Celebration of Efuru @50 begins in Lagos

Celebration of Efuru @50 begins in Lagos

Published August 23, 2016 Chux Ohai

Members of the literary community are poised to celebrate 50 years of Efuru, the first African novel to be published in English by Nigeria’s first female author, Prof. Flora Nwapa, who died in 1993.

The late writer’s only son, Uzoma Nwakuche, recently announced the flag-off of the event in a meeting with journalists in Lagos, on behalf of the Flora Nwapa Foundation.

Nwakuche said that apart from the 50th anniversary of Efuru, the foundation would be celebrating African women’s literature, African women and Flora Nwapa herself, whom he described as a ‘lady of firsts’. The celebration, he noted, would also be hinged on her achievements as the first African female writer, first female state commissioner in Nigeria and African female publisher.

“We urge the federal and state governments to acknowledge and join us to celebrate this great African woman who has served her country and pioneered modern-day African women literature in her relatively short but extremely productive and memorable life,” he said.

One of the facilitators of the event, Paschal Mebuge-Obaa, explained that Lagos was chosen for the official flag-off of the Efuru @50 celebration because of its significance to Nwapa’s life as a writer and academic.

“Just like Lagos, the relevance of Enugu in this celebration cannot be over emphasised, too. This is to appreciate the fact that Flora Nwapa taught English and Geography at Queens School Enugu in 1960s as a career civil servant; she nurtured her God-given talents as a novelist and publisher in Enugu before moving to Lagos,” he said.

Also, describing the theme of the celebration as Rekindle the Declining Reading Culture of the Nigerian Youths: Efuru and Flora Nwapa as Iconic Symbols, Mebuge-Obaa said, “We hope to use the celebration to advance human achievement by introducing attractive and stimulating intellectual innovation models and promoting reading culture among the Nigerian youth. A lot needs to be done to assist the Federal Government in this direction.”

Efuru was published in 1966 by Heinemann in London. The story is set in a typical rural Igbo community in Nigeria. The major themes include sacrifice, love, spirituality, cultural interference, superstition and feminism. The novel has been described as a celebration of the individualistic female and the world of women.

According to Mebuge-Obaa, a number of activities has been lined up for the 50th anniversary celebration of the novel abroad, beginning with an event hosted by the United Nations Commission for Women in New York, USA in March.

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