Flora Nwapa
| Flora Nwapa | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
13 January 1931 Oguta |
| Died | 16 October 1993 (aged 62) Enugu |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Ethnicity | Igbo |
| Genres | Novels; Short stories |
Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa (pronunciation: /ˈflɔːrə/ /ŋˈwoʊpɑː/) (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993) was a Nigerian author best known as Flora Nwapa, who has been called the mother of modern African literature. The forerunner to a generation of African women writers, she is acknowledged as the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain and achieve international recognition, with her first novel Efuru being published in 1966 by Heinemann Educational Books. While never considering herself a feminist, she is best known for recreating life and traditions from an Igbo woman's viewpoint.
Nwapa also is known for her governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War. In particular she worked with orphans and refugees who were displaced during the war. Further, she published African literature and promoted women in African society. She was one of the first African women publishers when she founded Tana Press in the 1970s.
Nwapa was born in Oguta, in south-eastern Nigeria, the eldest of the six children of Christopher Ijeoma (an agent with the United Africa Company) and Martha Nwapa, a teacher of drama. Flora Nwapa attended school in Oguta, Port Harcourt and Lagos. She went on to earn a BA degree from University College, Ibadan, in 1957. She then went to Scotland, where she earned a Diploma in Education from Edinburgh University in 1958.
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