Wednesday 25 September 2019

98th birthday of Cyprian Ekwensi

(Born 26 September 1921, Minna, Nigeria)
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

PHARMACIST and one of Africa’s most prolific writers with particular interest in the exploration of urban life and its immense challenges – may have inaugurated the Onicha (Biafra Oshimili Delta) market literary genre with his 1948*-published Ikolo the Wrestler and other Igbo Tales and When Love Whispers (see Emmanuel ObiechinaAn African Popular Literature, 1973: 3), subsequently publishing over 20 novels (including People of the City [1954], The Drummer Boy [1960], Jagua Nana [1961], Burning Grass [1961], Beautiful Feathers [1963], Iska [1966], Jagua Nana’s Daughter [*1986]), innumerable short stories (including several adapted for radio and television), and children’s books
(Lee Morgan Sextet, “Search for the new land” [personnel: Morgan, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Grant Green, guitar; Reggie Workman, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 15 February 1964])
*({Thanks to Professor Ernest Emenyonu for kindly citing the correct dates of the publication of these three titles in his communication with me, Wednesday 25 September 2019 [HE-E].})

 *****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (2011) and, more recently, The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author, with Lakeson OkwuonichaWhy #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe



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