The poems in this selection testify to Osundare's belief in "total" poetry, that is poetry enhanced by song, drum and choreography. These are poems to be read and heard, fusing vibrant lyricism with social relevance. The author has won numerous awards for his poetry including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1986, the Cadbury Poetry Prize 1989 and in 1991 the Noma Award, Africa's most prestigious book prize. Niyi Osundare is currently Visiting Professor of African Literature at the University of New Orleans.

Selected Poems (African Writers Series)

Literature & Fiction

Osundare, Niyi

Poetry

Heinemann

Thread in the Loom: Essays on African Literature and Culture

Even in this age of globalism, Africa still hangs precariously on the margins as a zone of abysmal silence and disarticulation stripped of agency and talk-back capability. It remains largely invisible on the map of the global village drawn by those who control the paper as well as the pencil. In an age of "travelling theories" and "travelling texts," generated ideas and prejudices travel with imperial ease and confidence in Africa while the "canon war" makes it extremely difficult for African texts to make it to the reading lists of European and American institutions. Related problems such as a grossly maladjusted economy with the myriad socio-economic injustices spawned by it, political instability, dictatorship, and intolerance have affected the literary and cultural scene in near apocalyptic proportions. This selection of essays addresses these and other issues from the author’s perspective as an African writer, academic, social critic, and regular contributor to media discourse.

History & Criticism

Africa World Pr

This long-expected collection brings together some of the best poems by one of Africa’s most important poets. Covering nearly two decades, it represents a substantial part of the poet’s new writing as well as poems from his early works. With remarkable vigor and consistency, Osundare addresses major social and aesthetic issues of our time such as justice, freedom, war, racism, the environment, art, and the process of writing poetry, all of which are treated as urgent and engaging themes in a variety of delightful and grippingly lyrical styles.   Osundare’s advocacy of the poetry of performance and the need to give orature a place in writing by reuniting the mouth and the ear are consistent in these poems, which are charged and enriched by the energy and beauty of oral poetic tradition. Passionate, musical, and highly expressive, the poems in this collection contain a bold experimental spirit that balances the integrity of art and the relevance of content.

Pages from the Book of the Sun: New and Selected Poems

This long-expected collection brings together some of the best poems by one of Africa’s most important poets. Covering nearly two decades, it represents a substantial part of the poet’s new writing as well as poems from his early works. With remarkable vigor and consistency, Osundare addresses major social and aesthetic issues of our time such as justice, freedom, war, racism, the environment, art, and the process of writing poetry, all of which are treated as urgent and engaging themes in a variety of delightful and grippingly lyrical styles. Osundare’s advocacy of the poetry of performance and the need to give orature a place in writing by reuniting the mouth and the ear are consistent in these poems, which are charged and enriched by the energy and beauty of oral poetic tradition. Passionate, musical, and highly expressive, the poems in this collection contain a bold experimental spirit that balances the integrity of art and the relevance of content.

Niyi Osundare, one of Africa's most prominent poets and resident of New Orleans, La was one of the many whose life was caught in the destructive force of hurricane Katrina. Rescued by a neighbor with a boat, losing all that he had, exiled without even an identification to several states, he returned to rebuild his life and house. Written over the last five years, these poems recount both his loss and a thank you to those who helped.

City Without People: The Katrina Poems (Black Widow Press Modern Poetry)

Commonwealth Books, Black Widow

Niyi Osundare's latest book of poems, Green: Sighs Of Our Ailing Planet, is a critical pastoral of poems concerning the environment around the world—A poet of renown who has travelled and given performances in many parts of the world, he has felt and tried to put into words what he has felt in what he has seen-from the Amazon to the deserts of North Africa to his home country of Nigeria. For him it was the nature speaking to him and through him, pleading and imploring...but still beautiful? Lushness of destruction, transmuted from a nature endangered....an accessible plea from nature through Osundare's words. A book relevant and hopeful for people to stop and reflect on the endangered beauty of all of nature.\nIn the words of Niyi Osundare: 
Of all my 20-something books of poetry, none has confronted me with a more challenging combination of urgency of content and complexity of execution than this new one. I daresay the existential imperative of its content has been responsible for the pain that came with its composition and the uneasy relief I now feel upon its completion. There is something deeply spiritual, almost religious, about the mission and the message of the poems, and the many ways they have turned out to be denizens of that vital interface between the ecological and the cosmic...

Green: Sighs Of Our Ailing Planet (Black Widow Press Modern Poets)

Genre Fiction

The third title in a poetry series for younger readers. The author introduces his own work: 'The poems in this series are designed to make you think as you sing, to help you discover the beauty of poetry as a companion of music and the product of human imagination... Many of the poems deal with nature and the environment; rural life and city life; time and the seasons; the foods you eat; little things and big things; 'riddles' which tease you into thinking and 'hints' which teach and warn; parables which show you the difference between right and wrong; things which make you laugh or cry; and wise sayings which will help increase your wisdom...there are also poems about Nigeria our country; Africa our continent, and the world at large.' Niyi Osundare is perhaps Nigeria's greatest living poet, and one of Africa's finest literary scholars. He is author of many books of poetry, plays and essays. He has received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Association of Nigerian Authors' Prize and the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. His works have been translated into half a dozen languages. His poems are accompanied by illustrations and commentaries by fellow literature scholar Ayo Banjo.

Early Birds: Poems for Junior Secondary Schools. Book 3

Teen & Young Adult

Spectrum Books Ltd

In the first play, The Man who Walked Away, a principled and sensitive young man who has served a multi-national company for decades, is 'retrenched', with severe consequences for his self-respect and his family. In the second play, The Wedding Car, a corrupt businessman and politician exercises his ambition for his daughter to marry ostentatiously, though things do not go according to plan.

Two Plays

Dramas & Plays

University Press PLC Nigeria

A recently published play from the prolific Nigerian poet, dramatist and literary critic, which testifies to the author's commitment to socially relevant art and artistic activism for which he is justifiably renowned. The play tells the story of Yankeland, an imaginary African country, where the country's natural and donated wealth is in the hands of a few corrupt rulers in cahoots with the American military. The powerful prey on the exploited masses, whilst upholding a facade of god-fearing morality. The play is written in the style of street theatre and producs a biting and dramatic satire on political authoritarianism and ignorance, which the author holds responsible for the backwardness of many African countries.The play does however show that such oppression is being challenged; and that the natural inclination of human beings is towards resistance and solidarity, for which Osundare's characters demonstrate great capacity.The courage, unambiguous criticism and optimism in the future are reflected in the performance history of the play itself, which was first staged at the Arts Theatre at the University of Ibadan in 1997, during the time of one of Nigeria's most repressive military dictatorships.

The State Visit

Kraft Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Osundare, Niyi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Osundare, Niyi

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Osundare, Niyi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Selected Poems (African Writers Series)

Thread in the Loom: Essays on African Literature and Culture

Thread in the Loom: Essays on African Literature and Culture

Pages from the Book of the Sun: New and Selected Poems

Pages from the Book of the Sun: New and Selected Poems

City Without People: The Katrina Poems (Black Widow Press Modern Poetry)

Green: Sighs Of Our Ailing Planet (Black Widow Press Modern Poets)

Early Birds: Poems for Junior Secondary Schools. Book 3

Two Plays

The State Visit