Florence Ewelu

Nigerian author and activist who pioneered African feminist literature in the mid-20th century

Florence Ewelu (1928-2001) broke literary barriers as Nigeria's first female novelist writing in Igbo language. Her 1957 debut 《The River's Whisper》 challenged colonial stereotypes by portraying Igbo women as complex leaders in pre-colonial society. This work, now housed in the British Library, inspired a generation of African writers to reclaim indigenous narratives.

Ewelu established the Igbo Women's Literary Society in 1962, which published 87 titles by marginalized authors. Her Oral History Project preserved 400+ women's stories from southeastern Nigeria, later digitized by the Library of Congress. She co-founded the Women's Agricultural Cooperative in 1965, teaching over 3,000 women modern farming techniques that doubled crop yields. Despite civil war disruptions, her 《Warrior Women of Anambra》 (1972) documented female resistance during the Biafran conflict, becoming required reading in Nigerian universities. The NPR called her 'Africa's unsung literary heroine' in a 2018 retrospective.