Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (24 April 1921 – 25 March 2019) was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa,

Bayelsa State Bayelsa is a state in the South South region of Nigeria, located in the core of the Niger Delta. Bayelsa State was created in 1996 and was carved out from Rivers State, making it one of the newest states in the federation. The capital, Yenag ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. The first

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

poet of

Anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

Africa, he is best known for his early experimental novel, '' The Voice'' (1964), and his award-winning poetry, published in ''The Fisherman's Invocation'' (1978) and ''The Dreamer, His Vision'' (2005). In both his poems and his prose, Okara drew on African thought, religion,

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and imagery, and he has been called "the Nigerian Negritudist". According to

Brenda Marie Osbey Brenda Marie Osbey (born December 12, 1957, in New Orleans) is an American poet. She served as the Poet Laureate of Louisiana from 2005 to 2007. Life She graduated from Dillard University, Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III, and from the ...

, editor of his ''Collected Poems'', "It is with publication of Gabriel Okara's first poem that Nigerian literature in English and modern African poetry in this language can be said truly to have begun."

Biography

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, the son of an Ijọ chief,"Gabriel Okara," in Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy, Virginia Coulon, ''A New Reader's Guide to African Literature'', Heinemann Educational Books, 1983; pp. 445–447. was born in Bomoundi in the Niger Delta in 1921. He was educated at Government College Umuahia, and later at Yaba Higher College. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he attempted to enlist in the British Royal Air Force but did not complete pilot training, instead he worked for a time for the

British Overseas Airways Corporation British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the United Kingdom, British state-owned national airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II ...

(later British Airways).James M. Manheim
"Okara, Gabriel 1921–"
''Contemporary Black Biography ''. Encyclopedia.com. In 1945 Okara found work as a printer and bookbinder for colonial Nigeria's government-owned publishing company. He remained in that post for nine years, during which he began to write. At first he translated poetry from Ijaw into English and wrote scripts for government radio. He studied journalism at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

in 1949, and before the outbreak of the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a Secession, secessionist state which had declared its independen ...

(1967–70) worked as Information Officer for the Eastern Nigerian Government Service. Together with Chinua Achebe, Okara was roving ambassador for

Biafra Biafara Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicized as Biafra ( ), officially the Republic of Biafra, was a List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, partially recognised state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria ...

's cause during part of 1969. From 1972 to 1980 he was director of the

Rivers State Rivers is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...

Publishing House in

Port Harcourt Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...

."Gabriel Okara"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''.

Writing

After leaving school Okara wrote plays and features for radio, and in 1953 his poem "The Call of the River Nun" won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts. Some of his poetry was published in the literary magazine '' Black Orpheus'', and by 1960 he had won recognition as an accomplished literary craftsman, his poetry being translated into several languages. He attended the landmark African Writers Conference held on 1 June 1962 at Makerere University College in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, along with such writers as Chinua Achebe, Rajat Neogy, Bloke Modisane,

Okot p'Bitek Okot p'Bitek (7 June 1931 – 19 July 1982) was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for '' Song of Lawino'', a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wis ...

, Bernard Fonlon, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Olusegun Olusola, Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, Rebecca Njau,

Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...

, John Pepper Clark, Saunders Redding, Christopher Okigbo, Francis Ademola, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Arthur Maimane, and others. One of Okara's most famous poems is " Piano and Drums". Another popular poem, " You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed", is a frequent feature of anthologies. Okara was very concerned with what happens when the ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

, as in his poem "Once Upon a Time". He pursued that theme in his first novel, ''The Voice'' (1964). Its protagonist Okolo, like countless post-colonial Africans, is hunted by society and haunted by his own ideals. Experimenting linguistically in ''The Voice'', Okara "translated directly from the Ijo (Ijaw) language, imposing Ijo syntax onto English in order to give literal expression to African ideas and imagery. The novel creates a symbolic landscape in which the forces of traditional African culture and Western materialism contend.... Okara’s skilled portrayal of the inner tensions of his hero distinguished him from many other Nigerian novelists." In addition to his poetry and fiction, Okara also wrote plays and features for broadcasting. Many of his unpublished manuscripts were destroyed during the Nigerian Civil War. In April 2017, the Gabriel Okara Literary Festival was held at the University of Port Harcourt in his honour. The publication in May 2017 of the book ''Gabriel Okra'', edited by Professor Chidi T. Maduka, addressed Okara's "place in African literature and the fact that he has not been given his full due in African literature", which was partly attributable, said Lindsay Barrett, to Okara (like himself) not having been "university-based", while Odia Ofeimun acknowledged Okara as "not just the oldest writer but a foundational producer of the literary arts in our part of the world."

Awards and honours

* 1953: Best All-Round Entry In Poetry at the Nigerian Festival of Arts, for "The Call of the River Nun" * 1979: Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for ''The Fisherman's Invocation'' * 2005: NLNG Prize, for ''The Dreamer, His Vision'' * 2009: Pan African Writers' Association Honorary Membership Award * 2017: Gabriel Okara Literary Festival

Selected bibliography

* 1964: ''The Voice'', London: Deutsch, first edition; Heinemann African Writers Series (No. 68), 1970. Africana Publishing, . * 1978: ''The Fisherman's Invocation'' (poems) * 1981: ''Little Snake and Little Frog'' (for children) * 1992: ''An Adventure to Juju Island'' (for children) * 2005: ''The Dreamer, His Vision''(20) (poems) * 2006: ''As I See It'' (poems) * 2016: ''Collected Poems'' (edited and with an introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey), University of Nebraska Press, African Poetry Book Series, .

References

External links