John Pepper Clark
Encyclopedia
John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo (born April 6, 1935) is a Nigeria
n poet
and playwright
who publishes under the name J.P. Clark.
, and his BA
degree in English
at the University of Ibadan
where he edited various magazine
s, including the Beacon and The Horn. Upon graduation from Ibadan in 1960, he worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information, in the old 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
, a position from which he retired in 1980. 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, JP Clark has, since his retirement, held visiting professorial appointments at several institutions of higher learning, including Yale
and Wesleyan University
in the United States
.
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 theme
s recur:
Clark frequently dealt with these themes through a complex interweaving of indigenous African imagery and that of the Western literary tradition.
tic work includes Song of a Goat (1961), 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 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.
essay
s in the Daily Express, Daily Times, and other newspapers. He is also the author of the controversial America, Their America
(1964), a travelogue
in which he criticizes American society and its values. While the furore generated by this book arguably catapulted him into the international literary limelight, the damage it and Casualties have done to his reputation seems permanent; in both works he infuriated and alienated a large audience and some influential critics. In his defence, Clark has maintained that he merely portrayed events as he saw them.
As one of Africa's pre-eminent and distinguished authors, he has, since his retirement, continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role for which he is increasingly gaining international recognition. In 1991, for example, he received the Nigerian National 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.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
who publishes under the name J.P. Clark.
Life
Born to Ijaw parents, Clark received his early education at the Native Administration School and the prestigious Government College in UghelliUghelli
Ughelli is a town in Delta State, Nigeria. The city of Ughelli has an 'Ovie', which is the traditional ruler. The indigenes of Ughelli town have a yearly celebration festival called 'Omanuku'...
, and his BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at the University of Ibadan
University of Ibadan
The University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria...
where he edited various magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, including the Beacon and The Horn. Upon graduation from Ibadan in 1960, he worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information, in the old Western Region
Western Region, Nigeria
The Western Region was a subdivision of the federation of Nigeria until 1967. Its capital was at Ibadan.It was established in the 1930s under British rule as a subdivision of the Southern Nigeria colony...
of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, as features editor of the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
, and as a research fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He served for several years as a professor of English at the University of Lagos
University of Lagos
The University of Lagos - popularly known as Unilag - is a federal government university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos, Lagos State, southern Nigeria...
, a position from which he retired in 1980. 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
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
. A widely travelled man, JP Clark has, since his retirement, held visiting professorial appointments at several institutions of higher learning, including Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Poetry
Clark is most remembered for his poetry, including:- Poems (1961), a group of forty lyrics that treat heterogeneous themes;
- A Reed in the Tide (1965), occasional poems that focus on the Clark's indigenousIndigenous peoples of AfricaThe indigenous people of Africa are those people of Africa whose way of life, attachment or claims to particular lands, and social and political standing in relation to other more dominant groups have resulted in their substantial marginalisation within modern African states The indigenous people...
African background and his travel experience in America and other places; - Casualties: Poems 1966-68 (1970), which illustrate the horrendous events of the Nigeria-Biafra warBiafraBiafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...
; - A Decade of Tongues (1981), a collection of seventy-four poems, all of which apart from "Epilogue to Casualties" (dedicated to Michael Echeruo) were previously published in earlier volumes;
- State of the Union (1981), which highlights his apprehension concerning the sociopolitical events in Nigeria as a developing nation;
- Mandela and Other Poems (1988), which deals with the perennial problem of aging and death.
Critics have noted three main stages in Clark's poetic career: the apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
stage of trial and experimentation, exemplified by such juvenilia
Juvenilia
Juvenilia is a term applied to literary, musical or artistic works produced by an author during his or her youth. The term often has a retrospective sense. For example, written juvenilia, if published at all, usually appear some time after the author has become well-known for later works.The term...
as "Darkness and Light" and "Iddo Bridge"; the imitative
Imitation
Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.-Anthropology and social sciences:...
stage, in which he appropriates such Western poetic conventions as the couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
measure and the sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
sequence, exemplified in such lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
as "To a Fallen Soldier" and "Of Faith"; and the individualized stage, in which he attains the maturity
Maturity (psychological)
Maturity is a psychological term used to indicate how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one's age...
and originality of form of such poems as "Night Rain", "Out of the Tower", and "Song".
Throughout his work, certain theme
Theme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
s recur:
- ViolenceViolenceViolence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
and protestProtestA protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
, as in Casualties; - Institutional corruptionPolitical corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, as in State of the Union; - The beauty of nature and the landscape, as in A Reed in the Tide;
- European colonialismColonialismColonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
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 dramaDrama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
tic work includes Song of a Goat (1961), a tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
cast in the Greek classical mode
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
in which the impotence of Zifa, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, causes his wife Ebiere and his brother Tonye to indulge in an illicit love relationship that results in suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. This was followed by a sequel, The Masquerade (1964), in which Dibiri's rage culminates in the death of his suitor Tufa. Other works include:
- The Raft (1964), in which four men drift helplessly down the Niger aboard a log raft;
- Ozidi (1966), an epicEpic poetryAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
drama rooted in Ijaw saga; - The Boat (1981), a proseProseProse is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
drama that documents Ngbilebiri history.
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
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
with their poetic quality and their uniting of the foreign and the local through graphic imagery.
Other work
Clark's contribution to other genres includes his translation of the Ozidi Saga (1977), an oral literary epic of the Ijaw, his critical study The Example of Shakespeare (1970), in which he articulates his aesthetic views about poetry and drama and his journalisticJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s in the Daily Express, Daily Times, and other newspapers. He is also the author of the controversial America, Their America
America, Their America
America, Their America is a personal journal and travelogue by Nigerian writer J. P. Clark. It was written after Clark spent eight months in the United States studying at Princeton University . The book created controversy because of its attacks on American life-styles and values...
(1964), a travelogue
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
in which he criticizes American society and its values. While the furore generated by this book arguably catapulted him into the international literary limelight, the damage it and Casualties have done to his reputation seems permanent; in both works he infuriated and alienated a large audience and some influential critics. In his defence, Clark has maintained that he merely portrayed events as he saw them.
As one of Africa's pre-eminent and distinguished authors, he has, since his retirement, continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role for which he is increasingly gaining international recognition. In 1991, for example, he received the Nigerian National Merit Award for literary excellence and saw publication, by Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, of his two definitive volumes, The Ozidi Saga and Collected Plays and Poems 1958-1988.