Full name Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi, (born Sept. 26, 1921, Minna, Nigeria—died Nov. 4, 2007, Anambra State Biafra), Igbo novelist, short-story writer, and children’s author whose strength lies in his realistic depiction of the forces that have shaped the African city dweller.
Ekwensi was educated at Ibadan (Nigeria) University College and at the Chelsea School of Pharmacy in London. His early works include the novellas When Love Whispers (1947) and The Leopard’s Claw (1950), which combine a fascination for urban life with earnest exhortations to avoid its pitfalls. People of the City (1954; rev. ed., 1969) is a commentary in a journalistic style on the problems of corruption, bribery, and despotism as seen through the eyes of a crime reporter and dance-band leader in Lagos.
Jagua Nana (1961), Ekwensi’s most successful novel, has as its protagonist Jagua, a charming, colourful, and impressive prostitute. Around her, Ekwensi sets in motion a whole panoply of vibrant, amoral characters who have rejected their rural origins and adopted the opportunistic, pleasure-seeking urban lifestyle.
Similar characters and themes emerge from the well-written Lokotown and Other Stories (1966), where the glitter and excitement of Lagos life is sharply contrasted with its seediness and degradation. Burning Grass (1962) concerns Fulani cattlemen in the north of Nigeria.
A sequel to Jagua Nana, entitled Jagua Nana’s Daughter, was published in 1986, and For a Roll of Parchment, his 33rd novel, appeared in 1987.
He also wrote a number of children’s books and a collection of Igbo folktales. Although some of his writings suffer from shallow characterization, his work remains an outstanding chronicle of African city life and appealed to a broad audience.
fiction, literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of making, fashioning, or molding.”
novella, short and well-structured narrative, often realistic and satiric in tone, that influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. Originating in Italy during the Middle Ages, the novella was based on local events that were humorous, political, or amorous in nature; the individual tales often were gathered into collections along with anecdotes, legends, and romantic tales. Writers such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti, and Matteo Bandello later developed the novella into a psychologically subtle and highly structured short tale, often using a frame story to unify the tales around a common theme.
Geoffrey Chaucer introduced the novella to England with The Canterbury Tales. During the Elizabethan period, William Shakespeare and other playwrights extracted dramatic plots from the Italian novella. The realistic content and form of these tales influenced the development of the English novel in the 18th century and the short story in the 19th century.
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