The Poetics of Economic Independence for Female Empowerment: An Interview with Flora

Nwapa
Author(s): Marie Umeh and Flora Nwapa
Source: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 2, Flora Nwapa (Summer, 1995), pp.
22-29
Published by: Indiana University Press
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 The Poetics of Economic
Independence for Female
Empowerment: An
Interview with Flora Nwapa

Marie Umeh

Flora Nwapa-Nwakuche, popularly known as Flora

Nwapa, Africa's first internationally recognized female novelist and publisher,
died of pneumonia on 16 October 1993, at the age of 62 in Enugu, Nigeria. She was
buried at Amede's Court in Ugwuta. In what was to be my last conversation with
Flora Nwapa-Nwakuche in December 1992, in Scarsdale, New York, when she was
on tour in the United States, the renowned author spoke not only of the glory she
received as the first African woman to be published internationally, but also
unashamedly of her position as a writer globally, coming from a formerly colonized
state. Very much in tune with her Ugwuta heritage, Nwapa applauded the androgy-
nous nature of her society. Conversely, she decried the "multiple marginality" she
experienced with her Western publisher who regarded her as a "minor writer."
Regarded as a Third World writer, her London publisher did not bother to print and
distribute her books locally and internationally when they were in demand as they
would have if she came from a so-called "first world" country. According to
Nwapa, Heinemann's placing her in the literary backwaters resulted in the piracy of
her books in Africa and the death of her voice globally. And as Ama Ata Aidoo once
said, when the canonical establishment refuses to promote, print, distribute, read,
and critique your books, they kill you creatively (38). Recognizing her status as
"other," Nwapa took it upon herself to distribute her books herself and established
Tana Press Limited in 1977 for this purpose. It is my contention that Nwapa's resis-
tance to the canonical politics of her erasure is behind her distancing herself from
the term "feminist" to describe her ideological position in global letters. Certainly,
Nwapa x-rayed and analyzed her own realities and concluded that sexism is a sec-
ondary problem that arises out of race, class, and the exploitation of people of color.
Hence, she preferred to identify with Alice Walker's term "womanist," which
reflected the African reality of effacement based on racial difference.
The Eurocentric popular view of the position of African women is one of sub-
ordination to husbands, and the repression of talents outside the domestic realm.
Despite the asymmetrical nature of some African societies, gifted African women
in pre-colonial times were not deterred from playing significant roles exercised by
female leaders, such as Moremi, Queen Amina of Zaria, and Olufunmilayo Ran-
some-Kuti. Similarly, Flora Nwapa contends that if she is considered the doyenne
of African female writers, the glory goes to the oral historians and griottes who mes-
merized her with stories about the mystical powers of Ogbuide, the mother of the
lake, her family members of industrious women and men who served as role mod-
els, as well as her penchant for service and the pursuit of excellence. Accordingly,

