Thursday, 7 March 2019

KALU UKA (Nigeria)







Over the decades, hundreds of thousands of students grew up relishing the poetry of Kalu Uka, a renowned academic, dramatist and literary critic. Apart from his own individual books, samples of his poetry have appeared in many illustrious "Selections of poetry "

Indeed, the slim work of poetry, Earth to earth published by Uka many decades ago, is one of the most accomplished in polished African verses. The title poem is haunting, evocative, sombre and melancholic. The poetic devices on the whole are stunning, eclectic and unforgettable.

Uka was born in Akanu-Ohafia and attended Akanu Ohafia Presbyterian School, Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar and earned his degrees from the University of Ibadan and the University of Toronto (Canada). Among many other innovations in the histrionic circuit, he also co-founded Oak Theatre.

He is a Member of the Smithsonian Institute and has published various titles and plays including 'Colonel Ben Brim', an examination of the devastation wrought by invidious war, 'A Consummation of Fire', and 'A Harvest for Arts' which was a dramatic adaptation of Chinua Achebe's riveting novel,  Arrow of God

Kalu Uka studied and taught Shakespeare for many years at the highest levels, including being a teacher and scholar in England at the University of Leeds as an assistant lecturer in literature and serving as a Fulbright Scholar of African Drama.
 
He also served in various capacities as Coordinator, Head of Department, Dean and University Orator at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Calabar and the University of Uyo.  

Dr Inyang has written inter alia about the peerless Uka: "A believer in good arts and a writer of the obscurantist school, a non-surprising exertion of the Soyinkean mode that he supports and promotes not because himself and Wole Soyinka were classmates at Ibadan, but for the purity and sustenance of the arts and culture as institutions of existence. Kalu Uka’s literary oeuvre is a big bag of treasures. In poetry, prose, drama and essays, his extraordinary cultivation of the English language and literature and the successful accentuation of indigenous stylistics and phonology in works such as Ikamma sets him apart as one with the unique skills of a master of both worlds...

"While appropriating the story for A Harvest of Ants from Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, he retains the classical determinism of the Elizabethan poesy by sculpting lines that reads better as poems but matures and swells in drama in A Hunt for Sugar Baby. Words take on very elevated state and exude a rare exuberance expected of kings but this yet again confirms that in the hands of Kalu Uka, words are kings and are treated as such..."

What a world-class wordsmith!


Select Bibliography

Earth to earth : poems by Kalu Uka

Colonel Ben Brim : a novel by Kalu Uka

A consummation of fire : a novel by Kalu Uka

Ikhamma : a one-act ritual re-enactment by Kalu Uka

The fugitives : a collaboration by Kalu Uka

Themes and characterisation in some plays of Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams by Kalu Uka

Drama and conscientization by Kalu Uka

Prescriptive anomalies in African aesthetics : the case for a language
of poetry & drama ; presented at the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the
African Studies Association, October 29 - November 1, 1975 by Kalu
Uka

J .P. Clark's Ozidi : a suggested teaching approach by Kalu Uka

Ohafia in time perspective: retrospects & prospects by Kalu Uka

9 comments:

  1. It is always a pleasure to post a profile like this (though very brief) as it concerns a magnificent African wordsmith

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  2. Obviously Prof Uka is roughly a contemporary of Soyinka, and even Achebe...we see here that he admires and appreciates their work. That Uka is still going strong gladdens one as he is such a repository of knowledge

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  3. One of the all-time greats of African writing, though might not be as well known as the likes of Achebe and Soyinka. Probably I was too young to have seen/read his poetry in school? But one can do more research on Professor.

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  4. Yes...I remember reading the great man's poetry in secondary school. A book edited by Senanu and Vincent. Earth to earth - so sad and moving. Earth to earth. Dust to dust. So philosophical and true. Hmm.

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  5. Prof Uka like some of Nigeria’s early great writers, witnessed the terrible Civil War in that country. This no doubt affected him greatly and like Chris Okigbo, JP Clark etc he produced striking poetry based on the war. But Uka excelled in other genres like fiction, general literary criticism, drama etc. What a living legend.

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  6. Kalu Uka... Kalu Okpi was actually the author most people would have been familiar with in those days, as Okpi wrote many popular works and thrillers. The two Kalus...but of course prof Uka the academic would be the world class wordsmith, celebrated internationally and regarded as an equal of Achebe and the likes...almost?

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  7. I love this blog because it introduces many wonderful African writers to us - those who have been on the scene over the decades, male and female...though the men featured have been much more than the women! I doff my hat to prof Uka.

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  8. Interesting juxtaposition (in one of the comments here) between Kalu Uka, and Kalu Okpi. Now I recall that Okpi was the one that wrote thrillers. Pacesetters series...

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  9. please can i get the summary of kalu uka's; earth to earth novels

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