Kudos to these writers...

We need to project our positives more to our children...

Xslaze3xd:
Kudos to our Great Writers




*MODIFIED
FTC...... sign of Good Things Coming


#andex

Op, i was surprise when i went through your post and didn't see Cyprian Ekwensi as number 3 in your list,lastly i frowned at your post when i noticed that his name is even missing on the list. Well nice one,but add Cyprian Ekwensi or rather make your findings and modify the post

ahizih:
Op, i was surprise when i went through your post and didn't see Cyprian Ekwensi as number 3 in your list,lastly i frowned at your post when i noticed that his name is even missing on the list. Well nice one,but add Cyprian Ekwensi or rather make your findings and modify the post

sorry bro, am not the OP...... am just the first to comment

Buonsenso:


Soyinka is indeed a 'heavy' writer but if you can lay your hands on the following you won't regret;
1. The jero plays
2.beatification of an area boy
3. A play of giants.

These are light readings and very witty.

Thanks, I will try out those ones.

Where is Ola Rotimi: the gods are not to blame?

Cyprian Ekwensi is another great Nigerian writer.He deserves to be on that list mehn...

kennygee:
Can't believe Ola Rotimi's name is not there.

His name should be number 2 on that list.

Zulu Sofoola's name is not there too.

"Even kins are guilty"-Ola Rotimi
"Wedlock of the gods"-Zulu sofola
great books....They deserve a place on dat list

moneyallowed:
Nice idea. The list was poor though and very subjective. There's a reason classic literature is usually ranked above contemporary works, it's because they've being read by generation after generation yet still retain their appeal. You might personally not like Shakespeare, but you cannot deny that his works have endured. Same goes for the literary giants in Nigeria's relatively short history;Achebe,Soyinka,Ekwensi......It's difficult to predict how well authors who presently enjoy cult status like Adichie/Cole/Habila/Atta will be recieved in 50 years time.Sometimes authors who may be unrecognised in their generation find distinction in later years. For this reason i find it absurd to include Cole/Adichie/Atta/Habila but leave out greats like Ekwensi/Tutuola/Rotimi/Clark.
I know novels are more widely read than poems/plays but since the post says literature, it'd be fair to consider the playwrights & poets. I'd even rank those that dabble in all three like Soyinka over the prose specialists.

Genuis!

searching4love:


CHINUA ACHEBE IS OVERRATED AND SHOULDN'T BE ON THAT LIST. THE ONLY FAMOUS BOOK HE WROTE WAS "things fall apart" AND IT WAS A FLUKE COS HE NEVER REPEATED SUCH. HE IS AN AVERAGE WRITER WHO DOESN'T DESERVE SUCH RECOGNITION

U may have a point but it unfortunate to say such a thing.

U have to look at african writers at then.
His work stood tall for a very long time.
U just dont play down on peoples achivement like that.
If u make such statement 60yrs ago, no body will take u serious rather see u as a psychopath.
Going by the way u see things, in 40yrs time to come, u will say soyinka work is trash

searching4love:


CHINUA ACHEBE IS OVERRATED AND SHOULDN'T BE ON THAT LIST. THE ONLY FAMOUS BOOK HE WROTE WAS "things fall apart" AND IT WAS A FLUKE COS HE NEVER REPEATED SUCH. HE IS AN AVERAGE WRITER WHO DOESN'T DESERVE SUCH RECOGNITION

Biko could you kindly tell us who those over-rating the biggest name in African letters are. Your fellow keggites?

Buonsenso:


Well put Rossikk, dangerous love was great read. I always felt though he never quite matched Famished. Road with the other sequel, songs of enhantchment.
Glad you are here and a lover of literature. I was inspired by you to join nairaland..I admire the way you defend the black brotha not for the sake of mere solidarity but as a truism-that all races are equal but varieties of reason, some in fact external forces and the same people we adore have oppressed other races.
I shall not quite be as shall we say, heavy handed to others as you do..more of a yan to your yin. persuading them to be more circumspect about their beliefs
Respect brotha

Thanks homie.

merengue:
What methodology was used to arrive at this list? It is a very poor representation of over 60 years of rich literature. Have no argument with names like Achebe, Soyinka, Osofisan but it is an absolute joke that you have people like Chimamanda Adichie & Helon Habila over Nigerian literary icons like Cyprian Ekwensi, Ola Rotimi, Flora Nwapa, late Ben Okri? A list for the older generation and another for the younger generation would have been better.

