Obi Wali

In 2014 the Obi Wali International Conference Centre was opened to the public in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, created and named in the memory of Obi Wali's political and literary contributions.

Wali was violently murdered and dismembered at home in his bedroom by suspected hired assassins on 26 April 1993. The reasons for the murder remain unestablished; however, many speculated that it was in connection with his political opinions. At the time of his murder, Wali was a respected Nigerian Senator of Rivers State. He was later buried on 24 February 1994. This was not long before the Nigerian state executed another minority rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Wali was one of the founding fathers of Rivers State in Nigeria and served as the first Commissioner for Education, as well as a member of the first executive council of the state. He was later elected as a member of the 1978 Constituent Assembly and also as a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee that drafted the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was elected as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the Second Republic and in 1980 he was elected the Minority Leader of the House of Senate, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Wali is known for his assertion that African literature should only be written in African languages. He emphasized the importance that works deemed "African" be written in the languages of the African peasantry and working classes rather than in English or other foreign languages. Through an alliance of these classes within the many nationalities of Africa, he predicted an "inevitable revolutionary break with neo-colonialism." He expressed these views in his controversial essay "The Dead End of African Literature", which is considered a landmark in the field of African literary modernity. In the essay, Wali writes "an African writer who thinks and feels in his own language must write in that language." Wali presented this paper in 1962 at Makerere University in Uganda at the first major conference on new African writing at the institution. The well-known paper went on to be published in the tenth issue of Transition magazine.

Obi Wali (27 February 1932 – 26 April 1993) was a minority rights activist, politician, distinguished senator, literary scholar, and an orator from Nigeria. Among his achievements, he fought for the cause of the Ikwerre ethnic minorities and argued that African literature should be written in African languages.

Obi Wali was born on 27 February 1932 in Rumuigbo Town, headquarters of Apara Kingdom, in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. His parents were Late Chief Frank Wali Otogbo and Late Mrs. Jane Wali Otogbo daughter of the famous Late Chief Ezebunwo Amadi Nwondugba, the then paramount ruler of Oroworukwo Rebisi in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. He had a younger sibling, Late Mrs Patience Waku Okabie Worgu. He was educated at the West African People's Institute, Calabar, followed by St. Augustine's Secondary School, Nkwerre. For his higher education he attended the University College Ibadan, where he specialized in literature. He then continued his studies in the United States, where he obtained a doctorate degree in literature.