Gabriel Okara’s family announces Burial date, ANA set to organize “The Voice@ 55” within burial week.

GABRIEL OKARA’S FAMILY ANNOUNCES BURIAL DATE, ANA SET TO ORGANIZE “THE VOICE AT 55” WITHIN BURIAL WEEK.

 

 

 The family of the late Dr. Gabriel Okara, a lifelong Patron of the Association of Nigerian Authors, has announced Saturday, 22^nd June, 2019, as the burial date for the author of Once Upon a Time.

Okara, who is from Boumadi, Bayelsa State, died at the Federal Medical Center, Yenagoa, in the evening of Sunday, 24th March, 2019.

It was gathered that the legendary poet and novelist died at the age of 97, approximately a month to his 98th birthday.

This was contained in a letter dated 14^th of June 2019 issued and signed by the Chairman, Mrs. Bina Nengi-Ilagha and Secretary, Barr. Ebi Fortune Robert of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Bayelsa Chapter”

According to the letter “The Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, driven by her Bayelsa Chapter; the Gabriel Okara Foundation; the Bayelsa State Library Board; and of course, the Okara family, have come together to organize a befitting literary  programme tagged the “Voice @ 55 which will hold within the burial week”

“Unfortunately, Okara passed on while plans were already being rounded off for the celebration. This invitation was to have come earlier than now but for Okara’s sudden demise. The association was perturbed by the news of his demise because it came at a time when preparations were in top gear to celebrate his masterpiece, The Voice, at 55.”

The Voice @ 55 in honour of Dr. Gabriel Okara promises to be an avenue of reading and appraising his works, spoken words, poetry performance, drama, tributes to mention but few. The date of the programme is Thursday, 20^th June, 2019 at Gabriel Okara Cultural Center, Melford Okilo Road, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria by 9:00am.

Born on 24 April, 1921, in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, the prize-winning poet had verse in his works translated into several languages in the early 1960s.

As an elder statesman of Nigerian literature, the late Okara was the first modernist poet of Anglophone, who literary career spanned six decades.

After leaving school, the late Okara wrote plays and features on radio programmes. In 1953, his poem: “The Call of the River Nun” won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts.

Some of his poetry works were published in the literary magazine Black Orpheus, and by 1960, he had won recognition as an accomplished literary craftsman.

In April 2017, the Gabriel Okara Literary Festival was held at the University of Port Harcourt in his honour.

In both his poems and his prose, Okara draws on African thought, religion, folklore and imagery, and he has been called “the Nigerian Negritudist”.

Some of his works include: “The Voice (1964)”; his award-winning poetry, published in “The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978)”; “The Dreamer” and “His Vision (2005)” among others.