Flora Nwapa
Flora Nwapa (* 13 Januari 1931 - + 16 Oktoba 1993) alikuwa mwandishi na mhariri nchini Nigeria. Alikuwa mwandishi Mwafrika wa kike wa kwanza aliyechapisha Uingereza na kufahamika kimataifa.
Wasifu
haririFamilia na elimu
haririNwapa alizaliwa mjini Oguta, kusini-mashariki mwa Nigeria. [1] Alikuwa wa kwanza kati ya watoto sita wa Christopher Ijeoma (mfanyabiashara wa kuajiriwa) na Martha Nwapa (mwalimu).[2]
Flora alisoma shule kwao Oguta, Port Harcourt na Lagos. Aliendelea kwenye Chuo Kikuu cha Ibadan alipopata cheti cha bachelor mwaka 1957. Kutoka huko alihamia Uskoti alipopata diploma ya ualimu kwenye Chuo Kikuu cha Edinburgh mnamo 1958.
Kazi na utumishi wa serikali
haririBaada ya kurudi Nigeria alikuwa afisa wa wizara ya elimu huko Calabar kuanzia mwaka 1959. Miaka 1969 - 1971 alifundisha Kiingereza na Jiografia kwenye Queen's School mjini Enugu. Aliendelea kushika nafasi mbalimbali katika taasisi za elimu na idara za serikali.[3]
Baada ya vita ya wenyewe kwa wenyewe kutokana na farakano la Biafra miaka 1967–1970 aliitwa kuhudumia kama waziri wa afya na ustawi wa jamii kwenye Jimbo la Kati Mashariki (1970–1971) na baadaye kama waziri wa ardhi na maendeleo ya makazi.(1971–1974).[4]
Uandishi
haririFlora Nwapa alianza kuandika wakati alipokuwa mwalimu kwenye Queens School Enugu. Mwaka 1966 alitoa riwaya yake ya kwanza Efuru. Aliwahi kumtumia Chinua Achebe muswada wa kitabu mwaka 1962 akiomba maoni yake. Achebe alijibu kwa barua iliyomtia moyo pamoja na hela ya kutuma muswada kwa kampuni ya uchapishaji Heinemann huko London. [5] Hapo riwaya ya Nwapa ilikuwa kitabu cha kwanza cha mwandishi wa kike kilichotolewa katika mkusanyiko wa « African Writers Series ».
Ilifuatwa na riwaya nyingine za Idu (1967), Never Again (1975), One is Enough (1981) na Women Are Different (1986).
Alitoa pia hadithi fupi za This Is Lagos (1971) na Wives at War (1980) na kitabu cha shairi Cassava Song and Rice Song (1986) pamoja na vitabu mbalimbali kwa watoto.
Mchapishaji
haririPamoja na kuwa mwandishi, Nwapa alikuwa pia mwanamke Mwafrika wa kwanza wa kuanzisha kampuni ya kuchapisha vitabu.
Mwaka 1974 alianzisha Tana Press, halafu mnamo 1977 Flora Nwapa Company ambako alichapisha vitabu vyake mwenyewe pamoja na vya waandishi wengine. Alieleza shabaha yake kuwa "kuelimisha wanawake kote duniani, hasa mafeministi (wanaojiandika kwa F kubwa na kwa f ndogo) kuhusu nafasi ya wanawake nchini Nigeria, kujitegemea kwao kiuchumi, uhusiano wao na waume na watoto wao, imani zao za kijadi na hali yao katika jamii kwa jumla." [6]
Kifo
haririFlora Nwapa aliaga dunia mnamo 16 Oktoba 1993 katika hospitali mjini Enugu, Nigeria kutokana na kifua kikuu akiwa na umri wa miaka 62[7]
Baadhi ya vitabu vyake
hariri- Riwaya
- Efuru, Heinemann Educational Books, 1966; Waveland Press, 2013, ISBN 9781478613275
- Idu, Heinemann African Writers Series, No. 56, ISBN 0-435-90056-0; 1970
- Never Again, Enugu: Tana Press, 1975; Nwamife, 1976; Africa World Press, 1992, ISBN 9780865433182
- One Is Enough, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Co., 1981; Tana Press, 1984; Africa World Press, 1992, ISBN 9780865433229
- Women are Different, Enugu: Tana Press, 1986; Africa World Press, 1992, ISBN 9780865433267
- Hadithi fupi na mashairi
- This Is Lagos and Other Stories, Enugu: Nwamife, 1971; Africa World Press, 1992, ISBN 9780865433212
- Cassava Song and Rice Song, Enugu: Tana Press, 1986
- Wives at War and Other Stories, Enugu: Nwamife, 1980; Flora Nwapa Co./Tana Press, 1984; Africa World Press, 1992, ISBN 9780865433281
- Vitabu vya watoto
- The Adventures of Deke, Enugu: Tana Press, 1986
- Emeka, Driver's Guard, London, 1972; Nwapa, 1987
- Mammywater, 1979; Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1984
- Journey to Space, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1980
- The Miracle Kittens, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Company, 1980
- The Adventures of Deke, Enugu: Flora Nwapa Co., 1980
Tanbihi
hariri- ↑ Hamilton, Janice, Nigeria in Pictures, p. 71.
- ↑ "Interesting Things About Flora Nwapa, Nigeria’s First Female Novelist", Information Nigeria, 1 March 2013.
- ↑ Femi Nzegwu: Flora Nwapa The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
- ↑ Nwapa, Flora, in:Postcolonial Studies @ Emory
- ↑ Ainehi Edoro, Flora Nwapa and the Letter That Changed Nigerian Literature Forever, thejournalist.org.za, terieved March 2017
- ↑ "Frankfurt Book Fair 1980", Flora Nwapa interviewed in The African Book Publishing Record, Vol. VII, No. 1, 1981, p. 6.
- ↑ Brenda F, Berrian, "In Memoriam: Flora Nwapa (1931–1993", Signs, Vol. 20, No. 4, Postcolonial, Emergent, and Indigenous Feminisms (Summer 1995), pp. 996–999.
Kujisomea
hariri- Adeola, James (ed.), In Their Own Voices, African Women Writers Talk, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1990.
- Andrade, Susan Z., "Rewriting History, Motherhood and Rebellion", Research in African Literatures 21. (1990): 91-110.
- Ezeigbo, Theodora Akachi, "Traditional Women’s Institutions in Igbo Society: Implications for the Igbo Female Writer", Languages and Cultures 3. (1990): 149-65.
- Githaiga, Anna, Notes on Flora Nwapa's "Efuru", Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books, 1979.
- Ikonne, Chidi, "The Society and Woman’s Quest for Selfhood in Flora Nwapa’s Early Novels". Kunapipi 6. (1984): 68-78.
- Nzegwu, Femi, Love, Motherhood and the African Heritage: The Legacy of Flora Nwapa, African Renaissance Foundation (paperback 2003), ISBN 1-903625-09-2
- Ogunyemi, Chikwenye Okonjo, Africa Wo/Man Palava, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Umeh, Marie, Emerging Perspectives on Flora Nwapa: Critical and Theoretical Essays, Africa World Press (1998), ISBN 0-86543-515-4
- Wilentz, Gay, Binding Cultures, Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.