Okri, Ben (1959-…), is a Nigerian novelist who imaginatively explores themes of political and social corruption in his country. Okri’s fiction blends dreamlike and sometimes nightmarish images with realism and mythical elements. Critics have praised his lyrical, heavily symbolic use of language. Okri won the Booker Prize, the United Kingdom’s highest literary award, for his novel The Famished Road (1991).
The Famished Road resembles a folk tale. The story is told through the eyes of Azaro, an abiku (spirit child) striving between the natural and spirit world. The novel reflects the violence and chaos within Nigeria. Okri continued the story in a sequel, Songs of Enchantment (1993). The novels The Landscapes Within (1981) and Dangerous Love (1996) both center on the development of a young artist as he struggles in Nigeria’s turbulent society.
Okri’s other novels include Flowers and Shadows (1980), Astonishing the Gods (1995), and The Freedom Artist (2020). His short story collections include Incidents at the Shrine (1986), Stars of the New Curfew (1988), Tales of Freedom (2009), and Prayer for the Living (2019). His poetry collections include An African Elegy (1992), Mental Fight (1999), and A Fire in My Head (2021).
Okri was born on March 15, 1959, in Minna, Nigeria. He studied at Urhobo College in Warri, Nigeria, and the University of Essex in England. He served as poetry editor of West Africa magazine from 1981 to 1987 and was a broadcaster for “Network Africa” for the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service in 1984 and 1985.
