Between stints as a teacher, forester, pharmacist, broadcaster and film-maker, the west African novelist Cyprian Ekwensi published more than 40 books as well as radio and television scripts. His first novel, "People of the City" (1954), appearing four years before Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", was the second Nigerian novel to be published in Britain to international acclaim following Amos Tutuola's "Pamwine Drinkard". "Jagua Nana" (1961) won Ekwensi the 1968 Dag Hammarskjöld prize in literature.
"People of the City" tells the story of a young crime reporter who doubles as a bandleader in a large west African city. As one British critic wrote, the novel said more about west Africa than 50 government reports. However, Ireland banned the novel on the grounds of indecency. Controversy was to dog Ekwensi's literary career.
Of Igbo extraction, Ekwensi was born in Minna, in Northern Nigeria. His father, David Anadumaka, a famed storyteller and elephant hunter, inspired him towards creative writing. Ekwensi was a brilliant, gregarious pupil at boarding school - Government college, Ibadan (1936-41) - and became engrossed in Yoruba culture. His school life and multi-ethnic upbringing were to be reflected in his work. After stints at various Nigerian and Ghanaian colleges, he worked as a forestry officer (1945-47).
In that wild and lonely environment, he began writing short adventure stories, some of which were published in 1947 as "Ikolo the Wrestler and Other Ibo Tales". The same year, five of his works were published in England by Lutterworth Press as part of its African new writing series. Another collection of light romance stories came out in 1948 from an Onitsha publisher in Nigeria. In 1949, Ekwensi began to read his stories on the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation while also writing for several Lagos newspapers.
Two years later, he won a scholarship to study pharmacy at London University. He said that it was while he was on the ship to England that he began to assemble "People of the City". Working as a pharmacy assistant at Oldchurch hospital, Romford, Essex, he wrote plays that were broadcast by the BBC. He also recorded a voiceover for "Man of Africa" (1953), which featured at the 1954 Venice film festival. Ekwensi's film scripts included "Nigeria Greets the Queen", marking her first visit to Nigeria in 1956.
On his return to Nigeria that year, he worked for the broadcasting corporation, becoming director of information in 1961. Two children's novellas, "The Drummer Boy" and "The Passport of Mallam Illia", were published in 1960 and the novel "Jagua Nana" and the equally successful collection of vignettes, "Burning Grass", in 1961. From 1961 to 1966, Ekwensi published at least one major work each year. "Jagua Nana", the story of a high-class Lagos prostitute, was vehemently attacked by the Catholic and Anglican churches for its sexually explicit language and was banned in several schools. An application to film the book was rejected by the Nigerian parliament - but then came the Dag Hammarskjöld prize.
When the Nigerian civil war broke out in 1966, Ekwensi became an adviser to secessionist leader Odumegwu Ojukwu, chairing Biafra's external publicity bureau. After the war, he resumed his literary and pharmaceutical career. He helped form the Association of Nigerian Authors in 1981, and in 2001, was made a member of the Order of the Federal Republic. Four years later, he was inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Arts.
"Five decades or more of writing have brought me world fame but not fortune," he said. "If I were an American living in America or Europe, I would be floating in a foam bath in my own private yacht off the coast of Florida." He was working on his (still unpublished) biography in 2007 when he passed at the age of 86. He is survived by Chinwe, his wife, and their nine children.
(Adapted from the Guardian (UK) Tuesday February 5 2008)
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