Isidore Okpewho

His academic career took him to the US, where he lived with his wife and four children since 1991 until his death, in Binghamton, New York. According to Professor G. Darah of the Nigerian Oral Literature Association (NOLA), Okpewho "will be best remembered for his original contribution to the discourse of oral literature and epics. The value of his scholarship in this area is comparable to that of Professor Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal on Egyptian sciences and philosophy, Professor Samir Amin of Egypt on African political economy, Professor Ali Mazrui of Kenya on African history, and Professor John Henrik Clarke on African American history and arts."

Isidore Okpewho studied at University of London, University of Denver and University of Ibadan. The recorded working language is English and Nigerian Pidgin. The field of work recorded is oral literature, creative and professional writing and literary studies. Places of work recorded in the authority are United States. Employment is recorded with Harvard University, University of Ibadan and Binghamton University. Works named in the authority record are The Last Duty, Tides and Call Me by My Rightful Name. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

• Name — Isidore Okpewho • Honorific Suffix — NNOM • Born — 9 November 1941 • Birthplace — Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria • Died — 4 September 2016 • Place of death — Binghamton, New York, US • Known for — * Novelist • critic • scholar • classicist • Notable Works — * The Victims (1970) • The Last Duty (1976) • Tides (1993) • The Epic in Africa (1979) • Myth in Africa (1983)

Isidore Okpewho was born in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. His Urhobo father, David Okpewho, was from Abraka, in Delta State, a retired senior laboratory technician, and his Igbo mother was from Asaba. Okpewho attended St Patrick's College in Asaba, going on to University College, Ibadan, from where he earned a first-class Honours degree in Classics. He obtained his PhD in comparative literature from the University of Denver (1976) and a D.Litt. in the humanities from the University of London (2000).

His early career began with working at the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Ministry of External Affairs, and the Longman publishers, where he served as an editor for eight years. Subsequently, pursuing his doctorate in the US, he became an academic there, teaching at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York from 1974 to 1976, University of Ibadan from 1976 to 1990, Harvard University from 1990 to 1991, and Binghamton University. He was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1982, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1982, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1988, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute in 1990, National Humanities Center in 1997, and 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship. He also served as President of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA). Okpewho died aged 74 on 4 September 2016 in hospital in Binghamton, New York, where he had lived and taught since 1991. Survived by his wife Obiageli Okpewho and children Ediru, Ugo, Afigo, and Onome, he was buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, New Jersey, on 18 September.

• The Victims, Longman, 1970,. US editions: Garden City: Doubleday Anchor, 1971; Washington, DC: Three Continents, 1980 • The Last Duty Longman, 1976; 1986, • Tides, Longman, 1993, • Call Me By My Rightful Name, Africa World Press, 2004,

• The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of the Oral Performance, Columbia University Press, 1979, * • A Portrait of the Artist as a Scholar: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at the Faculty of Education Lecture Theatre, University of Ibadan, Thursday, 18 May 1989, Longman Nigeria, 1990 (35pp.),. * * • Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology, Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora, University of Rochester Press, 2014,