People of the City

When People of the City was published in 1954 it was immediately acclaimed as the first major novel in English by a West African to be widely read throughout the English-speaking world. Despite the reputation Ekwensi achieved with his later novels, People of the City remains a work of much greater significance in the development of modern African writing.

It tells the story of a young crime reporter and dance-band leader in a great West African city who comes to see that what he can do for the developing country in which he lives is more important than the considerable and varied personal pleasures he can find in the hectic life of the city.