May Nwoye: Writing as a veritable means of edification

A review of Ezekiel Fajenyo’s book, The Writings of May Ifeoma Nwoye: A Critical Literary Analysis, by Jare Ajayi.

NOT long after writing was invented, the vocation has been acknowledged as a powerful tool for changing situations. The change can be for better e.g. improving a given situation. And it can be for worse, like causing a war.

One of the leading voices among writers in Nigeria today, May Ifeoma Nwoye has chosen the vocation of writing to point the attention of the society to areas needing edification and areas needing preservation for the coming generations. This, she does in various literary works and lectures she authored. A voice that is becoming formidable as literary critic, Ezekiel Fajenyo, beams a periscopic light on the eight literary works by this person who can rightly be described as a woman of many parts. The product of Fajenyo’s effort is entitled The Writings of May Ifeoma Okoye: A Critical Literary Analysis’. Through it, readers are taken into ‘the world of May Ifeoma Nwoye’ and by implication the contemporary situation in Nigeria with hints on how the parlous situation can be ameliorated.

The book under review, ‘The Writings of May Ifeoma Okoye: A Critical Literary Analysis’ written by Ezekiel Fajenyo, examines the eight books published by the said writer, Nwoye. The books are Endless Search; Tides of Life; Blind Expectations; Death by Installments; A Child of Destiny; Fetters and Choices; The Broken Promise and Oil Cemetery.

The critical work in its chapter one begins with General Introduction while each of the books examined takes up a chapter sequentially. By giving each of these books a chapter, the author is able to give them in-depth analyses that clearly showcase their respective innings and literary worth.

Nwoye is an accountant by training, an administrator as a careerist and ultimately an academician by virtue of fate! Yes, fate because by finding herself working in an academic environment, by associating with literary minds and by being faithful to an innate urge, May Ifeoma gravitates into the academics and becomes a professor within a record time. By rising to the level of Fellow of Certified National Accountants (FCNA) and Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM), it means that she gets to the pinnacle of the career line she chooses. By winning multiple literary awards and being elected as vice president, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), May Ifeoma Nwoye is certainly an accomplished individual in all the areas of human endeavour that she veers into. She, of course, has a successful marriage that is blessed with equally accomplished children.

The foregoing is stated here to indicate that writing for Nwoye is not due to lack of fulfillment or success in her areas of primary engagement. Far from it, she is into writing because Muse, the goddess of art, kept gnawing at her. In her words, “though I excelled in accounting… art that is inside of me was still struggling to manifest itself” pg 11.

The totality of this personality is summed up by Ande Yacim on page 576 of this interesting critical work: “May Ifeoma Nwoye is a rare breed professional accountant who attained the acme of her career … A multi-talented and multi-disciplinary woman of substance; May Nwoye is a literary artist, an accountant and a versatile entrepreneur with a notable capacity to inspire humanity and professionals anywhere.”

It is a known fact that while our experiences may be the same, our attitude to these experiences are not often the same. And our attitude usually determines what we do next. What May Nwoye experienced on her return to Nigeria after her education in the United States of America goes a long way in making her a writer – and the kind of writer she becomes!

Having spent some years in America that has liberal attitude to women and being a sensitive person that she is, it is not surprising that issues bordering on women condition are of special interest to her as reflected copiously in her works.

The Writings of May Ifeoma Okoye: A Critical Literary Analysis’ is written by Ezekiel Fajenyo as stated interalia. He writes the book after he himself has matured as a writer. Characterising the analysis of each of the books that he brings under academic or literary periscope here is skill that is fecund, dexterous and exemplary.

Fajenyo on page 27 of this book writes of Ifeoma: “Nwoye is not known for diction excess or wasting words; she is accurate, simple, pointed and economical in her narrations, descriptions, allusions, character and scenic presentations and settings.”

This description easily applies to Fajenyo himself as his choice of words, coinage of phrases and presentation of ideas in this book are quite apt. He employs simple English words and idioms without falling into the pit of banality or even verbosity. Although a scholarly work by any standard, ‘The Writings of May Ifeoma Okoye…’ is not suffused with technicalities or cryptic jargon. The book avails itself to understanding by an average reader of English writings.

The experiences Fajenyo garnered over the years as a poet, literary critic, novelist and biographer are brought to bear on the present work.