet rage may be contained in a wrapper of humour and softened by the style and pedigree of his prose but Osundare is true to his belief that the basis of all art is justice.”
According to Richards, not only were the issues raised in the column relevant today, but they were also prescient. When Osundare’s column criticised the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, of the time, he didn’t envisage that to date Nigerians would still be talking about the seven-point agenda and though he decried the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, the Power Holding Company Nigeria, PHCN, is still a problem. He had written against campuses emptied by cultism in the past, yet today, they are laid to waste by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. In March 1993, he wrote surely, Nigeria’s democratic experimentation must be the most expensive in the world. He probably had not imagined that today the cost of the legislature would be colossal. “It is no wonder that the satire and ridicule that appealed to Newswatch readers originally should be so contemporary till this very moment. It is no wonder that Osundare’s wit and humour, his passion and connection barely disguise his anger and frustration,” Richards said.
Richards said the book is a must read for those who want to know more about Nigeria. For one, it prompted memories and sometimes a bitter smile of reminiscence for older Nigerians. For younger Nigerians, especially those educated abroad who are disappointed with the economic situation in the country today, it facilitates a greater understanding of those with a touch of grey hair. For expatriates ready to learn more of the background to the frustrations and anger felt by those who thought that this democracy would be the realisation of years of hope, it provides insight.
Dan Agbese, editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine couldn’t agree more. Agbese, who was the moderator at the book presentation, had also edited Osundare’s column for the past 24 years and attested that the writer was indeed filled with a unique kind of rage that was surrounded with a bout of humour. “To me, he projects two charming personae. As a man, he is humorous but when he sits before his word processor, all traces of humour and laughter vanish because as a writer and social commentator, he is an angry man. Angry at a country that promises so much, yet delivers so little. Angry at our leaders, in khaki or agbada, for failing us and making a career and fortunes from our misfortunes,” he said.
Agbese said the title of the book: Dialogue with My Country is like a cruel pun on the word ‘dialogue’ because columnists in Nigeria always seemed to be talking to themselves. Agbese believes that Osundare’s choice of the book title was meant to be understood as a dialogue of the deaf because though Osundare had been talking for 24 years, nobody has been listening.
Dialogue With My Country, Niyi Osundare’s latest book, which is a compilation of articles written under his 24-year-old column in Newswatch, makes a debut
Niyi Osundare, poet, writer and professor of English, is an angry man. Last week, many who gathered at the presentation of his book titled: Dialogue With My Country, caught a glimpse of his feeling of anger which emitted from the pages of the compilation of his column in Newswatch magazine. For 24 years through the magazine, Osundare had used the pen as a dagger to disembowel the high and the mighty in the society.
Keith Richards, managing director of Promasidor, who reviewed the book, aptly captured Osundare’s anger in his review. “While this is a collection that contains both wit and wisdom, it is fundamentally an angry book. The quiet rage may be contained in a wrapper of humour and softened by the style and pedigree of his prose but Osundare is true to his belief that the basis of all art is justice.”
According to Richards, not only were the issues raised in the column relevant today, but they were also prescient. When Osundare’s column criticised the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, of the time, he didn’t envisage that to date Nigerians would still be talking about the seven-point agenda and though he decried the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, the Power Holding Company Nigeria, PHCN, is still a problem. He had written against campuses emptied by cultism in the past, yet today, they are laid to waste by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. In March 1993, he wrote surely, Nigeria’s democratic experimentation must be the most expensive in the world. He probably had not imagined that today the cost of the legislature would be colossal. “It is no wonder that the satire and ridicule that appealed to Newswatch readers originally should be so contemporary till this very moment. It is no wonder that Osundare’s wit and humour, his passion and connection barely disguise his anger and frustration,” Richards said.
Richards said the book is a must read for those who want to know more about Nigeria. For one, it prompted memories and sometimes a bitter smile of reminiscence for older Nigerians. For younger Nigerians, especially those educated abroad who are disappointed with the economic situation in the country today, it facilitates a greater understanding of those with a touch of grey hair. For expatriates ready to learn more of the background to the frustrations and anger felt by those who thought that this democracy would be the realisation of years of hope, it provides insight.
