Gabriel Imomotimi Okara was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
10 Facts About Gabriel Okara
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In both his poems and his prose, Okara drew on African thought, religion, folklore and imagery, and he has been called "the Nigerian Negritudist".
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Gabriel Okara was educated at Government College Umuahia, and later at Yaba Higher College.
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In 1945 Gabriel Okara found work as a printer and bookbinder for colonial Nigeria's government-owned publishing company.
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Gabriel Okara remained in that post for nine years, during which he began to write.
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Gabriel Okara studied journalism at Northwestern University in 1949, and before the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War worked as Information Officer for the Eastern Nigerian Government Service.
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Together with Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara was roving ambassador for Biafra's cause during part of 1969.
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Gabriel Okara attended the landmark African Writers Conference held on 1 June 1962 at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, along with such writers as Chinua Achebe, Rajat Neogy, Bloke Modisane, Okot p'Bitek, Bernard Fonlon, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Olusegun Olusola, Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, Rebecca Njau, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Saunders Redding, Christopher Okigbo, Francis Ademola, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Arthur Maimane, and others.
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Gabriel Okara was very concerned with what happens when the ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern Western culture, as in his poem "Once Upon a Time".
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Gabriel Okara pursued that theme in his first novel, The Voice.