African Series
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.
Chinua Achebe: Tributes and Reflections By Nana Ayebia Clarke
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is widely recognized as the founding father of modern African literature in English. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, not only contested European narratives about Africa, but also challenged assumptions about the form and function of the novel.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Man-Eaters of Kumaon By Jim Corbett (eBook)
Jim Corbett was every inch a hero, something like a "sahib" Davy Crockett: expert in the ways of the jungle, fearless in the pursuit of man-eating big cats, and above all a crack shot. Brought up on a hill-station in north-west India, he killed his first leopard before he was nine and went on to achieve a legendary reputation as a hunter. Corbett was also an author of great renown. His books on the man-eating tigers he once tracked are not only established classics, but have by themselves created almost a separate literary genre. Man Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett's books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of big-game hunting.
The Bikoroa Plays By J.P. Clark
The Bikoroa Plays is a major of cycle of three plays, The Boat, The Return Home and Full Circle that were first staged in 1981 at the University of Lagos and the National Theatre of Nigeria. The Boat is a prose drama that documents Ngbilebiri history. The Return Home is a historical play set in the 1920s. Full Circle is set in the 1950s and concerns a brothers' quarrel in a traditional setting. The three plays are characterised by their dramatic qualities and unique poetic voice.
Girls at war and other stories By Chinua Achebe
Girls at war and other stories
The madman.--The voter.--Marriage is a private affair.--Akucke.--Chike's school days.--The sacriticial egg.--Vengeful creditor.--Dead men's path.--Uncle Ben's choice.--Civil peace.--Sugar baby.--Girls at war.
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: August 1, 1991
The madman.--The voter.--Marriage is a private affair.--Akucke.--Chike's school days.--The sacriticial egg.--Vengeful creditor.--Dead men's path.--Uncle Ben's choice.--Civil peace.--Sugar baby.--Girls at war.
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: August 1, 1991
Out of Stock
₦1,500
The Trouble Wth Nigeria By Chinua Achebe
The eminent African novelist and critic, here addresses Nigeria's problems, aiming to challenge the resignation of Nigerians and inspire them to reject old habits which inhibit Nigeria from becoming a modern and attractive country. In this famous book now reprinted, he professes that the only trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership, because with good leaders Nigeria could resolve its inherent problems such as tribalism; lack of patriotism; social injustice and the cult of mediocrity; indiscipline; and corruption
Out of Stock
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Two Plays By Niyi Osundare
In the first play, The Man who Walked Away, a principled and sensitive young man who has served a multi-national company for decades, is ‘retrenched’, with severe consequences for his self-respect and his family. In the second play, The Wedding Car, a corrupt businessman and politician exercises his ambition for his daughter to marry ostentatiously, though things do not go according to plan.
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
Dark Times Are Over? By Olu Obafemi
This play satirises the decay in the university system in Nigeria as symptomatic of larger social ills: prostitution, religious zeal and cultism, corruption and social injustice.
In the drama, a young woman, Beatrice, is raped by a group of cultists. The perpetrators are brought to court. But as the judge turns out to be an aunt of one of the cultists, the court is corrupted as she bribes the police to release her nephew.
About the Author:
Olu Obafemi is a playwright, poet and scholar. He is Professor of English at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He is a notable critic of contemporary theatre in Nigeria.
Challenge of the Barons By Lekan Are
In the fictional country of Kato, a successful and much-loved academic, Jungu, comes face to face with academic colonialism in the guise of American economic aid to the poor African country. Highly qualified Africans are passed over in favour of "experts" from the donor country, and students do not receive the education which is their due. Jungu comes into tense confrontation with the American dean, in his efforts to correct the policy and restore academic dignity.
The Broken Bond By Grace Ukala
From the begining of her life eighteen year-old Belinda has struggled hard against the immorality, oppressions and crime prevalent in the Nigerian society in which she lives. Her mother dead and her father a drunk, she chooses to work as a riceseller rather than become a prostitute. Her search for truth and spiritual development leads her through traumatic experiences. Through poverty she learns self- reliance, through physical and psychic battles with a friend in a polygamous marriage she learns to trust in her own strength. And when Chief Ojo offers her family freedom and marriage into riches Belinda must decide between the boy she loves and marrying a man for money, and her family's survival.
