Flora Nwapa should have a SERIES of monument/events in her honour – as a brilliant WRITER, as a courageous FREEDOM FIGHTER, as an astute ENTREPRENEUR & builder of PLATFORMS for African writers, especially women writers. She paved the way as the FIRST FEMALE PUBLISHER with Tana Press.
Today is Monday, January 13th and it is #FloraNwapaDay⭐️
Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa, has been called the mother of modern African literature. She was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers
She was born on this day – January 13, in 1931 at Oguta, Nigeria
Flora Nwapa published her first book, Efuru in 1966 when she was 30 years old. She sent the transcript to the famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1962, who replied with a very positive letter, & even included money for the postage to mail the manuscript to the English publisher Heinemann.
Flora Nwapa was also acknowledged as the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain. She achieved international recognition, with her first novel Efuru, published in 1966 at the age of 30 years by Heinemann Educational Books.
Nwapa is also known for her governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War, in particular, she worked with orphans and refugees who were displaced during the war. Furthermore, she published African literature and promoted women in African society
OGBUEFI FLORA NWAPA
She was made the Ogbuefi in 1978, not a small achievement in the paternalistic societies of Africa where some men look upon women as objects of subjugation. But with Flora Nwapa, even men doffed their feathered hats and gave her the salute she truly deserved.
“What arrogance, what stupidity led us to this desolation, to this madness, this wickedness, to this war, & this death? When this cruel war is over, there will be no more war. It will NOT happen again; never again! Never again! Never again!” -Flora Nwapa
Tana Publishing Co., founded by Flora Nwapa, has been described as the 1st 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.”
