Talent and success in Nigeria is not embedded in oil production and entertainment. Great works of art have been produced by Nigerians over the years. One of such art is literary art and below are some authorities in Nigeria’s literature.
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe is one of the authors from Africa that is heralded internationally for his great works in fiction. When he died in 2013, a lot of tributes were done in his name from around the world. Many a time, Achebe has been referred to as “The Father of Nigerian Literature”. The Nigerian government has made attempts to name him Commander of the Federal Republic two times, once in 2004 and then again in 2011. The reason he declined was because he protested against the political regime of the country.
Achebe’s first novel title Things Fall Apart which was published in the year 1958 holds an account of the African native traditions of the people of Igboland and their clash with European colonization. It depicts the attempt of individuals to locate a place in their environment.
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is another great author of fiction in Nigeria. He is also a playwright and poet. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1986 and when he won the award, Chinua Achebe together with the rest of the African continent celebrated the him since he was the first African ever to win the prize.
The work of Wole Soyinka features on the most part subjugation, harassment and victimization of the weak by their strong counterparts. His writing captures everyone, beginning from the speculators right down to the those exploiting others. Some of his novels are as follows; Aké: The Years of Childhood and Death and the King’s Horseman; and You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir. The latter is Soyinka’s view of his experiences and thoughts about life, Nigeria, and Africa.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is among contemporaries of Nigerian literary work whose work has brought out to limelight. Each of the three novels that she has written has gained her worldwide recognition along with awards to back them up. The two books she first wrote held an account of the political atmosphere that was in play in Nigeria when viewed via individual and family affiliations.
Her book, Purple Hibiscus held an account of a 15-year-old whose father somehow got mixed up with a military coup that throws the nation into chaos. Her other book, Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of the Nigerian-Biafran war and the terrors the four central characters in the novel had to endure. While Americanah holds an account of the love between Ifemulu and Obinze.
Femi Osofisan
Femi Osofisan is another literary authority in Nigeria whose major work (plays, poems, and novels) centres on colonialism and how it has affected the country. Also his work takes a stand against the corruption and injustice that has marred our great nation. Be that as it may, Osofisan’s assessment of the themes that encompass the complicated history of Nigeria are scarcely factual. Rather, what he does is make use of allegories and metaphors, also his work seem to be somewhat surreal.
Kolera Kolej, his first novel, holds an account of a campus in one of the Nigerian universities that was accorded with the rights of independence from the other parts of the country so as to bring down and ultimately stop the outspread of Cholera. His other play, Women of Owu, tells of the Ijebe and Ife war that frustrated the kingdom of Owu.
Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos after which she travelled in the year 1960 to London, England to live with her husband, Sylvester Onwordi who had relocated there for studies. Both her and her husband were engaged since they were 11 years old and even though they were blessed with five kids, her husband was a violent individual. He went to the lengths of burning her first manuscripts and this was what made her separate from him and she went on to create a new life as a single mom.
Her work is inspired by her life experience and the need to check the imbalance and slavery that is associated with gender as well as the view of women based on their sexuality and ability to give birth. Her book, Joys of Motherhood, tells a story of a woman who gives evidence of her life through her children’s success.
