₦airaland Forum

Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe are two names synonymous with Nigerian fiction, yet the literary output of the country is far from limited to these two greats. Here, we look at ten authors whose international success and reputation attest to their talent, and to the depth in contemporary Nigerian literature.


1. Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)

‘The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.’ When Wole Soyinka, a playwright, poet and writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 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 critique, neither the white speculator nor the black exploiter. Wole Soyinka has also played an important role in Nigerian politics, which has at times exposed him to great personal risk.

The government of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), for instance, pronounced a death sentence on him ‘in absentia’. His works include novels such as Aké: The Years of Childhood and Death and the King’s Horseman. You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir is Soyinka’s own look at his life, experiences, and thoughts about Africa and Nigeria.

2. Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

‘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 Igbo people 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.


3. Femi Osofisan (b. 1946)

‘Nowadays, / When the strong fight the weak, it’s
called / A Liberation War / To free the weak from
oppression.’
- Women of Owu

As with many Nigerian writers, Femi Osofisan’s
oeuvre – encompassing plays, poems and novels – is informed by colonialism and its legacy, and is a clear protest against corruption and injustice.
Nonetheless, his exploration of the themes surrounding the complex history of his country are rarely literal. Instead, Osofisan employs allegory and metaphor, and his writing often has a surrealist bent. His first novel, Kolera Kolej (1975) tells the story of a Nigerian University campus that is granted independence from the rest of the country in order to halt the spread of a Cholera outbreak. His best- known play, Women of Owu (2004) is a retelling of Euripides’ The Trojan Women. Osofisan translates the play to the Ijebe and Ife war that devastated the Owu Kingdom in 1821-26.

4. Ben Okri (b. 1959)

‘To see the madness and yet walk a perfect silver line. ... That's what the true story-teller should be: a great guide, a clear mind, who can walk a silver line
in hell or madness.’
— Birds of Heaven

Ben Okri is a renowned novelist and poet whose written works defy definition. He is often termed post-modern, yet his seamless interweaving of the spirit world into his stories belies this genre. Yet the author also rejects claims that his work falls into the ‘ magical realism’ category, seeing his writing not as a venture into the realm of the fantastic but instead a reflection of an upbringing wherein myths, ancestors and spirits were an intrinsic component. ‘Everyone’s reality is different,’ he once said. His most famous work is The Famished Road (1991), part of a trilogy – with Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches – that chronicle the journeys of Azaro, a spirit-child narrator.


5. Buchi Emecheta (b. 1944)

‘God, when will you create a woman who will be
fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage? she prayed desperately.’
— The Joys of Motherhood

Born in Lagos to Igbo parents, Emecheta moved to
London in 1960 to live with her husband Sylvester
Onwordi, who had moved there to study. The couple had been engaged since the age of 11, and whilst the marriage produced five children, Onwordi was a violent partner; he even burned her first manuscript, prompting Emecheta to leave him and establish herself as a single mother. Her novels draw heavily from her own life and address gender imbalance and enslavement, and how women are often defined through the narrow framework of sexuality or the ability to bear children. Her most acclaimed work, The Joys of Motherhood (1979), has as its protagonist a woman who defines herself through motherhood, and validates her life solely through the successes of her children. Emecheta was awarded an OBE in 2005.


6. Sefi Atta (b. 1964)

‘She says the lesson to learn is that the world is round, which means that if I run too fast i might end up chasing the very homeland I am running from.’

Sefi Atta is a sensitive writer, who broaches polemical themes in a subtle and nuanced manner. Everything Good Will Come (2005), her debut novel, is the story of Enitan, an eleven- year-old girl waiting for school to start, and her friendship with the girl next door; a relationship that receives little support from Enitan’s deeply religious mother. Set against the backdrop of the military rule of Nigeria in the 1970s, it is at once coming-of-age-tale and quiet campaign against political corruption and the repression of women.

Atta is widely known for her radio plays, which have
been broadcast on the BBC, and her short stories,
that have appeared in a number of journals including the Los Angeles Review.


7. Helon Habila (b. 1967)

‘Life is seen as an ongoing war between art and
philistinism - and although the philistines may win
some of the battles, it is literature that always wins
the war.’

After graduating from University of Jos in 1995, Helon Habila worked first as a junior lecturer in Bauchi, then as Stories Editor for Hints magazine, before moving to England in 2002 to become the African Fellow at the University of East Anglia. That same year, his first novel was published: Waiting for an Angel is a complex book that interweaves seven narratives, collectively speaking of life under dictatorship rule in Nigeria. The book won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the African region, spurring the author to greater success. His two
subsequent novels, Waiting for Time (2007) and the latest, Oil on Water (2011) were equally well-received, and the list of awards and honors the Habila has gained attest to his sophisticated and poetic literary voice.


8. Teju Cole (b. 1975)

‘Perhaps this is what we mean by sanity: that, whatever our self-admitted eccentricities might be, we are not villains of our own stories.’
— Open City

Born in the US to Nigerian parents, raised in Nigeria and now living in Brooklyn, Cole’s upbringing is as peripatetic as his career; photographer, art historian and novelist, he is also Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bart College, New York. Open City (2011), his debut novel, is set in New York five years after 9/11, and follows Julius, a psychiatry graduate, as he wanders aimlessly first through the city, then as he travels to Brussels, rootless and on the rebound from a previous relationship. Whilst the geographical locations play a fundamental role in the novel, the narrative above all reads as a mapping of Julius’ inner world, as the divergent references and meandering associations woven into its structure mirror often inexplicable thought processes. He has previously published a novella, Every Day is for a Thief (2007), and he is currently working on a non- fictional narrative of contemporary Lagos.


9. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (b. 1976)

‘His advice went in my ear and did a U-turn right out. Like most teenagers, I was sure that my father knew nothing about life.’

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a novelist, journalist and
essayist who from an early age demonstrated an
affinity for the written word, winning her first writing prize aged 13. As a journalist, she has contributed to the New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian and CNN, amongst others. Her debut novel I Do Not Come to You By Chance (2010), is told in a witty and irreverent tone that belies the fundamental issues it addresses.

Opara for his family, the book’s protagonist, Kingsley, is unable to find work, and so turns to the shady world of email confidence tricks. The 419 scams are too often cited by xenephobes and racists as the main export of Nigeria, yet Adoabi addresses this contentious issue with humour and lightness, instead creating a story of family, aspiration and the hard lessons that come with age.


10. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (b. 1977)

[i]‘I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.’ Chimamanda is part of a new generation of Nigerian authors swiftly growing in reputation, and each of her three novels
have garnered universal acclaim and a slew of awards. Her first two books dealt largely with the political atmosphere of her native country through the prism of personal and familial relationships. Purple Hibiscus (2003), winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book, tells the story of the fifteen-year-old Kambili, whose
father is mysteriously involved with a military coup
that destabilizes the country. The publication of Half
of a Yellow Sun (2006) confirmed the author has a
uniquely talented voice; set amidst the Nigerian- Biafran war, it chronicles the everyday horrors of the war through the differing lives of its four protagonists.

Her latest novel, Americanah (2013), is at its heart an enduring love story between Ifemulu and Obinze, childhood sweethearts who are separated when one goes to study in America; nonetheless, it still manages to take in such themes as racism, immigration and globalization.

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