LOUD WHISPERS:Efuru@50 And Flora Nwapa’s Feminist Legacy

 Let me apologise in advance to anyone reading this, who has not read Flora Nwapa’s book Efuru, or any of her other books. My challenge to you is, after reading this, please look for a copy of Efuru. It is one of the greatest books ever written by an African woman, and it heralded a new dawn for African women’s literature. Flora Nwapa was from Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria, and she wrote her first book Efuru in 1966. She was an accomplished writer, civil servant, teacher and administrator. Recently, a group of friends, academic peers and mentees decided to organize a series of activities to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the book Efuru, and to highlight the immense contributions of Flora Nwapa to African literature.

Like every other Anglophone West African student in the 1970s, I read Flora Nwapa’s books Efuru and Idu, as recommended texts for the West African School Certificate.  As relief from the compulsory Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot and Thomas Hardy texts, we were magnanimously allowed to study our own writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong O, Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah and other giants of the post-colonial African literary scene.

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Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com

 

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