Literature doesn't exist in a vacuum, a great writer once remarked, continuing that it is given impetus by things happening around it. One such thing is the culture of a people. When in the late 1950s and all through the 1960s, African nations began to gain independence, a problem arose: They need to prove their worth to the rest of the world.

Looking back, it feels degrading that African nations and peoples needed to prove they were civilized before the white man set his foot on the continent. They didn't have to, but in those days, racism and ignorance of the European (the kind of ignorance that see a white man claim to have discovered a river that the locals have fished, swam, and drank from for generations before he was thought of).

One good thing about trying to prove something was that Africans ended up driving genuine interest in their culture. The Igbos were not left by the fireside; they were involved and richly so. Here, we chronicled nine Igbo writers who wrote about their people. We began by putting this list in the order to which they were relevant but we gave up in the middle but somehow the list still looks like it was built in a descending form.

9. Chukwuemeka Ike

Chukwuemeka is most known for writing "The Potter's Wheel", a novel that was set in colonial Eastern Nigeria, at a time when Christianity and education were fully accepted but with a degree of cynicism that set the ground for a powerful story. Written with a witty story-telling style, Ike brought his characters alive, making the audience relive what it was to be a trader, a student, a teacher, and an Ogbanje in 1940s Igboland.

Chukwuemeka Ike also published "Bottled Leopard" a novel that underscores the dualism of mankind. A man can be a normal person in the day and a leopard at night and he is no witch. He becomes a leopard when he is invoked to carry out the duties of his people. You don't understand? Well, you may have to read the book, and even then, you may still have questions. It is okay, it is Igbo culture, it is Igbo science.

8. Elechi Amadi

To be continued... https://www.anaedoonline.ng/2021/03/26/igbo-writers/