Biography Essay

Oluwaniyi Osundare is the first Anglophone poet to be awarded the Noma Prize, Africa's most prestigious book award. Winner also of the Cadbury Poetry Prize, the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize, and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, he is the outstanding figure among the poets in Nigeria who have come to be known as the new poets of an "alter-native" tradition. Along with Tanure Ojaide, Odia Ofeimum, Obiora Udechukwu, Harry Garuba, Uche Nduka, Kemi Atanda-Dori, Olu Oguibe, and Afam Akeh, Osundare has chosen to sing in a language accessible to a wide audience of ordinary people. Inspired by the oral performances in his native village of Ikerri and by the resonant rhythms of Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth, he is a lyric poet devoted to celebrating the earth and man. At the same time he attacks those forces, both social and individual, including politicians and businessmen...