Ben Okri is very much alive.

kennygee:
Can't believe Ola Rotimi's name is not there.

His name should be number 2 on that list.

Zulu Sofoola's name is not there too.

Seconded n others like:
-Niyi Osundare
-Gabriel Okara
-John Pepper Clarke
-Odia O
-Flora Nwapa &
-J F Odunjo

pak:



It is commendable that a nairalander should come up with such a list. Thumbs up for that..........

But I feel like challenging you to an open air boxing duel for not including AMOS TUTUOLA and D.O. FAGUNRO.
If you had said top ten contemporary writers, well maybe but of all times ??

Amos Tutuola was the first nigerian writer published by london based publishing outfit and the only word to describe him is ......'funny die'.
Funniest book I have ever read in my life was 'My palmwine tapster in the dead man's town'. I was running a course then and all my course mate taught I was certifiable cos I was always giggling at the back of the class. When they couldn't bear it again, a lady collected the book from me and immediately, the laughing madness passed to him. Though uneducated, Tutuola was awesome, a natural storyteller at its best

The Nigerian novel reading class have never really taken to Tutuola the way westerners have. In many circles he's seen as an embarrassment for his poor grasp of the English language.

Binb:
Where is Uthman Dan Fodio who wrote more than a hundred books on diverse areas like religion, government, culture and society

Dan Fodio was a thug undeserving of the slightest mention. He was an Arab-sponsored colonialist psychopath who destroyed the fabric of northern culture so comprehensively that one today hardly knows what a traditional Hausa name or dressing is.

Oh, good to see there are other dreamers like me here
I know exactly what you mean...
.....and in the present....you keep searching....for that "undescribable" thing

(Time travel to those days...when I, would be meant to do stuff before mama's return....next thing I would look up from "my" couch and it is close to her return! And I would not have done any chores! Because I had been reading ! Oh the mad dash to do all before the bell rings.....and the scoldings (eyes roll) would start)....and also putting a novel between the pages of a textbook and pretending to be absorbed in Chemistry....while reading "life"
Awesome-ness.....reading[/quote]

Oh brotherly you just captured my very experience. I almost finished the whole authors on "the African writers series"
Those books so much shaped me and kept far above the frequency and wavelength of my peers.
My vocabularies were so honed reading so many books as a teenager that i never consulted a dictionary for the duration of my secondary and tertiary education.
I am saddened when young folks complain when confronted with a little writeup or article and demand for summary only. Sha young folks now for satellite television, smart phones and advance graphic game consoles to cuddle.
Wisdom and insight are buried deep inside book pages.

kennygee:
Can't believe Ola Rotimi's name is not there.

His name should be number 2 on that list.

Zulu Sofoola's name is not there too.

Seconded. There should also be on ur list great authors like:
-Niyi Osundare
-Gabriel Okara
-John Pepper Clarke
-Odia Ofeimun
-Flora Nwapa
-J F Odunjo &
-D O Fagunwa

Rossikk:


The Nigerian novel reading class have never really taken to Tutuola the way westerners have. In many circles he's seen as an embarrassment due to his poor grasp of the English language.

You're right. The elite then felt western promotion of Tutuola was to pepertuate the stereotype of the African as crude and unpolished

pak:


You're right. The elite then felt western promotion of Tutuola was to pepertuate the stereotype of the African as crude and unpolished

And they were right, in my view. I think Tutuola would have been better served if he'd just written his novels in Yoruba. A great work is a great work, and the books would have been duly translated to English by qualified persons.

searching4love:


CHINUA ACHEBE IS OVERRATED AND SHOULDN'T BE ON THAT LIST. THE ONLY FAMOUS BOOK HE WROTE WAS "things fall apart" AND IT WAS A FLUKE COS HE NEVER REPEATED SUCH. HE IS AN AVERAGE WRITER WHO DOESN'T DESERVE SUCH RECOGNITION

Chinua achebe has more book than some of the writers on this list and not just low class novels so before you conclude do some research [color=#990000][/color] ;

missclasssy:
1. Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQzhNJ2WZ_JXqGWpfv3YJPkhjn-WLQ_JdBLKEKu7DrbyGvvUo9oChWpXtc[/img]

‘If you don't like someone's story, write your own.’