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 Marie Umeh 23

in opposition to the belief that women in the Igbo area of Nigeria do not
nut, Nwapa informs us that a woman in Ugwuta society who has achiev
of her industry and talent is indeed recognized for her accomplishments a
privilege of breaking and sharing kola. Of course, this modus operandi po
complexity and complementary nature of sex roles of some Igbo societ
colonial Africa, which ensured kith and kin that a woman who has dis
herself would not have her gender mitigated against her. The Ugwuta com
therefore one of those special communities in that status and recognit
biologically based. Ugwuta society, it appears, subscribes to Victor U
view that "a child who washes his/her hands, eats with elders." Indeed, th
analysis is the individual. For her courage in exploiting the complementar
system in Ugwuta society, despite the obstacles pioneers must confront
come, Flora Nwapa is certainly a phenomenon.
By breaking the silence of women in Nigerian letters, Flora Nwapa ha
name for herself as a major twentieth-century African woman writer. Sin
lication of her first novel, Efuru (1966), she had gained an impressive rea
both African and international circles, as well as critical acclaim for her n
(1970), Never Again (1975), One Is Enough (1981), and Women Are Dif
(1986). Her two collections of short stories are entitled This Is Lagos and O
ries (1971) and Wives at War and Other Stories (1975). She has also pu
book of prose poems, Cassava Song and Rice Song (1986). Apart from he
works for an adult readership, Nwapa held the reputation of a fine creato
dren's books: Emeka: The Driver's Guard (1972), MammyWater (1979)
Colouring Book (1979), My Animal Number Book (1979), The Miracle
(1980), Journey To Space (1980), and The Adventures of Deke (1980). H
script, The Lake Goddess, will be published posthumously. For her achi
she received The Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) Award in 1982
Federal Government of Nigeria and the University of Ife Merit Award fo
ship and Publishing in 1985, to name only two of the distinguished prizes
her. She was also the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (
member of PEN International (1991) and the Commonwealth Writers
Committee (1992), among the many positions she held during her lifetim
With the characterizations of her female protagonists in her adult fic
complicated female identity as delineated in the literature of Chinua Ach
brothers by critiquing both their gender conventions and power relations
men and women in the homestead. Thus, the female literary tradition sh
was rooted in resistance, a protest against the one-dimensional images o
women either as wives, mothers, femmesfatales, or rebel girls. Althou
not been given the critical acclaim she deserves, Nwapa's work represen
mental effort to invent an African female personality and attitude and t
African female subject narrativistically. Indeed, her explorations of the f
che link her works theoretically and thematically with womanist writ
Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Ifeoma Okoye, and Zaynab Alkali, to nam
few, whose aim is not only to present the female point of view but also t
patriarchal authority over women in world literary history. Her canonica
tion to Nigerian letters is, then, a "poetics of economic independence and
ance for female empowerment." Nwapa sets the record straight by the po
pen. She actually feminizes Nigerian letters as she realistically fictio
shrewd, ubiquitous market women, energetic female farmers, sagacious

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24 Research in African Literatures

mothers, and astute women chiefs and priestesses as an integral part of quotid
existence. It is in her fiction that the enterprising African woman takes a stand a
demands her rightful place in the halls of global literary history.
Nwapa would have agreed that African men wield a great deal of power in Afr
can society. On the other hand, her honest portrayal of Ugwuta women insists on t
complementary nature of Ugwuta society beginning with a mixed-gender age grad
system, a mystical Lake Goddess, who guarantees women, as well as men, pow
prominence, and peace. Indeed, woman is something, an achiever, a go-getter
Ugwuta, not only for her special child-bearing and child rearing abilities, but a
for her potential to benefit her community spiritually, educationally, economical
and psychologically. As Mgbada, the diviner in Nwapa's last novel, The Lake Go
dess, tells Ona's husband: "We believe that the Goddess protects us and inspires
to great heights. We believe that no invader from any part of the world can destr
us. We believe that the deity is a beautiful and ageless woman who is partial t
women" (208). Coming from this rich tradition where women paddle canoes up
down, across, and beyond Ugwuta Lake, transporting passengers and their war
for a nominal fee, where women are leaders in trade and commerce, where a dem
cratic gender system recognizes talent, regardless of one's sex, where confiden
and perfection are nurtured in both females and males, is it any wonder that Flor
Nwapa was able to touch the hand of the goddess?
UMEH: Congratulations on the publishing and launching of a number of you
books with Africa World Press in New Jersey. How does it feel to be so successfu
How does it feel to be Africa's first internationally published female writer in th
English language?
NWAPA: Thank you very much, Marie. It feels good. It feels fulfilling.
UMEH: What are the rewards and difficulties of being the first African wom
writer and publisher in Nigeria?
NWAPA: I've had my ups and downs. In 1966, when Heinemann published Efuru
did not receive much publicity because Nigeria was in a turmoil. There was a co
d'etat in 1966 and the whole system had broken down. And in 1967, I had to go ba
to Eastern Nigeria, where all the Igbos returned from all over Nigeria. The war w
fought for thirty months and when we came back we had to start all over again.
was at this time when I was a minister in East Central State, which is what Enu
was called in those days, that I continued to write again. But my second novel, Idu
was also published by Heinemann in 1970. These are the two books published b
Heinemann. After that I thought I should have some African publishing companie
distribute my books. That was when Nwamife Publishing Company came out. They
were the first to publish This Is Lagos and Never Again. It's been fulfilling. I mus
say there's been a lot of hard work. There's been a lot of frustration all the same. B
the problem in Nigeria is the problem of having a reading public, the people w
will appreciate your work. In the '80s and '90s things have been accelerating. B
you discover that not many people can afford to buy books. I was lucky because f
the past five years the West African Examination Council, called WAEC, had Efur
on its reading list. It was something that I should have been congratulated for.
should have brought in a lot of money. However, the problem was piracy. Hein
mann Publishing Company could not bring out the books on time. Therefor
pirates took over so that writing and publishing didn't make any impact. The sch
system did not make an impact at all on my earnings.