Dan Agbese, editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine couldn’t agree more. Agbese, who was the moderator at the book presentation, had also edited Osundare’s column for the past 24 years and attested that the writer was indeed filled with a unique kind of rage that was surrounded with a bout of humour. “To me, he projects two charming personae. As a man, he is humorous but when he sits before his word processor, all traces of humour and laughter vanish because as a writer and social commentator, he is an angry man. Angry at a country that promises so much, yet delivers so little. Angry at our leaders, in khaki or agbada, for failing us and making a career and fortunes from our misfortunes,” he said.
Agbese said the title of the book: Dialogue with My Country is like a cruel pun on the word ‘dialogue’ because columnists in Nigeria always seemed to be talking to themselves. Agbese believes that Osundare’s choice of the book title was meant to be understood as a dialogue of the deaf because though Osundare had been talking for 24 years, nobody has been listening.
The Deceptive Silence of Stolen Voices By Wole Soyinka
Nigeria as a country is bedevilled by myriads of paradoxes. These unite to dwarf its stature and hence there have been popular calls for a National Conference. Yet the powers-that-be oppose its convening with overt recalcitrance prompting Soyinka at Emeka Anyaoku's 70'" Birthday to articulate his position once again and ask "Will the National Conference open up a Pandora's Box?"
Death and the King's Horseman By Wole Soyinka
Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule: the ritual suicide of the horseman of an important chief was prevented by the intervention of the colonial authorities. In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance.
Bomboy By Yewande Omotosho
BOMBOY is a story about Leke, a troubled young man living in the suburbs of Cape Town. He develops strange habits of stalking people, stealing small objects and going from doctor to doctor in search of companionship rather than cure. Through a series of letters written to him by his Nigerian father whom he has never met, Leke learns about a family curse; a curse which his father had unsuccessfully tried to remove. BomBoy is a well-crafted, and complex narrative written with a sensitive understanding of both the smallness and magnitude of a single life.
The Lion and the Jewel By Wole Soyinka
The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Wole Soyinka first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasises the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play as well as how the youth should embrace the original African culture.
The Strong Breed By Wole Soyinka
The Strong Breed is one of the best known plays by Wole Soyinka. It is a tragedy that ends with an individual sacrifice for the sake of the communal benefit. The play is centered on the tradition of egungun, a Yoruba festival tradition in which a scapegoat of the village carries out the evil of the community and is exiled from the civilization. Eman, the play's protagonist, takes on the role of "carrier", knowing it will result in beating and exile. He does this to spare a young simpleton the same fate. The ritual takes an unexpected turn as Eman flees. His pursuers set a trap for him that results in his death.
The Jero Plays By Wole Soyinka
The Jero Plays by Wole Soyinka consist of two short plays re-released as a collection in 1973. The Trials of Brother Jero first came out in 1964, while Jero’s Metamorphosis was published two years later in 1966. Both plays satirize Christianity and religious hypocrisy, particularly, the unquestioning devotion that many converts display towards their spiritual leaders, often exposing themselves to manipulation in the process.
As the title suggests, The Trials of Brother Jero is about a charlatan preacher, Brother Jero. Brother Jero is a cunning beach diviner who woos customers (penitents) to his church by using Christian superstition for his own salvation. For him, the church is a business. He says:
‘I am glad I got here before any customers-I mean worshipers.. l always get a feeling every morning that am a shopkeeper waiting for customers.’
Brother Jero is suave while his followers are gullible. He lures people to his church by promising them material gains and promotions through prayer. Chume his assistant often seeks for permission to beat his arrogant wife Amope but Brother Jero disagrees:
‘ I keep my followers dissatisfied because if they are satisfied, they won’t come again..’
As the title suggests, The Trials of Brother Jero is about a charlatan preacher, Brother Jero. Brother Jero is a cunning beach diviner who woos customers (penitents) to his church by using Christian superstition for his own salvation. For him, the church is a business. He says:
‘I am glad I got here before any customers-I mean worshipers.. l always get a feeling every morning that am a shopkeeper waiting for customers.’
Brother Jero is suave while his followers are gullible. He lures people to his church by promising them material gains and promotions through prayer. Chume his assistant often seeks for permission to beat his arrogant wife Amope but Brother Jero disagrees:
‘ I keep my followers dissatisfied because if they are satisfied, they won’t come again..’
Mandela's Earth and Other Poems By Wole Soyinka
This was Soyinka's first collection of poems after winning the Noble prize in literature in 1986 and it is like a political collection as well as a poetic work.