The Black Hermit: A Play By Ngugi
Should Remi, the first of his tribe to go to university, return to his people? Or should he continue to be a black hermit in the town?
Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again By Ola Rotimi
The award-winning noted playwright here takes a comic swipe at ideological misfits and opportunists who strut the ever-accommodating political landscape of contemporary Africa. A former military Major, takes to politics. His motives have far more to do with vanity than patriotism, and his attempts to adapt to a situation he hardly comprehends produce highly comic results. His predicament is complicated by the unexpected arrival of his American wife who discovers two more marriages contracted without her knowledge and her husband beset by political problems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Ola Rotimi is one of Nigeria's most well known playwright and Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Ola Rotimi is one of Nigeria's most well known playwright and Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University
A Walk in the Night By Alex La Guma
This collection reveals Alex La Guma as one of the most impressive of contemporary African writers. In the starkest form, it also shows, the plight of the non-whites in South Africa today.
Chike and the River By Chinua Achebe
Chike and the River
Book by Chinua Achebe
Chike and the River is a children's story by Chinua Achebe. It was written in 1966, and was the first of several children's stories Achebe would write.
Published: 1966
Author: Chinua Achebe
Original language: English
Genres: Children's literature, Novel
Book by Chinua Achebe
Chike and the River is a children's story by Chinua Achebe. It was written in 1966, and was the first of several children's stories Achebe would write.
Published: 1966
Author: Chinua Achebe
Original language: English
Genres: Children's literature, Novel
Out of Stock
₦1,600
Morning yet on creation day: Essays By Chinua Achebe
“The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use. The African writer should aim to use English in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience.”
― Chinua Achebe, Morning yet on creation day: Essays
― Chinua Achebe, Morning yet on creation day: Essays
Out of Stock
₦1,200
Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987 By Chinua Achebe
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. ... Google Books
Authors: Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors
Copyright date: October 1, 1997
Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987
One of the most provocative and original voices in contemporary literature, Chinua Achebe here considers the place of literature and art in our society in a collection of essays spanning his best writing ...
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: 1988
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. ... Google Books
Authors: Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors
Copyright date: October 1, 1997
Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987
One of the most provocative and original voices in contemporary literature, Chinua Achebe here considers the place of literature and art in our society in a collection of essays spanning his best writing ...
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: 1988
Out of Stock
₦1,600
New Directions in African Literature by Ernest Emenyonu
This volume of the historic journal African Literature Today provides an overview of the position of African literature at the end of the 20th century and an examination of the directions that African literature is now taking with new and emerging writers and the growth of writing by African women. Contributors examine the influence of new concerns such as globalization and the view from the diaspora and anticipate where this might lead the next generation of African writers.
Film in African Literature Today by Ernest Emenyonu
A recent literary phenomenon in contemporary Africa is the developing relationship between film and African literature. ALT 28 focuses on the interface between film and literature in contemporary African writing and imagination. Contributors have examined the issue from a variety of perspectives: critiques of adaptations of African creative works into film, analyses of filmic structures in African dramatic literature, African writers as film makers, and the impact of the video film industry on literature and the reading culture in Africa.
Reflections and Retrospectives in African Literature Today
This special issue of ‘African Literature Today’ is devoted to some of the pioneer voices of African fiction in the twentieth century: Bessie Head, Cyprian Ekwensi, Dennis Brutus, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Flora Nwapa, Ousmane Sembene and Zulu Sofola. The contributors explore the development of these influential writers and their impact on the continent and beyond, through a study of their writing, sources and influences. Some also focus on case studies of specific works which are particularly important in the creative development of the author. The contributions of these writers to the growth and development of modern African Literature are highlighted. These are also writers whose works, in the words of Chimalum Nwankwo in his Introduction 'have defined for their time a deep engagement and commitment with the pulse of the people...' Ernest Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA; the editorial board is composed of scholars from US, UK and African universities; Chimalum Nwankwo [Guest Editor] Former Chair of the Department of English, North Carolina A & T State University, Greensboro, USA, and Professor of English and World Literatures, is currently on sabbatical at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
Writing Africa in the Short Story By Ernest Emenyonu
African writers have, much more than the critics, recognized the beauty and potency of the short story. Always the least studied in African literature classrooms and the most critically overlooked genre in African literature today, the African short story is now given the attention it deserves. Contributors here take a close look at the African short story to re-define its own peculiar pedigree, chart its trajectory, critique its present state and examine its creative possibilities. They examine how the short story and the novel complement each other, or exist in contradistinction, within the context of culture and politics, history and public memory, legends, myths and folklore.
