Obi

by John Okechukwu Munonye

RARE SOFTCOVER BOOK

Genres: Nigeria, Africa

210 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1969

About the author

An important important Igbo writer and one of the most important Nigerian writers of the twentieth of century. Educated at the University of Ibadan and the Institute of Education, London. He retired as the head of the Advanced Teacher Training College, Owerri.

John Munonye, unlike some of his contemporaries professed a love for optimism in the face of colonial onslaught on traditional values. To him, the dialectical environment of African and western tradition can be seen in both a positive light and outcome for the common Igbo or Nigerian man or woman. An overriding theme in his novels is the focus on the common man. Munonye sometimes view the common man as being born into a position whereby he is already at a disadvantage, both historically and presently, He sees little difference to the fate of the common man who could be manipulated at the whims of elites and chiefs in both pre- and post-colonial Nigeria and during colonialism.

Reviews

[Daniel Polansky]

A Christian husband and wife return to their ancestral village, struggle to uphold their faith in light of the native traditions regarding childlessness. Munyonye was had the same CV as Aluko and Peters and was (obviously) focused on some of the same themes, although this is less focused on the struggles of the African intelligentsia and more on the interactions of then prototypical post-colonial Nigerians. It was good, like most of what I read this week. I really enjoy the use of the novel to explore the existence of unfamiliar populations.