WRITER

Flora Nwapa

1931 - 1993

Photo of Flora Nwapa

Icon of person Flora Nwapa

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993), was a Nigerian author who has been called the mother of modern African Literature. She was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers, and the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain. She achieved international recognition with her first novel Efuru, published in 1966 by Heinemann Educational Books. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Flora Nwapa has received more than 158,608 page views. Her biography is available in 23 different languages on Wikipedia. Flora Nwapa is the 6,208th most popular writer (down from 5,504th in 2019), the 62nd most popular biography from Nigeria (down from 48th in 2019) and the 7th most popular Nigerian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 160k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 42.70

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 23

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.86

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.60

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Cassava song & Rice song
Efuru
Nigerian fiction (English)
Idu
Fiction
Wives at war and other stories
Wives at war, and other stories
Social life and customs, Fiction
Wives at war, and other stories
Social life and customs, Fiction, Fiction, short stories (single author)
Women are different
Fiction, general
This is Lagos and other stories
Social life and customs, Fiction, Fiction, short stories (single author)
Efuru
Nigerian fiction (English), Fiction, general
"Appearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931-1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism"--Page 4 of cover
Idu
Fiction
One is enough
Fiction, Nigeria, fiction, Fiction, general

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Flora Nwapa ranks 6,208 out of 7,302Before her are Paolo Giordano, Lorraine Hansberry, Sida Košutić, Glenn Greenwald, Brian Jacques, and Emma Willard. After her are Pentti Haanpää, Wolfdietrich Schnurre, Cynthia Ozick, Mikhail Gurevich, China Miéville, and R. D. Blackmore.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1931, Flora Nwapa ranks 548Before her are Andrew Hill, Bruce C. Murray, Arthur Fry, Felix Sobolev, George Baker, and Elliott Belgrave. After her are Barbara Barrie, Ken Bates, John Houghton, Ronald Drever, Tadeusz Rut, and Maxine Singer. Among people deceased in 1993, Flora Nwapa ranks 285Before her are Evelyn Venable, Daulat Singh Kothari, Helmut Braselmann, Vladimir Barmin, Kenneth Connor, and Alfred Mosher Butts. After her are Ben Klassen, Wallace Stegner, Michael Clarke, Penaia Ganilau, Glenn Corbett, and Clifford Jordan.

Others Born in 1931

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Others Deceased in 1993

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In Nigeria

Among people born in Nigeria, Flora Nwapa ranks 62 out of 309Before her are Peter Rufai (1963), Buchi Emecheta (1944), Celestine Babayaro (1978), Taye Taiwo (1985), Victor Boniface (2000), and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900). After her are Hakeem Kae-Kazim (1962), Omowunmi Sadik (1964), Emmanuel Olisadebe (1978), Ahmed Musa (1992), Vincent Enyeama (1982), and Ben Okri (1959).

Among WRITERS In Nigeria

Among writers born in Nigeria, Flora Nwapa ranks 7Before her are Wole Soyinka (1934), Chinua Achebe (1930), Olaudah Equiano (1745), Amos Tutuola (1920), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977), and Buchi Emecheta (1944). After her are Ben Okri (1959), Cyprian Ekwensi (1921), Okwui Enwezor (1963), Chris Abani (1966), Sefi Atta (1964), and Helen Oyeyemi (1984).