Cyprian Ekwensi

Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi (born September 26, 1921 in Minna , Nigeria , † November 4, 2007 ) was a Nigerian writer. He wrote 35 books, including metropolitan and adventure novels, youth and popular literature.

Life

Cyprian Ekwensi first worked as a forester from 1945, then as a chemistry and biology teacher in Lagos . He wrote a short story every week for Nigerian radio. He published his story When Love Whispers in 1948 in small booklets that were sold on the market, thus establishing the tradition of the so-called Onitsha market literature . From 1949 studied Ekwensi in Lagos and later in London pharmacy and continued to work for the press and radio. He returned to Nigeria in 1956 and first became a pharmacist, then a radio employee. In 1961 he became Director of Information of the Nigerian Ministry of Information, during the Biafra War of the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Biafra . After its demise in 1970, he became a board member of a library association and in 1975 head of the newspaper publisher Star Printing and Publishing Company Enugu . Most recently he lived in Enugu with his wife Eunice Anyiwo ; he and her father of five children.

Works

• People of the City (1954)
• Jagua Nana (1961, German 1987)
• Burning Grass (1962, book for young people, German Der Wanderzauber 1994)
• Beautiful Fathers (1963)
• Survive the Peace (1976, dt. Peace survive 1988)
• Motherless Baby (1980)
• Divided We Stand (1980)
• Jagua Nana's Daughter (1986)
• Gone to Mecca (1993)

Web links

• Literature by and about Cyprian Ekwensi in the catalog of the German National Library
• Conversation with Cyprian Ekwensi
• “Renowned author, Cyprian Ekwensi, dies at 86” The Guardian , November 5, 2007