Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood - Softcover

Aniagolu, Emeka

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0975520814 ISBN 13: 9780975520819

Publisher: Griot Press USA, 2010

Synopsis

Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood is a work of fiction, or a literary work that falls into the conflated realm of fact and fiction otherwise known as faction. It lays bare as well as burnishes to gleaming shine, the traditional institution of the Ozo title of the Igbo of Nigeria, an institution which the author of the work, Prof. Emeka Aniagolu, describes as constituting of "philosopher-king-warrior-knights." Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood, is also a richly embroidered tale, that employs the power and beauty of language to embellish fictional characters as well as characters drawn from Igbo folk tradition, in order to supply the cultural raw material for the literary mill that spawns for the reader a rich silken fabric of philosophical insights and proverbs; and, as has become the trademark of the author of this work, allegorical lessons mined from traditional Igbo culture and society that resonates for humanity writ large. In Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood the reader finds the social polarities of traditional Igbo society engaged in dynamic interaction as well as moral quagmire: the Ozo and the Osu-the former the highest social aristocrats, and the latter, the outcasts of traditional Igbo society; thrust into social interaction and intimacy as well as into a moral dialogue with one another, forcing the reader-Igbo or otherwise, to address the social and moral dilemmas that confront and confound that society's social condition, and by extended logic, the human condition. The main hero of the story, Ogbuefi Ozo Obiagu, embodies the complexities of the social divide and distance Aniagolu's historical fiction grapples with. Ogbuefi Ozo Obiagu also personifies the morally conflicted resolution that constitutes the allegorical core of the novel.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author Profesor Emeka Aniagolu is from Enugu State, Nigeria. He attended the renowned high school in Nigeria, Government College Umuahia, did his undergraduate work in Political Science at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, and his graduate work in Political Science, African and African American Studies, at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. He is an Assistant Professor and the Assistant Director for the Black World Studies of Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, where he teaches African and African-American History and Politics. Emeka Aniagolu's first novel, Black Mustard Seed, is critically acclaimed by major scholars in the field of African Literature (such as the greatest living African writer, Chinua Achebe), and was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize in August of 2002. He is the author of five works of fiction and two works of non-fiction work in world history and political theory as well as history. Co-Whites, his eigth book and third work of non-fiction, is forthcoming.

Edition details

• Publisher: Griot Press USA
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0975520814
• ISBN 13: 9780975520819
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 258