Sad to hear that Nigerian author Festus Iyayi was recently killed in a car accident ("hit by a police escort vehicle in the convoy of the Kogi State governor", as The Sun report, Adieu, Festus Iyayi, notes).
His political fiction is definitely out of favor as far as current literature-from-Africa abroad (and in Africa ?) goes, but recall that his Heroes beat out Bruce Chatwin's Songlines (among others) for the 1988 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (you can try to get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
The Sun obituary suggests: "Iyayi's four novels [...] exude Marxist praxis and aesthetics", which certainly is out of favor in these times -- but, honestly, African (and quite a few other ...) literature(s) could use a bit more Iyayi .....
His political fiction is definitely out of favor as far as current literature-from-Africa abroad (and in Africa ?) goes, but recall that his Heroes beat out Bruce Chatwin's Songlines (among others) for the 1988 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (you can try to get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
The Sun obituary suggests: "Iyayi's four novels [...] exude Marxist praxis and aesthetics", which certainly is out of favor in these times -- but, honestly, African (and quite a few other ...) literature(s) could use a bit more Iyayi .....