Fagunwa biography examples

Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Nigerian author. Early life [ edit ]. Family history [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Teaching career [ edit ]. Literary career [ edit ]. Death [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Works [ edit ]. Novels [ edit ]. Other publications [ edit ]. He started his careeras a teacher at St.

Andrew's Practising School where he manned the nursery section forten years He also taught at St. On October , Fagunwa went for a course on a scholarhip from the British Council; he was in Brit ain until and when he returned to Nigeria he took up a teaching appointment at the Government Teacher Training Centre, Ibadan from In , Fagunwa went back to Britain with the aim ofacquiring a university degree.

He could not achieve this ambition, however, because he was re called in to take up the post of education officer with the Publication Branch of the Ministry of Education in Western Nigeria. He held this position until when he left the service of the regional government to become a representative of Heinemann Educational Books Limited in Nigeria.

Fagunwa's talent as a major writer came to the fore in when he submitted his first creative ef fort, a novel titled Ogboju OdeNinuIgboIrunmole to a competition organized by one Miss Plummer. The book was described as 'a didactic fantasia novel. With the publication of this book, Fagunwa be came a cult hero. People from all walks of life began to read his books for pleasure.

After the first edition of Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole was sold out, Fagunwa transferred the publishing rights to Thomas Nelson and Sons Limited which brought out a new edition of the novel in December Since then this Yoruba classic has remained. Apart from this novel,Fagunwa puh'ished four other novels, namely Igbo Olodumare One of the reasons Fagunwa's novels are ad mired is that they are steeped in the folklore of Yoruba culture.

As Professor Bamgbose observes, Fagunwa pioneered the tradition of expanding the Yoruba folktales into longer and more complex stories. With this approach, the venerable author man aged to carry along the positive effects of oral tradition into modern novel writing. The result is uniquely satisfying. His novels not only appeal to schoolchildren and ordinary readers, but they also strike the right chord among academics.

Commenting on Fagunwa, Wole Soyinka described him as "a man of letters,self-compelling genius, a literary giant, who blends lyrical grace, marvellous realism, a limitless folkloric pool, and vigorous Christian moralism into a vibrantly syncretic Yoruba cosmology". ProfessorUlli Beier has this to say about Fagunwa's stories: "The true Yoruba flavour ofFagunwa's work lies not in the material he used, but in the language and inthe manner and tone ofhis story-telling.

These are elements to which the average Yoruba reader re sponds with delight; for Fagunwa has the humour, the rhetoric, the wordplay, the bizarre imagery that Yorubas like and appreciate in their language These qualities, however, have not blinded his critics to some of his weaknesses as a writer. Some critics, for instance, have expressed some reservations abouthismoralizingandtheramblingplots of his novels.

Miss Karin Barber is quoted as saying: "Fagunwa is solidlyconservative, upholding with eulogisticfervourtheestablishedauthoritystructure and the values that maintain it". In spite ofthis, however, Fagunwa's achievements as a writer remain unparalled and this explains why he continues to attract so many followers. Charms are sewed into leather and won round the waist, arms and neck; rings are worn round fingers, charms are put inside little gourds.

Some charms are taken orally or through incisions in the body. He himself gave up his middle name Orowale and assumed a new one Olorunfemi ; then proceeded to St. The Christian doctrine which Fagunwa has imbibed manifests itself powerfully in his creative output in various clear ways: The biblical allusions in his novels are in myriads. Fagunwa for a long long time i because of his professional calling as a teacher, and ii because of the permanency of his formidable Christian background, all of which he has brought to bear on the development of the themes and techniques of his writing.

In his life time, Fagunwa was evidently a voracious reader of classical English and Greek literature books. Works of D. L Laosebikan ; Taiwo ati Kehinde with L. Lawis These thematic similarities make one to conclude that, in Fagunwa, if you have read just one of his novels, then you have indirectly read all of his novels! Most characters, especially the minor ones are paper-thin; vaguely depicted; unrealistically portrayed; passive and dull.

Fagunwa biography examples

Thematically, his novels also explore the divide between the Christian beliefs of Africa's colonizers and the continent's traditional religions. He also used Greek myths and Shakespearean stories as themes in his books, such as in his book Igbo Olodumare, where the character Baba-onirugbon-yeuke tells a story similar to Romeo and Juliet. He died in a river in ; the ground by the bank of the river apparently gave way under his feet and he fell into the river.

He tried to swim out of the water but sank because the canoe by the river also fell and collapsed on him. Fagunwa day formerly known as Fagunwa night is an annual event aimed at reading and promoting his five books. The idea came to him to write, after all those who wrote books were human beings like himself. That was where he started writing this book.

The woman contacted some hunters and the villagers to search the bush. God saved him. The period they came was when he had gone out to buy yam, otherwise they would have searched the place and could have killed him while doing so. He was returning to the bush after buying yam when those men stopped him. They asked him where he was going and where he came from.

He said he told them stories about himself. They followed him into the bush and saw the small table, chair and books on the table. They asked him where he originated from. He told them and that he was the headmaster of St. That was how they spared him. After finishing writing the book, the problem of printing arose.