Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are two names that are linked with Nigerian literature. However, the literary output of the nation is not restricted to these two greats. Here, we examine ten authors whose international success attests to their talent and the breadth of modern Nigerian writing.
1. Achebe Chinua
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T001630.859.jpeg)
Chinua Achebe is one of the most internationally acclaimed African authors, and his death in 2013 prompted a worldwide outpouring of condolences. Although he was frequently referred to as “The Father of Nigerian Literature,” he twice denied the Nigerian government’s offer to make him Commander of the Federal Republic – first in 2004 and again in 2011 – in protest against the country’s political regime. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), is an intimate picture of the conflict between the African traditions of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria and European colonialism. Achebe’s works portray a tapestry of cultural standards, shifting societal ideals, and the struggle of the individual to find a place in this society by combining oral tradition with Igbo folk stories.
2. Wole Soyinka
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T001741.331-300x200.jpeg)
In 1986, when playwright, poet, and author Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Chinua Achebe joined the rest of Africa in congratulating the first African to win the honour.
The oppression and exploitation of the weak by the powerful is a recurring theme in Soyinka’s writing. Neither the white speculator nor the black exploiter are exempt from his criticism.
Wole Soyinka has also played a significant part in Nigerian politics, which has exposed him to significant personal risk at times. The regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), for example, announced a “in absentia” death sentence against him.
Novels he has written include Aké: The Years of Childhood and Death and the King’s Horseman. You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir is Soyinka’s personal account of his life, experiences, and ideas towards Africa and Nigeria.
3. Femi Osofisan
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T001833.626.jpeg)
As is the case with many Nigerian authors, Femi Osofisan’s body of work, which includes plays, poems, and novels, is influenced by colonialism and its legacy and is a clear protest against corruption and injustice. Nonetheless, his explorations of themes concerning the complex history of his country are rarely literal. Instead, Osofisan makes use of allegory and metaphor, and his writing frequently has a surrealist bent.
His debut novel, Kolera Kolej (1975), portrays the story of a Nigerian university campus that is granted freedom in order to prevent the spread of a cholera epidemic. His most famous drama, Women of Owu (2004), is an adaptation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women. Osofisan connects the drama to the Ijebe and Ife war that ravaged the Owu Kingdom from 1821 to 1826.
4. Ben Okri
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T001959.394.jpeg)
Ben Okri is a well-known novelist and poet whose works defy categorization. He is frequently labelled postmodern, yet his seamless incorporation of the spirit realm into his stories challenges this classification.
The author also disputes suggestions that his work belongs to the “magical realism” genre, arguing that his writing is not a foray into the realm of the weird, but rather a reflection of a childhood in which myths, ancestors, and spirits were an integral part. Once, he stated, “everyone’s reality is unique.” The Famished Road (1991), part of a trilogy that also includes Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches, is his most renowned work. Azaro, a spirit-child narrator, recounts his travels.
5. Buchi Emecheta
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T002112.248.jpeg)
Emecheta, who was born in Lagos to Igbo parents, travelled to London in 1960 to be with her husband, Sylvester Onwordi, who had relocated to the city to pursue his education. Although the marriage produced five children, Onwordi was a violent partner.
The couple had been engaged since they were 11 years old. Emecheta left him and established herself as a single mother when he destroyed her first novel.
Her novels address gender inequality, slavery, and how women are frequently defined by their sexuality or their ability to carry children, drawing significantly from her own experiences. The protagonist of her most celebrated piece, The Joys of Motherhood (1979), is a lady whose life is defined and validated only by the accomplishments of her children. In 2005, Emecheta receiveds the OBE.
6. Sefi Atta
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sefi_Atta_2021-819x1024.jpg)
Sefi Atta is a sensitive writer who approaches polarising topics in a delicate and subtle manner.
Everything Good Will Come (2005), her first novel, tells the narrative of Enitan, an eleven-year-old girl waiting for school to begin, and her friendship with the girl next door, which receives little support from Enitan’s highly religious mother.
Set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s military government in the 1970s, it is both a coming-of-age story and a silent protest against political corruption and the suppression of women. Atta is well-known for her radio dramas, which have aired on the BBC, and her short tales, which have been published in a number of magazines, including the Los Angeles Review of Books.
7. Helon Habila
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T002307.449.jpeg)
After graduating from the University of Jos in 1995, Helon Habila first worked as a junior lecturer in Bauchi, then as the Stories Editor for Hints magazine, before relocating to England in 2002 to become the African Fellow at the University of East Anglia. In the same year, his first novel, Waiting for an Angel, was published. It is a complicated book that interweaves seven episodes and speaks collectively about life under authoritarian control in Nigeria.
The work was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the African region, leading to the author’s increased success. His two subsequent novels, Measuring Time (2007) and his most recent, Oil on Water (2011), have been as well-received, and the accolades and honours he has garnered speak to his sophisticated and poetic literary voice. check out TOP BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR BUSINESS
8. Teju Cole
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T002425.142.jpeg)
Cole’s background is as diverse as his career: he was born in the United States to Nigerian parents, raised in Nigeria, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In addition to being a photographer, art historian, and novelist, he is the Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York’s Bart College.
Open City (2011), his debut novel, is set in New York five years after 9/11 and follows Julius, a psychiatry graduate, as he wanders aimlessly first through the city, then through Brussels, on the rebound from a prior romance. While geographical locations play a significant role in the work, the narrative mostly functions as a map of Julius’ inner world, as its structure reflects his frequently baffling cognitive processes.
9. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T002514.465.jpeg)
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a novelist, journalist, and essayist who displayed an early passion for the written word by receiving her first writing award at the age of 13. She has written for the New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian, and CNN, among other publications.
Her 2010 debut novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance, is written in a humorous and irreverent manner that belies the seriousness of the topics it covers. Unable to find employment, the protagonist of the book, Kingsley, turns to the shadowy realm of email confidence tricks. The 419 scams are frequently touted by xenophobes and racists as Nigeria’s primary export, but Adoabi treats this thorny problem with humour and levity, producing a story about family, aspiration, and the difficult realities of ageing.
10. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
![From Achebe To Adichie: Top Ten Nigerian Authors](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-30T002616.149.jpeg)
Adichie is a member of a new generation of Nigerian writers who are rapidly gaining prominence. Each of her three novels has gained widespread recognition and a multitude of honours.
Her first two books explored the political climate of her own nation through the lens of personal and familial relationships. Purple Hibiscus (2003), winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book, is the story of Kambili, 15, whose father is strangely embroiled in a military coup that destabilises the nation.
The publication of Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) substantiated the author’s exceptional potential. The book portrays the daily tragedies of the Nigerian-Biafran war via the contrasting experiences of its four protagonists. Ifemulu and Obinze, childhood sweethearts who are separated when one travels to study in America, are the protagonists of her most recent novel, Americanah (2013). However, racism, immigration, and globalisation are still included.
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