CHUKWUEMEKA IKE (Nigeria)

By O Bolaji

Chukwuemeka Ike is an exquisite novelist, having published many excellent works in this wise. He is also a great educator, intellectual, and critic.     

He was educated at Government College, Umuahia, then at the University of Ibadan, and Stanford College in the United States of America. He began writing short stories many decades ago, and never looked back.   

For many of his readers he is associated with having written superb works on university life, campus, and allied politics. Certainly two, three of his most famous works illustrate this.

Toads for Supper, and The Naked Gods ("Songhai" University) attest to this. In the latter, corrupt, clandestine activities at a university rankle. Also, inner workings and nuances of university life predominate in Toads for Supper.

Toads for Supper is an enchanting work that shows Ike operating at his zenith as a creative writer. We live through the lives of undergraduates in a campus, their studies, social life at al. The young man, Amadi, is conflicted with three young women in his life; all with strong claims to his love and fidelity.    

As the work unfolds, we also get to see an excellent portrait of village life as the young man later goes home in disgrace; it seems all the sacrifices of his people have been in vain! One feels particularly for his simple, long-suffering father; his death is particularly heart-rending. The type of pressures/tragedy in Amadi's life is completely at odds with his status as a young man...  

Chukwuemeka Ike also published Our Children are Coming, bringing to the fore issues like youth unrest and strikes; with the young ones in this novel trying to be innovative in nipping sundry problems in the bud.

Other excellent novels written by Ike over the years include - Expo 77, The Search, Bottled Leopard, The Potter's Wheel, Sunset at Dawn, The Chicken Chasers. Recently he published Toads Forever, sequel to the superb Toads for Supper. His reputation is cemented as one of Africa's all-time finest writers.   

Many studies and books have been published globally focusing on, and acknowledging the literary genius of Mr Ike. He has been continuously praised for his dialogue, wit, satire, lampoon, and fine descriptions. 


Studies

Chukwuemeka Ike: A Critical Reader; by K Ugbabe

Towards a consumer-based stylistic framework: the case of Chukwuemeka Ike's non-fictional texts; by G. A Ioratim-Uba 

Chukwuemeka Ike …