(Nigeria/United Kingdom) Poet and novelist. Born in Nigeria, he currently lives in London. He is a major figure in African literature and his work deals with the problems of the continent and particularly his country. His first work, Flowers and Shadows, tells of the disappointment felt by a young man faced with Nigeria’s corruption, corruption in which his own father is involved; a later work, The Famished Road, winner of the Booker Prize, tells of the temptation felt by many Africans to seek death in order to end their suffering. The work of Okri, who is a member of the Royal Society of Literature, has been translated into more than twenty languages and has won the author honours and awards such as an OBE, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the Chianti Rufino Antico Fattore Prize, the Grinzane Cavour Prize and the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award.
Photo: © Daniel Mordzinski