Christopher Okigbo was a poet based in Nigeria. He is one of the best, most widely anthologized Nigerian poets. He attended the University of Ibadan in 1956 and served as a private secretary to Nigeria’s federal minister of research and information, held teaching and librarian positions at the University of Nigeria, and was the West African editor for the magazine Transitions and African literary magazine. In 1966, he received his first prize in poetry during the Festival of Negro Arts but declined. He felt writing should be judged on its quality rather than having come from a specific ethnic group. He had plans to open a publishing company in Enugu but unfortunately died while fighting in the war for Biafran independence from Nigeria. He published three volumes of poetry in his life, Heavensgate, Limits, and Silences, and other poems have been published posthumously in Labyrinths, with Path of Thunder and Collected Poems. His poetry was heavily influenced by his personal experiences, Igbo mythology, and Greek and Latin. He was also influenced by modern writers such as T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound. He often depicts the landscape he grew up in through imagery in his poems.
Information from The Encyclopedia Britannica.