The State Of Africa : A history of the continent since independence by Martin Meredith
"Literary duelist and inimitable dramatist, Soyinka, bursts into the historical scenes of Africa, taking on issues and societal flaws that most writers simply leave out. His unconditioned reflex, gut reactions and flashes of inspiration, through shotgun sketches of his eloquent and sharp pen, come from his impulse and are examples of the Soyinka Impulse."--back cover.
Daughters Who Walk This Path By Yejide Kilanko
Spirited and intelligent, Morayo grows up surrounded by school friends and family in Ibadan. There is Eniayo, her adoring little sister—for whose sake their middle-class parents fight stigmatising superstition—and a large extended family of cousins and aunts who sometimes make Morayo’s home their own. A shameful secret forced upon her by Bros T, her cousin, thrusts Morayo into a web of oppressive silence woven by the adults around her. Morayo must learn to fiercely protect herself and her sister as young women growing up in a complex and politically charged country.
People Of The City By Cyprian Ekwensi
A novel by the outstanding chronicler of Nigerian City Life
Women of Owu By Femi Osofisan
This is an African retelling of Euripides: an unnervingly topical story of a people and a beloved city destroyed by the brutality of war. The play was first performed in Lagos in 2003 under the distinguished director Chuck Mike, and subsequently toured the UK.
The author introduces his work:
‘In 1821, the combined forces of the armies of two Yoruba kingdoms ransacked the city of Owu. Owu was a model city-state, one of the most prosperous and best organised of those times. The Allied Forces attacked it with the pretext of liberating the flourishing market…they slaughtered all the males and carried the females into slavery. Owu was never rebuilt…So it was quite logical that as I pondered over this adaptation of Euripides’ play in the season of the Iraqi war that the memories awakened in me should be those of the tragic Owu war…’
About the Author
Femi Osofisan
Femi Osofisan is a prolific Nigerian critic, poet, novelist, and playwright whose work attacks political corruption and injustice, was born in Erunwon village in the old Western Region of Nigeria and educated at the universities of Ibadan, Dakar, and Paris; he is a professor of drama at the University of Ibadan. Among the literary awards and commendations he has won are prizes from the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for both drama (1980) and poetry (1989) and in 2004 he was awarded the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), the highest academic prize in that country.
"Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan": Chieftaincy & Civic Culture in a Yoruba City by Ruth Watson
This book is a study of chieftaincy and political culture in Ibadan, the most populous city in what was Britain's largest West African colony, Nigeria. Examining the period between 1829 and 1939, it shows how and why the processes through which Ibadan was made into a civic community shifted from the battlefield to a discursive field. Concentrating on the early-to-mid colonial period, the book's focus on political discourse encompasses Ibadan's pre-colonial past, because forms of social action and political argument were always legitimated in terms of past precedents. This book offers a contribution to the social and cultural history of British colonial administration in Africa, as well as to the field of urban history. It should be of interest to anthropologists and social scientists for its innovative approach to the study of political culture
The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the curse of the Nation-State by Basil Davison
"The Black Man's Burden is truly a tour de force, a bold and stimulating work. With skill and sympathy, Basil Davidson sets up the lines of a debate that has long been waiting to be born."
Children`s Literature & Story-telling - African Literature Today by Ernest N. Emenyonu
Brings much-needed attention to the numerous stories and folktales written for African children. AFRICA IN WORDS
African Short Stories By Chinua Achebe
This anthology of 20 stories are from all over Africa, grouped geographically into four different sections - West, East, North and Southern Africa.
A Squatter's Tale By Ike Oguine
A series of stories within a story, all narrated by Obi, a young, hopeful Nigerian immigrant in America.
