Flora Nwapa

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Flora Nwapa
Edinburgh University
GenresNovels; short stories; poems; plays
Notable worksEfuru (1966)
Idu (1970)
This Is Lagos and Other Stories (1971)
SpouseChief Gogo Nwakuche
Children3

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993), was a Nigerian author who has been called the mother of modern

Heinemann Educational Books. While never considering herself a feminist, she was best known for recreating life and traditions from an Igbo woman's viewpoint.[1]

She published African literature and promoted women in African society.[2] She was one of the first African women publishers when she founded Tana Press in Nigeria in 1970. Nwapa engaged in governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War; in particular, she worked with orphans and refugees who were displaced during the war.[3]

Biography

Early years and education

Nwapa was born in

Edinburgh University in 1958.[6]

Family life

Flora Nwapa had three children: Ejine Nzeribe (from her previous relationship), Uzoma Gogo Nwakuche and Amede Nzeribe. She was married to Chief Gogo Nwakuche.

Her uncle, A. C. Nwapa, was Nigeria's first Minister of Commerce and Industries, according to The House of Nwapa, the documentary by Onyeka Nwelue.[7]

Teaching and public service

After returning to Nigeria, Nwapa joined the Ministry of Education in

Nigerian civil war of 1967–70, she accepted cabinet office as Minister of Health and Social Welfare in East Central State (1970–71), and subsequently as Minister of Lands, Survey and Urban Development (1971–74).[1] She was a visiting lecturer at Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education in Owerri, Nigeria. In 1989, she was appointed a visiting professor of creative writing at University of Maiduguri.[8]

Writing and publishing

Nwapa's first book, Efuru, was published in 1966 when she was 30 years old, and is considered a pioneering work as an English-Language novel by an African woman writer.[1] She sent the transcript to the famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1962, who replied with a very positive letter and even included money for the postage to mail the manuscript to the English publisher, Heinemann.[9][10]

Nwapa followed Efuru with the novels such as Idu (1970), Never Again (1975), One is Enough (1981), and Women are Different (1986). She published two collections of stories – This is Lagos (1971) and Wives at War (1980) – and the volume of poems, Cassava Song and Rice Song (1986). She is also the author of several books for children.[11]

In the year 1974, she founded Tana Press, and in 1977 the Flora Nwapa Company, publishing her own adult and children's literature as well as works by other writers.[1][12] She gave as one of her objectives: "to inform and educate women all over the world, especially Feminists (both with capital F and small f) about the role of women in Nigeria, their economic independence, their relationship with their husbands and children, their traditional beliefs and their status in the community as a whole".[13][14] Tana has been described as "the first press run by a woman and targeted at a large female audience. A project far beyond its time at a period when no one saw African women as constituting a community of readers or a book-buying demographic."[15]

At the beginning of Nwapa's literary career, as a result of the way feminism was viewed and the way it was portrayed, she had no interest in feminism because she felt it was prejudiced against men but she eventually came to terms with it. However, her struggle with feminism is representative of the present conversations about the movement in Africa and the world at large.[16]

Her work appeared in publications ranging from the magazines Présence Africaine and Black Orpheus in the 1960s and '70s to the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[17]

Later years

Nwapa's career as an educator continued throughout her life and encompassed teaching at colleges and universities internationally, including at New York University, Trinity College, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and the University of Ilorin. She said in an interview with Contemporary Authors, "I have been writing for nearly thirty years. My interest has been on both the rural and the urban woman in her quest for survival in a fast-changing world dominated by men."[1]

Flora Nwapa died of pneumonia on 16 October 1993 at a hospital in Enugu, Nigeria, at the age of 62.[18] Her final novel, The Lake Goddess, was posthumously published.[19]

Selected bibliography

Novels
Short stories/poems
Children's books
  • Emeka, Driver's Guard, London: University of London Press, 1972; Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1987
  • Mammywater, 1979; Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1984
  • The Adventures of Deke, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Co., 1980
  • The Miracle Kittens, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1980
  • Journey to Space, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1980

Legacy

Flora Nwapa is the subject of a documentary entitled The House of Nwapa, made by Onyeka Nwelue,[20] that premiered in August 2016.[21][22][23]

On 13 January 2017, Nwapa's birthday was marked with a Google Doodle.[24][25][26][27]

