Publisher: Kraft Books, Nigeria
Voice of The Night Masquerade
The author explains his poetic mission thus:
‘it is the cultural tradition in my part of the world, that when abominations become unbearable, and the truth must be told with great courage, then the night masquerade appears…in order to set a senseless practice right; sometimes the night masquerade must confront the ruler and point out the nakedness of his utterances…this is the voice of the night masquerade, I am only the medium.’ The ensuing collection of poems is divided into three sections: ‘Night’ – alluding to the night the mother of the spirits walked the length and breadth of the clan, weeping for her murdered son, in ‘Things Fall Apart’; ‘Night Vigil’, and ‘Night Passages’.
This book was joint winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors’ Poetry Prize in 1997.
£19.00
About the author
Ezenwa-Ohaeto is a poet, short-story writer, biographer and literary scholar. Some of his most recent works are Winging Words. Interviews with Nigerian Writers and Critics, The Chants of a Minstrel, which won the ANA/NDDC POETRY Prize for 2004 and The Voice of the Night Masquerade, all published by Kraft Books, Nigeria, and distributed by ABC. He is the author of an authorised biography of Chinua Achebe, which was given the Choice Outstanding Book Award in 1998. He has received several other prestigious awards, including the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize – for The Voice of the Night Masquerade, a BBC poetry prize, the Orphic Lute Prize and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize.
His books have been translated into Russian, French and Italian. His poetry has been performed in English and Igbo throughout the world. Ezenwa- Ohaeto has held various posts at the universities of Bayreuth, Mainz and the Humboldt University, Berlin, in Germany; and at the universities of Harvard, and Texas at Austin in the United States. He is presently Professor of English at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria.
Review
“…another book that should be very helpful to students and examiners in the Twi (Asante) language.”
West Africa