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 Marie Umeh 25

UMEH: What advice would you give to women who would like to write
NWAPA: The advice that I would give to them is, one, they should read a
read. You have to be a good reader. And you have to be a good listener to
write. I think this is the advice that I would give to them. When you hear
ing writers, "Where do you find the time to do all of this?" I tell them th
little to do with it. If you have a story to tell, the story is there in you and i
you until you tell it. So I would advise them to read and listen.
UMEH: What circumstances in your life are responsible for the writing of
adult novels and your children's books?
NWAPA: I read a lot of books. As a child before I went to high school, I l
lot of stories, moonlight stories told by the women in Ugwuta. As a ch
call on anybody who promised to tell me a story. I would sit down and
when I went to high school, I had read practically everything that I could fin
contributed again to my writing. After graduating from Ibadan Universi
ria and Edinburgh University in London, I came home to Nigeria and I
girls' secondary school. While I was teaching, I discovered I had plenty
my hands. I didn't know what to do with it. So, I began to write storie
schooldays. It was in this process that I began the story of Efuru. It just
started writing the story of this woman and then I went on and on and
that I had a good story to write and a good story to tell. I continued to w
finished it. There was nothing in me when I was in school that made m
going to be a writer. It was one of those things that just happened. I didn
ambition to say, "Oh, Flora, you are going to be a writer, so work toward
didn't happen that way. But having written Efuru and having published i
ued to write. It is difficult to write children's books. But I remember th
pher Okigbo, in those days when he was working for Cambridge Unive
had asked me to write a children's book. I told him, "OK, Chris, I will do
about it." I began to write Emeka: The Driver's Guard, and I finished it
died during the war.' So I sent my manuscript to London University Pres
published it in 1971. Now when I had my own publishing company, I deci
needed good books for my growing children. When I went to the boo
didn't see anything that was good for my children. That was when I star
more children's books. I wrote MammyWater in 1979.
UMEH: Flora, what year did you start your publishing company, Tana P
NWAPA: Tana Press was opened in 1976 and business started in 1977
lished MammyWater in 1979.
UMEH: Out of all your creative works, which one has given you the mo
tion? And why?
NWAPA: This is a difficult question to ask, Marie. Similar to Buchi Eme
feel that books are like your children. It's not easy for one to say that y
and not the other. They are all good books. I cannot tell you that I like this o
I like that or, that I prefer this one. It is difficult for me to say.
UMEH: My favorite novel is One Is Enough. What was the audience's r
One Is Enough?
NWAPA: Hmmm. It is hard to say. But let me tell you what happene
Enough was published in 1982. And a friend of mine who read the book c
and told me that One Is Enough was a true story of a friend. I did not know
It was three years after this, when I was at a funeral, that another friend
and said, "Look, the lady you wrote about in that story is in this audience

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26 Research in African Literatures

