Osonye Tess Onwueme Books In Order

Novels

  1. Why the Elephant Has No Butt (1994)

Plays

  1. Tell It to Women (1980)
  2. Three Plays (1980)
  3. Riot in Heaven (1996)
  4. The Missing Face (1998)
  5. Shakara (2000)
  6. Then She Said It (2003)
  7. What Mama Said (2003)
  8. No Vacancy! (2004)

Novels Book Covers

Plays Book Covers

Osonye Tess Onwueme Books Overview

Why the Elephant Has No Butt

Recreates and globalizes an Igbo folktale about the animals’ struggle for survival and triumph in a world where the weak and poor tortoises must strive to alter their powerless condition by confronting the oppressive forces of the rich and powerful elephants, who constantly push them to the edge of power and insecurity.

Tell It to Women

This drama offers a polemical discourse and dialogue that challenges the contemporary theories of female disempowerment, especially in traditional African societies. The play focuses on the lives of two semi literate Idu women and their journey to find a ‘better life’.

Riot in Heaven

The relegated man and woman of colour have been struggling to enter heaven, but they remain trapped as Sojourner Nkrumah’s the black woman’s ‘Freedom Train’ is stalled at the crossroads of hell, heaven, and earth. Two heroes of the West, now determined to keep out unwelcome guests and terrorists from heaven, pose as the appointed ‘police’ of the universe and block the gateway with their barricades: Aliens Crossing: Watch Out! Visa required for Entry! With the growing impediments, how will the race of colour get the key heaven ? The impasse sparks the Riot in Heaven. ‘Tess Onwueme’s play is a spellbinding theatre work! It is written as if Dr. Onwueme is composing a symphonic work…
Along with her other masterwork, The Missing Face this drama places Tess Onwueme in the ranks of Wole Sayinka, Athol Fugard, and Derek Walcott.’ Woodie King Jr., Producing Director at the New Federal Theatre in New York City In her work, Onwueme has shown daring in her exploration of ideas even if they lead to subjects and themes which may seem taboo. Onwueme is eminently a political dramaist, for power affects every other aspect of society. She explores these themes with dazzling array of images and proverbs. Her drama and theater are a feast of music, mime, proverbs, and story telling…
thus Onwueme consolidates her position among the leading dramaist from Africa.’ Ngugi wa Thion’g Erich Maria Remarque Professor in Languages, & Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University.

The Missing Face

The Missing Face‘ is Beholding…
In this meticulously paced play, Ida…
a true optimist about love, family and her culture, takes a great leap in rearing her son, Amaechi…
until she decides to leave the masculine formation of her young man child to his father, who is domiciled in Africa…
The Missing Face‘ offers a rich illustration of music…
ritual and tradition that is noble in looking back and seizing the moment.’ ?Laura Andrews, Amsterdam News, New York?? ??’The Missing Face has many interesting characters and proactive ideas…
The conflict between Ida and Odozi is refreshing and funny; it’s fascinating to see and hear an African American lecture an African about…
his own culture, and then to hear his bemused response…
Odozi’s colorful language, full of jokes and elaborate metaphors, is intriguing…
There are many fine moments in the play concerning African culture and the relationship that modern African Americans and Africans have with it.’? Nrooke Pierce, Theater Mania, New York Show ‘In all her work, Onwueme has shown daring in her exploration of ideas, even when they lead to subjects and themes which may seem taboo. She has a way of using images to express very crucial ideas. For example, in Legacies or The Missing Face where lkenga is split into two halves she explores important pan African themes and sums up the historical tragedy of the first major division of Africa into continental and diasporan entities. Wholeness will come when the two halves come together.’ ?Ngugi wa Thiong’o, foreword to Onwueme’s Tell It To Women

Shakara

Shakara dance hall queen is a gripping drama on the struggle for identity, power and control, engulfing mothers and daughters in a modern city that is sharply split between the rich and the poor. How do these mothers and daughters cope in a world, where their very survival is constantly challenged by the unyielding social and economic forces? Stay tuned for Shakara! Internationally renowned for her award winning plays, and novels, Dr. Tess Onwueme is Africa’s best known female dramatist, whose writing and speaking often poke into taboo and controversial subjects, revealing the untold hidden stories of young women and the poor, who remain caught in various crossfires with; family, tradition, race, class, gender, culture and politics. But then in the growing stampede for material wealth and power in both Africa and the global community today, their striving for voice, place and identity still remain unheard, thus provoking Dr. Tess Onwueme who commits herself as ‘a writer with an active conscience’ to constantly ‘stage a hearing’ for them through her inspiring provocative writing and speaking. That the BBC recently adapted and produced Onwueme’s 2001 award winning play, Shakara: Dance Hall Queen as a major feature of their BBC World Drama Service for the Fall of 2004, is only one of such recent testimonies, marking the enriching value of Dr. Onwueme’s creative work as a steady staple for the international public, as well as schools, colleges, and universities in international contexts, where her creative writing continue to impact and transform the academic curricular as scholars and teachers continuously adapt as primary teaching texts and tools for teaching, scholarship, theses, and dissertations.

Then She Said It

The play is set in the metaphoric state of Hungaria. Nagging questions and concerns fuel the struggles of rising militant and radicalised women and youths in a dramatised revolutionary struggle for change and challenge to tradition. The relegated women take centre stage to air their grievances and project their cause to the international community in an effort to destabilise the multinational forces and class interests which have oppressed them for so long. They ask, how long can a people whose land produces the richest oil and gas resources, which control local, national and foreign interests, continue to exist in silence, abject poverty and hunger, and sugger acute fuel, water and electricity shortages? The author has won the Association of Nigerian Authors’ Drama Prize three times for Shakara: Dance Hall Queen, Tell It To Women, and The Desert Encroaches.

What Mama Said

An explosive drama depicting an African people’s confrontation with the government forces and foreign oil corporations that have ravaged their land and strangled the voices of their mothers and daughters.

No Vacancy!

This drama presents a group of highly talented, educated, but unemployed youths who feel wasted and betrayed by a government and society, telling them that in order to be gainfully employed they have to get an education and acquire relevant skills. They find that after the hard earned degrees their country shows neither the required interest nor plan to offer them any viable means of livelihood. Worse still, the industries and jobs have disappeared and migrated overseas as the government leaders collude with their powerful business allies to control and exploit the available cheap labor abroad for their own maximum profit. The disenchanted youths finally mobilize into an improvised camp to evolve radical strategies for changing the untenable social condition. But they soon discover that the promised road to change is littered and marked with chronic frustration and betrayal even from within their own camp as they struggle with these stark realities.

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