Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa was a Nigerian writer who was given the label "the mother of modern African literature". She was the first African woman novelist and the first African woman to be published as an author in the English language in Britain. She gained international recognition with her first novel, Efuru, published by Heinemann Educational Books in 1966.
She published African literature and promoted women in African society. She was one of the first African women to publish books when she established her own publishing company in Nigeria in 1970. Nwapa was involved in government work for national reconstruction after the Biafran War; in particular, she worked to aid orphans and refugees who lost their homes during the war.
Early Years and Education
Nwapa was born in Oguta local government area of Imo State, in southeastern Nigeria, on January 13, 1931. She was the eldest of six children of Christopher Ijeoma (an agent with the United Africa Company) and Martha Nwapa, a teacher. Flora Nwapa attended secondary school at Oguta Elelenwo in Obio Akpor local government area of Rivers State, in south-south Nigeria, and at the CMS Girls' School in Lagos State, which later moved to Ibadan and merged with the Kudeti Girls' School, later renamed St. Anne's. In 1953, at age 22, she attended university, and in 1957, at age 26, she received a BA degree from University College Ibadan in Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria. She then went to Scotland, where she earned a Diploma in Education from the University of Edinburgh in 1958.
Family Life
Flora Nwapa had three children: Ejine Nzeribe (with her first husband), and Uzoma Gogo Nwakuche and Amede Nzeribe, whom she had with her second husband, Chief Gogo Nwakuche.
Her uncle, A. C. Nwapa, was Nigeria's first Minister of Commerce and Industry.
Teaching and Public Service
After returning to Nigeria, Nwapa joined the education ministry in Calabar as an education officer until 1959. She then took up a teaching post at Queen's School in Enugu, where she taught English and Geography from 1959 to 1962. She continued in government service in various roles, including Assistant Registrar at the University of Lagos. After the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–70, she became a commissioner, serving as Commissioner for Health and Social Welfare in East Central State (1970–71), and then as Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Development (1971–74). She was a lecturer at the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education in Owerri, Nigeria. In 1989, she was appointed a professor of creative writing at the University of Maiduguri.
Writing and Publishing
Nwapa's first book, Efuru, was published in 1966 when she was 30, and she is considered a pioneer in writing English-language stories as a female African author. She sent a copy of the book to the famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe in 1962, who responded with a letter of praise and even included money to mail the manuscript to the Heinemann publishing company for publication.
Nwapa wrote 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 a volume of poems, Cassava Song and Rice Song (1986). She was also the author of several children's books.
In 1974, she founded her own publishing company, and in 1977, Tana Press (and its subsidiary, Flora Nwapa Company), published adult and children's books as well as works by other authors. One of her objectives was "to inform and educate women all over the world, especially in Africa, about the role of women in Nigeria, their traditional and contemporary status within the community." She has been described as "the first African woman novelist to be published in English and to be considered a literary foremother by a generation of young writers" at a time when "African women did not yet constitute a reading public, much less a book-buying one."
Her works appeared in publications ranging from journals such as Présence Africaine and Black Orpheus in the 1960s and 70s to the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Nwapa's work as a teacher continued throughout her life, which included teaching at international colleges and universities, including New York University, Trinity College, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, and University of Ilorin. She said in an interview with a Contemporary Authors interviewer, "I have been writing for nearly thirty years. My interest has been on both the rural and urban woman in her bid to survive in a fast-changing world dominated by men."
Flora Nwapa died of pneumonia on October 16, 1993, in a hospital in Enugu, Nigeria; she was 62 years old. Her last novel, The Lake Goddess, was published posthumously.
Regarding her political views, Nwapa considered herself a womanist, a term coined by American author Alice Walker in her collection of essays In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983). She also urged mothers to strive for equality within society through commerce. She is often called the mother of modern African literature.
Honors and Awards
In 1983, the Nigerian government awarded her the OON (Officer of the Order of the Niger), one of the country's highest honors. She received an award from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). She received the author's and publisher's prize at the 1985 book fair. In 1989, she was made a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State, a position she held until her death. She was a member of the International PEN committee in 1991 and the committee for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize awards in 1992. She was given the highest chieftaincy title (Ogbuefi) in her town, an honor usually reserved for successful men.