Outrage By Ogochukwu Promise
Outrage is a story of struggle; the conflicts which have become associated with the exploration of oil in the Niger Delta are carefully blended with a love story, that of Boma and Sekibo, a factional leader of the Niger Delta militants. Boma is torn between her love for Sekibo and her loyalty to Reverend Tabore, her aunty and guardian, who is a government stooge. The constant conflicts in the story spring up from the clashes between the various militant factions, the differences between the militants and the government, and the dilemma of choosing between love and family ties.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Ogochukwu PROMISE (fiction writer, poet, essayist, playwright; Nigeria) is the founder and coordinator of the Lumina Foundation which instituted the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa; she also initiated the Get Africa Reading Project and runs a mobile library. Ogochukwu edits and publishes the literary magazine The Lumina, and the magazine Children's Classic. An author of 16 novels, six collections of poetry, two short story collections, four plays, two essay collections, thirty children's books, and editor of four literary collections, she has received seven Association of Nigerian Authors awards for her poetry and fiction. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Ogochukwu PROMISE (fiction writer, poet, essayist, playwright; Nigeria) is the founder and coordinator of the Lumina Foundation which instituted the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa; she also initiated the Get Africa Reading Project and runs a mobile library. Ogochukwu edits and publishes the literary magazine The Lumina, and the magazine Children's Classic. An author of 16 novels, six collections of poetry, two short story collections, four plays, two essay collections, thirty children's books, and editor of four literary collections, she has received seven Association of Nigerian Authors awards for her poetry and fiction. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
The Burden of Memory By Wole Soyinka
When Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's The Open Sore of a Continent appeared in 1996, it received rave reviews in the national media. Now comes Soyinka's powerful sequel to that fearless and passionate book, The Burden of Memory. Where Open Sore offered a critique of African nationhood and a searing indictment of the Nigerian military and its repression of human and civil rights, The Burden of Memory considers all of Africa--indeed, all the world--as it poses the next logical question: Once repression stops, is reconciliation between oppressor and victim possible? In the face of centuries long devastations wrought on the African continent and her Diaspora by slavery, colonialism, Apartheid and the manifold faces of racism what form of recompense could possibly be adequate? In a voice as eloquent and humane as it is forceful, Soyinka examines this fundamental question as he illuminates the principle duty and "near intolerable burden" of memory to bear the record of injustice. In so doing, he challenges notions of simple forgiveness, of confession and absolution, as strategies for social healing. Ultimately, he turns to art--poetry, music, painting--as one source that may nourish the seed of reconciliation, art as the generous vessel that can hold together the burden of memory and the hope of forgiveness. Based on Soyinka's Stewart-McMillan lectures delivered at the Du Bois Institute at Harvard, The Burden of Memory speaks not only to those concerned specifically with African politics, but also to anyone seeking the path to social justice through some of history's most inhospitable terrain.
The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka By Wole Soyinka
A savage, stabbing inquiry, not into human nature proper, but into human nature viewed through the concave mirrors of solitary confinement and human evil, stretched and warped into horrible familiarity. Soyinka is hard to read, if you read him straight -- this book is most effective when you enter into its twisting, doubling corridors and let Soyinka transform your mind and introspection into a prison of your own. Like most great books, this one works on several levels: an indictment of political injustice, a pyschological study of the prisoner, and (pardon the cliche) a metaphor for the human condition. Brilliant and haunting.
During the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) Wole Soyinka was arrested and incarcerated for twenty-two months, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell, 4ft by 8ft. His offence: assisting the Biafran secessionists.
The Man Died, now regarded as a classic of prison literature, is a product of this experience. What comes through in the compelling narrative is the author's uncompromising, principled stand on the universality and indivisibility of freedom and human rights.
During the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) Wole Soyinka was arrested and incarcerated for twenty-two months, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell, 4ft by 8ft. His offence: assisting the Biafran secessionists.
The Man Died, now regarded as a classic of prison literature, is a product of this experience. What comes through in the compelling narrative is the author's uncompromising, principled stand on the universality and indivisibility of freedom and human rights.
