Christopher Abani

Daria Tunca (Université de Liège)

Ed. by Cristina Sandru, The Literary Encyclopedia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

Born 27 Dec 1966
Activity 1984-ongoing

Places

Born in Nigeria
Active in Nigeria; United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Poet
Story-writer

Resources

Chris Abani was born on 27 December 1966 in Afikpo, Nigeria, the fourth of five children to an English mother, Daphne, and a Nigerian Igbo father, Michael. In 1968, after the family had spent a year in refugee camps, young Chris, his mother and siblings fled Nigeria to escape the Biafran War (1967-1970). They lived in England for three years, and subsequently returned to their home country, where Michael had stayed behind to work as a Red Cross official. Chris Abani would later record this important episode of his family history in Daphne’s Lot (2003), an epic poem retracing his mother’s life and also evoking, among other things, his troubled relationship with his violent father.

Abani started writing short stories …

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3142 words

Citation: Tunca, Daria. "Christopher Abani". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 November 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12276, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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