Anthony Uchenna Ubesie (22 February 1950 — 11 February 1994) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, playwright, broadcaster, educator, community leader, actor, and producer.
He is widely known as one of the pioneers of early
Igbo literature
Igbo literature encompasses both oral and written works of fiction and nonfiction created by the Igbo people in the Igbo language. This literary tradition reflects the cultural heritage, history, and linguistic diversity of the Igbo community. T ...
.
Life and career
Ubesie was born in
Achị in
Enugu state
Enugu () verbally pronounced as "Enụgwụ" by the Igbo indigenes is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north by the states of Benue and Kogi, Ebonyi State to the east and southeast, Abia State to the so ...
on 22 February 1950. He studied
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and
Nigerian Languages
There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. The English-based creole ''Nigerian Pidgin'' – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate t ...
specializing in the
Igbo language
Igbo ( , ; Standard Igbo: ''Ásụ̀sụ́ Ìgbò'' ) is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, an ethnicity in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.
Igbo languages are spoken by a total of 31 million people. The number of Igbo ...
at the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
from 1976 to 1980.
[ Prior to that, he worked as a farmer and translator for ]primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
and secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
s. He translated books that were written in English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
to Igbo language.[ He died on 11 February 1994 as a result of a car accident,][ and according to speculations, he had many unpublished titles.][
]
Bibliography
According to BBC Igbo
References
Relevant studies
*Mba, Mary. "Prescriptive and Proscriptive Female Gender Role Proverbs in Tony Uchenna Ubesie’s Isi Akwu Dara N’Ala." ''Proverbium
''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent prov ...
'' 32, no. 1 (2015): 237-260.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ubesie, Tony
Igbo novelists
Nigerian male novelists
Igbo-language writers
1950 births
1994 deaths
20th-century Nigerian novelists
People from Enugu State
Road incident deaths in Nigeria