3 Nigerian Masterpieces that Almost Never Made It To Print
We enjoy these classics but do you know their stories? How we almost never had them? Maybe we’d be more grateful to have these masterpiece after we learn their stories.
The Bride Price - Buchi Emecheta (1976)
The original manuscript was burned by her husband.
Emecheta wrote the first draft in secret while in an abusive marriage in London. When she finally showed it to her husband hoping for support, he set it on fire to crush her independence.
The loss was devastating, but it pushed her to leave the marriage. She then rewrote the entire novel from memory.
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991 Booker Prize)
The book survived two near-misses:
1. Midnight escape from Nigeria: In 1986, while starting the novel in London, Okri went back to Nigeria to cover elections and published articles criticizing the military regime. He was tipped off that his name was on a government wanted list and had to flee the country overnight. That chaotic escape became the political fuel for the novel.
2. Homelessness in London: Before finishing it, he went through brutal poverty and homelessness in London — writing with no money, food, or place to sleep. He later said it wasn't just art, it was survival: "You do this or you die."
Without that flight and that desperation, Azaro the spirit-child would have never existed.
Wole Soyinka wrote The Man Died (1972) in solitary confinement.
Jailed for 22 months during the Civil War for attempting to broker peace, he was denied writing materials. He wrote secretly on toilet paper and cigarette packs with smuggled ink, and the notes were smuggled out of prison to become the book.