Ben Okri

Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and postcolonial traditions and has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garca Mrquez.

Ben Okri is a member of the Urhobo people his father was Urhobo, and his mother was halfIgbo. He was born in Minna in west central Nigeria to Grace and Silver Okri in 1959. His father Silver moved his family to London when Okri was less than two years old so that Silver could study law. Okri thus spent his earliest years in London, and attended primary school in Peckham. In 1968 Silver moved his family back to Nigeria where he practised law in Lagos, providing free or discounted services for those who could not afford it. His exposure to the Nigerian civil war and a culture in which his peers saw visions of spirits at this time later provided inspiration for Okris fiction.

Source: Wikipedia