Biography Essay

Cyprian Ekwensi is a Nigerian writer who deserves patient reading and careful review. He is frequently relegated to the background by critics, spurned by some and ignored by a few. Many a critic has made his debut by "shooting down" Ekwensi. It is quite easy to criticize a popular writer such as Ekwensi, yet whatever his faults (and there are many of them), he cannot be ignored by any serious student of African literature, for he has an undeniably important place in the historical development of the West African novel in English, and he is truly the father of the modern Nigerian novel. No matter how offensive some of his adult novels may be to moralists, no parent or teacher who has young children yearning for exciting literature can afford to overlook Ekwensi's stories for young readers. No matter how uneven the quality of his novels...