JUST LOUNGING WITH A BUST, NO BIG DEAL. Though you may not have seen her works locally, Tess Onwueme is an internationally renowned playwright.

Tess Onwueme has been called Africa’s best-known female dramatist, and she practically lives in your backyard. 

In April, to top her growing pile of awards and honors, she received the prestigious Fonlon-Nichols award from the African Literature Association, which is given yearly to an African writer whose work has demonstrated commitment to democratic ideals, humanistic values, and literary excellence in Africa. 

“You’re just doing what you love to do, and someone notices,” says Onwueme, who has been a professor of English and Cultural Diversity at UW-Eau Claire since 1994. “It’s like a collective, international nodding. It strengthens me.”

International spotlight on Onwueme intensified recently as the Fonlon-Nichols award spawned what the playwright is calling another “pleasant surprise” – a three-day literary conference devoted exclusively to her work. At the November event, entitled Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-Literature, Onwueme will address a gathering whose attendees will include the president of Nigeria, along with his cabinet members. Though the officiators wanted to hold the conference in either Michigan or Canada, Onwueme felt that bringing it to her home country of Nigeria would help facilitate “intense cross-Atlantic dialogue” by making it more accessible to Africans.

Onwueme’s twenty-or-so published plays deal with controversial themes including class and gender inequality as well as cultural and racial conflict – themes relatable across many nations. In fact, Onwueme expressed concern about the divide widening between the rich and poor within the states. “In such resource-rich countries such as Nigeria and the U.S.,” she says, noting that Nigeria is the top oil producing country in the world, “there is no reason for anyone to be poor or anxious about health care.

    Though her plays are widely used in college curricula and have been the subject of many dissertations, they are seldom stocked in bookstores – simply because plays are not marketed toward the general public. However, she has written a novel that is commercially available entitled, Why the Elephant Has No Butt. Onwueme laughs as she recites the title. “It’s an allegory; it can be read at any level.”

I wanted to know how she accomplished so much, with five children in tow. She let me in on a little secret. If you go to bed at nine, you can get up at four. “Before breakfast, everyone is still sleeping, and it’s quality writing time. Your brain is fresh and well-rested.” She instilled this work ethic in her children, all of whom are pursuing careers in medicine and law. “Monkey see, monkey do,” she says. “Work has been my life.”

As I talked with Onwueme in her kit    chen, the last leaves of the year were quivering on their stems. I asked her if she liked it here. “I never get used to the cold,” she says, “but I learn to cope.” She sees the move to Eau Claire 15 years ago as “a great gamble that paid off.” Although high-profile universities had offered her positions, she turned them down in exchange for the quiet, laid back nature of Eau Claire. 

As for the whirlwind of attention, Onwueme feels humbled. While she welcomes the added responsibility of being seen as a role model, she is sobered by it, striving to deliver even more impact through her words. “I write not just to teach and entertain, but to heal souls and minds, and to awaken consciousness of people coping with the challenges of the world today,” she says.