Nkem Nwankwo (12 June 1936 – 12 June 2001) was a Nigerian novelist and poet.

Biography

Born in Nawfia-Awka, a village near the

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

city of

Onitsha Onitsha ( or just ''Ọ̀nị̀chà'') is a city located on the eastern bank of the Niger River, in Anambra State, Nigeria. A metropolitan city, Onitsha is known for its river port and as an economic hub for commerce, industry, and education. ...

Anambra State Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State ...

, southeastern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, Nwankwo attended University College in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

(the capital city of

Oyo State Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the east by Osun ...

, southwest Nigeria), gaining a BA in 1962. After graduating he took a teaching job at

Ibadan Grammar School Ibadan Grammar School is a secondary school in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is currently located at Molete area, close to St. David grammar school. History Established in March 31st 1913. It is among the notable oldest secondary school in Ibada ...

, before going on to write for magazines, including ''

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

'' and working for the

Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation The Voice of Nigeria or VON is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria. History Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corpora ...

.Oyekan Owomoyela
''The Columbia Guide to West African Literature in English Since 1945''
Columbia University Press, 2008, pp. 132–33. He wrote several stories for children that were published in 1963 such as ''Tales Out of School.'' He then wrote ''More Tales out of School'' in 1965. Writer of short stories and poems, Nwankwo gained significant attention with his first novel ''Danda'' (1964), which was made into a widely performed musical that was entered in the 1966

World Festival of Negro Arts The World Festival of Black Arts (French: Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres), also known as FESMAN, is a month-long culture and arts festival that takes place in Africa. The festival features poetry, sculpture, painting, music, cinema, theatre, f ...

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

. During the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...

Nwankwo worked on Biafra's Arts Council. In 1968, in collaboration with Samuel X. Ifekjika, he wrote ''Biafra: The Making of a Nation''. After the civil war, he returned to Lagos and worked on the national newspaper, the '' Daily Times''. His subsequent works included the satire ''My Mercedes Is Bigger than Yours''. During the 1970s, Nwankwo earned a Master's and Ph.D. at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. He also wrote about corruption in

. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States and taught at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

and

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...

. He died in his sleep in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, from complications from a heart imbalance that he had been battling for some years.

Books

* ''The Scapegoat'' — 1984 (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers) * '' My Mercedes Is Bigger than Yours'' — 1975 * ''

Danda In Indic scripts, the daṇḍa (Sanskrit: दण्ड ' "stick") is a punctuation mark. The glyph consists of a single vertical stroke. Use The daṇḍa marks the end of a sentence or line, comparable to a full stop (period) as commonly u ...

'' - 1963 (Lagos: African Universities Press; London: Deutsch, 1964) * ''Tales Out of School'' (short stories; 1963)

Short stories

* ''The Gambler'', in: ''

Black Orpheus ''Black Orpheus'' (Portuguese: ''Orfeu Negro'' ) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play '' Orfeu da Conceição'' by Vinicius de Morae ...

'' no. 9''Black Orpheus'' was an influential literary periodical in Ibadan, founded in 1957 by

Ulli Beier Chief Horst Ulrich Beier, commonly known as Ulli Beier (30 July 1922 – 3 April 2011), was a German editor, writer and scholar who had a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria, as well as literature, drama and p ...

, see Bernth Lindfors
''Black Orpheus''
in: ''European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, Vol. 2'', John Benjamins Publishing, 1986, pp. 669–679. * ''His Mother'', in: ''Nigeria Magazine'' no. 80, March 1964 * ''The Man Who Lost'' in: ''Nigeria Magazine'' no. 84, March 1965

Other

* ''Sex Has Been Good To Me'' (reprint of essays), 2004 * ''Shadow of the Masquerade'' (autobiography), Nashville, TN: Niger House Publications 1994, pp. 58–61 * ''A Song for Fela & Other Poems''. Nashville, TN: Nigerhouse, 1993 * ''Theatre reviews'' in: ''Nigeria Magazine'' no. 72, March 1962

References

* Akwanya, A. N. ''The Self in the Mirror: Nkem Nwankwo and the Study of Exhibitionism'' in: OKIKE 39 (1988) 39–52.

External links

Anderson Brown's Literary Blog, 11 January 2010. * G. D. Killam and Alicia L. Kerfoot
''Student Encyclopedia of African Literature'', ABC-CLIO, 2008, p 221
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwankwo, Nkem 1936 births 2001 deaths Indiana University alumni Michigan State University faculty Tennessee State University faculty Nigerian male novelists Igbo novelists People from Anambra State Nigerian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Nigerian novelists People of the Nigerian Civil War University of Ibadan alumni 20th-century male writers