Only Canadian found in the list is Scarborough-born David Chariandy. Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi whose father is Igbo and her mother Indian Tamil
More than half a dozen Nigerian writers feature in a list of 100 must-read black novelists compiled by the American daily USA Today.
In the compilation, dominated by US-born writers, the Nigerian celebrities include Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Abi Daré, Akwaeke Emezi Chigozie Obioma, Uzodinma Iweala (born in America), Chigozie Obioma, England-based Helen Oyeyemi and Uzodinma Iweala. The majority of these writers who represent the younger generation are women.
The only Canadian who has made it to the list is David Chariandy, whose debut Soucouyant was nominated and won numerous awards. His follow-up, 2017’s Brother, the story of two brothers raised by an immigrant mother, won the Toronto Book Award and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. His parents immigrated to Canada from Trinidad. He lives in Vancouver and teaches at Simon Fraser Univesity.
Absent from the list are Canadian icons such as Austin Clerk (Polished Hoe), Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negros) and Esi Edugyan, whose Half-Blood Blues was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Nigerian icon Chinua Achebe, novelist, poet, professor, critic, and his first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Literary sensation Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the best young writer to come from Nigeria in the recent past, wrote her debut Purple Hibiscus at 26. Her other well-known works are Half of a Yellow Sun (2003) that was made into a film, and Americanah (2013).
The New York Times hailed Akwaeke Emezi’s debut Freshwater (2019) as a “remarkable and daring debut novel” and the New Yorker as an “indigenous fairytale.” She was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her father is Igbo, while the mother is of Indian Tamil heritage.
Another young Nigerian is Abi Daré, whose remarkable debut, The Girl With the Louding Voice, won The Bath Novel Award in 2018 and was selected as a finalist in The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition in 2018. Abi lives in England. An Orchestra of Minorities, dealing with Nigeria’s chequered past and its traditional beliefs was short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize.
Uzodinma Iweala is a Nigerian – American author and medical doctor. His debut, Beasts of No Nation was made into an award-winning film starring Idris Elba.
A well-known Nigerian writer missing from the list is England-based Ben Okri who won the prestigious Booker Prize for The Famished Road in 1991.
The USA Today list also includes several writers hailing from other African and Caribbean countries.
The Scotland-born Aminatta Forna, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain, has penned four novels, starting with Ancestor Stones in 2006.
Yaa Gyasi, who was born in Ghana and raised in the U.S. wrote her debut Homegoing, winning the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for the best first book and the PEN/Hemingway Award for an author’s first book of fiction.
The other Third World authors featured in the list are Marlon James (Jamaica), Jamaica Kincaid who came to the U.S. from the West Indies to work as an au pair and Imbolo Mbue (Behold the Dreamers) who was born in Cameroon. Fransesca Momplaisir (My Mother’s House) fled Haiti for a new life in the U.S. and British writer Zadie Smith grew up in Jamaica and emigrated to England in 1969.
Aminatta Forna who was born in Scotland and raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain, has penned four novels, starting with Ancestor Stones in 2006. Her most recent book, 2018’s Happiness, explores the city of London and its marginalized communities.
Missing from the list are Dominican-born American writer Junto Diaz (Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and NoViolet Bulawayo who was born in Zimbabwe. In 2012 the National Book Foundation named her a five under 35 honorees for her remarkable debut We Need New Names.
The list also features several heavyweights in American fiction. They are Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Iceberg Slim (also known as Robert Beck), Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Nella Larsen, Ralph Ellison, Alex Haley and Charles W. Chestnut. (Somasiri Munasinghe – www.newstrails.com)
