fabre4:





Definitely I need knowledge but not from someone that confines literary world to Nobel prize Iam sure you haven't even read up to 3 of Soyinka books and you mentioning Achebe in your quote says a lot about the motive behind it and FYI literature isn't about Nobel prize

AyamConfidence:
I've read books from almost all those writers before phone and Nairaland came into my life and took away my reading culture... I need to go back to the former times...I've read books by Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Flora Nwapa, Ola Rotimi, Cyprian Ekwensi, and Buchi Emecheta .......those books made me more knowledgeable.... God bless those great people....I will build a library for my kids which must contain great works from these writers


(does anybody beat my record?? I don't think so)

DropShot:
There are only two as far as I'm concerned:

1. The winner of a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, Professor Wole Soyinka.

2. The rest.

Running out quickly to dodge missiles.

ngoziama:




You eat and breathe Hate! I am a proud: easterner and Nigerian
I see all of them as nigerians. Hate eats up the body like cancer so get rid of it.

stubbornman:
you're welcome man.....have a great day!!

crotonite:
Mostly igbos, maka y?

benji93:

How would shakespeare have won it? the nobel prize was first awarded in 1901. though i understand the politics that is sometimes involved in the awarding of the nobel prize to academicians, by and large, those awarded the nobel prize most probably produced some of the greatest works that have won widespread acclaim among their contemporaries, and for professor wole, an African, to win the prize among the lot in the 80's shows how much he distinguished himself internationally. As far as i am concerned it is either Prof tops any list of this kind or his name does not appear on the list at all. However OP should have stated his criteria for the list, Is it how much the literary writing ofa wordsmith appeals to the academic discourse community, or how much it appeals to people in general. Also why would chiamanda come before ola rotime, they did not live in the same era.While these days there are so many literary awards, regionally for different genres of writing, it wasn ot the case during ola rotimi's time.

fabre4:






What am saying is awards are limited to time and chance but an authors work is infinite . No disrespect to Soyinka even in his own words "This conduct is gross disservice to Chinua Achebe and disrespectful of the life-engrossing occupation known as literature. How did creative valuation descend to such banality?

https://ask.naij.com/literature/what-do-you-think-of-chinua-achebe-wole-soyinka-i34.html

benji93:

Good, that was why i said that he either tops the list because of this award or he does not belong to the list at all(a list that numbered the greatest Nigerian writers). I cannot talk about the greatest of the two without subjectivity, depending on the style i prefer. but as a matter of fact , if we would talk about the greatest of them ,then we would have to consider the extent of their acclaim, internationally i mean, and i presume that your quotation comes from the previously resonating advocation for a posthumous nobel prize to be awarded to Chinua Achebe, No disrespect to Achebe, but it is either we do not discuss the issue of the greater of both considering how much their work appealed to us, or we discuss it and conclude that soyinka is greater.For the Op to prepare such a list, then facts must be the major criteria for doing such. The long and short of it is that it would be better if both are tagged as among the greatest than compare their greatness, because in the end, such a discussion, would come down to awards. I rest my case.

EdibleCatering:
JP Clark nko?. THE prolific play writer

maggilove:
I studied English and I was a literature major, you should know I read more than all these books, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo was my lecturer in Unilag.*winks* Are we together?

Akshow:
Op Pls Google zainab alkali and Abubakar gimba. And again, there is only one nobel prize winner of literature, he is the number one. His works cuts across all literary genre, unlike chinua achebe that only writes prose fiction.

okitejoseph:
Quota System has truly damaged the mind of an average Nigerian, Everything must and should be shared equally. Someone was even listing out Names of some Hausa writers who probably wrote there books with Hausa and where only read in the Hausa community, I'll fault the OP in some of the names on his List of Nigerian Greatest writers, but then 70% of the names deserve their position, At JP Clark should be on the list............ While some people out of tribal bigotry said Prof. Wole Soyinka should be ahead Prof Chinua Achebe because he has the Noble prize award, I mean that's their only excuse "Noble prize". From the topic the OP was referring to the "10 Greatest Literary Writers In Nigeria History", the emphasis is on "Greatest Literary Writers" and not the biggest award, if it were to be the biggest award, I will give it to Wole Soyinka any day but here is for the "Greatest Literary Writers" and the OP rightly place the Father of modern African writing as the number one. Common guys this tribal sh*t is becoming too much to bear.......

InyinyaAgbaOku:

Novelists are more popular

Akshow:
it's not a popularity contest.

tickles2luv2016:


I remenber back in d very early 90s when i was in secondary school and living in mushin then, i go to the mushin local government library every day except sundays just to read books of these great writers.feeling nostalgic.

chineduemmao:
i can feel how much you are loving 21 century internet

tickles2luv2016:



As in,i don't get it

chineduemmao:
"as in" you were already a grown up in the early 90s! a world without nairaland and google. must be very difficult...seriously

tickles2luv2016:


Yea ur very on point,i now get u.

chineduemmao:
ha ha!! difficult and boring

EdibleCatering:
JP Clark nko?. THE prolific play writer

Toroze:
After all is said and done its someone own opinion of His or her top ten writers in Nigeria that being said I think JP Clark and Chukwuemeka Ike ought to be on that list but that's doesn't mean Chimamanda should be removed from the list as well. On the matter or Soyinka and Chinua both were literary greats. Yes Soyinka may have won the Nobel prize doesn't stop Chinua from being a good writer, The fact that they wanted to honour him with Commander of the Federal Republic twice and he refused says a lot about him I don't think there's a need to compare them this is an excerpt from his Wikipedia page Despite his scholarly achievements and the global importance of his work, Achebe never received a Nobel Prize, which some observers viewed as unjust.[209][210] When Wole Soyinka was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, Achebe joined the rest of Nigeria in celebrating the first African ever to win the prize. He lauded Soyinka's "stupendous display of energy and vitality", and said he was "most eminently deserving of any prize".[211] In 1988 Achebe was asked by a reporter for Quality Weekly how he felt about never winning a Nobel Prize; he replied: "My position is that the Nobel Prize is important. But it is a European prize. It's not an African prize ... Literature is not a heavyweight championship. Nigerians may think, you know, this man has been knocked out. It's nothing to do with that."

souloho19:


Something else we all SLD know..China Achebe was d only man to criticise Joseph Conrad's work..and his criticism is used as a time line whenever reviewing conrad's work. id like y'all to check up on dis

ziddy:
It's not about Yoruba. D.O Fagunwa is the greatest writer Yoruba land has ever seen & you don't have to read the translation, its for Yorubas only... Fixed