LENRIE PETERS

Lenrie Peters, in full Lenrie Wilfred Leopold Peters   (born September 1, 1932, Bathurst, Gambia) was a poet and novelist considered among western Africa’s most important poets during the second half of the 20th century.

Peters was educated at Bathurst and then Freetown, Sierra Leone. He moved to England and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a medical degree in 1959, with further studies in surgery. He broadcast on several BBC programs (and chaired its Africa Forum) before returning to Gambia in 1969.

Peters’s only novel, The Second Round (1965), is semiautobiographical in its story of the disillusionment and alienation of a young doctor returning from England to Freetown after completing his medical studies and finding his home unsettled and unsettling, the people there having rejected all traditional values without substituting anything positive.

The doctor drifts among acquaintances for a time but finally seeks some meaning by working in an isolated up-country hospital. The work contains several classical allusions with the protagonist coming across as a thinker and idealist.

Peters’s poetry is what he is famous for all over the world, with countless students around Africa having studied at least some of his work over the years. Collections include Poems, 1964; Satellites, 1967; and in several anthologies. Pundits state that his poetry is essentially less pessimistic, characterized by a hope that good will prevail and by a sense of discovery.

However a fair number of his poems, however, tell of an estrangement similar to that in The Second Round, and others were scathing critiques of Westernization and contemporary African politics.

He issued two further collections of verse, Katchikali (1971) and Selected Poetry (1981). Peters also published short fiction and political commentary in an array of journals. He died in 2009.

Studies: 

Four modern West African poets by Romanus N Egudu 

The matter and manner of modern West African poetry in English : a study of Okigbo, Clark, Awoonor-Williams and Peters by Romanus N Egudu

A study of six African poets : voices out of the skull by Paul Theroux

SEMBENE OUSMANE

The late Sembene Ousmane was one of the greatest writers and quality film producers Africa has ever produced.     

His brilliant novels and short stories almost belied the fact that this colourful
personality (Ousmane) was essentially self-taught to be literate - in French - never mind a writer. His novel, God's bits of wood is regarded by many critics as an imaginative, realistic and artistic masterpiece.     

Ousmane was born in 1923 in Senegal. As a boy he was a fisherman, then he moved onto other "practical" jobs; and ultimately found himself in the fabled Metropolis, Paris and France!

This was after a stint in the army, the French Army, mainly during the Second World War. Onward to France where he worked as a docker for some years.     

Ousmane began to write his stories, his novels. First in  line was Le Docker Noir (Black Docker). By the time he published L'Harmattan, and Tribal Scars and other stories he was already a well established African writer, despite the fact that he originally wrote his books in French.   

God's bits of Wood cemented his reputation further as easily one of Africa's top-notch
writers. And by now Ousmane was producing his own films.

Ousmane was an early African practitioner as regards pertinent films; here he was again accomplished, and award-winning. He even decided to produce films in the indigenous Wolof language, and they were still successful.       

His novel, Xala, focusing on an intriguing case of impotence, was also made into a successful film. Ousmane would also publish "two novellas" Niiwam, and Taaw later in his career. The great man died in 2007

Studies:

Ousmane Sembène écrivain populaire by Hilaire Sikounmo 

Ousmane Sembène the making of a militant artist by Samba Gadjigo 

A new kind of man the representation and significance of women in the
works of Ousmane Sembene by Dwayne Marshall Baker 

AMA ATA AIDOO

Ama Ata Aidoo, playwright, poet, novelist, short story-writer, academic, has been a permanent fixture on the African literary scene for some fifty years now!     

She became the first African woman to publish a play when she brought out The dilemma of a ghost in 1965. Ado's extraordinary literary talent became obvious to the world early on as her early books sparkled with quality.   

        
Aidoo was born in 1942 in Ghana (then Gold Coast) with a rather privileged background. Apparently at school a typewriter was donated to her which fuelled her creative juices. She would win a fellowship to Stanford University California and early on she travelled the world.           

Her confidence at this very early stage of her literary career can be gleaned from her interviews at the time, one famously published in African Writers Talking. Here she reiterates her admiration for Chinua Achebe; and vouchsafes among other things that
she was learning French.       

  

Aidoo would go on to lecture back at home (Ghana) and then at several universities around the world. In America, Europe, Africa (Zimbabwe); and she kept on writing
creatively after her own fashion.   

She was already acknowledged in the literary world for her play, The dilemma of a
ghost; but critics were even more impressed with her "novel", Our Sister killjoy. A brilliant work, Aidoo showcased her eagle-eye for detail, and even sarcasm.     

