WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO’S VOICE? Photo credit: Internet ArchivesThanks for reading London Listening Sessions! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Poet and Doctoral candidate (in Pharmacy o!) Moyo Orimoloye sent me the link to Christopher Okigbo’s voice shelved in the online archive of the British Library. For context, Christopher Okigbo was a poet and contemporary of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. In some quarters, he is described as the fourth element of the literary quartet. A native of present-day Anambra state, he was killed on the war front during the Biafran war. A violent end to his prodigious talent and a quick fix for the plagiarism claim that plagues his rather slim body of work. It was particularly refreshing to hear Okigbo speak about his practice as a poet in an affected Igbo accent. He was visiting London and seemed to be having a good time during this interview, blending shamanism with modernism in what appeared to be a top-of-the-cuff razzle-dazzle moment which bewildered his interviewer. Imagine my bewilderment when I found that the British Library had taken this interview away from public consumption. Hidden behind a wall that privileges research-only use. Very on brand for the British Library and other esteemed Western institutions that take archiving seriously. Is it not disgraceful that you must visit the British Library website to listen to a great poet from your country? Perhaps we should start a campaign: the where-is-Christopher-Okigbo’s-voice-campaign to liberate Okigbo’s voice from the British Library’s wall.
#18. WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S VOICE?
#18. WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S VOICE?
#18. WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S VOICE?
WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO’S VOICE? Photo credit: Internet ArchivesThanks for reading London Listening Sessions! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Poet and Doctoral candidate (in Pharmacy o!) Moyo Orimoloye sent me the link to Christopher Okigbo’s voice shelved in the online archive of the British Library. For context, Christopher Okigbo was a poet and contemporary of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. In some quarters, he is described as the fourth element of the literary quartet. A native of present-day Anambra state, he was killed on the war front during the Biafran war. A violent end to his prodigious talent and a quick fix for the plagiarism claim that plagues his rather slim body of work. It was particularly refreshing to hear Okigbo speak about his practice as a poet in an affected Igbo accent. He was visiting London and seemed to be having a good time during this interview, blending shamanism with modernism in what appeared to be a top-of-the-cuff razzle-dazzle moment which bewildered his interviewer. Imagine my bewilderment when I found that the British Library had taken this interview away from public consumption. Hidden behind a wall that privileges research-only use. Very on brand for the British Library and other esteemed Western institutions that take archiving seriously. Is it not disgraceful that you must visit the British Library website to listen to a great poet from your country? Perhaps we should start a campaign: the where-is-Christopher-Okigbo’s-voice-campaign to liberate Okigbo’s voice from the British Library’s wall.