Biography of Niyi Osundare.

Niyi Osundare

Niyi Osundare (born 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria) is a prolific poet, dramatist and literary critic. He gained degrees at the University of Ibadan (BA), the University of Leeds (MA) and York University, Canada (PhD, 1979). Previously professor (from 1989) and Head of English (1993–97) at the University of Ibadan, he became
professor of English at the University of New Orleans in 1997. Osundare is renowned for his commitment to socially relevant art.
Osundare believes that there is no choice for the African poet but to be political:

"You cannot keep quiet about the situation in the kind of countries we find ourselves in, in Africa. When you wake up and there is no running water, when you have a massive power outage for days and nights, no food on the table, no hospital for the sick, no peace of mind; when the image of the ruler you see everywhere is that of a dictator with a gun in his hand; and, on the international level, when you live in a world in which your continent is consigned to the margin, a world in which the colour of your skin is a constant disadvantage, everywhere you go – then there is no other way than to write about this, in an attempt to change the situation for the better."

His poem "Not My Business" is compulsory study in the AQA A syllabus for GCSE English Language. He also wrote the poem "They too Are The Earth".

In December 2014, Osundare was awarded the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) for academic excellence.
Source via Wikipidia