Okpewho:
World class academic and novelist
By I M Soqaga (South Africa)
Alas! Africa is now experiencing another
melancholic situation with its own wordsmith.
Recently it has apparently become usual to see the old-literary pioneers
of African literature leaving this world.
Death is now robbing the continent its own noteworthy writers. However, death is part of human life and is
inevitable. In the event of death
Africans are invariably ready to show their deepest respect for the fallen
ones.
Therefore, it is imperatively adequate
for Africans to honour their own literary giants when they are alive, and even
afterwards. Of course their contribution
in African literature continues to make Africa invaluable in the world, so they
deserved to be acclaimed and celebrated.
For decades African literary pioneers
and catalyst played a magnificent role in the evolution of African
literature. Their enchanting energy and
the flair they demonstrated over the years is vividly awesome. These are writers who denied the foreign
influence to overpower them. With pride
and determination, they courageously refused to be instructed about their
heritage and themselves. Instead they
lead the way and show the world that equally they are excellent to vie for any
literary principal awards in the world of letters.
Today! Yes today Africa is mourning the
demise of one of its own literary wordsmith Isidore Okpewho. They are not mourning in despair but with the
great delight in celebrating the life and times of Professor Isidore
Okpewho. Certainly-his death left the African
continent reeling with profound devastation.
When one ponder about his absolute commitment in advancing and
propagating African literature. Surely,
his demise is the great loss to African continent.
Professor Okpewho grew up in Asaba where he
attended St. Patrick’s College. He went
on to graduate with first class honors in classics at the University of Ibadan
in 1964 where he won the classics departmental prize and the College
scholarship. One should take into
consideration how the University of Ibadan produces remarkable giants of
African literature over the years. Great
names like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ike, Saro Wiwa, Labanji Bolaji,
Osundare, Amadi Elechi, Isidore Okpewho, etc to name but few are alumni of
the University of Ibadan.
For decades Isidore Okpewho had
contributed immensely in African literature.
Being well known abroad and among other things his literary prowess is
wonderfully revered in the world of letters. The world and Africa cannot ignore
the fact that Okpewho contribution in literature as well as other acclaimed
literary wordsmith of African continent, made Africa popularly recognised.
There
is a lot of wealth of knowledge that can be procured from Isidore’s literary
achievement. In Pan African context
Okpewho’s legacy needs to be adored as the radiant light that illuminate
unremitting throughout African continent and in Diaspora. For the fact that books nowadays are becoming
scant in Africa and that in advance countries of the West books in particular
African literature are relished with great enthusiasm. Astonishingly, in the past in Africa, books
were fervently appreciated with great glee but today, alas the ardent eagerness
is waning.
It is rather complicated to
understand why books especially the avalanche of literature that is produced by
African writers is hardly available in African libraries, while Western
materials are significantly available in large quantity in African
libraries. It is delusion to believe
that only few famous books about African literature we notice in libraries are
only books produced by African writers.
The conspicuous reality is that colossal number of books Africans
writers cultivated is enormously great however their unavailability in the
public libraries of Africa is shockingly disappointing. I don’t think Prof. Okpewho would be
impressively chuffed at this scandalous situation that is prevailing in
Africa. How one will ameliorate literacy
while books are not available for people to read? In order for people to be educated they need
books, children need books as well as society at large.
Professor Isidore Okpewho graduated from
the University of London, and from the University of Denver with a Ph.D. in
Comparative literature, and from the University of London with a D.Lit. in the
Humanities. He taught at the University
at Buffalo, The State University of New York from 1974 to 1976, University of
Ibadan from 1976 to 1990, Harvard University from 1990 to 1991 and Bighamton
University. Prof. Okpewho died peacefully at a hospital in
Bignhamton. For his creative
writing work, Okpewho won the 1976 African Arts Prize for Literature and 1993
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Africa. His four novels, “The Victims,
The Last Duty, Tides, and Call me by my Rightful Name” are widely studied in
Africa and other parts of the world, with some of them translated into major
world languages.
Works
Novels
·
* The Victims, Longman, 1970
• The Last Duty Longman, 1976; Longman,
1986
• Tides, Longman, 1993,
• Call Me By My Rightful Name, Africa
World Press, 2004,
Non-fiction
• The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of
the Oral Performance, Columbia University Press, 1979
• Myth in Africa: A Study of Its Aesthetic
and Cultural Relevance. CUP Archive. 1983
• African Oral Literature: Backgrounds,
Character, and Continuity. Indiana University Press. 1992
• Once Upon a Kingdom: Myth, Hegemony, and
Identity. Indiana University Press. 1998
