Farewell to the Father of Modern Nigerian Poetry, Pa Gabriel Okara who passed on Sunday night of March 24, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state of the Niger Delta, a month to his 98th birthday.
Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (born April 24, 1921 - March 24, 2019) was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The first Modernist poet of Anglophone Africa; best known for his early experimental novel, The Voice (1964), and his award-winning poetry, published in The Fisherman's Invocation (1978) and The Dreamer, His Vision (2005
.
Awards and Recognitions:
1953: Best All-Round Entry In Poetry at the Nigerian Festival of Arts, for "The Call of the River Nun"
1979: Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for The Fisherman's Invocation
2005: NLNG Prize, for The Dreamer, His Vision.
2009: Pan African Writers' Association Honorary Membership Award
2017: Gabriel Okara Literary Festival.
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