Indeed some reviewers, critics went overboard with their praise for the book; as witness: "A stunning novel, an adroit, moving pastiche of interwoven
(ideas)...political fulminations, reverie, haunting descriptions...".

Among other celebrated books Armah would publish over the last few decades include Our Sister Killjoy (1977), Someone talking to Sometime (1986), Changes: a love story (1993), Diplomatic pounds and other stories (2012).         

As befits a writer of her immense status many books celebrating the life and work of Ama Ata Aidoo have been published - plus a film documentary. She has garnered
many awards along the line, including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers
Prize.

 

Studies:

The art of Ama Ata Aidoo : polylectics and reading against neocolonialism by Vincent O Odamtten 

Emerging perspectives on Ama Ata Aidoo 

The developing art of Ama Ata Aidoo by Vincent Okpoti Odamtten 

The creative/theoretical in the works of Ama Ata Aidoo by Miriam Comfort Gyimah 

Ama Ata Aidoo's Heart of darkness by Hildegard Hoeller 

Ama Ata Aidoo's orphan ghosts : African literature and aesthetic postmordernity by Thérèse Migraine-George 

About Lovers in Accra : urban intimacy in Ama Ata Aidoo's Changes : a love story by Maria Olaussen 

Folklore, orature, and popular writing : counter-discursive strategies in the work of Ama Ata Aidoo by Judy Lynne Barton 

CHINUA ACHEBE

Chinua Achebe is generally regarded as Africa's greatest- ever novelist. Certainly his novel, Things fall apart (1958) has been phenomenally successful all over the world.  

Achebe would later go on to publish other excellent novels - No longer at ease, Arrow of God, A man of the people, and Anthills of the Savanna. He retains his touch as an excellent story-teller faithful to his communities, be it old Igbo villages, or modern Nigerian society with pertinent Pidgin English. 
 

In his native country, Nigeria Achebe would garner some criticism for his last major publication, There was a country (2012) - but his reputation and fame worldwide remain as solid as ever.   
 

Chinua Achebe was born on Nov 16 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria. His memories of his childhood in the village would come in useful later when he penned his powerful novels, especially in Things fall apart, and Arrow of God.   

He studied English and Literature at (now) University of Ibadan, and apparently he became disenchanted with the way established white writers portrayed African peoples in their fiction. He never hid his criticism of writers like Joyce Cary and Joseph Conrad.

Achebe became a teacher, and then became part of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He began to publish his novels to great acclaim, and became a Research fellow at University of Nigeria; and a Professor Emeritus there from 1985.

Later in life after a horrific accident, Achebe lectured in American Universities. He was a revered, celebrated literary figure, thanks mainly to his novels - with Things fall apart, outstanding.   

Achebe's works of essays, criticism also stand out; from Morning Yet on Creation Day, Home and Exile, to There was a Country. In The trouble with Nigeria he pondered on the travails of his native country, blaming inadequate leadership for the plight of Nigeria.  

It was a very sad day for African and world literature when Chinua Achebe died in 2013 – the genius who had done much more than anybody else to put African writing on the global map...

 
BOOKS BY CHINUA ACHEBE

Novels
Things Fall Apart (1958) No longer at ease (1960) Arrow of God (1964) A Man of the People (1966) Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

Short Stories
The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1953) Girls at War and Other Stories (1973) African Short Stories (editor, with C.L. Innes) (1985) Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories (editor, with C.L. Innes) (1992) The Voter

Poetry
Beware, Soul-Brother, and Other Poems (1971) (published in the US as Christmas at Biafra, and Other Poems, 1973) Don't let him die: An anthology of memorial poems for Christopher Okigbo (editor, with Dubem Okafor) (1978) Another Africa (1998) Collected Poems (2005) Refugee Mother And Child

Essays, Criticism and Political Commentary
The Novelist as Teacher (1965) An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” (1975) Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975) The Trouble With Nigeria (1984) Hopes and Impediments (1988) Home and Exile (2000) Education of a British protected Child (2009)

Children's Books
Chike and the River (1966) How the Leopard Got His Claws (with John Iroaganachi) (1972) The Flute (1975) The Drum (1978)


Some studies:

Chinua Achebe: a biography. By Ezenwa-Ohaeto

Chinua Achebe. By Catherine Lynette Innes

Chinua Achebe. By David Carroll

The novels of Chinua Achebe. By G. D Killam

Achebe's world: the historical and cultural context of the novels of Chinua Achebe. By
Robert M Wren

Achebe or Soyinka? : a study in contrasts. By Kole Omotoso

Achebe the orator : the art of persuasion in Chinua Achebe's novels. By Chinwe Okechukwu