By Ovie Okpare
Professor Emeritus and renowned playwright, Professor John Pepper Clark, is dead
The award-winning writer died on Tuesday morning at undisclosed hospital in Lagos after falling ill since last month.
He was 85.
Family sources confirmed the passage of the respected author to NIGER DELTA TODAY (NDT) Online.
He was said to have died of cancer related ailment. He was said to have been on a life support until Tuesday morning when he gave up the ghost in the presence of his family members.
He was the third child of Chief Clark Fuludu-Bekederemo who hailed from Kiagbodo in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
ALSO READ: Impeached Edo Assembly Speaker, Okiye, Suspended For Three Months
The late JP Clark was paternally from Ijaw and maternally from Urhobo ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta region.
He was a younger brother to former Minister of Information and leader of the South-South region, Chief Edwin Clark.
Until his death, JP Clark, was one of Africa’s prominent and distinguished authors, he continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role for which he increasingly gained international recognition.
In 1991, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for literary excellence and had many books recognised worldwide.
He is also the author of the controversial “America, Their America” a travelogue in which he criticized American society and its values.
The furor generated by the book arguably catapulted him into international literary limelight winning several awards globally.
