Cyprian Ekwensi (September 26, 1921 – November 4, 2007), among the grand old men of African fiction-and mostly of the who made the transition from Onitsha-market-pamphlet-fiction for an author with at least something of an international reputation died as The Literary Saloon announced on Sunday 4th of November in Enugu at the chronilogical age of 86. DARKNESS fell again in the Nigerian literary firmament .. when veteran novelist, pharmacist and public commentator, Cyprian Ekwensi passed on. So another Lagos-based paper The Guardian announced this sad event.
The writer of the popular Jagua Nana series of novels died in the Niger Foundation in Enugu where he he had undergone a surgical procedure to have an undisclosed ailment.
He’s the author from the earliest published fiction depicting social life within the Lagos Metropolis with his down-to-earth style of writing and the prolific output, with more than 20 novels to his credit. Ekwensi thus became celebrated because the ancestor from the city novel, which stressed ample description from the locale with a largely episodic style drawn from his earlier pamphleteering.
Mrs. Ekwensi, who is in her own late 60′s said that she cut short her visit overseas after spending two weeks to fly him from Lagos to Enugu, adding that in the last one month, they had regularly visited a healthcare facility. “Since we left Lagos, we have not rested. It’s in one thing to a different …”, she said.
Mrs. Ekwensi, who reeled in waist pain as she informed her story, disclosed the pains increased throughout their long days in the hospital, while taking care of her husband. “The hospital bench became my bed,” she complained adding that her husband’s condition remained critical until his death. The deceased’s eldest son, George who flew in from the U.S. when he learnt about his father’s ailment, began consultations with relations and notable indigenes of Anambra State on burial plans.
Talking to the Daily Sun, the novelist’s son, Ike, noted that his father’s burial would not be based on members of the family only, considering his outstanding contributions to national development.
Ekwensi was due for an award in Lagos, on November 16. He’d left Lagos in good spirit a month before with the hope of picking the award later being unsure of that he wouldn’t make it.
Following the death of the renowned novelist , the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, past and offer governors, ministers of government, writers and All Progressive Grand Alliance have expressed shock over his demise.
They described Ekwensi’s death as a great loss to Nigeria and also the entire literary world. Factional President-General of Ohanaeze, Dozie Ikedife, said an excellent Igbo son had departed, stressing that he left enviable legacies that would continue for our children and grandchildren. “It is a pity. He is one of the biggest authors in our time. . . . He has existed for sometime….Nigerians and the entire literary world will definitely miss him. . . .,” he explained. Ikedife urged the household to deal with losing with fortitude, trusting in God and believing that he had contributed his best to writing and social engineering.
The governor said Ekwensi’s death has established a gap within the state and in the literary world making assurances the state government would fully take part in the burial arrangements. As being a traditional chief and titleholder, Ekwensi’s family will first meet before officially communicating this news of his passing towards the government.
In the tribute, the National Chairman from the All Progressives Grand Alliance Chief Victor Umeh said Ekwensi’s death has robbed Nigeria, of 1 of the finest literary minds to possess passed with the land. He observed that his works had contributed immensely towards the development of literature in Nigeria, adding that he would be greatly missed by all Nigerians.
Former Health Minister, Professor A.B.C Nwosu recalling the late literary icon who had started life as a pharmacist, played a vital role within the eradication from the then dreaded guinea worm disease in old Anambra state as chairman from the state Health Management Board at the time when he (Nwosu) was Commissioner for Health said he’d find it difficult to refer to Ekwensi previously tense, having become accustomed to his resourcefulness as both a writer and administrator.
“It is really a terrible blow. . . . He provided the slogan ‘Get rid of guinea worm’ when he was chairman Anambra State Health Management Board and that i was Commissioner for Health underneath the late Emeka Omeruah. We traversed the whole of Abakaliki area in the quest to kick out guinea worm. He solved the problem get funds from Japan to invest in the project. We both received former American President Jimmy Carter. A fine man with a fine mind. . . .” Nwosu added.
Former Governor of Old Anambra State, Chief Christian Onoh also described Ekwensi’s demise as a big blow to the literary world. Onoh, among the first set of people who paid a sympathy trip to the Hill view Crescent, Independence layout, Enugu residence from the late prolific writer, asserted, this news found him with rude shock, expressing dismay that Ekwensi could die at any given time when according to him, ” we need him around to reform our education”.
Clad in white lace, the elder statesman, said he was however consoled by the fact that the late Ekwensi never wasted his time on earth, adding that his contributions to the literary world would live forever. He said that, Ekwensi who authored many literary books, lived and died for writing and extended his sympathies to the Nigerian literary world along with the entire south East.
The Minister of Information, Mr John Odey described the late “Ekwensi like a great contributor to the unity of Nigeria and the development of literary education within the country”.
The message reads: “the Authorities received the news from the sudden death of a prominent citizen of the state and a reputable literary icon of the country, Chief Cyprian Ekwensi, with sadness. “I am particularly touched by his death because of his having served as a staff of my ministry where he rose to become a Director”.
Reacting to the death of the novelist, National President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Dr. Wale Okediran, said, “his death, though at a ripe age, marked the end of the tradition of story telling. As a writer of popular fiction, COD would be a natural storyteller whose works were both accessible and entertaining.”
Okediran, who described the late Ekwensi as his teacher within the popular literature genre, said a structure in the proposed ANA village in Abuja would be named after him included in ANA’s plan to immortalise him, adding that ANA would collaborate using the Nigerian arm of PEN, a global association of writers, to offer, a documentary made on Ekwensi to any or all Nigerians.
