Between Norman Mailer and Cyprian Ekwensi and Nigerian Intellectual Morons
Norman Mailer
When Norman Mailer died on November 10, 2007, the news of his passage was on the leading newspapers and major TV channels in America and Britain and I saw him on the CNN, SKY and the BBC. But none of these foreign news media reported the news of the passage of Cyprian Ekwensi who even died earlier in the same month on the 4th and my disappointment has been more pronounced by the ignorance of our own news media who only reported the news of Ekwensi's transition below their headlines and only The Guardian has given us a full report on the life of our own Charles Dickens, Cyprian Ekwensi. I have not even heard or read any statements by his contemporary literary icons like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.
Cyprian Ekwensi
I am really disappointed by the intellectual ignorance of the majority of Nigerians online and offline. That is why I do not have much regard for the ignorant posts of Nigerians on Nairaland and other Nigerian forums and blogs.
Abubuwan da nake tunani has posted on the passage of Cyprian Ekwensi and she is only a 30-year-old female graduate student in America. But what are our own Nigerian female writers doing? They have not even written a sentence on Cyprian Ekwensi and the intellectual morons online who were pretending to love African literature by merely name-dropping have no clue.
Only very few of us in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) have noted this historical passage.
Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was famous as the author of "The Nkaed and the Dead" (1948) as our own Cyprian Ekwensi was famous as the author of "Jagua Nana" (1961). Both great authors were prolific writers and were not only accomplised novelists, but also journalists.
Both old geniuses died whilst undergoing surgical operations.
Ekwensi died on 4 November 2007 at the age of 86 at the Niger Foundation in Enugu, where he underwent an operation for an undisclosed ailment.
May Cyprian Ekwensi rest in perfect peace.
Comments
I wonder who made that statement. A lot of times it rings so true.
By the way...
I can count such posts by Nigerians on my fingertips and I even doubt if they are up to 6.
The Nigerian newspapers did most of the reporting, but the Nigerian TV channels seemed not to know how to celebrate Cyprian Ekwensi who lived most of his life in Nigeria and was the best social historian of our time as most of his novels and short stories were historical fiction of our nation.
I have saved the headlines and links to all the news on his passage on my Kisses & Roses for the records.
Cheers and God bless.
I have just been able to respond to your comment.
I am not in Lagos or near Cyprian Ekwensi's family and relations.
God bless.