In Search of Home: Oko Owi Ocho Reads from “Now I Sing God into Stones” in Ibadan

The Noirledge Publishing office in Ibadan came alive with poetry, memory, and ancestral echoes as Nigerian poet and performer Oko Owi Ocho read from his latest collection, Now I Sing God into Stones.

The soul-stirring evening, organised in partnership with Noirledge Publishing, Sevhage Publishers, and the Ibadan Book and Arts Festival (ÌbàFest), drew a vibrant audience of readers, writers, and cultural enthusiasts eager to witness the poet’s latest work.

The reading was part of a series of build-up events leading to the inaugural ÌbàFest, scheduled for October 2025. Rooted in Ibadan’s rich literary heritage, the festival aims to celebrate African creativity, literature, and cultural dialogue.

Speaking about the deeply personal nature of the collection, Ocho—whose real name is Oko Owoicho—described the poems as part of a lifelong quest for belonging.

“Everything I have written for the past twelve, thirteen years has been about a search for the self, asking myself why don’t I feel at home everywhere I go? This new title is a return to my own ancient, ancestral memory,” he said. Divided into four sections—Home and History, Singing God into Stones at the Border of Grief, Epiphany of gods Coming Home Through My Dreams, and I Open My Body to the Trick of Passion—the poems travel between memory and myth, cultural excavation and existential questioning”

He reflected that:

“Most of these poems come to me, and I write. I think my poems have actually given more meanings to my life than me actually giving meanings to my poems.”

Now I Sing God into Stones is divided into four sections—Home and History, Singing God into Stones at the Border of Grief, Epiphany of gods Coming Home Through My Dreams, and I Open My Body to the Trick of Passion—each traversing themes of memory, myth, displacement, and healing.

Moderated by literary critic Kayode Sanni, the conversation revealed the emotional depths behind the poems. Reflecting on the personal pain expressed in the poem I Have Built Pyramids, Ocho described it as:

“a way of locking myself out of the world, an attempt to interrogate why “my pain was unkind to me.”

Even the title, he revealed, emerged from a journey of healing, evolving from an earlier idea, “Origin of the Shrine of Laughter,” into a testament of restoration.

“I feel like I was looking for healing. I was also trying to understand my own pain, and these poems actually spoke a lot to me about whatever pain I’m going through,” he shared.

Known off the stage as Oko Owoicho, Ocho is a poet, performance artist, and literary administrator, whose career has been shaped by his passion for Pan-Africanism and decolonial thought. His work, spanning the dialogue between modernity and African authenticity, has earned him accolades including the Poets in Nigeria Award of Excellence for his poem Zeyani in 2018 and second prize in the Korea–Nigeria Poetry Prize the same year. He has presented critical papers at major platforms, including the SOAS Conference on Decoloniality at the University of London. His first chapbook, We Will Sing Water, interrogated collective historical trauma in a postmodernist world, while Now I Sing God Into Stones extends this inquiry into ancestral memory, displacement, and the tensions between village and city life in modern Africa.

The event served as a prelude to the highly anticipated Ibadan Book and Arts Festival (ÌbàFest), which will debut in October. The festival promises to bring together writers, artists, and cultural leaders in celebration of African literature and creativity, reaffirming Ibadan’s place as a cultural powerhouse.

As the night drew to a close, the audience left with more than just verses. They left with a sense of shared history and the reminder that literature remains a bridge to memory, healing, and identity.