Gabriel Okara dies at 97

&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Africa&&num;8217&semi;s foremost Poet&comma; novelist&comma; playwright and Modernist writer&comma; Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara has died&period; He died at 97&comma; just four weeks before his 98th birthday<br> He died on Monday in his sleep at his residence at Okaka Estate in Yenagoa&comma; Bayelsa State&comma; after a brief illness&period;<br> Okara made a mark on the African literary scene as one of the major pacesetters&period; He was among the first renowned English Language black African poets and the first African modernist writer&period; Okara is widely published in influential national and international journals&period;<br> Born on April 24&comma; 1921 in his hometown Bomoundi in the present-day Bayelsa State of Nigeria&comma; Dr&period; Okara attended the famous Government College Umuahia in the 1930s and 40s where he got exposed and was inspired by the writings of William Shakespeare&period; He later attended Yaba Higher College and Northwestern University&comma; USA&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">He has in his collections several back-to-back hit poems and novels&period; &&num;8216&semi;Piano and Drums&&num;8217&semi;&comma; &&num;8216&semi;You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed&&num;8217&semi;&comma; &&num;8216&semi;Once Upon a Time&&num;8217&semi;&comma; &&num;8216&semi;The Fisherman&&num;8217&semi;s Invocation&&num;8217&semi; and &&num;8216&semi;The Voice&&num;8217&semi; and concatenation of several other linked short stories and plays come highly recommended for post-primary&comma; undergraduate and graduate studies&period; The vintage of his classics find expression in the leitmotif&colon; reminding Africans of their true identity as expressed in culture&comma; folklore and thought pattern in a world of rapidly penetrating western culture&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;Gabriel-Okara-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-219" width&equals;"446" height&equals;"233"&sol;><figcaption>Gabriel Okara<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">An all-encompassing writer&comma; his thoughts and works appear to be greatly influenced by his immediate environment&period; Okara is home and dry in all genres of literature but conveys his message in the genre which will be more expressive and relevant to the thematic discuss<&sol;p>&NewLine;