FESTUS IYAYI
By the mid 80s - decades
ago Festus Iyayi was already ensconced as a major imaginative writer thanks to
3 superb novels published within a short time: Violence, The Contract, and
Heroes.
The writer was famed for his treatment and denunciation of immorality and corruption in his native country. It was mind boggling, even more disturbing as the situation has if anything got even worse over the decades!!
Why was it that the country was enmeshed in endemic horrifying shameless corruption? Why were women ruthlessly exploited in the process? Could any "decent" person go against the system? The author was occupied with these posers amidst a welter of others.
In his books, we can see the whole nauseating picture against the background of convincing characters and plots. Obviously the author flinched at the unedifying situation too, as we see from his works.
Here is an extract from one of Iyayi's major novels, Violence, which touches on the situation;
"Not far off were the houses where which sweat and labour had already erected... labour had left its positive mark, the labour of hundreds and thousands of workers, working either in the intense sunlight or in the biting cold or in the blinding rain, piling the blocks higher and highet and wiping the salt and sweat from their eyes and their forehead s with the backs of their hands, and all underpaid, underfed and treated no better than slaves - the highest form of violence maintained and jealously guarded by a greedy, unfeeling class of exploiters, greedy moneymakers, conservative and reactionary public officers took all the credit for the achievements of (cheap) labour..."
To his credit also, Iyayi in his books also often infuses some women with special characteristics, noble, heroic even if they be poor. Women are living enviable beings in his work
Books by Festus Iyayi
Violence
Heroes
The Contract
Awaiting Court Martial
