The Trial of Christopher Okigbo by Ali Mazrui

About Ali Mazrui

The Trial of Christopher Okigbo

Written during the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo follows Hamisi, who after a fatal accident wakes up in "After-Africa" — an afterworld for all Africans who have died since history began. He must participate in the trial of the renowned Igbo poet and soldier Christopher Okigbo, whose crime was abandoning his art for the battlefield. What unfolds is one of African literature's most daring thought experiments — a meditation on Pan-Africanism, the artist's moral responsibility, and the terrible cost of political commitment. The New York Times noted that the novel proves important political questioning and genuine art are not mutually exclusive. Newly reissued by Bloomsbury, this is a book that speaks as urgently today as it did half a century ago.