Osonye Tess Onwueme

Osonye Tess Onwueme, also known as T. Akaeke Onwueme (born 8 September 1955) is a Nigerian playwright, scholar and poet, who rose to prominence writing plays with themes of social justice, culture, and the environment. In 2010, she became the University Professor of Global Letters, following her exceptional service as Distinguished Professor of Cultural Diversity and English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Through her plays, she is able to use the theatre as a medium to showcase historically silenced views such as African women, and shedding more light on African life. She sustains her advocacy for the global poor and youth, along with the experiences and concerns of the (African) Diaspora in her creative work. In 2007, the US State Department appointed her to the Public Diplomacy Speaker Program for North, East, and West India. The 2009 Tess International Conference: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-Literature, which was exclusively devoted to the author's work, was successfully held by international scholars in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, following the Fonlon-Nichols award to the dramatist. She is regarded as one of the band of more important African authors.[1] She also is an active speaker regarding domestic violence.[2]

Early life and education

She was born Osonye Akeake in Ogwashi Ukwu, present-day Delta state, to the family of barrister Chief Akaeke and Maria Eziashr. Osonye was educated at Mary Mount Secondary School; it was while at the school that she first dabbled in writing. After secondary education, she married an agronomist, I. C. Onwueme, and bore five children, during the time she attended the University of Ife, for her bachelor's degree in education (1979) and master's in literature (1982). She obtained her PhD at the University of Benin, studying African Drama. In 1998 she married Obika Gray, a Jamaican political scientist.[3]

Works
  • A Hen Too Soon (1983)
  • Broken Calabash (1984)
  • The Desert Encroaches (1985)
  • The Reign of Wazobia (1988)
  • Ban Empty Barn and other plays (1986)
  • Legacies (1989)
  • Three Plays: an anthology of plays by Tess Onwueme (1993)
  • Tell It To Women: an epic drama (1995).
  • Riot In Heaven: drama for the voices of color (1996; 2006)
  • The Missing Face, a play (1997; 2000)
  • Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen: a play (2000; 2006)
  • Then She Said It: a play (2003)
  • What Mama Said, an epic drama (2004)
  • No Vacancy (2005)

Awards

She has won several international awards, including: the prestigious Fonlon-Nichols award (2009),[4] the Phyllis Wheatley/Nwapa award for outstanding black writers (2008),[5] the Martin Luther King, Jr./Caeser Chavez Distinguished Writers Award (1989/90),[6] the Distinguished Authors Award (1988),[7] and the Association of Nigerian Authors Drama Prize, which she has won several times with plays such as The Desert Encroaches (1985),[8] Tell It To Women (1995),[9] Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen (2001),[10] Then She Said it (2003), among numerous honors and international productions of her drama.[11]

Notes
  1. N. Graham Nesmith. "Osonye Tess Onweume. What Mama Said: An Epic Drama", in African American Review, Spring-Summer 2005 accessed at March 29, 2007.
  2. Ibrahim Hirsi (4 September 2015). "'They can be stopped': Bukola Oriola takes her story of surviving domestic violence from Minnesota to Nigeria". Minn Post. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  3. Marvie Brooks, "Onwueme, Tess", Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001, p. 243.
  4. "Celebrating Prof Tess Onwueme". Vanguard News. 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  5. "Delta-Born Tess Onwueme Celebrated Abroad". The Pointer News Online. 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  6. "Onwueme, Osonye Tess 1955– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  7. "Guide to the Tess Osonye Onwueme Papers, 1975-2014". University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  8. "African Books Collective: Tess Osonye Onwueme". www.africanbookscollective.com. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  9. "Riot In Heaven: Drama for the Voices of Color". Dr. Tess Onwueme's Official Website. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  10. "African novel, women, theatre and culture, dramatist, Tess Onwueme". www.writertess.com. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  11. Postcolonial Web

Further reading
  • Simon Gikandi, Encyclopedia of African Literature, Routledge (2002), ISBN 0-415-23019-5 - pp. 414–15
  • Ini Uko, Gender and Identity in the Works of Tess Onwueme, Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2004
  • Chris Dunton, "Nigeria and the Diaspora, Solidarities and Discords: The Drama of Tess Onwueme", in Toyin Falola (ed.), Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. Durham, North Carolina. Carolina Academic Press, 2002. pp. 791–798
  • Therese Migraine-George, "African Women on the Global Stage", African Women and Representation: From Performance to Politics. Trenton: Africa World Press, 2008. pp. 157–178.
  • Kanika Batra, "Daughters who Know the Language of Power: Community, Sexuality, and Postcolonial Development In Tess Onwueme's Tell it to Women," Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 9, 1 (2007), 124–138, (ISSN 1369-801X print/1469-929X online)
  • J. O. J. Nwachukwu-Agbada, "Tess Onwueme: Dramatist In Quest of Change", World Literature Today (Summer 1992), 464–467.
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