Promise Okekwe: Rising Star on the Nigerian Literary Horizon

Literature in imitating reality has remained a dominant instrument for investigating the complexities of human life and human condition in general. In the hands of African female writers it acquires added significance to become an almost indispensable tool for focusing on the location, consciousness and reality of the female in her society. It is from such a perspective that this study will examine selected works by Promise Okekwe, a young and upcoming talent on the Nigeria literary horizon. Okekwe was first published in 1992. A resilient and dynamic writer, she has continued to produce texts at a pace akin to Buchi Emecheta’s. Her works reveal a remarkable understanding of the human mind. She thus aims at a reconstruction of the wider society. Indeed her texts validate Okonjo Ogunyemi’s assertion that African female writers are preoccupied with more than just the fate of women; they are currently interested in the effects of diverse forms of oppression and on the fate of men, women and children, communities and nations, in a continent that has been raped and remains disoriented from continued sacking and pillaging by rapacious people and their underlings (Africa Wo/Man Palava, 1996). This study will thus focus on Okekwe’s first collection of short stories, Soul Journey into the Night as well as the novels, Deep Blue Woman and Hall of Memories. It will seek to uncover the writer’s insightful foray into the diverse ailing sectors of her society and further attempt to locate her works within the framework of the female writing tradition in Nigeria and Africa