Almanac of Story Tellers: Ben Okri

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, in podcasts, and in books. 

Today is a story of March 15th

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    It is the 74th day of the year, leaving 291 days remaining in 2023.

    On this date in 1959, the Nigerian-British poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in Minna, Nigeria.

    He tells his stories with a realism and surrealism that transcend political and spiritual boundaries. But while they show Africans in harmony with the spiritual world, they also depict the social and political strain of the modern African country as it changes with the world.

    Although his poetry, novels, and short stories have been categorized as magical realism, Okri has rejected this term, saying it is used because critics do not understand his heritage or Africans' perceptions of reality.

I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death. ... I'm fascinated by the mysterious element that runs through our lives. Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and history.

    He published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, in 1980, followed by The Landscapes Within the following year. Both used surrealism to depict how society changed in an African country as the modern world brought corruption and politics.

     During the 1980s, Okri published several short story collections about the ties between the physical and spiritual world, and was the poetry editor of West Africa magazine.

    In 1991, he won the Booker Prize for The Famished Road. Part of a trilogy with Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches, Okri again tied together the spiritual and physical worlds, this time using a spiritual child narrator living in an unnamed African country, thought to be his native Nigeria.

    The novel has inspired musical numbers, plays and movies, and was read and quoted by President Clinton before and during his 1998 trip to Africa.

    Okri has published dozens of novels, short story collections, and works of poetry, and his books have won several international awards. He has been awarded the Order of the British Empire.

    He continues to live and write in London.