{ { Infobox writer
| name = Niyi Osundare
| birth_date = March 12, 1947 (age 76) | occupation = Poet • playwright • literary critic • linguist | notable_works = Songs of the Marketplace (1983), The Eye of the Earth (1986), Waiting Laughters (1990), Green: Sighs of Our Ailing Planet (2022)| awards = Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize 1986, 1989, & 1994, Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1986, NOMA Award 1991, ALA Fonlon/Nichols Prize 1998, Tchicaya U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry 2008, Nigerian National Order of Merit 2014 | birth_place = Ikere-Ekiti | nationality = Nigerian | alma_mater = Amoye Grammar School, Christ's School, University of Ibadan, University of Leeds, York University | genre = Poetry, plays, literary criticism | years_active = 1981 - present }}
Niyi Osundare is a leading African poet, dramatist, linguist, and literary critic. Born on March 12, 1947, in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria, his poetry is influenced by the oral poetry of his Yoruba culture, which he capaciously hybridizes with other poetic traditions of the world, including African-American, Latin American, Asian, and European.
Osundare is a champion of free speech and his creative and critical writings are closely associated with political activism, decolonization, black internationalism, and the environment. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Poetry Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Tchicaya U Tam'si Poetry Prize, and the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize (twice). In 1991, Osundare became the first Anglophone African poet to win the Noma Award (Africa's most prestigious book award), and in 1998, he was awarded the Fonlon/Nichols Prize for his "excellence in literary creativity combined with significant contributions to Human Rights in Africa." In 2014, he was admitted to the National Order of Merit, his country's highest honor for intellectual distinction and creative achievement. Osundare is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans.
Family and education
Osundare gained degrees in English 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 has a wife, Kemi, and three children, two girls and a son who still lives in Nigeria. His deaf daughter is the reason Niyi settled in the United States. She could not go to school in Nigeria so they found a school in the U.S. for her, and moved so as to be closer to her. He has been used in many schools as an example of a poet.
Career
Osundare has always been a vehement champion of the right to free speech and is a strong believer in the power of words, saying, "to utter is to alter". Osundare is renowned for his commitment to socially relevant art and artistic activism and has written several open letters to the former President of Nigeria (Olusegun Obasanjo), whom Osundare has often publicly criticised.
Osundare believes that there is no choice for an 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.