9/27/2023 0 Comments Rough draft for essay on potWhen a student asked me, I told her to Google it. In 2016, Chinelo Okparanta published Under The Udala Trees in the US and UK, and made no attempt to explain what an udala is in the novel. It was important to Olisakwe that ‘Ogadinma’, which any Igbo speaker would recognise as a stock phrase used to comfort someone going through a hard time, was in the title. Ukamaka Olisakwe’s debut, Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be Alright (the latter part of the title is a direct translation of the former), was published in the UK in 2020. It isn’t a metaphor as much as the real act of becoming. One who ‘eats’ witchcraft becomes a witch, for instance. ‘Eat’ in this sense would be considered a metaphor by non-Igbo speakers, but it is how the Igbo express initiation. Take Chikodili Emelumadu’s debut Dazzling, a YA fantasy novel published in the UK earlier this year about a small girl who must ‘eat the leopard’. The new generation of Igbo writers – to which Okani belongs – is less concerned with proving the humanity of the Igbo than in celebrating a culture and language that we are very proud of. The writers’ aim, understandably, was to depict a culture as valid as that of the colonialists and to show that the Igbo (AKA ‘the African’) is not the simpering, exotic man-child colonial literature made him out to be, but rather, a full, functioning human. Achebe’s was written two years before Nigeria’s independence from Britain – when most of Africa was still under colonial rule, Nwapa’s followed six years after that, when ‘the African’ was seen as ‘the exotic other’. Both of their debuts, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Nwapa’s Efuru (1966), centre the Igbo world and are set in pre-colonial Igbo villages. However, it would be impossible to talk about our writing, our use of Igbo words, and our narratives as portals into the Igbo world without referencing the Igbo Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe, AKA the father of African literature, and Flora Nwapa, its matriarch. For her, and for many of us Igbo writers publishing globally in English, there is an intentionality to centring our Igboness in our narratives. Wherever her prose appears online, there is always a line stating that she is an Igbo writer. Kasimma Okani, the author of the short story collection All Shades Of Iberibe, insists on including her Igbo ethnic identity at the end of her biography. To accompany the launch of Service95 Book Club’s August Book of the Month, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun, Unigwe explores the importance of Igbo identity – a central pillar of the novel – and explains why Igbo writers past and present celebrate the Igbo language and culture in their work The best part of the essay process is easing the parents’ and students’ stress level and making it a fun experience for everyone.Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian professor and author of Igbo descent. To date, I have worked with hundreds of students in San Diego County and thousands across the country. I have been editing essays for the past 10 years and I thoroughly enjoy working with students and helping them portray themselves in the best possible light for a college admission officer. I taught high school English at Marian Catholic High School (currently Mater Dei) for six years.Īfter starting a family, I decided that I needed a job with more flexibility, so I began editing essays for seniors in high school who were applying to college. After arriving in San Diego, I received my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from San Diego State. I am originally from Milford, CT, and I moved to San Diego after graduating from Boston College where I majored in English and minored in secondary education. My name is Meghean Gormley and I live in San Diego with my husband, four children, and my dog Lucy.
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