J. P. Clark

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J. P. Clark
Born
John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo

(1935-04-06)6 April 1935
Kiagbodo, Delta, Nigeria
Died13 October 2020(2020-10-13) (aged 85)
NationalityNigerian
Other namesJohn Pepper Clark
Alma materUniversity of Ibadan
Occupation(s)Poet, playwright
Notable workA Decade of Tongues
AwardsNigerian National Order of Merit Award

John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo (6 April 1935 – 13 October 2020) was a Nigerian poet and playwright, who also published as J. P. Clark and John Pepper Clark.

Life

Born in Kiagbodo,

Western Region of Nigeria, as features editor of the Daily Express, and as a research fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He served for several years as a professor of English at the University of Lagos,[3] a position from which he retired in 1980. While at the University of Lagos he was co-editor of the literary magazine Black Orpheus.[4]

In 1982, along with his wife

Ebun Odutola (a professor and former director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos), he founded the PEC Repertory Theatre in Lagos
.

A widely travelled man, Clark held visiting professorial appointments at several institutions of higher learning, including

Yale and Wesleyan University in the United States.[1]

Poetry

Clark was most noted for his poetry, including:

Critics have noted three main stages in Clark's poetic career: the apprenticeship stage of trial and experimentation, exemplified by such juvenilia as "Darkness and Light" and "Iddo Bridge"; the imitative stage, in which he appropriates such Western poetic conventions as the couplet measure and the sonnet sequence, exemplified in such lyrics as "To a Fallen Soldier" and "Of Faith"; and the individualized stage, in which he attains the maturity and originality of form of such poems as "Night Rain", "Out of the Tower", and "Song".

Throughout his work, certain

themes
recur:

  • Violence and protest, as in Casualties;
  • Institutional corruption, as in State of the Union;
  • The beauty of nature and the landscape, as in A Reed in the Tide;
  • European colonialism as in, for example, "Ivbie" in the Poems collection;
  • The inhumanity of the human race as in Mandela and Other Poems.

Clark frequently dealt with these themes through a complex interweaving of indigenous African imagery and that of the Western literary tradition.

Drama

Clark's

Mbari Club in 1961[5] – a tragedy cast in the Greek classical mode in which the impotence of Zifa, the protagonist, causes his wife Ebiere and his brother Tonye to indulge in an illicit love relationship that results in suicide
. This play was followed by a sequel, The Masquerade (1964), in which Dibiri's rage culminates in the death of his suitor Tufa. Other works include:

Although his plays have been criticized for leaning too much on the Greek classical mode (especially the early ones), for their thinness of structure and for unrealistic stage devices (such as the disintegration of the raft on the stage in The Raft), his defenders argue that they challenge and engage the audience with their poetic quality and their uniting of the foreign and the local through graphic imagery.

Other works

Clark's contribution to other genres includes his translation of the

African Writers Series No. 50, 1969), a travelogue in which he criticizes American society and its values.[10]
While the furore generated by this book arguably catapulted him into the international literary limelight, the damage it and Casualties did to his reputation seems permanent; in both works he infuriated and alienated a large audience and some influential critics. In his defence, Clark maintained that he merely portrayed events as he saw them.

Honours and recognition

As one of Africa's pre-eminent and distinguished authors, he continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role for which he increasingly gained international recognition. In 1991, for example, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for literary excellence and saw publication, by Howard University, of his two definitive volumes, The Ozidi Saga and Collected Plays and Poems 1958–1988.[11]

On 6 December 2011, to honour the life and career of Professor John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, a celebration was held at Lagos Motor Boat Club, Awolowo Road,

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.[12][13]
In 2015 the Society of Young Nigerian Writers under the leadership of Wole Adedoyin founded the JP Clark Literary Society, aimed at promoting and reading Clark's works.[14][15]

Death

Clark's death was announced on 13 October 2020.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ a b James N. Manheim, "J. P. Clark-Bekederemo", Gale Contemporary Black Biography.
  2. ^ "African Success: Biography of John PEPPER CLARK". 5 April 2009. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  3. ^ "John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo (1933–2020)". The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News. 28 October 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  4. ^ a b "John Pepper Clark". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 7 July 2012.
  5. ISBN 978-0-231-51215-2
    .
  6. ^ "The Raft | Encyclopedia.com". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  7. ^ "John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo". Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  8. ^ "African Books Collective: The Bikoroa Plays". africanbookscollective.com. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  9. ^ Eniola Daniel (14 April 2019). "In The Wives' Revolt, women demand equal opportunities, Justice". The Guardian. Nigeria.
  10. ^ a b Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy, Virginia Coulon, A New Reader's Guide to African Literature, Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, p. 369.
  11. ^ "John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo biography, net worth, age, family, contact & picture". manpower.com.ng. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  12. ^ Japhet Alakam, "A voyage around J. P. Clark", Vanguard, 8 December 2011.
  13. ^ "JP Clark: The saga of Son of Kiagbodo", Vanguard, 11 December 2011.
  14. ^ "Synw Mourns Prof. J.p Clark, Set To Promote His Life And Worksthrough J.p. Clark Literary Society". Nigerian Voice. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  15. ^ "J.P. CLARK LITERARY SOCIETY". 3 October 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  16. ^ Henry Umoru (13 October 2020). "BREAKING: Edwin Clark loses brother, Professor JP Clark". Vanguard News. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  17. ^ "J.P Clark-Bekederemo: Writer and professor of literature die on October 13 at di age of 85". BBC News – Pidgin. 13 October 2020.

External links

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