Nigerian Poet, Gabriel Okara has died.
He was born on the 24 April 1921 and was aged 98.
He was a Nigerian poet playwright, and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
According his profile on Wikipedia, he was educated at Government College Umuahia, and later at Yaba Higher College. During World War II, he attempted to enlist in the British Royal Air Force but did not complete pilot training, instead he worked for a time for the British Overseas Airway Corporation (later British Airways).
In 1945 Okara found work as a printer and bookbinder for colonial Nigeria’s government-owned publishing company. He remained in that post for nine years, during which he began to write.
At first he translated poetry from Ijaw into English and wrote scripts for government radio. He studied journalism at Northwestern University in 1949, and before the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70) worked as Information Officer for the Eastern Nigerian Government Service.
Together with Chinua Achebe, Okara was roving ambassador for Biafra’s cause during part of 1969.
From 1972 to 1980 he was director of the Rivers State Publishing House in Port Harcourt.
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