A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

[Excerpt]: "On September 18, 1967, two months after appointing himself major in the Biafran army, Christopher Okigbo--a thirty-seven-year-old patriot, classicist, and poet--was riddled by bullets during a battle to contain the federal Nigerian army in the university town of Nsukka, where he had once worked as the college librarian. Fifty-three Brigade, to which he had attached himself in a dramatic act of solidarity, was in full retreat, with the exception of Okigbo himself, who had decided to hold his ground in an ill-protected bunker. When the enemy arrived, he tried to lob a grenade at a tank. His body was never found. His memory, though, haunts African writing... As Obi Nwakanma's well-researchd biography proves, however, impetuous action was a recurring aspect of his personality. With the exception of his poetry, Okigbo could never settle to anything for very long..."