Chinweizu

**Chinweizu Ibekwe** (wey dem born 26 March 1943), wey people dey call just **Chinweizu**, plus ein pen-name **Maazi Chinweizu**, be Nigerian critic, essayist, poet, plus journalist. As e dey study for United States during de Black Power movement, Chinweizu get influence from de Black Arts Movement ein philosophy. People dey see am as one of de main people wey push Black orientalism forward, plus e come turn major figure for modern Nigerian journalism, wey e dey write one very influential column for *The Guardian* for Lagos.

## Background den education
Dem born Chinweizu insyd 1943 insyd one town wey dem dey call Eluoma, insyd Isuikwuato, insyd de Eastern Region of Nigeria wey today na Abia State insyd southeast Nigeria. E go school for Government Secondary School, Afikpo insyd Ebonyi State, den later go Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for U.S., wey e study philosophy plus mathematics, den e take Bachelor of Science degree insyd 1967—de same year civil war start insyd Nigeria wey last two and half years. As e dey live for Cambridge, Massachusetts dat time, Chinweizu start den edit Biafra Review (1969–70).

E register insyd ein Ph.D. for State University of New York insyd Buffalo, under political scientist Claude E. Welch Jr. But Chinweizu get wahala plus ein dissertation committee, so e waka comot plus ein manuscript, wey e later publish as *The West and the Rest of Us: White Predators, Black Slavers, and the African Elite* under Random House for 1975. E carry de book go SUNY Buffalo, demand make dem give am ein Ph.D., and dem sharply award am for 1976, one year after e publish de dissertation. So de publication na wetin settle de gbege between am and ein advisers.

## Teaching den themes
Chinweizu start to dey teach abroad, insyd MIT plus San Jose State University. E come back Nigeria insyd early 1980s, where e begin work as columnist for different newspapers insyd de country, den e dey push forward Black orientalism insyd Pan-Africanism. For Nigeria, e turn literary critic, wey dey challenge wetin e see as elitism insyd some Nigerian writers, especially Wole Soyinka, den e be editor for one Nigerian literary magazine wey dem dey call *Okike*. Chinweizu ein strong contribution for dis topic dey inside ein essay “The Decolonization of African Literature” (wey later turn to de 1983 book *Toward the Decolonization of African Literature*), and Soyinka reply am plus one essay wey e title *Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition*. One of Chinweizu ein other books be *Anatomy of Female Power*, wey e take discuss gender roles, masculinity plus feminism.

Chinweizu argue say Arab colonization plus Islamization of Africa no be different from European imperialism. De violent conquest, force conversion and slavery wey European Christians do, Arab Muslims do am too. In fact, Arab colonization and enslavement of Africa start before European own, and e still dey happen today for places like Sudan, Mauritania, and some other countries for Sahel region. Recently, e publish one comparative digest wey show parallel history of European den Arab atrocities against native Africans. E sharply criticize de common belief say Islam no get slavery or racism. According to am, Islam plus Arabian culture na di same foreign and invasive force like Christianity plus European culture.

## Selected bibliography
**Books**

* *The West and the Rest of Us: White Predators, Black Slavers, and the African Elite*, Random House, 1975. 
* *Energy Crisis and other poems*, Nok Publishers, 1978
* *Toward the Decolonization of African Literature, Vol. 1: African Fiction and Poetry and Their Critics* (with Onwuchekwa Jemie and Ihechukwu Madubuike), Howard University Press, 1983. 
* *Invocations and Admonitions: 49 poems and a triptych of parables*, Pero Press, 1986. 
* *Decolonising the African Mind*, Sundoor, 1987. 
* Editor, *Voices from Twentieth Century Africa: Griots and Towncriers*, Faber and Faber, 1989. 
* *Anatomy of Female Power: A Masculinist Dissection of Matriarchy*, Pero, 1990. 
* *The Reconstituted Virgin and Other Satires,* Serujtabooks, 2022. ASIN B0BN4Q1FNL (As Maazi Chinweizu)
* *432 Centuries of Recorded Science and Technology in Black Africa*, Serujtabooks, 2023. B0BWYB96K2 (As Maazi Chinweizu)

**Essays**

* "Prodigals, Come Home!" (1973), in Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson, eds, *African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory*, Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. .

## References


## External links
* "Chinweizu corner", House of Knowledge.
* "Afrocentric Scholar Chinweizu Dishes Some Hard Truths About Nigeria And Africa" - Chinweizu in Conversation with James Eze. Nairaland Forum, 29 March 2012.