Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Sarah Ladipo Manyika was born in Lagos, Nigeria on March 7th, 1968 to a Nigerian father and a British mother.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Age

Sarah Ladipo Manyika is 56 years old.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Early Life

A daughter of an Anglican clergyman from Ibadan, Oyo State, Sarah grew up in Jos, in Northern Nigeria, at a time when Jos seemed like such an idyllic, cosmopolitan town. She went to an American missionary school and had friends of many different nationalities and religious faiths – such syncretism fed her future imagination as a writer. Her family later moved to Nairobi, Kenya, and then on to London, England, and in the course of these travels, they moved house many times and she attended five different schools. The peripatetic nature of her childhood compounded her teenage sense of not quite belonging, nudging her ever closer to books in an on-going search for home. She furthered studied at the Universities of Birmingham (UK), Bordeaux (France), and Berkeley (California).

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Career

Sarah's stories, particularly her first novel “In Dependence” and some of the works written by the late Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera – make you feel the dreams, the anxieties, the loss and yet the natural humanity of Africa’s exported intellectual generation in the 60’s and 70’s.

Describing her parent's understanding and support of her writing career, she said, "My father is probably the most prolific purchaser of my books and he insists that his book group reads all that I’ve written. My mum is the true writer in the family and my better-edited pieces are always those that she has had a hand in proofreading before they are published."

Sarah holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and for several years taught literature at San Francisco State University. Sarah currently serves on the boards of Hedgebrook and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Sarah is a Patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature and Books Editor at ozy.com. Her second novel “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” was shortlisted for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Personal Life

Sarah is married to a Zimbabwean, James Manyika. She loves the narrative voice in NoViolet Bulawayo’s writings and admires the courage of writers such as Tendai Huchu and Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende in tackling taboo topics. 

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Net Worth

Her net worth is not available.

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