{"id":16437,"date":"2019-03-27T18:32:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T18:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=16437"},"modified":"2019-03-27T18:32:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T18:32:25","slug":"nigeria-has-lost-a-literary-giant-in-pa-gabriel-okara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=16437","title":{"rendered":"(Eulogy) Nigeria has lost a literary giant in Pa Gabriel Okara"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ‘Timi Alaibe<\/strong>
\nDeath\u2014the mysterious intruder with cold hands\u2014has struck again. Without any courtesy, it has taken away our literary father\u2014our poet, our novelist and our writer extraordinaire, a man of inspiration and fertile mind, a storehouse of inexhaustible vocabulary, Pa Gabriel Imomotimi Okara, OON. He died four weeks to his 98th birthday. That on its own is poetic!
\nPa Okara was a father-figure friend. He was one of our best in the literary world. A forerunner and a pioneer in many aspects, he wrote what could be described indigenous literature\u2014a genre of poetry and other literary works that Africans, Nigerians and indeed the proud Niger Delta people can easily identify with and appreciate. This stood him out of the crowd of intellectual giants.
\nDescribed by some writers as \u201cthe first modernist poet of Anglophone Africa\u201d our beloved Pa Okara belonged to the very top in his class with poetic ideas gushing from his inner recesses effortlessly. He was among the first to launch Nigeria into the international literary arena with brands of poetry and stories that were unmistakably indigenous but very outstanding.
\nA man of humble beginning, Okara epitomised the often neglected belief that the morning does not necessarily tell the day. He started his career as a printer and books binder\u2014a job he did for almost ten years. He moved on to become a journalism graduate at Northwestern University and ended up as a poet celebrity. What a life! Though he started small, he refused to remain small. As an iroko tree, he dominated the skies of his career; attracting awards and recognition.
\nAn undoubtedly wordsmith, Okara\u2019s literary journey began in 1953 when he surfaced with the award-winning poem entitled\u00a0The Call of the Nun River. He gave us\u00a0The Voice\u00a0in 1964 and went ahead to carry out theFisherman\u2019s Invocation\u00a0in 1978. In 1981, Okara assembled our children for a tale about the\u00a0Little Snake and Little Frog\u00a0before making hisAdventure to Juju Island\u00a0in 1992. A thrilling masterpiece on the tales ofThe Dreamer, His Vision\u00a0came out in 2005. These are just a few of his award-wining writings.
\nMy encounters with Okara were always humbling. His simple lifestyle contrasted with his broad world view and global recognition. In many ways, he was an inspiration. His rise from the dust of his career to the top where he rubbed shoulders with the best across the world can hardly be captured in words.\u00a0 At his death, we have lost a pacesetter and a visionary. I will personally miss a father-friend with undying smiles and a broad shoulder to rest my head.
\nIt was in recognition of Pa Okara\u2019s towering stature in the art and literary world that the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission during my time as Executive Director, Finance\/Administration created the Association of Nigerian Authors\/NDDC Gabriel Okara Prize for Poetry.
\nAs we reflect on his life and times, there is no doubt that it would be difficult to have another writer in his class. Niger Delta has lost a gem. Nigeria has lost one of its best. As a country, we have lost a legend\u2014a literary statesman of towering frame; a historical figure worthy of emulation and deep study by future generations.
\nHowever, we must move from mourning to celebration because Pa Okara lived a fulfilled life. Though his exit marks an end to a fruitful era, that era must be reinvented and sustained\u2014it must not die. Forever in our minds, as I observed in 2005, Pa Okara will remain a worthy ambassador of Ijaw and the Niger Delta people\u2014someone who captured the collective vision of the people in beautifully painted metaphors.
\nMay his soul rest in perfect peace.
\n\u25aa Alaibe was a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Company (NDDC)<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ‘Timi Alaibe Death\u2014the mysterious intruder with cold hands\u2014has struck again. Without any courtesy, it has taken away our literary father\u2014our poet, our novelist and our writer extraordinaire, a man of inspiration and fertile mind, a storehouse of inexhaustible vocabulary, Pa Gabriel Imomotimi Okara, OON. He died four weeks to his 98th birthday. That on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}