believe it. So the lady came over, shook my hand, and said, "Mrs. Nwakuche,
heard so much about this book. People say it is my story. I haven't read it; so I do
know whether it's my story or not." But she didn't feel bad about it. What I want
say is this: after the war in 1970, things changed a great deal in Nigeria. During t
war, that is the Nigerian Civil War, women saw themselves playing roles that the
never thought they would play. They saw themselves across the enemy lines, tryi
to trade, trying to feed their children and caring for their husbands. At the end of t
war, you could not restrict them any more. They started enjoying their econom
independence. So what they tolerated before the war, they could no longer tolerat
For example, if you discovered that your marriage is not giving you satisfaction
that your in-laws are worrying you because you have not produced a male child or
female child, whatever the case may be, you can just decide to leave that family a
go to the big city. The big city at that time was Lagos, where you were anonymo
where nobody seemed to care what you do for a living. So I think I wouldn't p
sume that One Is Enough had an impact on Nigerians. I would presume that all On
Is Enough is about is the story of what is happening in male/female relationships
Nigeria today.
UMEH: You are indeed a prolific writer: eight adult works and seven children's
books. Have your books been translated into other languages?
NWAPA: Yes, Efuru has been translated into French. Unfortunately, up to now, I do
not have a copy. Efuru has also been translated into the Icelandic language.
UMEH: Which writers do you admire? And outside of your literary foremothers
who expressed themselves in the oral tradition, which literary artists have influ-
enced your writings?2
NWAPA: I would say that Chinua Achebe influenced me a great deal. He influenced
me in my adult life. But as a young girl in school, many writers, such as Ernest
Hemingway and Charles Dickens, also influenced me a great deal.3
UMEH: In addition to your enthusiasm for storytelling, do you have a sense of mis-
sion? What is your purpose in writing?
NWAPA: I write because I want to write. I write because I have a story to tell. There
is this urge always to write and put things down. I do not presume that I have a
mission. If you continue to read my books, maybe you could find the mission. But I
continue to write because I feel fulfilled. I feel satisfied in what I'm doing.
UMEH: Are there any autobiographical elements in your creative writing?
NWAPA: None! I am not like Efuru, neither am I like Idu, neither am I Amaka in
any way.
UMEH: What do you think of Leopold Sedar Senghor and Ali Mazrui's statements
that "African women have always been liberated"? In other words, is there any truth
in the statement?
NWAPA: For me, yes! In Ugwuta, women have certain rights that women else-
where, in other parts of the country, do not have. For instance, in Ugwuta, a woman
can break the kola nut where men are.4 If she is old, or if she has achieved much or if
she has paid the bride price for a male relation and that member of the family is
there, she can break the kola nut. And everybody would eat the kola nut. But in
certain parts of Igboland, a woman is not even shown a kola nut, not to talk about
breaking it.
UMEH: Now we know why you're a first. It's because the Ugwuta tradition cer-
tainly nurtured you into being an independent thinker. It appears that you don't even
wince before you perform a task.

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 Marie Umeh 27

NWAPA: Thank you, Marie.

UMEH: The critic Katherine Frank, in an article entitled "Women Wit
The Feminist Novel in Africa," describes you as a radical feminist. Wh
opinion of this assessment?
NWAPA: I don't think that I'm a radical feminist. I don't even accept that
inist. I accept that I'm an ordinary woman who is writing about what she
try to project the image of women positively. I attempt to correct our menf
they started writing, when they wrote little or less about women, where t
characters are prostitutes and ne'er-do-wells. I started writing to tell the
is not so. When I do write about women in Nigeria, in Africa, I try to pain
picture about women because there are many women who are very, very
their thinking, who are very, very independent, and very, very industrio
UMEH: What do you perceive to be the major ideological difference bet
and female writing in Nigeria?
NWAPA: The male writers have disappointed us a great deal by not pa
female character as they should paint them. I have to say that there's bee
an ideological change. I think male writers are now presenting women a
They are not only mothers; they are not only palm collectors; they are not
ers; but they are also wealthy people. Women can stand on their own. M
is Beatrice in Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe. In that nove
stands out. She was the one who really understood what was going on
were too ideological. They were not actually down to earth. It was Bea
was practical.
UMEH: Certainly, Chinua Achebe's attitude towards women in Anthi
Savannah, published in 1988, is a far cry from his portrayal of women in
Apart, published in 1958. What do you feel about Elechi Amadi's femal
in his latest novel, Estrangement?
NWAPA: Estrangement is another story which I enjoyed a great deal beca
Amadi tried to portray this unfortunate woman in a true picture. He has
for the Nigerian woman. In Estrangement you could see that the heroine w
very, very positively by the author. All her misfortunes were clearly stat
way the author portrayed her showed understanding.
UMEH: Africa has produced three Nobel Laureates in literature-Wole
Naguib Mahfouz, and Nadine Gordimer. What was your immediate r
each writer's winning the Nobel Prize for literature?
NWAPA: I was very pleased. I was very excited. I was delighted.
UMEH: Do you recognize Nadine Gordimer as an African writer? Who i
can writer?
NWAPA: Nadine Gordimer is a white South African. She has been writing
long time; she has sympathy for the black South African. She is an Africa
UMEH: More and more people, even those in Muslim countries, are mo
from polygamy and polygyny. But in Nigeria they are still common. W
think about this, since they are affecting the Nigerian family as a unit?
NWAPA: Well, I think it is the society. It is the age that we are in. I think it
pass. It started in the '70s and it is going on and on. There is this stigma o
who elects to be single. Mothers bring up their daughters telling them tha
to marry. In my own language we say, "No matter how beautiful one
doesn't get married she's nothing." It's left for us who have received a W
cation to de-emphasize this tradition. However, you discover that a woma

