CELEBRATING JAMES ENE HENSHAW @ 100
James Ene Henshaw (1924 -2007) was one of the pioneer African dramatists.
By James Ene Henshaw Foundation
A physician by profession who, in his own words, ‘strayed’ into writing.' His plays capture the pulse and moments of African society. They speak of the tug between tradition and modernity, of the declining morality of a newly independent society, of the failure of becoming, in political and ethical terms, among the evolving elite.
Henshaw attended missionary schools, Sacred Heart School, Calabar and Christ the King College, Onitsha before going on to read Medicine at the National University of Ireland, Dublin and the University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom where he qualified a chest physician. Back in Nigeria he went on to an illustrious career in Medicine serving as Senior Consultant-in-charge, Tuberculosis Control, Eastern Nigeria (1955-68), and finally as Director of Medical Services in the former South Eastern State of Nigeria. He served in various professional and public service positions and earned several honours including Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and Knight of the Order of St. Gregory (KSG) from his Holiness Pope Paul V1.
His first, seminal, play THIS IS OUR CHANCE (1958) has since gone on to become one of the most popular works by an African writer, with several reprints and staged by professional companies, schools, colleges and universities across the continent. Henshaw remains the most popular, if not critical, playwright to have emerged from the African continent.
One thing for which Henshaw will be remembered is the fact that his was the first attempt to be regarded as authentic African drama to be performed by African people. As Henshaw himself recounted of THIS OUR CHANCE, he had set out, consciously, to write plays whose scenes take place in surroundings that are not far removed from Africa.
In his personal life, Henshaw was a devoted husband and father to eight children who kept his family very dear to his heart.
He died on 16th August 2007, just after working on his last project, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into his native Efik language.