Winner of the 2000 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Africa region

“?a unique voice modulated by both the Old World and the New World experience.??Earl Lovelace
In these bitingly satirical stories, Funso Aiyejina portrays the vicissitudes of life under a military dictatorship in the fictitious Nigerian district of Akoda. Whether describing the travails of villagers, the worries of Chiefs, the cravenness of professors, or the greed of officials, what emerges vividly and memorably in this exciting collection are the humour and courage of ordinary people.

Funso Aiyejina's profile page

Funso Aiyejina was born circa 1949 in Ososo, Edo State, southwestern Nigeria. His childhood years were divided between Ososo and Temidayo Camp, a remote village near Ondo, to which his parents had relocated as migrant cocoa farmers. He attended schools in Ososo, Temidayo, Ondo, Lokoja, Dekina and Okene before proceeding to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife where he obtained a BA (English) in 1974. He did his postgraduate studies at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada and at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad.
He has published short stories, poetry and numerous articles and reviews on African and West Indian Literature, and his radio plays and stories have been broadcast in Bonn, Ibadan, Lagos, and London. His poems have been anthologized in Rhythms of Creation ( Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1982), Summer Fires ( Heinemann, 1983), The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry (1984 and 1998), A Selection of African Poetry ( New Edition, Longman, 1988), The Fate of Vultures ( Heinemann, 1989) and A World of Poetry for CXC ( Heinemann, 1994).
His collection, A letter to Lynda and Other Poems (1998) won the Association of Nigerian Authors?Prize in 1989. The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories is his first book of fiction.For over a decade, he taught Literature in English at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. In 1995/96 he was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (Creative Writing) at Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri. He now lectures in the Department of Liberal Arts, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Winner of the 2000 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Africa region? a unique voice modulated by both the Old World and the New World experience.?