The Housemaid By Amma Darko
A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds it becomes clear that seven different women played their part in the drama. All of them are caught in a web of superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption.
The Girl Who Can By Ama Ata Aidoo
In "The Girl Who Can," the irrepressible Ama Ata Aidoo looks at the roles and rules, and the games people find themselves playing, often unwillingly. She analyses African women's struggle to find their rightful place in society. Her stories raise issues of choice and conflict, teasing about the issues with disarming frankness. How do people behave in cross-cultural relationships? In the modern world, where a plastic label identifies us, what is our identity? Will African women be in the driving seat in the twenty-first century? With the zest and humour, Aidoo raises these questions and provides some challenging answers.
In this collection of short stories, Aidoo elevates the mundane in women's lives to an intellectual level in an attempt at challenging patriarchal structures and dominance in African society. Written from a child's perspective, Aidoo subverts the traditional beliefs and assumptions about the child's voice. Her inimitable sense of style and eloquence, explores love, marriage and relationships with all the issues they throw up for the contemporary African woman. In doing so, she manages to capture the very essence of womanhood.
In this collection of short stories, Aidoo elevates the mundane in women's lives to an intellectual level in an attempt at challenging patriarchal structures and dominance in African society. Written from a child's perspective, Aidoo subverts the traditional beliefs and assumptions about the child's voice. Her inimitable sense of style and eloquence, explores love, marriage and relationships with all the issues they throw up for the contemporary African woman. In doing so, she manages to capture the very essence of womanhood.
The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales By Bessie Head
A collection of short stories based on life in a Botswanan village, including the story of a woman who murders the husband who deserted her years before.
The New Tribe By Buchi Emecheta
When a baby girl is abandoned at birth, Reverend Arlington and his wife Ginny are only too happy to adopt her. The media cover this moving story, and a Nigerian woman living in England takes more than a passing interest in the Arlingtons. She decides that they world provide the right Christian home for her own baby, Chester. Shortly afterwards, Chester is delivered to social services with a letter explaining that the Arlingtons should be his new parents. So young Chester enters the vicarage of the sleepy seaside village of St Simon. He is the only black child for miles around.
"The New Tribe" tells the story of Chester's long search for his true identity, and the challenges he faces as a black child in a white family.
"The New Tribe" tells the story of Chester's long search for his true identity, and the challenges he faces as a black child in a white family.
House of Symbols by Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo
Very few writers can give life and essence to their work as Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo does in this remarkable novel where the deep voice of tradition and the significant breath of the 'rememberer' blend in a notable symphony which fills the reader up to the brim.
House Of Symbols is a remarkable achievement in plot, style, characterization, atmosphere and every other thing that goes into a powerful novel. It is the story of the sensitive Osai as well as his Eaglewoman into whose bag 'money flows like the Otaru River.' Terror mingles with humor, pain with pleasure in this fascinating saga set in a town in Eastern Nigeria.
This is a profoundly written book, a work of immense significance which fills an aching vacuum in African Literature
-The Lumina
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is Professor and head of the department of English at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is a prolific writer, with over 50 publications, including 14 books and numerous journal articles. She has won at lea4A four major creative writing prizes, including ANA Prizes for Prose Fiction and Women Writing, and WORDOC Short Stone Competition. She was a visiting Commonwealth Fellow at SOAS, the University of London in 1989/90 and a Research Fella' at University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1999/2000.
House Of Symbols is a remarkable achievement in plot, style, characterization, atmosphere and every other thing that goes into a powerful novel. It is the story of the sensitive Osai as well as his Eaglewoman into whose bag 'money flows like the Otaru River.' Terror mingles with humor, pain with pleasure in this fascinating saga set in a town in Eastern Nigeria.
This is a profoundly written book, a work of immense significance which fills an aching vacuum in African Literature
-The Lumina
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is Professor and head of the department of English at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is a prolific writer, with over 50 publications, including 14 books and numerous journal articles. She has won at lea4A four major creative writing prizes, including ANA Prizes for Prose Fiction and Women Writing, and WORDOC Short Stone Competition. She was a visiting Commonwealth Fellow at SOAS, the University of London in 1989/90 and a Research Fella' at University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1999/2000.
