Literature

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.

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.

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.

“…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 aesthetics andmyth -making traditions 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this book, Soyinka argues that all claims that Africa has been explored are as premature as news of her imminent demise. A truly illuminating exploration of Africa has yet to take place. It does not pretend to take place even on the pages of this book, being content with retrieving a few grains for germination from the wasteful threshing floor of Africa's existential totality.

PRAISES ABOUT THE BOOK

Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent.— from the publisher

Akpan reveals Africas pain ,pity, joy, and grace, and comes closer to the truth about modern Africa than the entire outpourings of the Western mass media - GUARDIAN

Say You’re One of Them is a wholly unflinching vision of Africa through the eyes of five children in five countries.

Akpan transports the reader into gritty scenes of chaos and fear in his rich debut collection of five long stories set in war-torn Africa. Akpans prose is beautiful and his stories are insightful and revealing...
- Publishers Weekly

The humor, the endurance, the horrors and grace-Akpan has captured all of it... The Stories are not amazing and moving, and imbued with a powerful moral courage – they are also surprisingly expert... Beautifully constructed, stately in a way that offsets their impoverished scenarios. Akpan wants you to see and feel Africa, its glory and its pain. And you do, which makes this an extraordinary book.
- O Magazine

Akpans Africa is a messy violent place... and its innocent kids are what pull at our heartstrings.
- The Guardian

A startling debut collection... Akpan fuses a knowledge of African poverty and strife with a conspicuously literary approach to storytelling. Filtering tales of horror through the wide eyes of the young
- Tower Books

Uwem Akpan writes with a political fierceness and a humanity so full of compassion it might just change the world. His is a burning talent.
- Chris ABANI

An important literary debut... juxtaposed against the clarity and revelation in Akpans prose – as translucent a style as I have read in a long while – we find subjects that nearly render the mind helpless and throw the heart into a hopeless erratic rhythm out of fear, out of pity, out of the shame of being only a few degrees of separation removed from these monstrous modern circumstances... The reader discovers that no hiding place is good enough with these stories battering at your mind and heart.
- Chicago Tribune

Left me gasping! - Opray Winfrey

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Fr. Uwem was born on Ikot Akpan Eda, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. After attending Queen of Apostles Minor Seminary, Afaha  Obong, he studied at Creighon and Gonzaga universities, USA, and at Hekima College, Kenya. Ordained in 2003, he received his MFA in creative writing from the Univeristy of Michigan in 2006. Published in 2008, Say You are One of Them, his first book, has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, Africa Region; PEN/ Beyond  Margins Award and the Hurston/ Wright Legacy Award. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Dayton Literacy Peace Prize. Fr. Uwem was also nominated for the (UK) Guardian First Book Award and for the Caine Prize for African. He is the first Nigerian writer to win the Prestigious Oprah Winfrey Bookclub endorsement. Fr. Uwem lives in Nigeria.

Early Soyinka endeavors to reveal Wole Soyinka’s precocious talent as a writer of stories, dramas, essays, letters, humorous sketches and jokes, by presenting a collection of essays on writings by Soyinka composed prior to publication of his first books in 1963. The underlying argument in the book appears to be that Soyinka’s early works cannot be considered as “juvenilia or immature scribblings” for they already display a high command of language and acceptable formal structures.

The introduction lays out the background of the book when Bernth Lindfors attempts to settle a score with Biodun Jeyifo and Soyinka. Lindfors first retells Jeyifo’s position in Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism (2004), in which the latter identified Lindfors as one “who, almost alone among students of Soyinka’s writings, has been obsessed with his literary juvenilia, hoping therein to find materials to prove Soyinka was once a rookie writer, a neophyte artist, even if his rise to fame seemed instantaneous and meteoric.” Then, Lindfors reveals Soyinka’s misunderstanding of his efforts to demonstrate that Soyinka’s earliest writings were not the “awkward fumblings of a neophyte artist but the handiwork of a skilled craftsman who could articulate original ideas with fluency, precision and persuasiveness.” Soyinka had apparently taken issue with Lindfors in his essay “The Critic and Society: Barthes, Leftocracy and Other Mythologies,” by branding the latter as a “hagiographer extraordinary, who re-creates my juvenilia, in the old University College of Ibadan; every page of his essay contains at least one inaccuracy of time and place and a series of absurd attributions.” Lindfors’ probable purpose in bringing out these two misinterpretations of his interest in that early expressive body of work is to show the reason why many critics have refrained from studying Soyinka’s writings prior to publication of A Dance of the Forests, The Lion and the Jewel, and Three Plays in 1963. By considering these first published works as the starting point for an exploration of Soyinka’s talent and personality, those critics have been “studying the growth of a tree without examining its roots.” Early Soyinka aims then at putting things right by studying the growth of Soyinka from a close examination of his roots.

"Unquestionably Africa's most versatile writer and arguably one of her finest." (New York Times Book Review) When the Military decrees that a crime carrying a prison sentence now retroactively warrants summary execution, confusion and fear permeate a society where the brutality and injustice of military rule is parodied by life inside prison. Based on events in Nigeria in the early 1980s Wole Soyinka's stage play From Zia with Love and radio play A Scourge of Hyacinths, were produced in the early 90s when the writer was exiled by Sani Abacha's notorious and unjust military regime.

Biodun Jeyifo examines the relationship between the innovative and influential writings of Wole Soyinka and his radical political activism. Jeyifo analyzes Soyinka's most ambitious works, relating them to the controversies generated by his appropriation of literature and theater for radical political objectives. The evaluations of this study are presented in the context of Soyinka's sustained engagement with the collective experience of violence in post-independence, post-colonial Africa.

