Novels in English by northern Nigerian writers are few, so the arrival of a new one is an exciting literary event. This dramatic story of the efforts of the heroine and her friends to bring about change in the social conditions of women in Nigeria addresses pressing political issues which rarely appear in fiction--the legal status of Muslim women, the limitations imposed on them by traditional and religious conventions, the restrictions on their economic activities, the effects of a corrupt patriarchal system on the society at large and women in particular, the humiliations visited on women as a result of unquestioned male power in personal relationships--from a woman's point of view. Ingeniously conceived and deftly written, this is a story about the emancipation of women in Nigeria from within. Not simply a social document, it engages the reader's sympathy through its portrayal of the attractive and believable woman after whom it is titled--Amina.
A young African American (Otis Hampton) falls into periodic spasms and chants a text nobody understands. His troubled family seeks help. The text, recorded by a psychiatrist and deciphered by linguists, is found to be a corrupted family chant from the Yoruba of Nigeria. The doctor advises a trip to that ethnic region. The spiritual voices that have been summoning Otis finally bring him, after some alarming experiences in the journey from America through the Nigerian hinterland, to the very spot where his ancestor was enslaved over a century before...
Born in Ogidi, southeastern Nigeria, on November 16, 1940, Chinua Achebe has become one of the world’s leading fiction writers. He is a fascinating writer, whose life is of the stuff that makes fiction. Growing up in the cultural crossroads of colonial Nigeria, he lived and mediated in a world in which his people moved between allegiance to traditional Igbo beliefs and values and those introduced by the British colonialism, particularly Anglican Christianity under the Church Missionary Society.
This is a fascinating story of the Egyptian revolution and the rise of Nassar, the formation of the state of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seen through the life and mind of a young Egyptian Christian woman, starting with the riveting narrative of her childhood in the world of the Coptic community of Cairo. We are witness to its customs, stories, food, music, religious rites, its mysteries; the desire of its women, and indeed, of the Egyptian woman, for emancipation, and their form of feminism.
Lion-Man & Other Stories is a collection of short stories culled from the culture and folklore of the indigenous people of Bamunka. Bamunka is a small village with a population of approximately 76,500 located in the grass fields of the North-West Province in the Republic of Cameroon. The greater majority of the natives depend on subsistence farming, rice cultivation, fishing and the tapping of palm wine for a living.
Cyprian Ekwensi is the outstanding chronicler of Nigerian city life. In this collection of his short stories, all the excitement and urgency as well as the seediness and disillusion that make up the world of the Hotel France, the Harlem, Marine Beach, and the Kano Limited are contained. Characters like Fussy Joe, Jagua, Nancy of the Grand Palm Hotel, Charlie the Coin-Diver, and the Stranger from Lagos emerge and go their various ways, crushed or triumphant after their brush with the hard, bright city. All the bustle, gaiety, and hectic action are put into perspective by the controlled economy of Ekwensi’s writing. This is a splendid collection of stories to read and treasure.
Despite the added reputation, Ekwensi achieved with his later novels, People of the City, remains a work of great significance in the development of contemporary African writing. It tells the story of a young crime reporter who doubles as a dance bandleader in a large West African city—and eventually realizes that what he can do for the developing country he lives in is more important than the varied personal pleasures he can find in the hectic city life.
In this collection of fifteen stories, Cyprian Ekwensi brings together glimpses of city life, love, and death. In addition, he captures the tragic, commercial, and spiritual aspects of Christmas in two West African cities. This collection ranges in time from the pre-independence Africa of the 1950s to the independent Africa of the 1960s and 1970s as depicted in “Night of Freedom.” In “The Indispensable,” Ekwensi also dramatizes how human resources of the highest level are practically indispensable to development.
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