The Concubine tells the story of Ihuoma, a stuningly beautiful and kind woman who cannot seem to have a typical romantic relationship, especially marriage due to her suitors dying under different mysterious circumstances. Ihuoma's first husband is Emenike who died after fighting Madume who also desires Ihuoma for himself. When Madume attempted to get Ihuoma's hand in marriage, he fails. He died by hanging himself after he was bitten in the face by a cobra. The third suitor is Ekwueme, a handsome young man. When it was revealed that Ihuoma is a sea-goddess who cannot be married to any mortal man, Ekwueme decided to perform a ritual of appeasement to the Sea-King at midnight. He died when one of Ihuoma's children mistakenly shot him with an arrow in his attempt to get a red male lizard needed for the ritual. ''The Concubine'' is the debut novel by Nigerian writer

Elechi Amadi Elechi Amadi (12 May 1934 – 29 June 2016) was a Nigerian author and soldier. He was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religi ...

originally published in 1966 as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series. Set in a remote village in Eastern

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 ...

, an area yet to be affected by European values and where society is orderly and predictable, the story concerns a woman "of great beauty and dignity" who inadvertently brings suffering and death to all her lovers. The novel portrays a society still ruled by traditional gods, offering a glimpse into the human relationships that such a society creates. On its publication in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

by Heinemann Educational Books, ''The Concubine'' was hailed as a "most accomplished first performance" and "an outstanding work of pure fiction". A critical study of the novel was written by

Alastair Niven Alastair Neil Robertson Niven Hon FRSL (born 25 February 1944) is an English literary scholar and author. He has written books on D. H. Lawrence, Raja Rao, and Mulk Raj Anand, and has been Director General of The Africa Centre, Director of L ...

, who called it: "an example of how an absence of conscious sophistication or experimentation can result in a novel of classic simplicity.... Rooted firmly among the hunting and fishing villages of the

Niger delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

, ''The Concubine'' nevertheless possesses the timelessness and universality of a major novel." ''The Concubine'' has been made into a film, written by Elechi Amadi and directed by

Nollywood Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there ...

director

Andy Amenechi Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

; the film was premiered in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

in March 2007.Elechi Amadi website, videos.

References

*East African Educational Publishers Ltd of Nairobi *Heinemann Educational Books Ltd of London Nigerian novels adapted into films 1966 Nigerian novels Novels set in precolonial Africa Novels set in Nigeria Heinemann (publisher) books African Writers Series 1966 debut novels {{1960s-novel-stub