    Sheds light on the literary career of Wole Soyinka as it intersects with politics and collective identities in the developing world
    Investigates Soyinka's ambiguous relationship to forms of avant-garde representation in the twentieth century
    Will be of interest to African literature scholars as well as scholars of politics and literature

During the rainy season of 1995, in the bustling town of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, one family's life is disrupted by the sudden disappearance of seventeen-year-old Paul Utu, beloved brother and son. As they grapple with the sudden loss of their darling boy, they embark on a painful and moving journey of immense power which changes their lives forever and shatters the fragile ecosystem of their once ordered family. Ajie, the youngest sibling, is burdened with the guilt of having seen Paul last and convinced that his vanished brother was betrayed long ago. But his search for the truth uncovers hidden family secrets and reawakens old, long forgotten ghosts as rumours of police brutality, oil shortages, and frenzied student protests serve as a backdrop to his pursuit.

In a tale that moves seamlessly back and forth through time, Ajie relives a trip to the family's ancestral village where, together, he and his family listen to the myths of how their people settled there, while the villagers argue over the mysterious Company, who found oil on their land and will do anything to guarantee support. As the story builds towards its stunning conclusion, it becomes clear that only once past and present come to a crossroads will Ajie and his family finally find the answers they have been searching for.

And After Many Days introduces Ile's spellbinding ability to tightly weave together personal and political loss until, inevitably, the two threads become nearly indistinguishable. It is a masterful story of childhood, of the delicate, complex balance between the powerful and the powerless, and a searing portrait of a community as the old order gives way to the new.

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.

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

"There is no mention of the theory of apartheid.....but you experience with unique vividness what it is like to have a black skin and live in South Africa; you taste the flavour of life. This is possibly the greatest service that the theatre can render"
-Sunday Times

It is 1971, and Nigeria is under military rule, though the politics of the state matter less than those of her home to Enitan Taiwo, an eleven-year-old girl tired of waiting for school to start. Will her mother, who has become deeply religious since the death of Enitan’s brother, allow her friendship with the new girl next door Sheri Bakare? This novel charts the fate of these two Nigerian girls, one who is prepared to manipulate the traditional system and one who attempts to defy it.

THE REVIEWS

“A beautifully paced stroll in the shoes of a woman growing up in a country struggling to find its post-independence identity…Everything Good Will Come depicts the struggles women face in a conservative society. This is convincing; more remarkable is what the novel has to say about the need to speak out when all around is falling apart.” – Times Literary Supplement, UK

“An original, witty, coming-of-age tale: Tom Sawyer meets Jane Eyre, with Nigerian girls…you can feel the dust and sun. This is award-winning novel is an iridescent introduction to a fascinating nation.” – Observer Magazine, UK

“Again and again Atta’s writings tugs at the heart, at the conscience. At the same time, reflecting the resilience of the Lagosians whose lives she explores, humour is almost constant, effervescent, most often with a satirical twist.” – Sunday Independent, South Africa

“This lively first novel breaks new ground with a close-up, honest story of a contemporary Yoruba woman’s coming-of-age in Lagos. Never reverential, Enitan’s first person narrative reveals the dynamic diversity within the city, the differences across class, generation, gender, faith, language, tradition, and individual character. Differences, yes, but sometimes connections, too.” – Booklist

“Sefi Atta’s first novel has the nerve to redefine existing traditions of African Story telling. It confronts the familiar passions of a city and a country with unusual insights and a lyrical power pointing our literature to truly greater heights.” – Odia Ofeimun, author of The Poet Lied

“Everything Good Will Come is like listening to an old friend recounting and bringing up to date and to life happenings in our beloved city of Lagos. I was sorry when I came to the end.” – Buchi Emecheta, author of The Joys of Motherhood

“What is beyond doubt is that Sefi writes brilliantly with instantly infectious wit.” – Bashorun JK Randle, author of The Godfather Never Sleeps

“There is wit, intelligence and a delicious irreverence in this book. But it is Sefi Atta’s courage in choosing to look at her fictional world through fiercely feminist lenses that I most admired.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus

“This is a courageous story about friendship and self-discovery, it is a rallying cry to women to speak out in a world that tries to muzzle them.” – Helon Habila, author of Waiting For an Angel

“An affirmation of faith in one’s capacity, especially female and national, for self-realization.” – Tanure Ojaide, author of Labyrinths of the Delta

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.

From the first African Nobel Laureate, this is the first in a series of Olufosoye Annual Lectures on Religions, delivered at the University of Ibadan in 1991. Soyinka, in his characteristically stimulating way, discusses the religions of Nigeria in their national context, and other religions from around the world. The author says "At one conceptual level or the other...deeply embedded as an article of faith, is a relegation of this material world to a mere staging-post...then universal negation...Existence, as we know it, comes to the end that was pre-ordained from the beginning of time. Indeed, time itself comes to anend."

Determined to overrule the Nigerian President, a powerful secret society employs a terrorist cell to carry out attacks in Northern Nigeria under the guise of forming an Islamic state. A young man and woman in Southern Nigeria hide their love affair from their fathers. When the girl goes missing, the men employ all their resources to find her, but do they know more than they suggest? As the police search for the missing girl, a series of attacks are launched against members of the Order. With the terrorist attacks intensifying and The Sacred Order losing control, an investigation is launched to identify the killers, before it is too late…

Ayisha Osori, writer, lawyer and advocate for social justice, ran for the People's Democratic Party's ticket to Nigeria's House of Representatives in 2015 and lost. This is her story. "This book is a baton. Those contemplating politics in Nigeria would do well to pick it up" - Feyi Fawehinmi

This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life

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?"