Chinua Achebe is one of the most internationally-acclaimed writers from Africa, and his death in 2013 saw an outpouring of tributes from across the globe. Though he has often been called ‘The Father of Nigerian Literature’, he twice refused the Nigerian government’s attempt to name him Commander of the Federal Republic– first in 2004, then again in 2011 – in protest against the political regime of the country. His first novel Things Fall Apart(1958)is an intimate account of the clash between African native traditions of the Igbopeople in southeastern Nigeria and European colonisation. Weaving together oral tradition with Igbo folk tales, Achebe’s works reveal a tapestry of cultural norms, changing societal values, and the individual’s struggle to find a place in this environment.

2. Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTsg4z0UTsBiV1fgNpA3RvJvsWygqrIXSIPF7yrsn5PMk5z32WtD9GltIo[/img]

‘The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.’
When Wole Soyinka, a playwright,J poet and writer won the Nobel Prize in Literaturein 1986, Achebe joined the rest of Africa to celebrate the first African to receive the award. Soyinka’s writing often focuses on oppression and exploitation of the weak by the strong; none are spared in his ................

prof wole Soyinka is number one in Nigeria any day( first African, the only Nigerian that won the highesty literature price in the world called Nobel Laurette, wider in genre, he is a novelist, dramatist/playwright, poet...touching the 3 genres; genius...he is the greatest i have seen yet in Nigeria.
one thing i love most about him is that he is free minded, he's not tribalistic, and thats the kind of writer we want...

Buonsenso:

It his subjective list but Zaynab Alkali and Abubakar Gimba are Nigeria authors from the northern part

Pls who do you want to compare Zaynab with on that list. We are talking Nigerian's top 10 masterpiece and not top 2 Million. Kayemjay, Chistar and most Nairaland writers are far better. Without the quota system you guys aint going anywhere in this country.
The person calling Achebe overrated is a disgrace. Though I prefer Wole as the 'ballon d'or' winner, but the world have chosen their Hero to represent Africa on the TABLE OF MEN, and he is ACHEBE.

Fine wordsmith they are. They have made Nigeria proud with their pen.
OP, the list is not complete without mentioning:

Ola Rotimi
Cyprian Ekwensi (so underrated a writer)


Oh, Helon Habila, he is such an highly celebral man. I used to admire his style of wriiting and look forward to it, in those days when he was stories Editor of Hints Magazine. I doff my 'gele' for him! He is good!

Chukwu Emeka Ike: Sunset at dawn, the bottled leopard...

Where Ekwensi, Nzekwu and Chika Unigwe?

Built2last:


why people mouth bad like this...before i accuse someone of being over rated...i google the persons name and google my name...if the difference is clear...i respect such people. so google the names of everyone in your village plus your name and google the names listed above...

why the hate? and we dont even know you exist

LWKMD. This is wicked. This is so wicked. #Punchline
#Stay_Knocked_Out_searching4love
Too bad you found this sucker punch instead of love.

[quote author=Rossikk post=32967905]

Dan Fodio was a
You are a biased person (I'm trying to be civil) the thread is about their writings not about what you think about their characters

wilybebsy:
Broz wole shuld be first nd nt second

Pls can someone mention Wole Soyinka's works that qualified him for a nobel award and even this list of top 10 Nigerian writers. I think he has been enjoying the fruits of Yoruba tribalistic politics!

Where's sapele Bobo, Ola Rotimi? This list is not complete oo

NZEGWUAGU:
Pls can someone mention Wole Soyinka's works that qualified him for a nobel award and even this list of top 10 Nigerian writers. I think he has been enjoying the fruits of Yoruba tribalistic politics!

so it was the yoruba's that gave wole soyinka the nobel price of literature right?
wole soyinka is number one in Nigeria.

I can't find Isidore Okpewho on this list. If you've read the Last Duty you'll understand what I'm talking about. Isidore Okpewho is a great writer. His writings are simple yet very deep. He should be on that list.

searching4love:


CHINUA ACHEBE IS OVERRATED AND SHOULDN'T BE ON THAT LIST. THE ONLY FAMOUS BOOK HE WROTE WAS "things fall apart" AND IT WAS A FLUKE COS HE NEVER REPEATED SUCH. HE IS AN AVERAGE WRITER WHO DOESN'T DESERVE SUCH RECOGNITION

That book -Things Fall Apart- is a phenomenal masterpiece and even if its the only book he ever wrote, he would have left his name in the sands of time.

Interestingly, Wole Soyinka said a Man of The People is his best work but people always remember the first especially if its exceptional.

Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe , though writers are different.

Soyinka is a wordsmith while Achebe is a master storyteller.

If I was to liken them to musicians, Achebe would be Madonna while Soyinka would be a modern day Mozart or a Pavarotti.

Soyinka's command of English is imperial