Foremost internationally-acclaimed writer from Nigeria, Ben Okri, has released a collection of poetry, nine years after releasing his last one, “Wild”.
Titled “Fire in My Head: Poems for theDawn”, it was in the second week of January by a UK-based independent publishing outfit, Head of Zeus.
The collection addresses some topics of the day, such as the refugee crisis, racism, Obama, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the outbreak of COVID-19.
According to the publisher, the collection “brings together many of Ben Okri’s most acclaimed and politically charged poems.
“Some of them, like ‘Grenfell Tower, June 2017’, are already familiar. Published in the Financial Times less than ten days after the fire, it was played more than 6 million times on Channel 4’s Facebook page, and was retweeted by thousands on Twitter.
‘Notre-Dame is Telling Us Something’ was first read on BBC Radio 4, in the aftermath of the cathedral’s near destruction. It spoke eloquently of the despair that was felt around the world. In ‘shaved head poem’, Ben Okri wrote of the confusion and anxiety felt as the world grappled with a health crisis unprecedented in our times. ‘Breathing the Light’ was his response to the events of summer 2020, when a black man died beneath the knee of a white policeman, a tragedy sparking a movement for change.
“These poems, and others including poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Barack Obama, Amnesty and more, make this a uniquely powerful collection that blends anger and tenderness with Ben Okri’s inimitable vision.ook brings together many of Ben Okri’s most acclaimed and politically charged poems. Some of them, like ‘Grenfell Tower, June 2017’, are already familiar. Published in the Financial Times less than ten days after the fire, it was played more than 6 million times on Channel 4’s Facebook page, and was retweeted by thousands on Twitter. ‘Notre-Dame is Telling Us Something’ was first read on BBC Radio 4, in the aftermath of the cathedral’s near destruction.
“It spoke eloquently of the despair that was felt around the world. In ‘shaved head poem’, Ben Okri wrote of the confusion and anxiety felt as the world grappled with a health crisis unprecedented in our times. ‘Breathing the Light’ was his response to the events of summer 2020, when a black man died beneath the knee of a white policeman, a tragedy sparking a movement for change. These poems, and others including poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Barack Obama, Amnesty and more, make this a uniquely powerful collection that blends anger and tenderness with Ben Okri’s inimitable vision.”
Born in 1959, Okri is seen as a foremost writer in post-modern and post-colonial traditions and has been compared with pace-setting magical realists like Gabriel Garcial Marquez and Salman Rushdie.
Since he published his first novel, “Flowers and Shadows” (1980), Okri has risen to an global acclaim, and he often is described as one of Africa’s leading writers. His best known work, “The Famished Road which was awarded the 1991 Booker Prize, along with “Songs of Enchantment” and “Infinite Riches” make up a trilogy that follows the life of Azaro, a spirit-child narrator, through the social and political turmoil of an African nation reminiscent of his remembrance of war-torn Nigeria
