Rosemary clunie ben okri biography

Nigerian writer (born )

Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho OkriOBE FRSL (born 15 March ) is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist.^[1] Considered one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and post-colonial traditions,^[2][3] Okri has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez.^[4] In , his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize.^[5] Okri was knighted at the Birthday Honours for services to literature.^[6]

Biography

Early years and education

Ben Okri is a member of the Urhobo people; his father was Urhobo, and his mother was half-Igbo ("from a royal family").^[1][7] He was born in Minna in west central Nigeria to Grace and Silver Okri in ^[7] His father, Silver, moved his family to London when Okri was less than two years old^[3] so that he could study law.^[8] Okri thus spent his earliest years in Lond