| Cyprian Ekwensi (1921-2007)
By Sun News Publishing
Thursday,
November 15, 2007
Cyprian Ekwensi, one of the few remaining earliest Nigerian
novelists in the English Language, died recently in Enugu
at the age of 86. Ekwensi was said to have died of an undisclosed
ailment at the Niger Foundation Hospital in Enugu where he
underwent an operation.
His death came weeks after Dr. Ene Henshaw, another very significant
Nigerian literary figure, passed on in Calabar. A prodigious
and prolific novelist of the popular variety, Ekwensi will
be remembered for very many things within and outside of the
literary circles.
The author of the popular Jaguar Nana and later a sequel Jaguar
Nana’s Daughter, he was the father of the popular literature
in Nigeria which later blossomed to what became the “Onitsha
Market Literature.” Though a pharmacist, he was more
engrossed in his literary engagement and for which he was
more known, recognized and appreciated. His earlier novels
are mostly thematically anchored on life in the city when
his contemporaries were concerned with life on the other side
of the social divide – the village and provincial life.
Perhaps this was a justification of his own experience as
a complete Nigerian of some sorts – an Easterner who
was born in the North and educated in the West.
Ekwensi indeed has enriched the Nigerian literary corpus.
Even though his standing with literary critics has not been
as astounding as those of his contemporaries and later writers,
his place in the Nigerian and African literary firmament remains
prominent and will endure. Those in their 40s and above will
always remember his earlier novels and novellas with a measure
of good feeling and nostalgia.
He started his writing career as a pamphleteer, a feature
that runs in an episodic form throughout most of his novels
in the later years. He wrote the People of the City in 1954
which portrays life in the city and which was the first major
novel to be published by a Nigerian. In 1960, he published
the novellas for children, The Drummer Boy and the Passport
of Mallam Ilia while his most widely read works, Jaguar Nana
and the Burning Grass appeared in 1961. Between 1963 and 1966,
he published at least one major work every year. The most
important of these were the novels, Beautiful Feathers (1963)
and Isaka (1966) and two collections of short stories, Rainmaker
(1965) and Lokotown (1966).
Even beyond this period, Ekwensi continued to publish, among
which are the novels, Divided We Stand (1980), the novella
Motherless Baby (1980) and The Restless City and Christmas
Gold (1975), Behind the Convent Wall (1987) and Gone to Mecca
(1991). He also published a number of works for children under
the name C.O.D. Ekwensi also wrote Ikolo the Wrestler and
other Ibo Tales, The Leopard’s Claw, African Nights
Entertainment, Samanwke and The Highway Robbers.
Born September 26, 1921 at Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government
Area of Anambra State, Cyprian Odiatu Ekwensi attended Government
School, Jos; Government College, Ibadan; Achimota Collage,
Ghana; Higher Collage, Yaba, Lagos; School of Forestry, Ibadan;
Chelsea School of Pharmacy, University of London. He also
attended an international writing programme in Iowa University.
He worked as a pharmacist in Nigeria’s Medical Service
in 1956.
Ekwensi later joined the Nigerian Ministry of Information
and rose to the position of the ministry’s director
by the time the first military coup of 1966 occurred. Following
the continuation of the disturbances occasioned by the coup,
he gave up his position and relocated to Enugu where he chaired
the Bureau for External Publicity in Biafra. He was also an
adviser to the then head of state, Col, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
He was head of features in the Nigerian Broadcasting Services
(1957), director of information of the Federal Ministry of
Information Services, Enugu (1966); he also held the directorship
of Star Printing and Publishing (1975 –’79) and
Eagle magazine.
Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), he received
the Dag Hammarskjold International Award for literary Merit
in 1968. He joined the Fellowship of Nigerian Academy of Letters
in 2005. Cyprian Ekwensi lived a very memorable life both
as a pharmacist and a man of letters.
|
