Christopher Okigbo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chris Okigbo
Born	Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (1932-08-16)16 August 1932 Ojoto, Anambra State, British Nigeria
Died	1967 (aged 34–35) Nsukka, Nigeria
Occupation	Writer
Education	Government College Umuahia; University College Ibadan
Genre	Drama, poetry
Subject	Comparative literature
Relatives	Pius Okigbo (brother)

Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (born August 16, 1932 – died 1967) was a Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian. He is known as an important African poet who wrote in English after his country became independent. He is also seen as one of the major modern writers of the 20th century. He sadly died fighting for the independence of Biafra.

Early Life of Chris Okigbo

Christopher Okigbo was born on August 16, 1932, in a town called Ojoto. This town is about 10 miles from the city of Onitsha in Anambra State, Nigeria. His father was a teacher in Catholic schools during the time when Britain ruled Nigeria. Because of his father's job, Okigbo moved around a lot when he was young.

Even though his father was a strong Christian, Okigbo felt a special connection to his family's traditional beliefs. Later in life, he believed that he was the reborn soul of his grandfather. His grandfather was a priest of Idoto, an Igbo goddess. The Idoto river flows through Okigbo's village, and this "water goddess" is very important in his poems.

Another important person in Okigbo's early life was his older brother, Pius Okigbo. Pius later became a famous economist and a top diplomat for Nigeria in Europe.

School Days at Umuahia and Ibadan

Okigbo finished school at Government College Umuahia in Nigeria. He graduated two years after Chinua Achebe, another famous Nigerian writer. At school, Okigbo was known for loving to read and being good at sports.

The next year, he was accepted into University College in Ibadan, which is now called the University of Ibadan. He first planned to study Medicine, but in his second year, he changed to Classics (the study of ancient Greek and Roman culture). At college, he was also known as a talented piano player. He even played the piano for Wole Soyinka's first public singing show. People believe Okigbo wrote his own music back then, but none of it has survived.

Okigbo's Work and Art

After graduating in 1956, Okigbo worked many different jobs across Nigeria. During this time, he also started writing poetry. He worked for the Nigerian Tobacco Company and the United Africa Company. He also taught Latin at Fiditi Grammar School. Finally, he became an Assistant Librarian at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. There, he helped start the African Authors Association.

In those years, he began to publish his poems in different magazines. One important magazine was Black Orpheus. This magazine aimed to share great writings from Africa and Black America. Okigbo's poetry often showed strong feelings about African pride after colonial rule. However, he did not agree with the idea of "Negritude," which focused on a romantic view of being Black. He also felt that African and Black American experiences were different. Because of these beliefs, he refused a poetry prize in 1966, saying there was no such thing as a "Negro" or "black" poet.

In 1963, he left Nsukka to work for Cambridge University Press in Ibadan. This job allowed him to travel often to the United Kingdom, where he gained more attention. In Ibadan, he was an active member of the Mbari literary club. Here, he wrote or published his most important works. These include Limits (1964), Silences (1962–65), and Lament of the Masks (1964), which honored the famous poet W. B. Yeats. He also wrote Dance of the Painted Maidens (1964) for his daughter's birth. His last poems, Path of Thunder (1965–67), were published after his death in 1971. These poems were part of his major work, Labyrinths, which included his earlier collections.

The War Years

In 1966, the situation in Nigeria became very tense. Okigbo was living in Ibadan at the time. He moved to eastern Nigeria to see what would happen. This led to the eastern provinces breaking away to form independent Biafra on May 30, 1967. Living in Enugu, he worked with Chinua Achebe to start a new publishing company called Citadel Press.

When Biafra declared its independence, Okigbo immediately joined the new state's army as a volunteer. He became a major. He was a skilled soldier and was killed in battle during a big attack by Nigerian troops on Nsukka. Nsukka was the university town where he found his voice as a poet, and he had promised to defend it with his life.

Okigbo's Legacy

In July 1967, Okigbo's house in Enugu was destroyed in a bombing raid by the Nigerian air force. Many of his writings that had not yet been published, possibly including the start of a novel, were lost. Also destroyed was Pointed Arches, an autobiography in verse. He had described this work as telling the story of his life and how it helped his creative mind.

However, some of his unpublished papers did survive the war. His daughter, Obiageli, inherited them. In 2005, she started the Christopher Okigbo Foundation to keep his memory alive. In 2006, a professor named Chukwuma Azuonye helped to organize these papers. He also helped the foundation nominate them for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register.

Early studies of these papers show that they include new poems in English, like drafts of an Anthem for Biafra. They also contain poems written in the Igbo language. These Igbo poems are very interesting because they show new sides to Okigbo's poetry. They challenge the idea that he ignored his African roots by focusing too much on European modern styles.

"Elegy for Alto," the last poem in Path of Thunder, is often seen as the poet's "last message." It seems to predict his own death as a sacrifice for human freedom:

Earth, unbind me; let me be the prodigal; let this be

the ram’s ultimate prayer to the tether...

AN OLD STAR departs, leaves us here on the shore

Gazing heavenward for a new star approaching;

The new star appears, foreshadows its going

Before a going and coming that goes on forever....

In 1987, Wole Soyinka created the Okigbo Award in his honor. The first person to win this award was Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard for his work La Tradition du Songe (1985).

See also

• Pius Okigbo