Literature of

Nigeria
Nigeria, country located on the western coast of
Africa. Nigeria has a diverse geography, with
climates ranging from arid to humid equatorial.
However, Nigeria’s most diverse feature is its
people. Hundreds of languages are spoken in the
country, including Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Hausa, Edo
, Ibibio, Tiv, and English. The country has
abundant natural resources, notably large
deposits of petroleum and natural gas.
Nigeria’s traditional
literature is mostly oral,
which consists of folk
stories, proverbs, riddles
and stories of common
people.
 Famous
Personalities in
Nigerian Literature
 Wole
Soyinka
First African writer to
win the Nobel Prize
for literature in 1986.
 Usuman
dan Fodio
Wrote about good
government and social
relations.
Chinua
Achebe
Born on the 16th of November 1930
in the Igbo town of Ogidi, Nigeria,
Achebe was widely known for his
novels, essays and poems. Heavily
influenced by Igbo traditions, these
works drew on folk tales and
proverbs, and questioned Western
ideas of Africa.
Things Fall Apart

No Longer at Ease

Arrow of god
----- The African Trilogy

An Image of Africa

Example of Nigerian Literature:

Once Upon A Time

By: Gabriel Okara
 The first significant English-language
black African poet and the first
Nigerian writer to publish in and join in
the editorial staff of the influential
literary journal Black Orpheus (started
in 1957).
One of the founders of modern
Nigerian and African literature
 Once Upon A
Time
Once upon a time, son,
they used to laugh with their hearts
and laugh with their eyes:
but now they only laugh with their
teeth,
while their ice-block-cold eyes
There was a time indeed
they used to shake hands with their hearts:
but that’s gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts
while their left hands search
my empty pockets.

‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:

they say, and when I come
again and feel
at home, once, twice,
there will be no thrice-
for then I find doors shut on me.
So I have learned many things, son.
I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses – homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktailface, with all their conforming
smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.
And I have learned too
to laugh with only my teeth
and shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,
when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
nice talking to you’, after being bored.
But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you. I want
to unlearn all these muting things.
Most of all, I want to relearn
how to laugh, for my laugh in the
mirror
shows only my teeth like a snake’s
bare fangs!
So show me, son,
how to laugh; show me how
I used to laugh and smile
once upon a time when I was like
you.