Christopher Okigbo Biography

Nigerian poet, born in Ojoto in Eastern Nigeria, educated at the University of Ibadan, where he read Classics. He was killed in action on the Nsukka battlefront during the Nigerian Civil War, in which he fought as a major in the Biafran army. Among other posts he was Private Secretary to Nigeria's Federal Minister of Research and Information, and librarian at the University of Nsukka. His densely allusive poetry, which bridges African and European culture, is characterized by striking symbolism, liturgical ritual, sheer musicality, and often anguished tone. The posthumous collection Labyrinths (1971) also includes all the poems in Heavensgate (1962) and Limits (1964). ‘Path of Thunder’ in the same collection is a direct, prophetic sequence in which allusiveness gives way to the rhetoric of approaching war.