Nkem Nwankwo

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Nkem Nwankwo (born June 12, 1936 in Nafwia-Awka near Onitsha , today Anambra State, Nigeria ; † June 12, 2001 in the state of Tennessee in the USA ) was a Nigerian author , poet and university teacher .

Life

Nwankwo belonged to the Nigerian ethnic group of the Igbo . He attended University College in Ibadan in western Nigeria and graduated in 1962 with a bachelor's degree . His first job after graduation was at the Ibadan Grammar School , before he began to write as a journalist, for example for Drum magazine or for the state broadcasting company in his home country, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria .

At the same time, Nwankwo was writing children's stories and his first novel, Danda . This was performed as a musical at the first Festival of Negro Arts in 1966 in Dakar , Senegal . During the Biafra War , he worked for the Biafra Arts Council and co-edited a book on the history of Biafra .

After the civil war, Nwankwo went back to the west of the country, where he worked for the largest daily newspaper in Nigeria, the Daily Times of Nigeria , and wrote his best-known book, My Mercedes Is Bigger than Yours . He then went to study in the USA and graduated from Indiana University with a Master of Arts and received his doctorate there . He lived in the United States until his death and taught at Michigan State University in East Lansing , Michigan and later at Tennessee State University in Nashville , Tennessee .

Publications

  • The Gambler in Black Orpheus no. 9 (literary magazine of the University of Ibadan founded by Ulli Beier ).
  • Tales out of school . African Universities Press, Lagos 1963.
    • 2nd edition, with illustrations by Adebayo Ajayi . African Universities Press, Lagos 1966.
  • Danda . African Universities Press, Lagos 1963. Heineman Educational, London 1970, ISBN 0-435-90067-6 .
  • More Tales out of School . African Universities Press, Lagos 1965.
  • with Samuel X Ifekjika: Biafra: The Making of a Nation , 1968.
  • My Mercedes is Bigger than Yours . André Deutsch, London 1975. also: Harper & Row, New York City 1975, ISBN 0-060132086 .
    • My Mercedes is bigger than yours . Verlag Volk und Welt, (East) Berlin, GDR 1978.
    • Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1979, ISBN 3-87294-144-5 .
  • The Scapegoat . Fourth Dimension Publishers, Enugu, Nigeria 1984.
  • A Song for Fela & Other Poems . Nigerhouse Publications, Nashville, Tennessee 1993.
  • Sex Has Been Good to Me , Reprint of Essais. 2004.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nwankwo, Nkem
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian author, poet and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Nafwia-Awka near Onitsha , now Anambra State, Nigeria
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 2001
Place of death Tennessee , United States