The Poetry of Wole Soyinka By Tanure Ojaide
The Nobel Laureate's reputation as a dramatist tends to cloud his poetic achievement, and in modern African literature, poetry lives in the shadow of fiction. The criticism of Soyinka's poetry has so far centred on his themes of individuality and death, his imagery, and on the controversy over his authenticity, obscurity and difficulty. Here, in a new approach, an academic himself and one of the leading younger generation of African poets, discusses critically the voice and viewpoint of the poet with the object of establishing Soyinka's persona. The book covers the personality and world view of the man, as revealed in his poetry.
YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN: A MEMOIR by Wole Soyinka
Mr. Soyinka, masterfully uses his life as a running commentary for the state of political affairs in Nigeria since 1960. While the book does speak on a lot of serious issues there are many moments of hilarity such as when W.H Auden passes him off as an African Prince and the quest to recover an acient mask that led Mr. Soyinka to Brazil.
You Must Set Forth at Dawnis a book full of revelations, which in actuality brings into public glare the political animal in Soyinka and the extent to which he was steeped in national politics, which may led some political leaders to see him as meddlesome. While his dalliance with Biafra earned him a prison term and resulted in his book, The Man Died” he maintained some questionable affinity to General Babangida and loathed General Abacha. Indeed, it was said, that it was Soyinka who gave Gen. Abacha the moniker “deaf and dumb.”
Mr. Soyinka's style tends to be a little heavy on grammar but overall it is a great book, one that you will love to have bought.
You Must Set Forth at Dawnis a book full of revelations, which in actuality brings into public glare the political animal in Soyinka and the extent to which he was steeped in national politics, which may led some political leaders to see him as meddlesome. While his dalliance with Biafra earned him a prison term and resulted in his book, The Man Died” he maintained some questionable affinity to General Babangida and loathed General Abacha. Indeed, it was said, that it was Soyinka who gave Gen. Abacha the moniker “deaf and dumb.”
Mr. Soyinka's style tends to be a little heavy on grammar but overall it is a great book, one that you will love to have bought.
African Proverbs I - III Box Set
This Volume consists of African Proverbs I, II, and III
Bitter Leaf By Chioma Okekere
Bitter Leaf is a richly textured, poetic and evocatively imagined tale about love and loss, parental and filial bonds, and everything in between that makes life bittersweet.
…..a poetically evocative story, rich in texture and vivid descriptions…emotionally accessible and moving…an impressive debut novel.
Okereke’s greatest skill lies in her avoidance of moralising while telling this engaging, modern-day morality tale.
- Financial Times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chioma OkerekeChioma Okereke was born in Benin City, Nigeria and moved to London at the age of seven. She started her writing career as a poet before turning her hand to fiction. Her work has been shortlisted in the Undiscovered Authors Competition 2006, run by Bookforce UK, and in the Daily Telegraph ‘Write a Novel in a Year’ Competition 2007. Bitter Leaf is her first novel.
…..a poetically evocative story, rich in texture and vivid descriptions…emotionally accessible and moving…an impressive debut novel.
Okereke’s greatest skill lies in her avoidance of moralising while telling this engaging, modern-day morality tale.
- Financial Times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chioma OkerekeChioma Okereke was born in Benin City, Nigeria and moved to London at the age of seven. She started her writing career as a poet before turning her hand to fiction. Her work has been shortlisted in the Undiscovered Authors Competition 2006, run by Bookforce UK, and in the Daily Telegraph ‘Write a Novel in a Year’ Competition 2007. Bitter Leaf is her first novel.
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
For a polygamist like Baba Segi, his collection of wives and a gaggle of children are the symbol of prosperity, success and validation of his manhood. Everything runs reasonably smoothly in the patriarchal home, until wife number four intrudes on this family romance.
Bolanle, a graduate amongst the semi-literate wives, is hated from the start. Baba Segi's glee at bagging a graduate doesn't help matters. Worse, Bolanle's arrival threatens to do more than simply ruffle feathers. She's unwittingly set to expose a secret that her co-wives intend to protect, at all costs.
Lola Shoneyin's light and ironic touch exposes not only the rotten innards of Baba Segi's polygamous household in this cleverly plotted story; it also shows how women no educated or semi-literate, women in contemporary Nigeria can be as restricted, controlled and damaged by men - be they fathers, husbands, uncles, rapists - as they've never been.
