Elechi Amadi

Elechi Amadi was a writer and soldier born in 1934 into an Igbo family in Ikwerre, Rivers State, Nigeria. He was educated at the Government College in Umuahia and the University College of Ibadan.

The Concubine, published in 966, was his debut novel and made him an icon of Nigerian literature. Amadi was a prolific writer of poems, plays, novels and essays. Throughout his career, he was writer-in-residence and lecturer at Rivers State College of Education where he was also Dean of Arts, Head of the Literature Department, and Director of General Studies. In 2003, he was made a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the nation's highest honour.

Amadi died in 2016.