Summary
Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters (1 September 1932 – 28 May 2009)[1] was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, poet and educationist.
Lenrie Peters | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters 1 September 1932 Bathurst, The Gambia |
| Died | 27 May 2009 (aged 76) Dakar, Senegal |
| Occupation | Surgeon, poet |
| Education | Trinity College, Cambridge University College Hospital |
| Notable works | The Second Round |
Biography edit
Peters was born on 1 September 1932 in Bathurst (now Banjul) in The Gambia.[2] His parents were Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie Sr. was a Sierra Leone Creole of West Indian or black American origin. Kezia Rosemary was a Gambian Creole of Sierra Leonean Creole origin. Lenrie Jr. grew up in Bathurst and moved to Sierra Leone in 1949, where he was educated at the Prince of Wales School, Freetown, gaining his Higher School Certificate in science subjects.
In 1952 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Natural Sciences, graduating with a BSc degree in 1956; from 1956 to 1959 he worked and studied at University College Hospital, London, and 1959 was awarded a Medical and Surgery diploma from Cambridge. Peters worked for the BBC from 1955 to 1968, on their Africa programmes.
While at Cambridge University he was elected president of the African Students' Union, and interested himself in Pan-Africanist politics. He also began writing poetry and plays, as well as starting work on his only novel, The Second Round (published by Heinemann in 1965). Peters worked in hospitals in Guildford and Northampton before returning to the Gambia, where he had a surgical practice in Banjul. He was a fellow of the West African College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons in England.
Peters was President of the Historic Commission of Monuments of the Gambia, was president of the board of directors of the National Library of the Gambia and The Gambia College from 1979 to 1987, and was a member and President of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) from 1985 to 1991.
Published works edit
Poetry edit
Lost Friends
- 1964: Poems (Ibadan: Mbari Publications)
- 1967: Satellites (London: Heinemann, African Writers Series No. 37)
- 1971: Katchikali (London: Heinemann, African Writers Series No. 103) ISBN 0-435-90633-X ; ISBN 0-435-90103-6
- 1981: Selected Poetry (London: Heinemann, African Writers Series No. 238) ISBN 0-435-90238-5
- 1984: A New Book of African Verse
Novels edit
- 1965: The Second Round (London: Heinemann, African Writers Series No. 22) ISBN 0-435-90022-6
References edit
- ^ "Adieu Lenrie Peters". The Point. Banjul, The Gambia. 28 May 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ "Biografski dodaci" [Biographic appendices]. Republika: Časopis za kulturu i društvena pitanja (Izbor iz novije afričke književnosti) (in Serbo-Croatian). XXXIV (12). Zagreb, SR Croatia: 1424–1427. December 1978.
- ^ "Lenrie Peters | African Poet, Novelist, Physician". Britannica. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
Relevant literature edit
- Elimimian, Isaac I. "Contemporary Africa in Lenrie Peters’poetry." In The Humanities and the Dynamics of African Culture in the 21st Century, edited by John Ayotunde, Isola Bewaji, Kenneth W. Harrow, Eunice E. Omonzejie, and Christopher E. Ukhun, (2017): 277-285. Cambridge Scholars Press.