Odia Ofeimun

Odia Ofeimun (born 16 March 1950) is a Nigerian poet, essayist, and cultural commentator. He served as the private secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and is a prominent figure in contemporary African literature. Quotes I have come down to tell my story by the same fireside around which my people are gathered… And I must tell my story to nudge and awaken them that sleep among my people. Prologue declaration on the mission of a writer, The Poet Lied (1980), as reviewed in Premium Times. I do not claim to be, I am a writer / guerrilla-happy in unhappy times / pacing the common morality / of truth tougher than fear. "I Am A Writer", published via Poetry International. Nigeria is no longer appropriately described as just a geographical expression. It has evolved into a nation over the decades since around the 1960s, despite some Nigerians' reluctance to acknowledge this. TV Interview analysis on national sovereignty, transcribed via Television Channels Broadcast Archive. "A nation is defined by its cultural expression and a sense of self that includes all its people. Viewing Nigeria as just a country implies it is only a geographical area with people within its borders." Cultural definition address, documented via Channels Television Broadcast Archive. "Everywhere one looks in this country, you see the hypocrisy of many. But we know those who really paid the price for democracy." Reflective monologue on historical justice, documented in The Nation Newspaper. I came to Lagos from Benin City in 1969, projectedly, on my way to Ghana. I was nineteen years old. My greatest assets, by my own reckoning, were the handful of poems in my handbag… But as fate would have it, I never arrived until twenty four years later. It took me such a long time to get there because I was literally overcome and arrested by our city of the lagoon” Lagoon I let the lagoon speak for my memory though offended by water hyacinth waste and nightsoil… I still let the Lagoon reclaim the seduction of a land moving with the desire of a sailing ship pursuing a known star The Lagoon speaks like a foetus remembering the future, listening from the depths of formless song for the Words that break against the voyages of discovery in the discovery of voyages My Lagoon speaks! gateway and storehouse; never dry, in regatta floats hauling epic seasons in floods that take over the lordly garbage of our alleys after the rains have registered their pity. I let the Lagoon speak for my memory to teach me how to scoff at the lines drawn on water to divide the earth I let the Lagoon teach me to forget street names in order to gulp whole cities like a glass of kola wine. External links Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Nigerian writers