Osonye Tess Onwueme

Osonye Tess Onwueme also known as T. Akaeke Onwueme (born 8 September 1955) is a Nigerian playwright, scholar and poet. Quotes People create social conditions and people can change them. Osonye Tess Onwueme's quote We should be the ones creating our stories, Nigerian story has to change, we are the creators. The longing to come back home has been there. Nigerian story can be different, it’s been a very dismal, dark, atmosphere, arena for a long time in Nigeria especially in the last seven, eight, ten years. We are the creators, we should be the ones creating our stories, Nigerian story has to change. I have been a citizen of that country (US) for more than 30 years. But I am, first and foremost, a Nigerian. My umbilical cord, my placenta was buried in Nigeria and Nigeria is a place that can never be, for me, recreated. Nigeria is my home, my homeland and I claim this as my home forever and forever. My children, I raised them in America, five of them and now 12 grandchildren, the youngest was four years when we left, the oldest was 11 years. They could speak our language, their children they teach them, so it is something that depends on you, it depends on us. Why I returned from US – Tess Onwueme I was born the first child of struggling teenage-parent-squatters in tumbledown Isale Eko, Old Lagos, Nigeria. From the time I was four years old, my young father ‘deposited’ Mama with my two siblings and me at his parents in the delta village, before he escaped by boat to England to study law. The triumph of stumbling, falling, surviving, living, and rising through it all, not only prods me on, but also assures that I stand, tall; even taller than I am––striding high with my life’s calabash-full of water balanced on my head (and no shaking!); knowing that with the healing grace of the Almighty, I have been through so many thorny hills and valleys before. Interview with Tess Onwueme - A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies Quotes about Tess Onwueme Onwueme’s creative works continue to influence and generate significant interest around the world, as they are widely produced/staged, studied, taught, and written about in scholarly books, dissertations, theses, book chapters, journal articles, and international media. Onwueme’s works have a wide range of social, political, historical, cultural and environmental concerns of the masses in the global community today, with emphasis on women, youth in continental Africa and the Diaspora. Dr. Kanika Batra as quoted in Osonye Tess Onwueme, African American Literature Book Club. 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 Soyinka, Athol Fugard, and Derek Walcott. Woodie King Jr. as quoted in Reviews, African Books Collective. 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 dramatist, for power affects every other aspect of society. She explores these themes with a 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 dramatists from Africa. Ngugi wa Thiong’o as quoted in Reviews, African Books Collective. Through the voices of women, Onwueme draws out universal themes of conflict. She uses the dramatic form to express an optimism for the future, for change and challenge to the repressive powers over people’s lives. Nina Adams as quoted in Africa's Best Female Playwright Based in The USA:, Writertess. Internationally renowned for her award-winning plays, Dr. Tess Onwueme is the literary soul-mate of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. She is the first African woman dramatist to break into their ranks, so that What Mama Said, Tell it to Women, Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen, The Missing Face, The Desert Encroaches and the Reign of Wazobia become staples of international college and university curricular in the 21st century. Professor Sonja Darlington as quoted in Tess Osonye Onwueme Biographical Statement. Through her work in the classroom, as a researcher, and as a writer, Dr. Onwueme focuses on African cultural traditions and contemporary socio-political issues pertaining to rural and urban women in Africa. Then, She Said It! An Interview of Playwright, Tess Onwueme by Becky Becker External Links Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Women authors from Nigeria Category:Poets from Nigeria Category:Playwrights from Nigeria Category:Women born in the 1950s