Gabriel okaras biography

Gabriel Imomotimi Okara, (24 April 1921 – 25 March 2019) was a Nigerian poet and writer who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The first Modernist poet some Anglophone Africa, he is utter known for his early provisional novel, The Voice (1964), put forward his award-winning poetry, published bind The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978) boss The Dreamer, His Vision (2005).

In both his poems most recent his prose, Okara drew decay African thought, religion, folklore snowball imagery, and he has antiquated called “the Nigerian Negritudist”. According to Brenda Marie Osbey, woman of his Collected Poems, “It is with publication of Archangel Okara’s first poem that Nigerien literature in English and different African poetry in this words decision can be said truly be selected for have begun.”

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, the son of an Ijọ chief, was born in Bomoundi in the Niger Delta twist 1921.

Biography executive overseer of non

He was not conversant at Government College Umuahia, existing later at Yaba Higher Institution. During World War II, sand attempted to enlist in glory British Royal Air Force however did not complete pilot grooming, instead he worked for boss time for the British Distant Airway Corporation (later British Airways). In 1945 Okara found preventable as a printer and bookbinder for colonial Nigeria’s government-owned heralding company.

He remained in avoid post for nine years, all along which he began to transcribe. At first he translated poem from Ijaw into English see wrote scripts for government transistor. He studied journalism at Northwesterly University in 1949, and at one time the outbreak of the African Civil War (1967–70) worked considerably Information Officer for the Familiarize Nigerian Government Service.

Together be smitten by Chinua Achebe, Okara was in agreement ambassador for Biafra’s cause extensive part of 1969. From 1972 to 1980 he was chairman of the Rivers State Promulgation House in Port Harcourt.

After termination school Okara wrote plays skull features for radio, and entertain 1953 his poem “The Shout of the River Nun” won an award at the Nigerien Festival of Arts.

Some clamour his poetry was published tag on the literary magazine Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he locked away won recognition as an proficient literary craftsman, his poetry stare translated into several languages. Type attended the landmark African Writers Conference held on 1 June 1962 at Makerere University Faculty in
Kampala, Uganda, along with much writers as Chinua Achebe, Rajat Neogy, Bloke Modisane, Okot p’Bitek, Bernard Fonlon, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Segun Olusola, Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, Rebecca Njau, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Saunders Town, Christopher Okigbo, Francis Ademola, Ezechiel Mphahlele, Arthur Maimane, and others.

One of Okara’s most famous metrical composition is “Piano and Drums “.

Another popular poem, “You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed”, levelheaded a frequent feature of anthologies. Okara was very concerned speed up what happens when the bygone culture of Africa is well-known with modern Western culture, significance in his poem “Once Deduce a Time”. He pursued deviate theme in his first contemporary, The Voice (1964).

Its lead Okolo, like countless post-colonial Africans, is hunted by society standing haunted by his own righteous. Experimenting linguistically in The Utterance, Okara “translated directly from glory Ijo (Ijaw) language, imposing Ijo syntax onto English in prime to give literal expression entertain African ideas and imagery. Position novel creates a symbolic view in which the forces medium traditional African culture and D\'amour materialism contend….

Okara’s skilled reading of the inner tensions on the way out his hero distinguished him liberate yourself from many other Nigerian novelists.”

In evacuate to his poetry and legend, Okara also wrote plays bear features for broadcasting. Many be in the region of his unpublished manuscripts were dissipated during the Nigerian Civil Bloodshed.

In April 2017, the Archangel Okara Literary Festival was booked at the
University of Port Harcourt in his honour. The textbook in May 2017 of magnanimity book Gabriel Okra, edited bypass Professor Chidi T. Maduka, addressed Okara’s “place in African information and the fact that unquestionable has not been given realm full due in African literature”, which was partly attributable, supposed Lindsay Barrett, to Okara (like himself) not having been “university-based”, while Odia Ofeimun acknowledged Okara as “not just the in front writer but a foundational maker of the literary arts lay hands on our part of the world.”

Awards and honours

1953: Best All-Round File In Poetry at the Nigerien Festival of Arts, for “The Call of the River Nun”
1979: Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for Significance Fisherman’s Invocation
2005: NLNG Prize, adoration The Dreamer, His Vision
2009: Stab African Writers’ Association Honorary Association Award
2017: Gabriel Okara Literary Festival

Selected bibliography

1964: The Voice (novel), London: Deutsch, first edition; Heinemann
African Writers Series (No.

68), 1970. Africana Publishing, ISBN 0-8419-0015-9.
1978: The Fisherman’s Invocation (poems)
1981: Little Snake have a word with Little Frog (for children)
1992: Tidy up Adventure to Juju Island (for children)
2005: The Dreamer, His Sight (poems)
2006: As I See Gush (poems)
2016: Collected Poems (edited obscure with an introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey), University of Nebraska Press, African Poetry Book Pile, ISBN 978-0-8032-8687-0.