Nwapa's son, Uzoma Gogo Nwakuche, founded the Flora Nwapa Foundation, a California non-profit corporation, in 1994 following the death of his mother in 1993. The Flora Nwapa Foundation celebrated Efuru@50 in 2016.[28][29][30]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Leisure, Susan "Nwapa, Flora", Postcolonial Studies @ Emory, Emory University, Fall 1996.
  2. ^ a b Literary Encyclopedia
  3. ^ Agbo, Njideka (13 January 2019). "Florence Nwapa: The Mother of African Literature". The Guardian. Nigeria. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  4. ^ Hamilton, Janice, Nigeria in Pictures, p. 71.
  5. ^ "Interesting Things About Flora Nwapa, Nigeria’s First Female Novelist", Information Nigeria, 1 March 2013.
  6. ^ Hannan, Martin, "Untold stories of Edinburgh University alumni told in new project", The National, 3 December 2018.
  7. ^ Akinbode, Ayomide (13 January 2019). "Flora Nwapa: Mother of Modern African Literature". Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Flora Nwapa's sweet remembrance at UNIMAID". Tribune Online. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  9. ^ Edoro, Ainehi, "Flora Nwapa and the Letter That Changed Nigerian Literature Forever", thejournalist.org.za, 24 February 2016. Retrieved March 2017.
  10. ISBN 9780253333421
    ), via google-books.
  11. ^ ThriftBooks. "Flora Nwapa Books | List of books by author Flora Nwapa". ThriftBooks. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  12. ^ Zell, Hans M., "Publishing and Book Development in Africa: A Bibliography" (Studies on Books and Reading, UNESCO), p. 4.
  13. Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent
     (1992), Vintage: 1993, p. 399.
  14. ^ "Frankfurt Book Fair 1980", Flora Nwapa interviewed in The African Book Publishing Record, Vol. VII, No. 1, 1981, p. 6.
  15. ^ Edoro, Ainehi, "Flora Nwapa and the Letter That Changed Nigerian Literature Forever" Archived 25 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Brittle Paper, 3 February 2016.
  16. ^ Adeleke, David I. (13 January 2017). "Everything about Flora Nwapa screamed 'feminist', everything but her own words - Ventures Africa". Ventures Africa. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  17. ^ Berrian, Brenda F., "Flora Nwapa (1931–1993): A Bibliography", Research in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 2, Flora Nwapa (Summer 1995), pp. 124–129.
  18. ^ Brenda F, Berrian, "In Memoriam: Flora Nwapa (1931–1993", Signs, Vol. 20, No. 4, Postcolonial, Emergent, and Indigenous Feminisms (Summer 1995), pp. 996–999.
  19. ^ Emenyonu, Ernest N., "Flora Nwapa (1931–93)", in Paul Schellinger (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Novel, Vol. 2, Routledge, 1998, p. 952.
  20. ^ Wealth Ominabo Dickson, Interview with Onyeka Nwelue, Premium Times, 18 August 2016.
  21. ^ Cheta Igbokwe, "Onyeka Nwelue’s ‘House of Nwapa’ Documentary Film Premiers in Zimbabwe", State Reporters, 28 August 2016.
  22. ^ Ibrahim, Abubakar Adam, "‘Why I made a documentary on Flora Nwapa’". Archived 24 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Daily Trust, 2 October 2016.
  23. ^ Ikheloa, Ikhide R., "Flora Nwapa and the house that Onyeka Nwelue built for her", Ikhide blog, 27 November 2016.
  24. ^ "Flora Nwapa's 86th Birthday", Google Doodles Archive, 13 January 2017.
  25. ^ "Google Celebrates Flora Nwapa with a 'This Day in History' Doodle" Archived 22 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Brittle Paper, 13 January 2017.
  26. ^ Bakare, Tonye, "Google honours late Nigerian novelist Flora Nwapa", The Guardian (Nigeria), 13 January 2017.
  27. ^ "Google celebrates Flora Nwanzuruahu Nwapa with a doodle", Vanguard, 14 January 2017.
  28. ^ Ibrahim, Abubakar Adam, and Nurudeen Oyewole, "How social media inspired me to become a writer", Sunday Trusy, 21 August 2016, via PressReader.
  29. ^ "Writer, Scholars Mark 50 Years of Flora Nwapa’s Efuru In Five Cities", The Elites, 29 August 2016.
  30. ^ Olatunbosun, Yinka, "Nigeria: Drums for Flora Nwapa's Efuru At 50", This Day, 4 September 2016.

Further reading

Scholia has a topic profile for Flora Nwapa.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flora_Nwapa&oldid=1217429132"