THE UNFORGETTABLE NIGERIAN: A LITERARY COLOSSUS CYPRIAN ODIATU DUAKA EKWENSI (SEPTEMBER 26, 1921— NOVEMBER 4, 2007) PHARMACIST, BROADCASTER, AUTHOR

Cyprian Ekwensi, a native of Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi, present-day Anambra State, was born in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

His father was David Anadumaka, a story-teller and elephant hunter.

Ekwensi attended Government College in Ibadan, Oyo State, Achimota College in Ghana, and the School of Forestry, Ibadan, after which he worked for two years as a forestry officer. He also studied pharmacy at Yaba Technical Institute, Lagos School of Pharmacy, and the Chelsea School of Pharmacy of the University of London. He taught at Igbobi College.

Ekwensi married Eunice Anyiwo, and they had five children and many grandchildren.

Cyprian Ekwensi wrote hundreds of short stories, radio and television scripts, and several dozen novels, including children's books. His 1954 "People of the City" was his first book to garner international attention.

His novel Drummer Boy (1960), based on the life of Benjamin 'Kokoro' Aderounmu was a perceptive and powerful description of the wandering, homeless, and poverty-stricken life of a street artist. His most successful novel was Jagua Nana (1961), about a Pidgin-speaking Nigerian woman who leaves her husband to work as a prostitute in a city and falls in love with a teacher. He also wrote a sequel to this, Jagua Nana's Daughter (1993).

In 1968, he received the Dag Hammarskjöld International Prize in Literature. In 2001, he was made a Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) and in 2006, he became a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.

Ekwensi died on November 4, 2007, at the Niger Foundation in Enugu, where he underwent an operation for an undisclosed ailment. He was 86.

Sources: Wikipedia, Britannica

Photo Credit: Steve Larson/Getty Images

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