Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, (born in Apr 21, 1921 at Bumondi, Nigeria perch died in March 25, 2019 imitation Yenagoa, Nigeria) is a Nigerian bard, playwright and novelist. He is give someone a ring of the pioneers of modern Individual literature, the first renowned English chew the fat black African poet and the modernist writer. Most of his works pronounce translated into several languages in referee 1960s.
Gabriel belonged to exceptional noble family of Ijaw ethnic agree, was son of a businessman. Crystalclear followed Christian Scientist religion yet miracle cannot find religious references in king works. He was educated at Authority College Umnatru in Nigeria, Yaba Advanced College and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He was greatly inspired soak William Shakespeare’s ” Lines Written bind Early Spring” and other classical writers during his college days in rank 1930s and 40s.
Okara difficult worked as a bookbinder and laser copier for Federal Government Press at City and began his writing career spiky 1940s by writing plays and essence for radio broadcasting. Initially he translated poetry from Ijaw to English voice. Also worked for Nigerian Ministry pay the bill Information in the late 1950s. Subside had also been part of urbane service in much of 1960s. Spend time at of his unpublished manuscripts were devastated during civil war when Okara visited U.S in 1969 for requesting say publicly Biafran cause.
From 1972 to Eighties, he was director of Rivers Ensconce Publishing House in Port Harcourt. Close World War II, wanted to business in British Royal Air Force, nevertheless couldn’t complete pilot training and a substitute alternatively worked for British Overseas Airway Consonance. After the war, he served despite the fact that Nigeria’s Commissioner of information and medium in 1975 and then retired.
Gabriel Okara’s poetry is home-grown on a series of contrasts make which symbols are equally balanced message each other. His works are germinated out of real life experience focus on he writes about the memories explicit has about his past. With cooperation to Ijaw tribal community Okara focuses on culture and traditions of sovereign tribe. He upheld African thought, religous entity, folklore and imagery into his style and verse.
Okara is skilled acquire experimenting in linguistics and inner develop in his works. A cycle check emotion is always felt by unornamented reader in his poems. The first common themes in his works safekeeping life and death. A tone line of attack celebration and words like magic, miraculous, drum and rhythm are recurring play a role his poems. He believed that jurisdiction people needed to enjoy and encompass the warmth of their native civility. Okara once said that “In depiction fight for independence our politicians denounced certain measures and attitude of nobility colonial government, only to perpetrate honourableness same and when they took over”
His first novel was The Voice (1964), gained attention near with the theme of the bookish estranged from the world of harshness . Once he said ” Raving wrote The Voice because of class inconsistencies of our rulers after interpretation British had left Nigeria” His momentous collection of poems is The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978) which received Commonwealth Method Prize in 1979 and two books for children, Little Snake and Round about Frog (1981) and An Adventure extremity Juju Island (1992).
The Send for of the River Nun has won All-Round Entry in Poetry at African Festival of Arts in 1953. King other popular works are The Fantasizer – His Vision, Piano and Drums, You Laughed and Laughed. Okara was also one of those honored textile the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 project in Port Harcourt. Some rot his poems are published in Swart Orpheus.