Bolanle, a graduate amongst the semi-literate wives, is hated from the start. Baba Segi's glee at bagging a graduate doesn't help matters. Worse, Bolanle's arrival threatens to do more than simply ruffle feathers. She's unwittingly set to expose a secret that her co-wives intend to protect, at all costs.
Lola Shoneyin's light and ironic touch exposes not only the rotten innards of Baba Segi's polygamous household in this cleverly plotted story; it also shows how women no educated or semi-literate, women in contemporary Nigeria can be as restricted, controlled and damaged by men - be they fathers, husbands, uncles, rapists - as they've never been.
Isara, a voyage around Essay By Wole Soyinka
The contents of a tin box – a handful of letters; old journals with marked pages and annotations; school reports; notebook jottings; tax and other levy receipts; minutes of meetings; and programme notes of special events – which belonged to his father, S. A. (“Essay”) Soyinka, a school teacher during the colonial period in Nigeria, provide the grist for Isara: A Voyage Around Essay, the second instalment of Wole Soyinka's memoirs – a son's fictionalised “voyage” into the life and times of his father.
A well written account of childhood in pre independence Yorubaland. Although it is probably not typical, it illustrates the essence of the Yoruba parenting style, a style that makes every adult a parent and every child dutiful. I recommend it.
A well written account of childhood in pre independence Yorubaland. Although it is probably not typical, it illustrates the essence of the Yoruba parenting style, a style that makes every adult a parent and every child dutiful. I recommend it.
Essays in Honour of Ama Ata Aidoo at 70: A Reader in African Culture Studies By Anne V. Adams (Editor)
The volume ‘Essays in Honour of Ama Ata Aidoo at 70: A Reader in African Cultural Studies’ (2012) pays tribute to a woman writer from the African continent who has touched worldwide audiences and acknowledges her status as a ‘literary mover and shaker’. The literary-criticism core of the book is complemented by papers on such issues as African oratory, new media, popular culture texts, African identity, race construction and gendered image.
Ama Ata Aidoo was born in Abeadzi Kyiakor in what was then the Gold Coast (later Ghana) in 1940 and grew up in a Fante royal household. She attended Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast and then the University of Ghana at Legon from 1961-1964 where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. During this time, she also wrote her first play, ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’, which came out in 1965 and made her the first African woman dramatist to be published.
Since then, Aidoo has written other plays, novels, short stories and poetry as well as numerous essays on African literature and the status of women in African society. One of her best known novels is ‘Our Sister Killjoy, or, Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint’ (1977). She has won many literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Africa) for her second novel, ‘Changes: a Love Story’ (1991). Aidoo’s works of fiction deal with the tension between Western and African world views and the politics of gender and sexual inequality in African society.
In addition to her literary career, Aidoo was appointed Minister of Education under the Provisional National Defence Council in 1982, but resigned after 18 months. She then moved to Zimbabwe to become a full-time writer. She has also lived and worked in the US, the UK and Germany. Aidoo was a long-term Visiting Professor in Africana Studies and the Literary Arts at Brown University.
Achebe or Soyinka: A Study in Contrasts By Kole Omotoso
This is a study of Africa's most widely read, and, arguably, her finest writers. Despite their shared nationality and levels of prestige, each represents a distinct pole of Nigerian writing. On the one hand, there is Wole Soyinka, the playful imagist steeped in the myth and magic of his native Yoruba culture; at the other end of the spectrum, Chinua Achebe's internalized Igbo cultural traditions. Kole Omotoso - himself a prolific writer and prize-winning Nigerian novelist - explores and defines the differences in style, background, and vision betweem the two men. Individual chapters describe the childhood and early experiences of each writer, their cultural influences, education, life styles, and political involvement. Omotoso also observes the responses of Nigerian, British and American critics to their output, with a final chapter dedicated to the vision of each writer for Nigeria. An extensive bibliography completes the volume
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's By Chinua Achebe
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is the published version of the second Chancellor’s Lecture given by Chinua Achebe at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in February 1975.
Conversations with Chinua Achebe By Chinua Achebe
Conversations with Chinua Achebe
Book by Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe's books are being read throughout the Engish-speaking world. They have been translated into more than fifty languages. ...
Authors: Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors
Copyright date: October 1, 1997
Book by Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe's books are being read throughout the Engish-speaking world. They have been translated into more than fifty languages. ...
Authors: Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors
Copyright date: October 1, 1997