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
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
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
