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, 22nd
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 14th
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, 20th 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.
