Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa was born on the 13th of January in the year 1931. One who was considered as the Mother of Modern African Literature due to her influence as a trailblazer novelist, Flora was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers and was also acknowledged as the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain.
Early life and Education
Nwapa was born in Oguta, in the present day Imo state, South-Eastern Nigeria, to the family of Christopher Ijeoma and Martha Nwapa. Flora Nwapa started her Basic Schooling in Oguta, Secondary School at Elelenwa in Port Harcourt and Lagos. In 1953, at the age of 22 years, she entered the university and earned a B.A degree four years later, from the then University College, Ibadan, in 1957. She then went to Scotland, where she earned a Diploma in Education from Edinburgh University in 1958.
Career Path: Public Service and Authorship
Upon her return to Nigeria, Nwapa joined the Ministry of Education in Calabar as an Education Officer until 1959. She then took employment as a teacher at Queen’s School in Enugu, where she taught English and geography from 1959 to 1962. She continued to work in education and other civil service parastatals, holding several positions, including Assistant Registrar, University of Lagos (1962–67). After the Nigerian civil war of 1967–70, she accepted cabinet office as Minister of Health and Social Welfare in East Central State (1970–71), and subsequently as Minister of Lands, Survey and Urban Development (1971–74). She was a visiting lecturer at Alvan Ikoku College of Education in Owerri, Nigeria. In 1989, she was appointed a visiting professor of creative writing at University of Maiduguri.
But the above was just a side to Flora Nwapa, within those years of public service, she was making giant strides in other aspects of her life. For example, her first novel ‘Efuru’, became what can be considered a breakthrough masterpiece, or a ‘blockbuster’ in cinematographic terms. It was published in 1966 by Heinemann Educational Books and it achieved international recognition for her. The work was considered a pioneering work as an English-language novel by an African woman writer. She sent the transcript to the famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1962, who replied with a very positive letter and even included money for the postage to mail the manuscript to the English publisher, Heinemann. She was 30 years old at that time.
Nwapa: The Floral Nature of Flora
Like a flower, Flora was different shades of beautiful; and blossomed elegantly amidst turmoil. For example, her efforts in the reconstruction of lives of the displaced and hurting orphans and refugees post Biafran War, cannot be over-looked. She was also concerned about the women folk, publishing African literature that promoted women in African society; an act that could be perceived in contemporary terms as feminism, though she never considered herself as a feminist. She was feminine and not feminist. She was also one of the first African women publishers, to start a publishing house when she founded Tana Press in the year 1970. According to her, the motive for establishing the publishing outfit was to “to inform and educate women all over the world, especially Feminists about the role of women in Nigeria, their economic independence, their relationship with their husbands and children, their traditional beliefs and their status in the community as a whole”.
Nwapa: A Catalogue of Other Novels
After the impact of ‘Efuru’, Nwapa followed up with a multiplicity of other novels. Amongst which include novels such as Idu (1970), Never Again (1975), One is Enough (1981), and Women are Different (1986). She published two collections of stories – This is Lagos (1971) and Wives at War (1980) – and the volume of poems, Cassava Song and Rice Song (1986). She is also the author of several books for children. Some of these books include; The Adventures of Deke (1980), The Miracle Kittens (1980), Journey to Space (1980), Mammywater (1979), Emeka, Driver’s Guard (1972;1987).
Tana has been described as “the first press run by a woman and targeted at a large female audience. A project far beyond its time at a period when no one saw African women as constituting a community of readers or a book-buying demographic.”
Later years, Legacy and Demise
Nwapa’s career as an educator continued throughout her life and encompassed teaching at colleges and universities internationally, including at New York University, Trinity College, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and the University of Ilorin. She said in an interview with Contemporary Authors, “I have been writing for nearly thirty years. My interest has been on both the rural and the urban woman in her quest for survival in a fast-changing world dominated by men.”
She was made the Ogbuefi in 1978, a considerably significant achievement in the Patriarchal societies of Africa where some men look upon women as objects of subjugation. Flora was however a different kind of woman in the eyes of men; in fact, even men doffed their feathered hats and gave her the salutes she truly deserved.
Flora Nwapa died of pneumonia on 16 October 1993 at a hospital in Enugu, Nigeria, at the age of 62.
Flora Nwapa is the subject of a documentary entitled, The House of Nwapa, made by Onyeka Nwelue, which premiered in August 2016. On 13 January 2017, Nwapa’s birthday was marked with a Google Doodle.
References
Britannica
Wikipedia
Featured image source: Ventures Africa
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