The Dance of Death: Nigerian History and Christopher Okigbo's Poetry [Hardcover]

Dubem Okafor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998 | ISBN-10: 0865435545 | ISBN-13: 978-0865435544

A definitive re-reading of Okigbo's poetry and a foregrounding of its importance as prophecy and warning to Nigerians (nay, Africans!) and to the misrulers of Nigeria against continued national misdirection. The author discusses Okigbo as a poet of destiny, whose identification with the people was total.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Christopher Okigbo (1932-1967) was one of Africa's foremost poets whose life was cut short by the Biafran civil war. This book represents a definitive re-reading of Okigbo's poetry and a foregrounding of its importance as prophecy and warning to Nigerians (nay, Africans!) and the misrulers of Nigeria against continued national misdirection. Locating the poet squarely with all communalistic traditional African poetics, in which aesthetics and social functuality are coordinate components of art, the author discusses Okigbo as a poet of destiny, whose identification with the people-the "quadrangle" of his geometric characterology-was total. The continuing cleavages and tension between the ethnic and the national have tended to foreclose the very possibility of ethnic-popular solidarity and nation-building in Nigeria. Okigbo's project included a sustained critical introspection, and his indignation, a militancy, despair, and ultimate martyrdom do not constitute a pessimistic closure. His final prophecy of repetition represents a warning, which, if heeded, is capable of breaking the cycle of national doom-the "dance of death"-and transforming the dream of nation into reality.

"...the most comprehensive weaving together yet of Okigbo's private life and politics, and the turbulent character of the Nigerian nation....[The Dance of Death] promises to intrigue and educate the critic, the historian, the political scientist, and the psychologist of culture about the value of poetry, and the poet...." -Prof. Chimalum Nwankwo, North Carolina State University --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Dubem Okafor teaches post-colonial Literatures in the English Department at Kutztown University, Pennsylvania. In addition to his poems and essays in magazines and journals, he has also edited Jungle Muse, a selection of poems by contemporary Nigerians and Meditations on African Literature, a collection of essays and has co-edited, with Chinua Achebe, Don't Let Him Die: An Anthology of Memorial Poems for Christopher Okigbo. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Africa World Pr (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865435545
• ISBN-13: 978-0865435544
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,316,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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