The Arts-Muse Fair

The news of the death of Prof Atukwei Okai, which came to us in Nigeria on the 13 th of July,2018, while we were celebrating the 84 th Birthday of Wole Soyinka, one of our literary icons and a   great friend of Atukwei Okai, was a rude dampener of our spirit. We in Nigeria under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) knew so well the life-long labour of Atukwei Okai in uniting African writers in the Continent and in the Diaspora and building bridges of cultural understanding across Africa as the ubiquitous and indefatigable Secretary- General of the Pan-African Writers’ Association (PAWA). Prof. Atukwei Okai was to African literature of his age and time what Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah was to African politics and liberation struggle. He epitomized the Pan-African spirit in literature and PAWA, under his eagle-vision, became a place where strategic linkages were built among writers across Africa and in the Black Diaspora. The many conferences and grand ac...

It has been hard for me to find the right words to say. Since I learnt that he left us, it has been like a terrible bout of muteness, because Atukwei was (was!) not just another friend. Along with the great poet, Kofi Anyidoho, he was one of the two people in Ghana who became my virtual siblings, in the course of more than two-and-a-half decades now of restless wandering, and who have made Accra more than a welcome place, but always a warm home for me. On the phone I would call out, “How are you, my Brother?” And he would gleefully reply, “How are you, my Uncle?” So perhaps it was just logical then that Kofi should be the first person to give me the news. One afternoon, on the 13th of July precisely, his email arrived with the bleak announcement: “Big Big Wahala ooo, This Earth My Brother! Atukwei Okai, Organ Grinder to God and Mankind, is now an Ancestor, from This Morning!” From Kofi, it could not be a prank. Yet the 13th of July, for most of us in the arts, is normally a d...

Late Abubakar Gimba The birthday of Abubakar Gimba, late writer and former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is today. The writer of 16 published works of Prose, Poetry and Essays died on 25th February, 2015, aged 63. Below are tributes from writers in memory of his life and works.   Abubakar Gimba was a patron- saint among ANA members as President. He was that calm, dignified figure that could hardly be provoked by anyone's eccentricities or presumptions. You could not see him exhibiting any of the so-called 'writers' excesses and he led with  uncanny kindness. His executive registered ANA as a corporate entity and secured its land in Abuja by acquiring its C of O. Abubakar Gimba's writings began the cross over  conversation of Northern Nigerian fictional narrative in English into mainstream Nigerian literature. Abubakar Gimba began that conversation yesterday that has been radically extended by Abubakar Adam today. Denja...