Cyprian Ekwensi
Cyprian Ekwensi MFR (26 September 1921 – 4 November 2007) was a Nigerian author of novels, short stories, and children's books.
Quotes
[edit]- How the city attracts all types and how the unwary must suffer from ignorance of its ways. [citation needed]
- I got the impulse to write at the Government College, Ibadan. We had a very good library and teachers who were oriented towards literature. Most of the emphasis was on English literature, English history. And we used a series of textbooks in English by Lancelot Oliphant called a Progressive English course, in which the teaching was done by extracts from literature and then the grammar and syntax came of these texts.
- "He said he loved Ojuelegba. The noise and vibes of the area fired his creativity. Silent places like Lagos Island wouldn’t have inspired him," by Uduma Kalu.
- Literature has the task of molding character. It has the task of glorifying Courage, focusing ambition, directing, and giving life. These are the things that literature can do, and the biggest task of all that literature has is that the writer, in whatever sense, is a teacher. He is a man who explores new avenues of life, and therefore he is a guide into these new avenues.
- No, I didn't have any feeling that something as disastrous as this would happen, but everyone had a feeling of impending disaster from the way the census figures were being rigged. From the way the election results were being played with. Everybody felt that something was coming, something really ominous, but nobody could predict the depth of it, and we all had this sense of doom hanging over us. In fact, the word revolution was mentioned several times, but it was a strange thing; no one had ever had what a revolution was or experienced it, but people knew something bad was coming.
People of the City (1954)
[edit]- His motto had become money, money, money. This was the way people of the city realized themselves.
- We want a new life, new opportunities ... We want to live there for some time -- but only for some time ! We have our homeland here and must come back when we can answer your father's challenge ! When we have done something, become something!
- But now things are different. Yes, things are gradually passing into African hands. Soon al the power will be in our hands. It's worth fighting for.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (1960)
[edit]- He looked out of the window, as if the interview gave him some pain, and for a moment I studied him silently.
- He looked over his shoulder, like a thief entering a strong room, and his voice sank low.
- I wish I could tell you my story…I feel you would understand”…. to a stranger he met fortuitously on the train and for two days had travelled with in silence
- ....I was born sixty-five years ago, at a time when man was man, and women were won by those who deserved them.
- Chapter 1
- ....Tonight, one of you is going to win the hand of my daughter Zarah. But he must be the bravest of you all. We live in times when a man’s might is his right.
- the cry of someone in great pain, a person who immediate help would mean everything.
- can you hear me now? I shall not rest, for I shall know no peace until I have avenged you.
Burning Grass (1962)
[edit]- Not a war. But then, it was a war. When the forest burns do the locusts stop to say goodbye?
- I say there has been a war. If a fish comes out of the water and says the crocodile has one eye, who has been there with him?
- Night might convert the old devil into a fiend.
- A maiden is one of those things a man must not trust. By Allah, it is!
- He who waits will see what is in the grass.
- You pay twenty head of cattle for a maiden because you are excited. Then when your head is cool, you begin to say "If I had known!
- On the day of death, there is no medicine.