Out of Stock
₦2,000
Burning Grass By Cyprian Ekwensi
This is an enthralling tale of Northern Nigeria where, when the grass is burnt on the plains, the Fulani cattlemen move southwards towards the banks of the Niger. Mai Sunsaye, the hero of the story, is afflicted with the sokugo, wandering sickness.
Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
THINGS FALL APART tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society.
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within
The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born By Ayi Kwei Armah
A railway freight clerk in Ghana attempts to hold out against the pressures that impel him toward corruption in both his family and his country. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is the novel that catapulted Ayi Kwei Armah into the limelight. The
novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian
society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period
immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with "Things Fall Apart" as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
A quote from Chapter 6:
"And where is my solid ground these days? Let us say just that the cycle from birth to decay has been short. Short, brief. But otherwise not at all unusual. And even in the decline into the end there are things that remind the longing mind of old beginnings and hold out the promise of new ones, things even like your despair itself. I have heard this pain before, only then it was multiplied many, many times, but that may only be because at that time I was not so alone, so far apart. Maybe there are other lonely voices despairing now. I will not be entranced by the voice, even if it should swell as it did in the days of hope. I will not be entranced, since I have seen the destruction of the promises it made. But I shall not resist it either. I will be like a cork. It is so surprising, is it not, how even the worst happenings of the past acquire a sweetness in the memory. Old harsh distresses are now merely pictures and tastes which hurt no more, like itching scars which can only give pleasure now. Strange, because when I can think soberly about it all, with out pushing any later joys into the deepr past, I can remember that things were terrible then. When the war was over the soldiers came back to homes broken in their absence and they themselves brought murder in their hearts and gave it to those nearest them. I saw it, not very clearly, because I had no way of understanding it, but it frightened me. We had gone on marches of victory and I do not think there was anyone mean enough in spirit to ask whether we knew what we were celebrating. Whose victory? Ours? It did not matter. We marched, and only a dishonest fool will look back on his boyhood and say he knew even then that there was no meaning in any of it. It is so funny now, to remember that we all thought we were welcoming victory. Or perhaps there is nothing funny here at all, and it is only that victory itself happens to be the identical twin of defeat.
novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian
society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period
immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with "Things Fall Apart" as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
A quote from Chapter 6:
"And where is my solid ground these days? Let us say just that the cycle from birth to decay has been short. Short, brief. But otherwise not at all unusual. And even in the decline into the end there are things that remind the longing mind of old beginnings and hold out the promise of new ones, things even like your despair itself. I have heard this pain before, only then it was multiplied many, many times, but that may only be because at that time I was not so alone, so far apart. Maybe there are other lonely voices despairing now. I will not be entranced by the voice, even if it should swell as it did in the days of hope. I will not be entranced, since I have seen the destruction of the promises it made. But I shall not resist it either. I will be like a cork. It is so surprising, is it not, how even the worst happenings of the past acquire a sweetness in the memory. Old harsh distresses are now merely pictures and tastes which hurt no more, like itching scars which can only give pleasure now. Strange, because when I can think soberly about it all, with out pushing any later joys into the deepr past, I can remember that things were terrible then. When the war was over the soldiers came back to homes broken in their absence and they themselves brought murder in their hearts and gave it to those nearest them. I saw it, not very clearly, because I had no way of understanding it, but it frightened me. We had gone on marches of victory and I do not think there was anyone mean enough in spirit to ask whether we knew what we were celebrating. Whose victory? Ours? It did not matter. We marched, and only a dishonest fool will look back on his boyhood and say he knew even then that there was no meaning in any of it. It is so funny now, to remember that we all thought we were welcoming victory. Or perhaps there is nothing funny here at all, and it is only that victory itself happens to be the identical twin of defeat.
Weep Not Child By Ngugi Wa Thiong'O
Tells the moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women in Kenya. In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and two brothers, Kamau and Njoroge, and the rest of the family must decide where their loyalties lie
The Strange Man By Amu Djoleto
Mensa endures his Ghanaian childhood under the shadow of successive tyrannical headmasters. In his maturity he struggles with the trials that village jealousies and his own family lie upon him.