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28 Research in African Literatures

gone to college, who is working, who has a profession, who is a lawyer or a doctor,
who doesn't have a husband, then she will not mind being a second wife. In fact,
polygamy is becoming very fashionable in Nigeria these days among Western-
educated women.
UMEH: Do you think it's right for people to say that every woman should have
husband and a child?
NWAPA: No! However, I'm telling you about the tradition.6 If you had a child out of
wedlock in those days in the community that I grew up in, your child was not legiti-
mate. Nevertheless, things are changing; people are now accepting it. In fact, when
I was growing up, if a young girl became pregnant, we viewed her with horror. The
child was not baptized. Now when these things happen, the baby is baptized.
UMEH: Nowadays, do you think a woman would elect to have a child, if a husband
is not forthcoming, rather than enter into a polygamous marriage?
NWAPA: Many women are doing this, Marie. Many women are saying that they
don't want a husband but they want a child.
UMEH: So your female character, Amaka, who has twin sons and refuses to marry
the father, in One Is Enough, is prophetic?
NWAPA: I think she is, because she, like many women, has had experiences in her
married life, with men generally, which were nothing but war.
UMEH: Do you have a specific message for women? Do you have an ideology or
some words of advice?
NWAPA: Yes, I do. I feel that every woman, married or single, must have economic
independence. If you look at One Is Enough, I quote an Hausa proverb which says,
"A woman who holds her husband as a father dies an orphan."
UMEH: My interpretation of the proverb is that a woman should be economically
independent. One should not rely on inheritance or men for survival?
NWAPA: Exactly.
UMEH: Thank you very much.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am most grateful to my friends and mentors who have graciously shared with me
Ugwuta cultural traditions: Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, Davidson Umeh, Amede L
Obiora, and Uzoma Gogo Nwakuche.

NOTES
1. The Nigerian Civil War took place 1967-70 in the southeastern part of the country.
2. African women literary artists made their mark in oral literature. They are given promi-
nence in the telling of moonlight stories, educating children through the medium of prov
erbs, riddles, folktales, song, and dance, as well as singing praise songs at tradition
marriage ceremonies and burial ceremonies, to name only a few of the avenues of artistic
expressivity practiced by Ugwuta women.
3. Chinua Achebe, editor of Heinemann's African Writers' Series, read Flora Nwapa's fir
manuscript, Efuru, and recommended it for publication. Achebe, author of Things Fa
Apart, is also considered the Father of the Nigerian novel. So he has many literary follow-
ers. Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea) and Charles Dickens (The Adventure

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 Marie Umeh 29

of Oliver Twist) were read by Nigerian school children when Nigeria was und
rule. So apparently Nwapa studied them.
4. In a greater part of Igboland, women do not break the kola nut. Kola nut is a st
and male preserve; it symbolizes peace, good will, trust, and friendship
according to Flora Nwapa, prominent, influential women in the Ugwuta area
have this right. Perhaps it is because of the power and influence of the mystica
dess, Ogbuide.
5. In a conversation with Alison Perry in London, Flora Nwapa describes herself as a wom-
anist, thereby identifying with Alice Walker's term "womanist." See Walker's definition
of "womanist" in the preface of her book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Also see
Chikwenye Ogunyemi's essay entitled "Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary
Black Female Novel in English."
6. Flora Nwapa, in her novels Efuru, One Is Enough, Women Are Different, and The Lake
Goddess, contends that there are different ways of living one's life fully and fruitfully-
marriage is not the only way.

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