Ben Okri
Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions and has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez….more on Wikipedia
Age: 59
Birthplace: Nigeria, Minna, Africa
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart was considered his magnum opus, and is the most widely read book in modern African literature. Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease, …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 83 (1930-2013)
Birthplace: Nigeria, Ogidi, Anambra, Idemili North, Anambra State
Also Ranked
#95 on The Best Novelists of All Time
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was a Nigerian poet, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century.
Age: Dec. at 35 (1932-1967)
Birthplace: Nigeria, Anambra State, Africa
Mabel Segun
Mabel Segun is a Nigerian poet and writer. Born in Ondo, Nigeria, she attended the University of Ibadan, graduating in 1953 with a BA in English, Latin and History. She taught these subjects in Nigerian schools, and later became Head of the Department of English and Social Studies and Vice-Principal at the National Technical Teachers’ College, Yaba. As a broadcaster, she won the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation 1977 Artiste of the Year award. Segun has championed children’s literature in Nigeria through the Children’s Literature Association of Nigeria, which she founded in 1978, and the Children’s Documentation and Research Centre, which she set up in 1990 in Ibadan. She is also a fellow of…more on Wikipedia
Age: 89
Birthplace: Nigeria, Africa, Oyo State, Ibadan
Maureen Kenneth
A young Nigerian poet, below is her most recent poem-”Origin”
Who is he that knocks
Fearlessly like a Dimkpa?
Must he have got his strength
From Olisa?
Was he created by the chi
Of other young men?
Mba! He is way different.
He must have been trained
By Agu,
To withstand wars of nature
Without fright
He goes through the forest
Like he owns it,
Greeting young lions
With a dim voice “Kedu”.
Chineke is his creator
For he lacks nothing.
Even the birds make
Beautiful chirp with his name saying;
Nnaa! ga nke Oma,
Each time he takes his
Morning walk.
Do his kinsmen see him
This way?
If they do, why then do they
Speak ill of him?