D.O. Fagunwa

D.O. Fagunwa MBE (1903 -1963) was a Nigerian author who pioneered the Yoruba-language novel. He was born in Oke-Igbo, Ondo State. An Oloye of the Yoruba people, Fagunwa studied at St. Luke's School, Oke-Igbo, and St. Andrew's College, Oyo, before becoming a teacher himself. Fagunwa was the author of several novels, most of which was translated into English by the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. In 1955, Fagunwa was awarded the Maragaret Wong Prize and in 1959, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. He died in 1963 in Nigeria.