An old ANA President Professor Obafemi, on his part, said “Ekwensi’s loss is the loss of a vital architect of modern Nigerian literature and also the first to carve a national character for Nigerian fiction. He was one of those who erected the canon and pillars of popular fiction in Nigeria. His death has taken away an ancestral voice in the Nigerian creative cosmos.”
Professor Olu Obafemi described the late writer as a key figure in the establishment of what’s now referred to as Nigerian literature. Based on Obafemi, Ekwensi would forever be remembered as one of the oldest writers from the English expression who kept and gave national character to Nigerian literature. “Ekwensi’s death” he said ” is a major deprivation to Nigerian literature. He was one of the leading architects of contemporary Nigerian literature, who, as soon as within the 1950s and 1960s, started to write about issues and events beyond his ethnic background.
The assistant General Secretary of ANA, Mr Hyacinth Obunseh, described Ekwensi’s death as unfortunate. Obunseh said that the literary community and even the planet would miss him specifically for, his peculiar type of writing. “Ekwensi’s imaginative and descriptive power is going to be greatly missed,” Obunseh said.. He, however, regretted that the late literary giant didn’t live long enough to accomplish his autobiography.
Another writer, Fred Uzo, expressed anticipation that Nigeria would “give him the honour that’s as a result of scholar, a writer along with a humanist of his stature.”.
Earlier in 2007, Ekwensi released Cash on Delivery, an accumulation of short stories, which turned out to be his last book. When he turned 86 the previous year, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos State chapter and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA), feted him.
Spoke of the passing on of Ekwensi, poet and past president of ANA, Odia Ofeimu, was “shocked beyond words” to comment immediately.Towards the newly elected Lagos State ANA chairman, Mr. Chike Ofili, it had been an unnerving bit of information. He too withheld his comments till later. When news of the death started Nigerian authors were rounding off their yearly convention held in Owerri, Imo State.
Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi was created at Minna in Northern Nigeria on September 26, 1921 to Ogbuefi David Duaka and Uso Agnes Ekwensi. He later lived in Onitsha within the Eastern area.. He was educated at Government School, Jos, Government College, Ibadan; Higher College, Yaba in Lagos, Achimota College, Ghana, in lbadan University where he earned his B.A
He studied forestry and worked for 2 years as a forestry officer. Younger crowd taught science and worked for Radio Nigeria before entering the Lagos School of Pharmacy which led him on to the University of London where he continued his studies in the Chelsea School of Pharmacy It was during this time period that he wrote his earliest fiction Ikolo the Wrestler along with other Tales so when Love Whispers each of which were published in 1947. Younger crowd participated in an international writing program in. University of Iowa, USA.
He lectured in pharmacy at Lagos and was employed as a pharmacist through the Nigerian Medical Corporation. After favorable reception of his early writing, Ekwensi joined the Nigerian Ministry for Information and rose to becoming the director of knowledge when from the first military coup in 1966. The continued disturbances in the Western and Northern regions in the summer of 1966, might have led Ekwensi to give up his position and relocate his family at Enugu. There he became chairman of the Bureau for External Publicity in Biafra as well as an adviser to the head of state, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Ekwensi began his writing career like a pamphleteer a well known fact that is clearly reflected within the episodic nature of his novels. This tendency is well illustrated by People of the City (1954)the very first major novel to be published by a Nigerian, in which Ekwensi gave a vibrant portrait of life inside a West African city. Two novellas for kids followed in 1960; both The Drummer Boy and also the Passport of Mallam Ilia which were exercises in blending traditional themes with undisguised romanticism.
Ekwensi’s most widely read novel, Jagua Nana,which appeared in 1961.returned towards the locale of People of the City but boasted a much more cohesive plot centered on the smoothness of Jagua, a courtesan who were built with a fascination with the expensive. Even her name was a corruption of the expensive English automobile. Her life personalized the conflict between your old traditional and modern urban Africa. Ekwensi published a sequel in 1987 titled Jagua Nana’s Daughter. Ekwensi stressed description from the locale and the episodic style was particularly well suited towards the short story.
Burning Grass (1961) is basically an accumulation of vignettes about a Fulani family through which Ekwensi gives understanding of the life span of the pastoral people. Ekwensi based the novel and also the characters on a real family with whom he had previously live. Between 1961 and 1966 Ekwensi posted at least one major work each year. The most crucial were, Beautiful Feathers (1963) and Iska (1966), and two collections of short stories, Rainmaker (1965) and Lokotown (1966). Ekwensi continued to write beyond the 1960s, with the novel Divided We Stand (1980) by which he lampooned the Nigerian civil war, the novella Motherless Baby (1980), and also the Restless City and Christmas Gold (1975), Behind the Convent Wall (1987), and Gone to Mecca (1991). His work, Divided We Stand (1980), , is slated for discussion by literary experts inside a conference on 4 decades following the civil war.
Ekwensi also published several works best for children. As C. O. D. Ekwensi, he released Ikolo the Wrestler and Other Ibo Tales (1947) and The Leopard’s Claw (1950). In the 1960s, he wrote An African Night’s Entertainment (1962), The truly amazing Elephant-Bird (1965), and Trouble in Form Six (1966). Ekwensi’s later works for children include Coal Camp Boy (1971), Samankwe in the Strange Forest (1973), Samankwe and the Highway Robbers (1975), Masquerade Time! (1992), and King Forever! (1992). In recognition of his skills as an author, Ekwensi was awarded the Dag Hammarskjold International Prize for Literary Merit in 1969.