Africa’s Poet Okigbo: tempestuous times
Christopher Okigbo (1930-67) – Thirsting for Sunlight by Obi Nwakanma; James Currey, UK; 2017; 276pp
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Christopher Okigbo died in 1967 fighting for the independence of Biafra, but his power lingers on as Africa’s most influential poet of the modern age. In this first full-length biography of the most anthologized modern African poet by the journalist and poet, Obi Nwakanma, what strikes one first is the giving of the year of birth of Okigbo 1930 as opposed to 1932 which had long been depicted in the poet’s collections and anthologies.
In Christopher Okigbo’s (1930-67) – Thirsting for Sunlight, Obi Nwakanma chronologically traces the mystique of Okigbo back to his Igbo roots in his hometown of Ojoto in present-day Anambra State, where he grew up enamored of the water goddess Idoto.
Having tragically lost his mother early in life, Okigbo thrived under the tutelage of his headmaster father before gaining admission into the prestigious Government College, Umuahia where he excelled in his studies and sports from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to 1950.
As a classics scholar at the University College, Ibadan, Okigbo spent more time playing cricket, politics, and music on the clarinet. Upon graduation, his employment as a colonial civil servant ended on a scandalous note while his dabbling into business fetched him bankruptcy.
Okigbo found his niche in poetry when his UCI mate, Alex Olu Ajayi, who was serving as the Principal of Fiditi Grammar School, employed him as the vice-principal from 1958 to 1960. From 1960 to 1962, Okigbo served as the Assistant Librarian of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he thrived as a ravenous romancer of women and poetry in equal measure.
When Okigbo became the West African Regional Manager of Cambridge University Press in Ibadan in 1962, he arrived at the epicenter of the Nigerian literary spring as showcased by the Mbari Club with the dramatist Wole Soyinka, the poet John Pepper Clark, and the novelist Chinua Achebe coming in from Lagos.
The tragedy of Nigeria upped a notch on January 15, 1966, after a military coup in which his friend Emmanuel Ifeajuna was the leader. Okigbo helped Ifeajuna to escape from Nigeria after the coup failed, and he undertook to bring his coup-plotter friend back from Ghana.
The July 29, 1966 revenge coup of the Northern military officers and the concomitant genocide meted out to his fellow Igbo people traumatized Okigbo such that he vowed to join the military to defend his homeland that had adopted the name Biafra. He took to running arms in aid of the Biafran war effort and was killed in battle in his beloved Nsukka sector. The London Sunday Times then described Christopher Okigbo’s death in September 1967, as “the single most important tragedy of the Nigerian civil war.”
Obi Nwakanma has through Christopher Okigbo (1930-67) – Thirsting for Sunlight, done deserving justice to one of the greatest cult figures in world literature.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist, and author.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
